Storing empty pallets

1. Keep them dryOff the ground, under cover, with air moving around the stack. Wet pallets mold; see the mold guide.
2. Keep them flatStack on a level surface. A leaning stack falls.
3. Keep them clear of exitsNever block a door, a stairwell, a hydrant or a fire lane.
4. Keep the height to the limitYour fire marshal sets the stacking height and the distance from buildings. Ask before you build a tall stack.

A small shop or restaurant often has nowhere good to put pallets. The least bad option is a short stack inside, near the door they came through, not a tall one outside. The best option is not to hold them long: schedule a pickup so the pile never gets big.

Put the same size together, and the sound ones apart from the broken ones. Pooled blue and red pallets go on their own; see CHEP and PECO. A sorted pile is worth more than a mixed one by the time it is sold.

If they must go outside, keep them off the ground on a pallet or timber, cover the top and leave the sides open for air. Rain on the top deck and a plastic wrap around the sides is the usual way to make a mold farm.

Build a stack with the largest pallets at the bottom and the smallest at the top, and keep the same orientation throughout. Offset nothing: aligned edges distribute the weight through the blocks and stringers instead of the deckboards. Stop at the height your fire marshal sets, and leave aisles wide enough for equipment to enter.

• The stack leans or shifts when you push it.
• Pallets at the bottom are dark and soft.
• A path to an exit has narrowed.
• You can smell the stack from the door.

Wood with a moisture content below 20 percent will not support mold, mildew, decay or fungus. Above that, it can. So storage is mostly about keeping stacks dry and giving air a way through them: even a slight breeze of a few feet per second helps prevent mold.

Keep stacks off bare ground on a pad or on spare pallets, under a roof if you can, and with spaces between rows. A stack against a wall with no air gap is a stack that will go bad.

• Keep stacks level and not so tall they lean.
• Never stack where a forklift cannot reach the top.
• Keep stacks clear of doors, exits and fire equipment.
• Look for loose nails before moving a pallet by hand.

How high can I stack pallets?

Your fire marshal sets the limit. Ask before you build a tall stack.

Can I store pallets outside?

Yes, if they are off the ground, covered on top and open to air on the sides.