Pallets are firm and portable scaffolds that can carry a load. Their primary purpose is to pile, store, and ship goods as they’re handled by equipment, like forklifts, conveyors, or pallet jacks.
Blocks, bricks, roofing tiles are some building materials that are stored on pallets, which are normally square-shaped to prevent tipping.
Moreover, pallets are the most popular base for goods in trucks or in racking or bulk storage. Generally, you secure the goods stacked on top of them using a strapping, a stretch wrap, or a pallet collar.
Although pallets are the backbone of warehouses for storage and transportation, they can also be applied in other industries, including construction.
Planks can be used as construction materials to make several building structures. You can hire or buy pallets too. If you’re in search for some, visit reliable sites, such as challengerpallet.com, and make your order.
You’ll usually find pallets that are made of timber. But they’re made of other materials as well, including paper, plastic, and metal.
Read on to learn about the uses, applications, pros, and cons of pallets in construction.
Pallets Uses And Applications
Pallets play significant roles in building. Below are some of their uses and applications:
1. Transportation
Building equipment and construction materials can be challenging to transport from one construction site to another without proper means. This is especially true when moving heavy materials to the construction site.
Pallets in this sector are essential in transportation. They’re primarily used to safely transport construction equipment and materials to and from the place.
In other words, they offer a secure way of transporting heavy building materials and equipment, prioritising safety in such situations.
When you hold heavy loads loosely, you might compromise the safety of the people around you. So, by using pallets, you can bind materials in place for transportation. Additionally, the goods are guarded by shrink film and shipped safely to their destination.
2. Prefabricated Buildings
You can use pallets as prefabricated forms to establish outsize structures like domes. The advantage of this is that you don’t need high-priced moulds. You can create them by cutting out parts of a round steel beam and fastening wooden slats to the circular portion for walls. Thus, you can make spheres of any size and shape.
On the other hand, if you need to build additional structures like tunnels, you can apply the same principle where you cut circular metal beams into tiny pieces to create a round steel roof.
3. Stairs And Ramps
Pallets are valuable when framing stairs because of their robustness, design, and cost-efficiency. They’re some of the economical methods of developing temporary and secure stairs on site.
Furthermore, they save you much time compared with building them from scratch. It’s because they come with everything you need to have to scaffold your stairs and ramps.
For instance, the nails, screws, pre-drilled holes, and so on are all available, making your work a lot easier since you can quickly fix them. When making your stairs using pallets, remember to choose the best boards free of rots, gaps, or woodworm.
This ensures your stairs are strong, allowing fast movement of bulky materials around risky sections of the construction site.
4. Furnishing
Wooden pallets can be used to include attractive additions to your home. Ideally, you can dismantle the pallets and give the boards a new elegant finish.
After you’ve planed and sanded the planks, you can stick them together using glue to make fascinating models.
Next, cut to generate panels in different shapes for furniture. Once you sand the boards, you accent the grain and any spots on the wood. As a result, a budget-friendly building material with a personal touch is created.
5. Frame Scaffold
A scaffold is a temporary plank used to support workers and equipment during building construction, renovation, or cleaning. It’s made up of more than one board of suitable size and length, with various supports based on how you use it. It allows you to move around a building safely in whichever direction you need to accomplish construction activities.
When putting together temporary structures like a floorboard, you can arrange wooden pallets along every corner for strength and firmness as you place concrete in the area.
After completing your task, you can collect the pallets and transfer them to form a different edge for placing concrete. It saves time on assembling or disassembling scaffolding in every wall since you can build smaller frameworks with only a giant scaffold.
6. Pallet Flooring
You can also use wooden pallets to construct a pallet floor. This wooden floor offers excellent floor strength and, at the same time, adds that rustic warmth to your interior.
Pallet floors can be charming, and you can finish them for a sleek, modern appeal. The idea behind such a pallet wood project is to dismantle the pallet, so you can have large piles of split-up wood planks.
