Smooth shank
Cheapest, fastest to drive, lowest withdrawal resistance. Vibration in transit gradually works them loose. Appropriate for genuinely single-trip packaging and almost nothing else.
Specification · 26 November 2024
Nail schedules: the spec nobody reads and everybody blames
In short
Pallet fasteners are specified by shank type, length, diameter, head style and placement — and the single most consequential choice is shank type. Smooth shanks back out under vibration; helically threaded hardened shanks do not. A pallet built or repaired with the wrong nail will shed deck boards long before the timber is worn out, and no amount of grade will prevent it.
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Shank type is the decision
Helically threaded (drive screw)
The shank twists as it is driven, cutting a thread into the wood fibre. Excellent withdrawal resistance under vibration. Our standard for both new builds and repairs.
Annular ring shank
Rings resist withdrawal extremely well but make the nail hard to remove without destroying the board — which matters when the pallet reaches a dismantling line and you want the boards back.
Hardened vs plain
Hardened shanks resist bending when driven into dense hardwood. Plain nails bend, fold and leave a shiner, which is a rejection in its own right.
Length, diameter and placement
A fastener has to reach sound wood on the far side of the joint to hold anything. For deck board to stringer in standard construction, that means a minimum of about 2.25 inches, and longer where the boards are thicker. Short nails are a false economy that show up as loose boards three months later.
Diameter is a trade-off: thicker resists bending and holds better, and also splits hardwood more readily. This is where hardwood and softwood diverge — a gauge that behaves perfectly in pine will split oak, particularly near a board end.
- Keep fasteners back from board ends — the standard failure is a split running out to the edge
- Two fasteners per board per stringer crossing is the normal schedule; lead boards often take three
- Stagger placement across the stringer width rather than in a line, which concentrates splitting
- Never drive into an existing hole from a previous repair — it holds nothing
Diagnosing a fastener problem
| Symptom | Likely cause |
|---|---|
| Deck boards loose after weeks, not months | Smooth shanks, or nails too short |
| Nail heads standing proud (shiners) | Plain nails bending in hardwood, or over-driven then rebounding |
| Splits running from a fastener to the board end | Placed too close to the end, or diameter too large for the species |
| Boards pulling off with the nail still in the stringer | Head pull-through — wrong head style for the board thickness |
| Mixed nail types visible in one unit | Repaired by more than one operation, to more than one standard |
Appendix: the data behind this
Every piece on this site closes with the slice of our operating record that bears on what it argues. The full record is published at /resources/operating-record.
The fastener schedule we build to
Published in full. Five clauses from this table, written into a purchase specification, eliminate most premature pallet failures.
| Joint | Shank | Length | Count | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lead deck board to stringer | Helically threaded, hardened | 2.25 in | 3 per crossing | Three, not two. Lead boards absorb every fork entry. |
| Interior deck board to stringer | Helically threaded, hardened | 2.25 in | 2 per crossing | Staggered across the stringer width, never in a line. |
| Bottom deck board to stringer | Helically threaded, hardened | 2.25 in | 2 per crossing | Chamfered leading edge so a jack rolls up rather than catching. |
| Stringer plug | Helically threaded + PVA adhesive | 2.5 in | 4 through the plug | Glue first, nail second. A dry plug is a repeat failure. |
| Companion stringer | Helically threaded, hardened | 3.0 in | 6 along the length | Drops the unit to #2 and we say so on the grade sheet. |
| Block pallet block to bearer | Helically threaded, hardened | 3.5 in | 4 per block | Matches EPAL practice; our jig holds the pattern. |
- No fastener within 3/4 inch of a board end — that is where hardwood splits out to the edge.
- Never re-drive into an existing hole from a previous repair. It holds nothing and it reads as a repair on the grade sheet.
- Smooth shanks are used on genuinely single-trip export builds only, and never on anything that will be repaired.
- Plain (unhardened) nails bend in oak, fold over and leave a shiner — which is a rejection in its own right.
- Diameter is a trade-off: thicker holds better and splits hardwood more readily. We step down a gauge for oak lead boards.