Grade C pallets: where looks matter least

The definition

Grade C is also called grade 3. It is a pallet that has been repaired more than once or not repaired when it could have been.

Where it fits

• Internal moves that never leave the building.
• One-way freight where the pallet is not coming back.
• Loads stacked, wrapped and handled by the staff who own the pallets.
• Staging and storage where a pallet is a platform, not a package.

Where it does not

Not for food or pharmaceutical loads, automated lines, tall or heavy stacks, or any receiving dock that inspects the pallet. A Grade C pallet with a missing board can fail under a fork, and a cracked stringer takes it down to a core.

In a sorted stack

Grade C stacks lean. Boards sit at different heights, some are cracked, and the stack is noticeably less square than a Grade A one. The look is the grade.

The numbers behind a rough pallet

The Forest Service survey sorted 353 pallets as Grade C. They averaged 1.69 stringer repairs each and carried a relatively large number of plugs, from one to four per pallet, so a typical C is a pallet that has been mended more than once. Mechanically, the survey found that Grade C pallets kept about one-third of the racking stiffness and half the racking strength of a comparable new pallet, though the authors say such pallets can still carry light loads in racks. That is the leaning, uneven look a Grade C stack has from a distance, and it is also the case for keeping them out of tall or heavy stacks.

Match the pallet to a short job

Grade C suits freight that never leaves a controlled setting: staging in a yard, a one-way shipment inside the state, a platform under bagged goods that will be handled by one team. It is the wrong choice where a customer or carrier inspects pallets, where the stack is tall, or where an automated line needs even boards.

A quick tally for a C stack

Reading the stack for salvage

Before a Grade C stack is written off, a dismantler checks it for two things: how many deck boards are whole enough to cut into repair stock, and how many stringers are clear of splits. A board with a nail hole at each end but a sound middle can be trimmed to a shorter length and used on a smaller pallet. Boards bent or crushed by a forklift tine cannot. The salvage rate depends on how the stack was handled, not on its age.

After Grade C

A pallet that cannot be repaired again has a second life as raw material. Dismantled, its boards and stringers go back into repairs and rebuilds. What cannot be reused is ground into mulch, animal bedding or fuel chips; a grinder or chipper takes the wood, so any metal, including nails and strapping, has to be pulled from the pile with magnets first. A Grade C stack is therefore close to the edge of its useful life, and a seller who knows that can describe it as a source of boards, not a stack to be used as it stands.