5 guides
Pallet basics
In short
How pallets are built, graded, repaired and recovered, and why the standard sizes exist.
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- 01A short history of the 48×40, and why it is still herePeople assume the 48×40 is a committee decision. It is closer to a record of several separate constraints that happened to agree.8 min
- 02Wet cores: what rain actually costs youA used pallet is often called a core. One that spends a wet week outdoors is a different commodity from the one that went outside.6 min
- 03Why metal plates make a poor pallet repairIt takes seconds to plate a cracked stringer, and it can make the pallet somebody else’s problem for years.6 min
- 04Reading a pallet's history from its nail holesEvery repair leaves a record in the wood. Once you know what to look for, a stringer will tell you roughly how much of a life it has already had.6 min
- 05What a pallet grader actually looks at, and in what orderPeople assume grading is a judgment call. Done well, it is closer to a decision tree, and the order of the checks is the part that takes practice.7 min