Pallet grades, plainly

The seven, in one table

No grading authority

The GMA organization no longer governs pallet specifications. The A, B and C vocabulary survived it, and buyers still use the words, but the lines between them are habits that vary a little from yard to yard. That is why a request should describe the pallet as well as name the grade.

The same pallet can move between words as it is repaired: a Grade C with its boards replaced becomes a Grade B, and a pile of cores can be sorted into A, B, C and scrap. Mixed and core describe what a seller has, not what a buyer wants.

Grade A

A Grade A pallet has not been repaired and does not need repair. It is also called grade 1, and it is the used pallet that food, retail and showroom docks ask for first.

Signs of an unrepaired pallet

• Every deck board in place and square to the stringers.
• No plugs, no plates, no companion stringers.
• Stringers uncracked along their length.
• No stains, no damp, no smell.
• Nails flush or driven in, none standing proud.

It is a used pallet, so some wear is normal. Rounded corners, light scuffs and a few scratches do not change the grade. A repair does.

Who asks for A

Retail receiving, food lines and showrooms pick Grade A because the pallet is seen and handled by many hands. It carries no more weight than a Grade B; it simply looks and handles better. It is also the scarcest used grade, since every used pallet starts to wear, so a seller with a stack of sound 48 x 40 should say so; see selling used pallets.

Checking a Grade A stack

1. Look at the underside, where the stringers show wear first and repairs hide from a top-down view.
2. Run a hand along the deck boards for loose nails.
3. Check that the wood is dry; moisture matters more than appearance.
4. Confirm the size by measuring the stringer side first.

If the pallets are for a food line, ask what to specify for food-grade pallets.

Grade B

A Grade B pallet has been repaired with replaced deck boards, plates or plugs. It is also called grade 2. The repair does not make it weaker for ordinary loads, and it is usually the workhorse pallet of warehouses and outbound docks.

Plugs, plates and companion stringers

A plug, between 6 and 24 inches long, fills a broken or missing section of board; a plate is a flat metal piece nailed over a crack; a companion stringer is a new timber fastened beside a split one. Grade B pallets may have repaired stringers or plugs larger than 1¼ inches, and deck-board spacing must be at least 4 inches. A pallet past those limits, or with several patches and loose boards, is sorted down to Grade C.

Checking a repair

• Plates nailed firmly at both ends, heads flush.
• A companion stringer fastened along its length and not just at the ends.
• No nail standing out of the underside.
• Deck boards still evenly spaced, and none that rocks when stepped on.
• No new unstamped wood on a pallet that must stay stamped for export.

A repair done well is as strong as the original; a repair done badly is a loose nail waiting to catch a glove. Patching a heat-treated pallet with plain lumber voids the stamp for the repaired part; see reading the stamp.

Where B fits

Grade B suits warehouse storage, cross-dock transfers and outbound loads. Each receiving dock sets its own rules about what it accepts, so ask the dock. A seller should say how many repairs the average pallet carries and whether the stack is dry: pallets with one or two repairs sell more easily than ones with five.

Grade C

A Grade C pallet looks rough. It is also called grade 3, it usually carries several repairs, and its deck boards may not all be intact. Grade C is defined by appearance, not by load rating, so one Grade C pallet can be perfectly good for a light, one-way load and another can be dangerous to lift. The only way to know is to look at each.

Signs of a Grade C

• Several repairs, often of more than one kind.
• Deck boards missing, split or loose.
• Stringers repaired and re-repaired.
• Stains, dents and chewed corners.

Where C makes sense

1. One-way shipments where the pallet will not return.
2. Short moves inside a yard.
3. Stock to be dismantled for boards.
4. Loads where the pallet is a base, not a rack.

It is a poor fit for racking, for food, and for any load a dock cannot afford to drop. Racks need intact stringers and an even deck.

Between C and scrap

A pallet is not Grade C if a stringer is cracked through, if boards are rotted, or if the frame wobbles; a patch cannot fix a failed frame. Those belong in broken pallets, and irreparable wood may be chipped for mulch, composite products or biomass. Sellers should say plainly that a pile is Grade C, and a pile that mixes Grade B and Grade C is mixed.

Combo

A combo pallet is remanufactured from a mix of recycled and new lumber. It is stronger and more consistent than a plain used pallet, and cheaper than an all-new build.

How a combo is built

1. A core pallet comes in for dismantling or repair.
2. Sound boards and stringers are kept.
3. New lumber replaces whatever is split, rotted or short.
4. The pallet is rebuilt to a single standard size.

Its parts come from more than one source, but it is built as a whole. That makes it more consistent than a repaired Grade B, where each fix is a separate patch.

Combo against B and new

Questions for a combo

• Which size, and whether the build is stringer or block.
• How much of the lumber is new.
• Whether it carries an HT stamp; a combo that does can serve an export dock, so read it as in reading the ISPM 15 stamp.
• Whether the nails are consistent along the frame.

Mixed

A mixed load is more than one size or grade in the same pile, read by counting each kind separately. Receiving docks take in whatever the trucks bring, so over weeks a stack of 48 x 40s gains some 42 x 42, a few 48 x 48, perhaps a Euro pallet, and a spread from clean to cracked. Nobody planned the pile; it arrived that way.

Describing a mixed pile

The example numbers show the form of the answer. They are not offers or averages for any dock.

Sort or send as is

• Sorting by size first is the biggest help; sizes are visible from a distance.
• Sorting by grade second; this needs a closer look.
• Setting aside broken pallets last, so the sound stock is not buried.
• Or send the pile as it stands, and say so.

A buyer prices a mixed load by what is usable in it, and a pile described honestly gets an honest answer; see cores and mixed loads.

Core

A core is a used pallet a shipper no longer needs, recovered for repair, resale, remanufacturing or recycling. It is the starting stock of the trade: a recycler buys or collects cores, inspects them, and turns each into a repaired Grade B, part of a combo, a pile of boards, or chips.

A good core

• A frame that is mostly sound.
• A common size, especially 48 x 40.
• Dry wood, with no rot.
• No chemical staining.
• Unpainted: pooled pallets are not cores.

A core with those traits has value, because repair is cheaper than building. A core without them is worth less, and some are worth nothing.

Holding a pile of cores

Anyone who receives more pallets than they ship out ends up with cores: a big fulfillment building and a small tenant in a mill building alike, whether or not they call them that.

1. Count what you have.
2. Set aside pooled and painted pallets.
3. Say whether the pile comes back every week.
4. Send the description through selling cores or the clear desk.