This tutorial demonstrates how to build a wooden pallet wall using pallet wood and reclaimed wood. The process involves collecting enough wood to cover the wall, using a sawzall to cut through the nail between the planks and frame, and spraying them with a mixture of bleach and water. The pallet boards are then cut into various lengths using a Miter Saw or any wood saw.
The tutorial also discusses creating an accent wall from ordinary wood pallets, which can be used in any room or workspace. To create a pallet wall, measure and cut all the wood to the same size lengths, dividing the stack into three piles. If using a Duck Bill Pallet, the tutorial recommends using this Duck Bill Pallet.
To install a pallet wall, dismantle the pallets, remove nails, and sand the wood panels. Measure and plan the wall layout, ensuring even spacing. Place the first pallet slat at the top, in the center of the wall, and use a drill to screw each end of the slats to the wall with two to three screws.
Steps one, two, and three of the steps involve staining the pallet wood, painting and preparing the wall, and choosing a color scheme for the wall. By following these steps, you can create a lively, textured look for your wooden pallet wall without breaking the bank.
📹 DIY Reclaimed Pallet Wood Wall
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How to use pallet wood for a wall?
To create a pallet wall, start by placing the first pallet slat in the center of the wall and screwing each end to the wall with two to three screws. Work from the center out, staggering each piece of wood. To avoid gaps, stain the plywood behind the seams before securing a wood slat over it. The results will be seamless. Note that the author did not lay out the boards and plan in advance, as they didn’t have the patience for such a task. The end result is an industrial-chic growing boy’s room.
Is pallet wood safe to use indoors?
Pallets with the code “HT”, “DB”, or “KN” are safe to use in your home, as they have not been fumigated with a pesticide. If a pallet has a stamp with the code “MB”, it is not safe to use. Check the wood for signs of large stain, spill, discoloration, or spots, as they may be contaminated by a spilled chemical. If you can’t identify the cause, pass over the pallet to be on the safe side. Also, check for foreign or strange scents, as pallets should smell like wood.
Do you sand pallet wood for wall?
To create a pallet wall, prepare the planks by sanding them with an orbital sander and staining them if desired. Use a stud finder to mark the studs and cut 1 x 3 boards to the wall’s height. Attach them using a drill and 2 1/2 inch wood screws, using about 5 screws per board. Use an electric brad nailer and 1 3/4 inch nails to attach the planks to the boards, staggering them for a visually appealing look.
If you have outlets on the wall, mark the measurements on the plank and cut spaces for them with a jigsaw. Cut the planks at the bottom of the wall to fit perfectly. Once attached, rehang your artwork and admire your new pallet wall.
How to smooth out pallet wood?
The text presents a detailed examination of pallet wood, emphasizing that there is no single optimal solution and that, even after undergoing planing, the material still requires processing.
How do you anchor a pallet to the wall?
The package includes instructions and a smart phone scan code for a how-to video. To create a safe, hangable pallet, place one side of the cleat on the wall, level it, and screw it in. Use a small level to slide into the cleat. Attach the other side to the pallet. Sand the entire pallet, then stain it with pine, then walnut, and lightly rub in towards the center. After 3-4 hours, apply a clear coat. The pallet feels Pottery Barnish. The instructions and video are available on the back of the packaging. Don’t forget to check out the giveaway.
How to prepare pallet wood for indoor use?
To clean wooden surfaces, the use of bleach, soapy water, or a power washer is recommended. Following this process, the washed pallets should be left outside in full sun for a thorough cleaning and disinfection. It is recommended that the wood be left to dry in the sun, where it will absorb UV rays.
How to attach wood to brick wall without drilling?
Adiseal adhesive is a strong, flexible, waterproof, and durable bond that can be used to attach wood to concrete or brick without drilling. It outperforms other adhesives and has been proven to be the strongest in an independent adhesive strength test. To apply the adhesive, thoroughly clean both the wood and concrete or brick, using a fine brush like a painting brush to remove fine dust. Temporary supports may be required if needed, and a final check is necessary before applying the adhesive. Adiseal is available for purchase and is a popular choice for construction work.
How do you prepare pallet wood for indoor use?
To clean wooden surfaces, the use of bleach, soapy water, or a power washer is recommended. Following this process, the washed pallets should be left outside in full sun for a thorough cleaning and disinfection. It is recommended that the wood be left to dry in the sun, where it will absorb UV rays.
Should you paint or stain pallet wood?
The application of paint to wooden pallets is not advised, given the propensity for the paint to peel and flake off the surface relatively quickly. It is recommended that opaque stains be used, as they offer flexibility and protection for the wood from UV rays and moisture.
How do you stain wooden pallets for walls?
To create a wooden pallet wall revival, start by preparing your surface with sandpaper and sand any rough patches. Follow the stain instructions on the label and apply it evenly to your pallets, working from top to bottom to prevent uneven dripping. Allow the stain to dry between coats. Use Segment. jsp to select your segment and create a new account if the maximum attempts on validation are exceeded.
Can you use pallet wood as shiplap?
This project is a quick and easy way to add personality to a small area of a home using shiplap, a trendy material. To create a shiplap wall, gather as many pallets as needed, varying colors to make the wall pop. Dismount any electronics, as the area had a TV, and paint the wall black to highlight any gaps in the wood. This will make the shiplap look clean and crisp, with defined lines between each board. This project can be completed in one weekend, adding a touch of personality to any small area of a home.
📹 Don’t Use Pallet Wood!! USE THIS INSTEAD…(Cull Wood Vs. Pallet Wood)
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After perusal this, I went to my local Lowe’s where they had a ton of different options in the cull pile for 90% off! They even cut off the damaged parts of the boards I ended up getting. I was able to find exactly what I needed. I’m going back for more soon. Thank you for this tip! I am tired of pulling out nails!
I built a 12 x 4 x 8 shed out of 4 x 4 based pallets. Then I covered it with salvaged Hardie Board (different colors but I can paint them) and my brother gave me tin for the roof. It’s built Soviet tough. The only downside was that there were size differences between the pallets so you have to improvise. I used cull wood for the floor.