Some advantages of pallet flooring are:
- It’s long-lasting: Wooden pallets are made of durable pine and oak.
- It’s simple to maintain: Wooden floors require minimal effort to maintain. Even when you do regular floor cleaning, it can stay clean for a long time. You can make them perfect by finishing the boards with a first-rate product. Plus, when you need to replace any board, you can easily find the materials and do it without much hassle.
- It’s cost-efficient: Wooden pallets are available at low prices. The only costs you may have to consider are the tools you’ll need, underlayment, and labour, if you require help in installing them.
- It decreases landfill waste: Several shipping pallets end up in landfills yearly. When you recycle them into floors, you can help to lower waste. Aside from this, you have unique flooring with a lot of character.
- It has a magnificent look: Wood pallet floors are timeless, matching most interior designs.
Pros of Pallets in Construction
With their various uses and applications, pallets are beneficial in the construction industry.
1. They’re Cost-Effective Construction Materials
The significant advantage of using pallets in construction is that it saves on cost. Wooden pallets are more cost-efficient than conventional building materials, such as plywood. You can use them in place of more expensive materials since they play the same roles.
2. They’re Readily Available
Wooden pallets are widely accessible. You won’t find it challenging to look for suppliers, as they’re often available.
3. They Protect Your Goods
Pallets shield your construction materials during shipment by acting as a shock absorber inside your truck every time the goods slide from side to side.
4. They’re Easy To Construct And Repair
You don’t need sophisticated technology to build a wooden pallet, nor do you need complicated tools to fix it. Once one plank breaks, you can easily replace the broken piece with a hammer, nails, and timber. The beautiful thing about these pallets is that numerous wooden models are made with different planks. You can remove the planks if damaged and replace them individually.
5. They’re Recyclable
Wooden pallets can be reused in varying ways and don’t require any melting or expensive chemicals.
6. They’re Eco-Friendly
Wooden pallets are environmentally friendly, given that you can recycle them. For instance, you can use them to make pallet flooring, decks, patios, kitchen cabinets, and many more.
7. They’re Solid And Long-Lasting
Wooden pallets are superior quality products, and their resilience and longevity can never be undermined. Their remarkable strength will never disappoint when used in the building industry for shipments of heavy materials and equipment and in developing structures.
8. They Require Little To No Maintenance
Wooden pallets are easy to maintain if you don’t expose them to rain. Rain makes the wood rot quickly, thus causing it to lose its value within a short period.
Cons of Pallets in Construction
Though pallets come with advantages, they have their downsides.
1. They’re Subject To Bacterial Attacks
This is the major drawback for wooden pallets. Typically, timber supports the growth of bacteria, which can affect wood permeability, attack wood structure, and enhance wood rotting, causing rapid decay.
2. They Aren’t Stain-Resistant
Pallets have rough surfaces, meaning you can’t easily clean them when they get stained. To protect the surfaces from stains, you can use a finishing product that offers a high degree of stain resistance.
3. They’re Not Fireproof
When wood loses its moisture content, it can easily catch fire. Therefore, in case of a fire outbreak, they can easily be ignited, resulting in huge losses at home or on business premises.
4. They Can Lead To Deforestation
To make wooden pallets, you need timber. Large-scale production of pallets can lead to a higher number of trees getting cut, leading to deforestation.
5. They’re Vulnerable To Infestation
They’re prone to infestation by ants and insects that dwell inside the wood, eat it, and finally weaken it.
6. They Can Be Risky
If you don’t remove all the nails, they can cause serious harm to you or your loved ones. This is particularly true if the nails are covered in rust, which may contain bacteria, germs, and dirt that can make you sick.
Conclusion
Pallets have a wide range of applications in construction. In addition to transportation, you can use them in diverse ways, as explained above. So, instead of disposing of them, you can utilise them to build whatever you need.
Rather than purchasing expensive construction materials like plywood, take advantage of pallets, which perform the same function. In the long run, you reduce construction costs and minimise waste disposal. Just ensure to find a reliable manufacturer and supplier.