Grade B pallets: repaired and sound

The definition

Grade B is also called grade 2. A repair is what separates it from Grade A: a deck board has been replaced, a plate has been nailed across a split, or a short plug has been fitted beside a cracked stringer. Plugs range from 6 to 24 inches long.

What it allows

• Replaced deck boards, plates and plugs, within reason.
• Repaired stringers, as long as the pallet is still sound under load.
• Visible repair work: a newer board among older ones is the usual sign.

Where it fits

Warehouse movement, inbound freight, internal transfers and any outbound load where the receiving end does not inspect pallets. It carries the load a Grade A would on a dock where nobody inspects the pallet, and it costs less.

The line to Grade C

Several repairs, or boards that are no longer fully intact, push a pallet from B to C. The grade sheet draws that line at four repairs. Real graders use their own judgment, so treat it as a guide.

What a repaired stringer does to a pallet

Grade B is where stringer repairs begin. In the Virginia Tech survey the sorted Grade B group averaged 1.04 stringer repairs per pallet, almost all of them half-companion stringers, with metal plates a smaller share. In the accelerated rough-handling test the B and C pallets survived significantly fewer handlings than a comparable new pallet, and lower grades were less durable than Grade A. That fits what Grade B is sold for: warehouse moves and inbound freight, not freight that is handled many times. The same survey found the thickest deck boards of any group on the Grade B pallets, which helps them under load across the width.

Spotting B in a stack

• A pale new board among weathered ones, usually on the top deck.
• A short timber beside a stringer, held by nails driven through both.
• A flat metal plate bridging a split in a stringer or deck board.
• Slightly uneven height across the stack, because replaced boards differ in thickness.

Grade B compared with its neighbours

When Grade B is the wrong call

A repaired pallet can fail where a first-use pallet would not, because the repair adds nails that pass through wood already weakened by earlier nails. Tall stacks, long hauls on rough road, and automatic conveyors all place that weak point under strain. A buyer who sends product to a customer with a written pallet policy should read it before ordering Grade B, since many policies exclude repaired pallets outright.

How a repair is made

A damaged deck board is knocked off with a pry bar or cut free, and a replacement is nailed to each stringer it crosses. The replacement is often a board salvaged from another pallet that has been taken apart on a band-saw dismantler, which cuts through the nails between board and stringer and leaves the board whole. A board pried off by hand is more likely to split, so dismantled lumber is graded by how it came off.

A cracked stringer is mended with a companion piece: a half-length timber nailed alongside the break so the two share the load. Replacement boards are often a little thicker or thinner than the originals, which is why a repaired pallet sits slightly uneven.