I had a pile of 10 pallets in my backyard from various box store deliveries over the years. Last fall I hauled them into the garage, spent a couple of days pulling them apart and cleaning out nails. Then I moved them into the basement where they’ve been sitting drying out for several months. My first project was a 10 x 8 foot wall sculpture: a series of interconnected diamond shapes, stained different colours, accented with intertwining lines of leftover copper pipe. It came out pretty cool, and nicely fills the huge empty wall space in our stairwell. Right now I’m taking my first stab at shou sugi ban, also with promising results – I plan to make another combination wall-art/display cabinet/sculpture thingy in the dining room. Next up will be a set of rustic coffee/end tables for the living room, also using shou sugi ban, and possibly combining the pallet pieces with some less rustic leftover wood scraps from other past projects. Didn’t pay a penny for any of this wood, or even have to haul it home. I’m pretty happy.
In my opinion, the benefit of using pallets is that they’re already nailed together into convenient modules. If you’re walling in a compost bin or something, you just need to fasten a few pallets together and you’re done. Other than that, I would say I agree. Cull wood also has an advantage over dumpster diving in that you’re not crawling through jagged metal, broken glass, and everything else that gets junked at a construction site.
I like this option but I will continue using pallets. I love the rustic knotty way they look. Gives a piece character in my opinion. Also have had a lot of success with longevity outside by sealing it with a good oil base spar urethane. I have had pallet furniture outside for years with no signs of rot.
Can’t tell you how much I appreciated your rant…! 🙂 After living within 2 miles of a mantle shop and thinking I should always go over there after perusal your “rant” I was finally motivated to go over there one day happen to run into the owner who let me know exactly when they threw out all the word each week got there 45 minutes early and came across great pieces of Baltic Birch plywood (I can’t afford it 🙂 maple, MDF all in large enough pieces to make it worthwhile for me to go there AND Best of all ??!there’s no one else trying to beat me there each week… LOL Thx!!
I’ve used pallets effectively before because I had a source which always had clean dry and good looking pallets and I’ve made an excellent rock solid desk that lasted for years even outside. Just applied a top coat of polyurethane. However I’m not really into that look right now, so thanks for the tip. I’ll check out cull wood. Pallets are still neat, but only if you have a good source.
I have a different wrinkle on this topic. I live about 25 miles away from 2 places that make pallets. I can get wood before they cut it to make it into pallets, and the wood is good quality. I picked up 2 8ft 2×6’s for $20 each and they were a beautiful purple color. They were cut right off the log to my specifications, so I know that they were not adulterated with any chemicals. To be truthful, there was a small line of rot in the boards, but it was easy to work around. They also have a huge warehouse full of dried boards. I picked up a bunch of walnut wood really cheap too. These boards did have to be planed down, but they looked super when done. The place I went even offered to plane them for me, but I decided to do my own planing. So it is worth looking around your area to see if there is a pallet-manufacturing shop.
Thanks for making this article… I’m a pallet vendor with a conscience who’s been telling folks asking me for pallet wood the multiple reasons pallets are not a good option for inside their 500k home…one thing I always tell them is that I don’t know a single vendor who would bring a used pallet into their own home and it’s because we’ve seen where these pallets have been and what goes on them…which brings me to the second reason for this message….if you do an addendum to this article or make another please include another very important reason…bug infestation…all it will take is a couple cockroaches infested deep and unseen to come out later and creat a colony in the home… additionally termites burrowed down in non heat treats that can destroy a home…and I’m not even gonna speak of the fecal matter from vermin (and that of humans) on pallets left outside…seen it all…thanks again for the effort on this article… I’ll be linking inquiring clients to it
Thanks for this tip. I”m looking to build a privacy/barrier wall on the side of my carport so that we can use it more like a porch. It is my wife’s request for her birthday this year. I’m an extremely novice “carpenter” ( I even hesitate to use that term), so I am looking for all of the advice that I can get. I’m glad I stumbled across your article.
I’m sticking with the pallets. There are some downfalls to pallets as mentioned in the article, but there’s a lot of benefits of using pallets that outweigh those downfalls. For one, the are extremely cheap and 9/10 they’re free. They don’t require much “building” as they are already nailed together to creat that rectangular shape, and they can be found pretty much anywhere in any town or city. Cull wood isn’t as accessible because most places that sell lumber do not mark down their lumber like you’ve mentioned, not only this but you still have to completely build something out of it requiring you to cut more with machinery, use nail guns/hammers with your own nails, and you have to measure everything out. The reason why pallets are so popular is because they are cheap, readily available, and require less building, less cutting if any and little to no nails or screws. Anyone can make anything out of them. The wood pallets can also be cleaned, stained, treated or painted.
I’m in Australia and we never have cull piles. We have crap piles where wood that is utterly useless is thrown onto that we can have for free, but that stuff is good for nothing but burning. I get hardwood pallets and use them. They are neither heat treated or chemical treated (I get mine from a place that distributes magazines and they are almost brand new when i pick up a trailer load). I’ve got a good system to separate the timber and can do 3 or 4 in 10 minutes. Sure, the timber isn’t great. But I can make some pretty awesome outdoors furniture with it that will last and looks damn good.
One thing you missed – Pallets are good for cheep outdoor projects. A Coral for Composting – Make several Bays for progression. A Base for keeping Firewood off the Ground – Reducing Rot and Bug infestation. *Keeping Tractor attachments off the ground when not in use. Carry-all, Scraper, Pallet Forks, etc. I’d say we have purpose for Both products, depending on the project.
My son used to work in the lumber department at HD. They were required to cull a certain about of wood each month, so some of the stuff wasn’t that bad. The secret is to be there at the right time. One time my son called me and said, ” get over here now, we just culled 5 sheets of 3/4″ oak plywood”. I went and got them. The had a lot of green staining on one side, but I got them anyway. It took me about 3 years to use them all, but after a year or so the green faded and they were fine. Also if you need short pieces the culled stuff is a great deal.; a 16 ft piece may be twisted along the length, but if you need only 3 or 4 ft sections, they may be straight enough for your uses. I did my kitchen wainscoting and back splash with culled shiplap. Took about 2 months to get enough, but the price was right…. One comment about pallets. Sometimes they are made of oak and for small projects may be worth it. I remember a machinist at UNC once tell me that he had a pallet from an old Brigdeport lathe that was make of teak!
Hey there, You are one of the best carpenters I have ever met or seen. An excellent story teller and teacher. I would join your class or apprentice under you in a minute! You give some of the best advice, recommendations out there. I look forward to your articles, because I know you are going to present something new or in a new way. You are honest and have the highest integrity that some do not possess! Keep up the profound work that you are doing! I never knew about pallets like this or cull wood. You are a national treasure my friend! Bill
Huh. I worked in a mill shop, and we only threw away stuff that was too small or totally unusable — and the small but useable stuff went into a scrap box for hobbyist wood carvers and birdhouse builders. Because we bought from big distributors, we got what we got, including the crap. (Need to make stair treads? Use that twisted 8/4, chop it to a couple inches over length, and then joint the crap out of it.) It never would have occurred to me that lumber yards & big box stores would have scraps that they mark down or toss out. Thanks for the info!
Hey I’ve been using pallets for firewood for 15 years in my two homemade stoves. I have retrieved White oak, red oak, cherry, birch, walnut,ash, and some unknown and unusual woods. It is true the yield is small, but I make small items.You are correct you have to work through the wood for damaging materials. I enjoy the prosses. Thank you. P.S. I am an old woodworking retiree.
Not to mention, pallets go places like deep freezers and food storage. More often than not they stink, have bugs anyway, are split up, full of metal, and are weird dimensions. Having said that… there are exceptions to the rule. I prefer pallets that have been created to ship large pieces of equipment, they are usually large beams of wood that are bolted together and only used once. Stickers are a second choice, any lumber yard will have piles of them and they throw them out. Stickers are the slats under and between layers of wood to help things stay together and straight while in bundles. The dimensions vary but usually you will find 3 or more all exactly the same size and shape. Flooring pallets that have exotic flooring from other countries are a great place to find one use pallets too, often mahogany flooring comes on a pallet made out of mahogany. I’ve reclaimed plenty expensive hard woods from exotic flooring pallets for free.
Thank you so much for this tip and all of the great advice as you are absolutely correct about pallets being treated/fumigated with chemicals & pesticides!😊👍🏻 I worked for a Printer Corporation years ago and all of our pallets were treated since they were coming in from other countries. This totally slipped my mind when using pallet wood for projects, and the fact that I had no idea you could buy or get this Culled wood for free or for super cheap at Lowes or Home Depot was such great info to know. Again thank you sooo much!!☺️🙏🏻 Love your website!!❤️😍❤️😍❤️😍
I brought a pile of pallets home from work, after new servers had been installed. Only to find out that they were made of a type of compressed pulp, that was totally useless. The cull bin, at the store in my country, is very small, and even though they are all short pieces (+/-1.5m) and sometimes too warped to be of any use, the prices are still fairly high. I inevitably end up paying full price for decent wood.
It really depends on what you’re going for and what you have available to you. Both options have their pros and cons but in either case you’re going to spend some time just to make them useable. Methyl bromide is banned for pallets made in the US and many other countries so that’s rarely an issue anymore (unless they originate from China). Me personally, I have a source of pallets that had dry goods shipped on them, so no worry about chemical spills. They are used only once and then put out for whoever wants them, so they are practically brand new. The slats are basically 4 foot long rough sawn pine 1 by 6’s, and they are DEAD straight. For what I’m doing with them, they are great.
A wood working place near me has 18 foot pallets that they give away. Sometimes they have doubled up pallets and these things are monsters and have good boards. I’m just getting started in wood working/ carpentry and they’re going to be a huge boost to my stater pile. I am itching to see if they have MB or EUR designations but I have a sneaky suspicion they’re all kiln dried or debarked.
Wow, wish I had known this earlier this year! I’m right in the middle of creating a long pallet walkway. It’s been a lot of work with many boards unusable. I actually like the worn look for my garden but I think distressing and sloppy staining would have been much easier. Well, at this point I’m just really looking forward to the finished results. Lesson learned,check out your website first! Thanks for the information you provide. P.S., I’m a 74 yr old retired single Physical Therapist who just likes DIY projects, wood, gardening, sewing, etc.
Wow! I’ll be honest, I love making projects with pallet wood because of the final look, as well as the ease of finding them. I have no problem ripping them apart with a crowbar and getting out the nails easily with only a hammer. That being said, the downsides you mention are real, and I would prefer to work with proper lumber. I’ve been thinking lately about checking out my local lumber yards, and thanks to your encouragement I will now be doing that. In terms of the environment, wood rots, so I didn’t really understand the issue. Thanks again!
I made my replacement shed floor out of pallet wood and it’s held together well and is showing no sign of rot. I will concede that breaking them down and getting the nails out is a pain and takes acres of time though. I’ve never seen marked down timber at any timber merchants though. Maybe it works differently here in the UK.
I’ve gotten cull wood at our local home depot for years, the lowes availability is hit or miss. My nearest forest lumber usually has a pile of cull cedar boards I haggle for a fraction of cost depending on who’s working determines if they’ll go below thier set reduced cost. I’ve built a Lot of large raised garden beds with that cedar plank. You just have to call around or visit. Build a genuine relationship with them. Be able to handle a rare “no” with grace. It depends on the management of that particular store whether they keep or trash the cull. I’ve gotten at least 50%off, usually 70-90% off and yes… Often free. They want it off their hands and I am always thrilled and thank them! I Love it when people get excited when I give stuff away for free. I am truly happy that they are happy! So I think the universe just brings it back around for me. Frame of mind, effort and gratitude brings the blessings for sure. Also, I am linked with construction and they Have to trash perfect full and remnant material Every time. There is just no way for a big legit company to store it all in a massive building and most contractors won’t take the time to drag everything to habitat for humanity when their dumpsters are right there on time constraints. Which is why perfectly good “trash” material can end up on workers own houses or for their side biz, fair and square. Build a relationship with a contractor by just asking for trash overages, they don’t care. Greet worker’s and have them text you when they do a build, bring your truck and you must bring them snacks.
Personally I think pallet wood can be very useful . I get really clean ones from a nearby electrical supply house or building supply . I have a half dozen oak pallets under my carport now with 1″ thick slats that I’m sure will look great on the double doors for my shop. Sure, they can mean extra work, but a lot of skilled woodworkers find them quite handy.
Over the years I’ve used few pallets. Majority of stuff I built are from CULL wood. Most of my stuff are under 4 ft. HD normally cut them down to 4 ft. 5 ft length is a rare fine, but I bought some. Even time I go to HD, I always look into their scrap pile. I recent used up all the CULL from 10+ years ago because HD doesn’t seem to have CULL anymore (at least I haven’t seen them in my local HD and Lowe’s for the past 3-4 years). 4 ft 2×4 is very common for $0.51 each. Also bought some 2x4x.75 ply wood for $4.01. Used to load up my trunk for under $20 and walked away like a bandit.
I just started collecting pallets for future projects. I plan on using pallets only because I’m in a position I can pick and choose and for free because they get thrown away or I get lucky and get ones busted up and still have good boards. So far I’ve got like 6 I need to cut up and go through. I plan on making small boxes and tool organizing projects.
I like the honesty of your article. One of the problems with using cull lumber is that it’s getting harder and harder to find at the big box stores. A lot of the big box now donate their culls to charity like “home for humanity” etc. Also, where I live in Canada, the culled lumber tends to be close in price to the good stuff, or is so warped and twisted to get anything usable from it. Oh well, I did enjoy the article and will keep on looking over the culls.
I would also like to comment on this.. pallet wood has it uses. I used pallet wood for making my compost bins and for stages for my flower pots and I have used cull wood from Lowes to in other project that required better wood but both can be helpful for those of us on a budget. I like to use both… pallet and cull wood.
Find a mill. Most of my nicest rustic projects came out of the firewood pile at 3 different mills. I’m talking thousand dollar coffee tables. Not a huge, industrial mill either. Backyard, or local mills that sell slabs or lumber. Invest a few bucks in a metal detector, and go crazy. One guy pawned so much wood off on me, I had to start culling it myself.
I lived up in the Canadian arctic for awhile and in the town I lived in, there was only one lumber yard. Pallets and wood shipping crates where basically the only affordable source of lumber. Some of the larger crates could be built with 2 x 8 and 3/4″ plywood. Basically you just had to hoard every board you could find because buying a 2 x 4 for like $12 is just not the way to go. I do keep an eye out for cull lumber down south where I live now, but it isn’t super common in my local lumber yards
Like a lot of things, the bottom line is “It Depends”. I’ve gotten good stuff from once-used pallets and crates used to ship machinery, etc. Even some 4×6 treated long lengths. Yes, be careful of anything that might have shipped chemicals but sometimes you can find “exotic” species that once planed, and I do own a metal detector, that are beautiful stuff. As to the thickness, you are of course correct but a lot of small projects actually look rather clunky when made of 3/4 or heavier stock so I like the thinner stock for certain things.
I’ve only ever seen a cull pile once in a big box lumber store. There was literally nothing usable and my standards are low enough that I do use pallet wood. To be fair, I don’t use pallet to make rustic fine furniture. Mostly just for mocking up ideas or rough fast tables or benches. Just stuff I need fast and don’t want to waste good wood. Generally things I consider disposable. Pallets are free wood I can use for test cuts or practice cutting complicated joints I want to figure out good ways to cut or mark. There’s also times my sone and I need to do something like rip a motorcycle or lawn mower engine apart and will be working in the driveway. We just need a quick table that we don’t care gets covered in oil so we make a free, disposable table. There’s so many uses for the pallet wood it’s unbelievable. If you happen to like the rough and rustic look, good on you. Build away. Not my style but I don’t have to put it in my yard. The only thing I ever used it for to get its rustic effects was a pirate treasure chest one of my kids needed for a Halloween prop. Took a couple hours to build a chest that looked like it could have been in a shipwreck with a ghost pirate. All these uses and not a penny spent.
Just found you, good article/information. I agree wholeheartedly regarding pallets, even though I at times in a past life I did use them. I’m a huge user of cull wood from the box lumber stores. For me I find Home Depot better, for I can pick out individual pieces. Versus Lowes they bundle a mixture of things. But no one should let that discourage them from checking out Lowes, they may find something that works for them. Again, thanks! Be well.
My brother works at a truck body construction firm, they build shit like cranes onto big ass trucks so the cranes come one these crazy fat piller wood pallets, we get them, disassemble them amd we have built a whole carport, flooring for our outside kitchen, floor for our basement and soon a greenhouse out of them. We don’t mind using regular pallet wood either tho, once all the nails are out and you shave off the outside it’s good wood.
I am subscribed to your website and little by little catching up on them.. I’m pretty new to woodworking, other than rough carpentry, so I’m learning from you and others whose content provides excellent hints, tips, how-to-dos, etc. Your article on French Cleats was so helpful and making a few tool holders for my little shop is next on the list 🙂 – I saw this article last night (LITERALLY!) and today ran to my local Home Depot and what a goldmine!!! Tons of wood for practice as well as for projects. I NEVER knew about this and really wanted to say thanks for sharing such an awesome resource. Best, Larry
Good points about pallet wood I never could have thought of. Apart from the cleanliness and health concerns is the time taken to carefully disassemble them into useable wood but also the extra time required to piece mill the project together from inconsistent pieces of wood. This can double the build time. If I do continue to use pallet wood, I’ll be sure to wear a respirator while cutting as well as relegate the materials to exterior projects.
Insane waste of time to use pallet wood. Basically admitting your time is less valuable than lumber? Spot on about chemical and hazardous potential. Theres a bunch of pallets sitting at the wastewater treatment plant, let me know how that works out for your rustic coffee table or outdoor planter box….. Wood takes up space at landfills for just a very short amount of time. That point of debate is nonsense. Cull wood can be a jackpot or not. A roll of the dice. Dont waste your time tho. Ill take care of it. No worries.
Nice article. I’m not so sure it’s a matter of one is better. Neither of these sources is getting turned into heirloom grade anything. So that said, they’re both a great source for all those non-display pieces we create. Tool bases, shelving, slats, storage, yard projects, if it doesn’t need pretty use what you get your hands on.
The one distinction between cull wood and pallet wood is in the aging and character of the wood. Pallet wood can shortcut any need for making wood look old, gray and reclaimed. Especially if you are only using it for superficial cladding of a project. I agree with the idea that cull wood will be superior for building projects that require more structural integrity. And it is a great source for building a person stock pile of project wood. Thanks for the great articles!
This is a largely inaccurate opinion piece. Like picking through a cull pile you can get really crappy wood, but unlike the cull pile you can find highly figured hardwood. I have found fiddle back maple, curly mahogany, and tons of quarter saw oak. So there’s that. Next 4 foot is perfect for most furniture style projects. Rarely do you need anything longer. Cull wood doesn’t really make for anything of high quality & it’s usually so twisted you can’t use it. Pallet wood is usually dried while nailed flat. It pretty much stays close to that when cut free. If you know what you are doing you can fix the split ends.
pallete wood is ace for pi cture frames. you can make something A4. A3 size real quick and if there is a decent grain then thats a bonus. trouble with pallete pine is that there snt always a admirable grain texture. but sometimes you can be suprised. sometimes i look at a piece of 4×4 @ 2-3m length and i just cant decide what to make with it. if it has a beaitiful grain then its even harder. beautiful stuff gets made for asthetical stuff. ugly plain stuff gets used for structural stuff
I think it depends what your making. I’ve made fence panels out of of pallet wood and that worked great; I found about 10 treated softwood pallets, stripped them apart into planks and remove most nails. Then I just gave them all a scuff sand to remove splinters and then nailed them together to make a fence. Painted them with some shed paint and voila – cheap fence which honestly still looks great. I’ve also made a gift box for a friend which I actually wanted to look rustic so it looked great. I didn’t even bother planing the boards and it was a bit warped but still cool. I’ve just picked up some cherry pallet wood and mahogany pallet wood from India. I’ve planned one board and it looks great. The mahogany is really lovely and strong. I’m gonna make some garden furniture I think. I personally think the best bit about pallet wood is that it’s easy to get hold of, it’s cheap/free, you get a lot of wood out of one pallet, you can still use the structure of the pallet if you wish and it’s great to make rustic furniture for beginners – you don’t have to worry about wasting it as it was free and would have been destroyed anyway – compared with lumber you’ve bought which is special and the pressure is on to not make a single mistake.
I’ve used cull wood before for home projects (I am by no means a professional) but I have used pallets connected together for a deck structure that I attached nicer wood to the top of. It worked out pretty great and lasted for almost ten years before getting replaced outright with a larger deck. The pallets were means to an end and really only functioned as a structure rather than an aesthetic.
I know about cull wood. Home Depot is savage and often charge as high as 40% off, where pallets are often 100% free. Roadside trash picking, dumpster diving, or pallets is the cheapest way to source raw materials if its a hobby project you are working on. If you are on a deadline, yeah, i’ll check the cull pile. I have built all sorts of stuff from pallet wood.
Thank you for making me aware of cull wood. Never heard the term before. I am fairly new to wood working and just made it my hobby. I did however collect pallets and I would say only 50% were pieces that I can work with. After planing the wood and using it, about 20% was disgarded. My project was to build saw horses from wood pallets so far was great. The next project to build is a custom portable table for my mitre saw that I can rest on the saw horses. I do agree to not use the pallet wood for something you would like long lasting like a floating shelf.
Thanks for the tip! I was planning a project to use only pallet wood, but I was concerned that the surfaces of my project that people will touch would be too rough. Not sure how much good sanding can do on already beat up half rotted wood. 😂 I think I’ll use a combination of pallet wood and cull wood with each where I think its strengths can serve the project best.
With all due respect, I’m still going to repurpose my pallets for the following reasons: 1) I have “paid for” them: they’re included in the price for the items that were on them. I don’t consider they were “free” 2) I’ll make easy, small outdoor projects because I’m new to woodworking. If they rot out or I screw them up, I won’t feel so badly and 3) in this political climate, the big box stores aren’t likely to give me anything except a hard time and a security guard following me around. I won’t rely on the kindness of strangers for my materials. Lucky you.
Not all pallets are beat up and “harmful” most pallets are heat treated not always chemically treated, a lot of times pallets are made out of hardwood that can be useful in making furniture. cull wood is not always available and when it is available it is always pine or treated pine. Yes you can buy discounted twisted damaged and warped “new” wood from the store, but nothing beats free wood.
I occasionally get pallets stapled together from cull wood: they come apart easily, and have only made one trip (from the mill to the lumber yard), so they’re often in decent shape and have never had anything spilled on them. I just hope they never invent ring shank staples. But I agree about the typical pallet.
I get my “cull wood” fresh from the sea 🌊…the local beach 🦀 is just 3 minutes drive away. Whenever there’s a slightly stormy ⛈️ sea, you can guarantee that a 1/2 mile stretch of the beach will be strewn with all shapes and sizes of usable timber. 🪵Most of the wood will float back out to sea with the high tide, so calculating the best time to go lumber-hunting involves a quick glance at the local tide table and a two hour collection window. 🕑The biggest piece of wood I rescued was 16ft long by 12″ by 8″ oak beam – looked like it was from a big old barn. 🌳 I turned that into 3 piece structural garden fountain, ⛲ topped with washed-up green copper roofing sheet. 💚
The “good” wood I’ve ordered from home Depot during the pandemic must’ve surely been from the cull pile (even though I paid full) because they come taped together with a halfway decent piece on top and bottom but remove the tape and the middle pieces are full of knots and doing backbends. I don’t like the chemical aspect of the pallets but between not having been able to pick out my own pieces AND the price of wood this past year, I think pallets win for me (picking out inexpensive pieces from home Depot MYSELF before covid saved time and pain tho).
I thought about using pallets and cull wood but in the People’s Republic of Bowie, MD wood is not collected as trash. They call it construction debris and won’t take it. They left a three foot piece of 2×4 because they said it will ruin the trucks compactor yet they threw my neighbors 6 foot wood dresser with the drawers into it. So having scrap lumber piled up waiting to haul it to the dump is a drag. Funny thing, the neighbors who give the workers holiday cash get their banned items picked up 😮
I use pallets to make cheap wall art and planter boxes and other stuff mostly because where I’m from there’s still old barns to get weathered wood from but where I live now there really aren’t any, you can’t go get that stuff anymore so this is the closest thing for me. And honestly tearing apart a pallet with a multi-position ripping tool and a 25oz ripping hammer and your finely honed use of leverage and your bare damn hands sure does get that pesky PTSD that our uncle Samuel gave to me an easy and non jailable outlet to ventilate. You feel like you accomplished something, you beat the s*** out of a piece of wood and some nails, and you know that with all that noise every neighbors peeking at you from their house wishing that they had the strength to do things like that or even knew how to swing a hammer, (well I’m probably imagining that} but anyway when you’re tired you don’t think about things, and that’s a good thing. But even as frugal as I am I have to agree with you out of a whole pallet I only keep about three boards.
I guess everyone is missing the point of using pallets. You said you were going to get to why we shouldn’t burn them. I didn’t hear that part, did I miss it? What are we supposed to do with pallets? Sure if you really want something with better quality wood, this is good advice, but the “Don’t use pallet wood!!” part is click bait and that gets a thumbs down. USE PALLET WOOD if you are trying to find a use for it instead of burning it or whatever else you do. USE CULLED WOOD if you want something with some semblance of quality. Seems obvious to me.
We discovered cull lumber through my a article I be watched early 2023 so I went straight to HD and asked where it was. Huh! They have discontinued it. They still have it but are selling it now at a reduced price in back. It’s not marked as cull lumber either. We saw the 2×4 that were mostly warped and in poor condition being sold for $3.59 and cull fence pickets priced at $1.98 each down from $2.25 abd 98% were split from one or both ends, chizled, warped or an excessive amount of holes and splinters. All of the wood was in such bad condition that we had to pick through the entire pallet and only found 6 usable pickets that still weren’t in great condition. Times have changed. Stores are trying to suck every single dollar from you and offer fewer quality items. They even took away the military discount on all lumber and building materials since Covid even though they doubled, tripled and quadrupled the prices. Unfortunately, pallet wood, as junk and tedious as it may be is still the most affordable option these days. Only last night we filled the back of my SUV with more free pallets from nearby to convert into lawn furniture, planters and privacy fencing. Again, if money were not the key factor I’d just buy the overpriced lumber instead. Tomorrow I may call a few lumber yards to ask if they are still offering the cull lumber since HD and the blue store no longer offer it in my area
Well, most of cull woods are garbage. At least that’s my experience. All the good ones are gone within few hours. And it’s same with pallets. You CAN find good clean ones. Not the garbage you show in your articles. And cull woods are not free. Even if they’re 70% off, if you pay $15 on junk plywood, it’s $15 wasted. Also, you say develop good relationship with lumberyard as if that’s easy thing to do. They wont be your friend unless you’re their valued customer in the first place such as yourself. You can’t just show up to a lumberyard and expect to find good free wood.
Processing pallet wood is turning into a gentlemen’s past time. The amount of money needed to get pallets- transport, break them down, and to have a place to store the wood is very expensive. If you already have the means to do this more power to you. Oh yes- cull wood is usually monopolized by someone who’s got an inside track on a source.
I’ve never seen culled wood ANYwhere, but The stuff I buy at regular price at Lowe’s and Home Depot should be on a cull pile. Most of the dimensional lumber is impossible to keep from warping, cupping AND bowing… Sometimes all in one board. I swear that Lowe’s and Home Depot mess hijacked the trucks of lumber that are headed for the toothpick factory..
First time I’ve seen your page. Good stuff. I literally just collected a bunch of free paletbar boards from a local business that gives them away. I agree, it is a lot of work. But I was down for the task. But I’m more concerned about the chemical treatment you mentioned in your article. I will have to look on my pallets and see if they have those initials on them. But thinking maybe the pallet wood along with the Cole wood that you mentioned might make for a rather nice project. Question? Is there a way to get the chemicals out of the wood if it’s been treated with it? Just curious.
You live in a fantasy world, or in the middle of nowhere if you actually believe lumber places everywhere have cull wood or that it’s cheap. I’m in the northeast bud, near Philadelphia a major city, and I promise you aren’t getting cull wood as a Joe Shmo. Id like to add pallets are usually stamped with MB or HT etc which lets you know if it’s toxic. For example HT is heat treated and that’s a good palette, whereas MB is methyl bromide and toxic this use only for appropriate applications i.e not in your garden. I’m not sure how you’re a carpenter and don’t know palettes are labeled but whatever
If you are just starting out, and don’t have your contractor’s license yet, go work for a shop that lets you take home scraps. I have loads of rough sawn sapele (more than I can use) from working at a door/jambs/window/sash/trim/cabinet workshop. A facility of that volume creates more waste than you can recycle in your personal projects, and the nicer the stuff you make, the nicer the scraps are. Also, the larger the stuff you make, the larger the unusable pieces that end up in the trash. I could make 100s of drawer faces with the craps I got for free.
Unfortunately here in the UK, we don’t cull our bowed or bent wood… we just keep selling it at the same price. It’s so frustrating trying to buy arcatrave, pulling out every single piece until you find one that isn’t bent like a banana. We call Wickes the banana shop because they only seem to sell bananas there (Wickes is like your guys home depot store I guess? Only way less options for sale).
Haha, reminds me of my experience with these. Here I go, ready to do some serious repurposing. Guy at the local Home Depot says take all you want, so I grab a couple. When I got home, I discovered the amazing efficacy of spiral nails, almost impossible to remove. Next step, grab the trim saw or sawzall. But…but…that would essentially leave me with kindling! So, no more pallets for me. (You might say I now have a “refined pallet”…) I discovered a shop that makes rifle stocks out of maple. They were all too happy to sell me their scraps for a really low price. It was all rough-cut stock, great for sizing and finishing. I’d imagine it would also be beneficial to make friends with the local cabinetmaker or boatbuilder.
I worked in sanitation and compliance in the food industry for many years. You couldn’t pay me to put anything made from a wood pallet in my home or near my family. Roaches. Rat and rodent urine and feces. Pallets soaked with pesticides and worse. If you just gotta use pallets, do yourself a favor and take a black light with you. Rodent urine fluoresces when you hit it with a black light. It’s a pretty good sign the pallet has been in some not-so-good storage places.
The nearest lumber yard to .e is an hours drive and i would be almost impossible for me to haul enough wood to make anything where i can get pallets all over where i live so i believe you are kind of ignorant about thongs like this,we do t all live in the city where you can buy, BUY wood like this instead we get FREE pallets, a lot of notbing in tbis article
Not all pallet are created equal. I am not from the US. But here in my country we do get quality pallet which is amazing. And also there some companies like Coca Cola who force their suppliers to ship their raw materials only on quality treated pallet. These wood are better than what is being sold in store.
You just don’t get it. Everything you said about pallet wood is exactly why we use it. Pallet wood furniture is meant to look like it was made from a pallet. Big box reject lumber is okay, but it’s not pallet wood. As for toxins, don’t use gross pallets, don’t chew pallet wood, and maybe seal it with poly or something.
I use cull whenever I can get it, but for garden projects (cold frames, rough benches in the greenhouse, the chicken fencing outside of the henhouse, tool storage shed, etc.) I use pallets. One f my favorite uses, laying a pallet wood slab on a promising strip of soil, and harvesting the red wigglers as ‘livestock’ for my compost pile in the morning. Basically, for me pallets provide free resources for the ‘who cares?” projects. Love your content, keep up the good work!
I just brought home a truck load of pallets. I was planning on making small outdoor planters boxes out of them. I didn’t know about the concerns you brought up. Glad I watched this. Edit just to add: I intentionally wanted a rustic look and I thought the “reclaimed” nature of it would be a selling point if I wanted to sell some.
There are multiple types of pallets. I’ve seen pallets like you’re talking about but I’ve also seen pallets with true 1 by’s. We use pallets for outside pieces off the ground usually. If they’re in the rain cover it with used oil and you’re good. I built a surround for our ac unit because it’s on the deck and it goes perfect with the deck and still provides plenty of air flow. There are good uses for pallets
I think in general, free wood is free wood. In my area, cull wood is sort of hard to come by. People scoop it up fast. The nicer lumber yards have some bins with damaged pieces for a few bucks. Usually not in any quantity. Being picky with what pallets to use for furniture is probably a good idea. If it’s slimy, wet or moldy maybe leave those. I’ve had some good luck finding really clean pallets. I go to places like furniture or appliance stores. I avoid food places like grocery stores or industrial areas for most of my pallets. Less chance of there gross stuff. Great article though!
SIMPLY THE BEST “PALLET WOOD” article ON YOUTUBE AT THIS TIME…!!! (Ethan feel free to pin this as I would gladly respond to all that have questions) DO NOT…use pallet wood for your projects…!!!…The risk is just not worth the effort for all the reasons Ethan listed…AND MORE…!!! Another great source of great wood at a low price…Amish Pallet Sawmills or any Small Pallet Mills you can find in your area. This is “green wood” however and one will have to either learn how to build with green wood (all I have built over 40 years is with green wood 95% of the time including furniture to flooring…decks to house frames…just as It has always been done till the modern age.) In closing, pallets are not worth the risk…!!!…are their exceptions…YES!!!…but you really have to understand wood…wood species…pallet sourcing…and other things to make it worth the time…
It all depends on what you are doing. The challenge of cull wood is, as the article says, variety. So this week its one thing and next week something else, but unless you are willing to store a bunch of stuff “Just in case” you need it you are just going to go look at the cull pile and 9 out of ten time what you need for the current project is not going to be there. And keep in mind there may be lumber like 2×4 and 2×10’s but they are cull for a reason. So a half price 2×10 with a cork screw twist or bowed like a rocking chair rocker isn’t always such a great deal, unless you happen to need wood with that specific bend in it. Now occasionally you will find deals but its random stuff like I once got 6 12 foot treated 2 x12’s at Lowes for $1 each because they all had huge 2 foot splits on one end, but the rest was perfect. I had space to store it and about a year later I happened to need that lumber. But I had to store it for a year “Just in Case”. I’ve had a few other cull purchases that never got used. Or I had to “Find” a use for them, which now a days I’m too busy doing what I have to do to have time for random projects for the sake of a project. At the end of the day use pallets, cull wood, sawmill, lumber, repurpose from demolition work, or what ever works for you to save a buck. But generally if it’s cheap or free there’s always a trade off, sometimes it’s worth it, and sometimes it sucks.
I’m gonna stop you right there. 70% off inflation priced wood is still more than the original price for the same wood a year or two ago. Second, finding a number of the same pieces in “cull wood” for your project just is not going to consistently happen. LOL. If I need ten 2×4’s at 16 feet each to build a decent work bench, no way I’m finding even half of that in “cull wood.” And sure I could bounce from box store to box store looking for it, but chances are I’m not going to find it AND I will have expended way more gas (thanks Brandon) and time looking around for it. Pallets ARE FREE. THAT is why people will not stop using them. It’s not going away, even if you “rant” about it. Have you seen what people in 3rd world countries build with for materials? Well, since the US is well on its way to becoming that with inflation and politics, you’re only going to see even more people trying to make do with what they can find for next to nothing. Personally I find it remarkable what people are find with FREE materials. Dangerous or not.
Thank you – how did I not notice this?!? You just gave me a great option for my budget. (And yes, I’ve tried using pallet wood and the only thing I found it was ok for was a faux rain barrel I wrapped around a 50-gallon plastic drum to disguise it in my garden. Pallets take a lot of energy to break down for really poor quality wood.)
Methyl Bromide has a half life of 30 minutes. This means that it diminishes by half every 30 minutes. Try folding a piece of paper as many times as you can or dividing any number by 2…generally after 21 divisions the amount left is tiny…and after you try the folding or the mathematical process, and you realize that the 21 folds or divisions reduces things by that much, now realize that one day is equal to 48 divisions. You’re welcome.
Yeah but the joy & satisfaction of Pallet Wood reclamation/projects is the idea that when most people see a worthless piece of wood, I see nails that can be reclaimed and filed to point, & wood that can be sanded, torched, sealed & are subject to the will of my imagination; The only cost, being my time well spent & enjoyed. & Your dimensions for a project are only limited to the amount of boards you have, not by their actual length. Cull wood is better wood, no doubt. But it’s never as satisfying to use.
I have found great wood on pallets! Just about every big business I know uses pallets and lets me get them for free. Yes HT is great for raised herb and vegetable gardens. It may not last as long as other treated wood. But I highly doubt you want to eat something planted in the wood treated with those harsh chemicals! I’m new at this and I’m learning every day. I don’t have all the answers, but what I do have is the willingness to learn more about wood working and what I can create. I love pallet wood! And saying pallets are garbage is a little bit to much! It really irritates me! Thanks for the information on the cull wood. I have gotten 95 percent of my paint for my projects on the clearance rack in the paint section at my local Lowe’s. Great stuff. I will definitely be asking them about this cull wood on my next visit. I so hope you have a change of heart about pallets. Pallets can be great for a lot of things. They can take a little more time with having to take them apart and stuff. But I have tools for that. And I love the challenge that pallets gives me. I know that sounds corny But not all wood has to be perfect for me to work with it. Maybe lazy people have an attitude like yours. Idk Just throwing that out there! Take care.
Um, ok, yeah pallet wood is a good alternative “IF” you have the means to mill it. Planer and jointer, table saw, miter saw, I mean if you have these tools you’re an experienced wood worker and can turn this into amazing pieces. The ends can be cut off. The boards can be planed and jointed. I mean and sometimes they’re free! So I’d go through the hassle to make some money. But I’m also gonna try the cull wood method. As I have all the tools to mill it perfectly flat and square. So I don’t care how bad it is.
Being cheap by nature I went down the pallet rabbit hole a long time ago. I quickly learned a few things. First hauling and breaking down pallets is a lot of work. Second the yield of usable wood is low and the amount of waste you have to dispose of is large. Third what is cheap becomes expensive when you ruin a planer blade or a saw blade on a hidden nail. And even if you avoid all the nails there is often embedded grit and the like. So now I only use pallets under very specific conditions. First very pristine pallets, very large pallets or crates and such with usable plywood might catch my eye. Second if am making a rustic project with a reclaimed look. Third if there is some good hardwood that can be harvested easily for use as inlays, splines and other smaller uses. The pine isn’t worth the effort. Finally if I ever had a use for a whole pallet which I don’t I might take them. As far as cull wood goes I have never looked for it but my suspicion is it will not be available, but if it is it will not be that much cheaper. But I’ll give it a try.
This is a great wood project book youtube.com/post/UgkxkPIWb22DigCqxmlXerCyUF4HCl6eSU2L . Most of the projects use the pallet simply as a source of reclaimed wood not as a recognizable pallet so even if you didn’t have a pallet you could make these projects with any reclaimed (or even new) wood. The instructions are excellent. The style is charming and would work with lots of different decor. There are quite a number of projects that involve tiling of teh wood pieces which is a really cool idea and can produce beautiful pieces when working with aged wood.
In under a month I’ve amassed dozens of pallets, easily hundreds worth of lumber. Used the wood on finishing my chicken coop, compost bin, fence, cat house, child’s play house, tables, and more. I have 4 factories that set out weekly pallets, fine quality most being brand new hardwood, beautiful 3×4 timbers at 4 foot long, and mostly from food/steel factories so not many chems. The most I worry about is the metal dust which we clean as much off before loading as possible. Will deff look into cull wood as this is new to me.
Great article,thanks for the info. This old 88 year old tries to keep busy,so I mess around in my little work shop . I have used palettes on some little projects but after your article think the CALF WILD MAN,will try the cull area now,thanks again 👍👍👍👍🦍🦍🦍🦍🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🙏🏻🦅🦅🦅🦅. STAY SAFE ND GOD BLESS.!,,,,,,,,
Great idea on the cull wood. I will say the best thing about pallets is they are already cut and somewhat put together so makes it easier for people (namely women like myself😁) who don’t own any type of saw or cutting tool so the individual boards are a lot harder for me. I do hate that they are poor quality.
Huh… All this time I thot pallets were made out of South American Hardwood… And if you can drive a twist nail in one way, you can extract it by reversing the direction. Just hammer it back out. What am I missing? People do this every day. And clearly their projects are working out good enuf for their purposes. I guess it partly depends on what you’re building for and if you have money.
As long as women are fawning after anything Joanna Gaines, pallets will be used for “shabby chic” projects. Sadly, there are tons of people that are taking sub par wood and producing sub par products. You can produce great products from sub par wood, it just takes the know-how and skill that many selling these things lack.