Shipping Pallet House by I-Beam
Yesterday, a reader alerted us to the possible dangers of wooden shipping pallets, especially found ones that are so great for d-i-y projects.
When we read that even new wood pallets could be subject to chemical treatments, we did some research to figure out how we can happily keep making things out of wood pallets, which we view as a sort of Lego for grownups: the perfect building block. So here is the best info we have on navigating found pallets (with some additional info woven in just this morning), plus a great source of pure wood pallets.
We discovered that the shipping pallets you find at the dump or on the street could be problematic. They could
a) have been exposed to potentially toxic bacteria from food, animals, or drug residues from whatever they were used for etc.
b) be made from pressure-treated wood, a chemical heat-treating process sometimes used to make them more durable and prevents insect infestation (used mainly for international shipments). That makes them something you probably don’t want inside the house unless you seal them to prevent possible exposure to the chemicals. Heat-treated pallets “bears the initials HT near theIPPC logo (the regulatory agency that oversees international pallets); the problem is that pressure-treating is only one of the kinds of heat treatments allowable; it will not be indicated by the stamp). If you happen to know what pressure-treated wood looks like, you can just avoid this wood.
c) have been fumigated with potentially toxic insecticides to prevent insect infestation (for pallets that have been shipped internationally). Pallets fumigated with methyl bromide bear the initials MB near the IPPC logo. As of March 19, 2010, the use of Methyl Bromide has been phased out.
There’s no way for us to gauge how great the dangers really are, although they don’t seem that dire to us. The gist, like just about everything these days: use found pallets according to your own good judgement and comfort level. Reading our Projects Consultant Nina Saltman‘s comments, below, should allay some fears as well.
If you’re nervous about using found pallets, you can buy chemical-free wood pallets at Uline,”the Shipping Supply Specialist”, whose mail-order catalogue we find endlessly inspiring. They sell pallets made from new wood (from a non-coniferus northern hardwood, such as oak, elm, maple, or cottonwood) or recycled wood (a mix of any of these woods). If you want to prevent any kind of insect activity, you can buy the pallets heat-treated, which means they’ve been heated to a certain temperature – without chemicals.
Whew!
Now, here’s what Nina Saltman had to say about the matter:
“I am not an expert on pallets, but this is what I DO know…mostly from having worked in warehousing (previous lifetime), and receiving pallets: Most common pallets that I am familiar with are NOT pressure treated, or treated in any way. They are usually C-grade lumber material with many flaws (known as checks, pits, and knots). They are often very rough lumber. There are those pallets that I have seen, that are much heavier duty, that are thicker dimensioned lumber, and in some cases have been pressure treated. Pressure treated should not be confused with fire treated. There are many different ways of treating lumber. The link following is “simplified pressure treated 101″. http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infxtra/infpre.html
So then the next question is whether you can seal it etc. The short answer is Yes. The longer answer is that often times pressure treated lumber has these little hatch marks all along the wood surface. It is not especially good looking, and is hard, if not impossible to fill, sand out, or disguise. That being said you can paint, seal stain etc. pressure treated like any other type, it just may look darker, as the pressure treating usually darkens the wood already…I do not think that short term, occasional handling of pressure-treated wood is a problem. If I handle treated lumber for any length of time, or project, I usually wear gloves and wash my hands before I eat. I would not recommend treated lumber near food, but do not think of it as a hazard for general building useage. I used it on the foundation, and deck framing lumber for our shed, for instance.”
Click here to read about the pallet house above, designed as disaster relief (what about those pallets?)
Related posts: PS: Some Possible Dangers of Wood Shipping Pallets
Look up pallets on wikipedia – lots of information but most importantly – they are all stamped with a code that will tell you if they have been treated with chemicals or heat treated.
CLARIFICATION. Helen, Thanks for this excellent info. We didn’t think to consult Wikipedia about this (!?!). The pallets with the Heat Treating Stamp do “the initials HT near the IPPC logo”. The problem is that pressure-treating (which uses chemicals) is one of the kinds of heat treatments allowable. According the Nina Saltman, pressure-treated wood tends to be a big darker than most, if you know what it looks like, you can figure out your pallet.
Pallets fumigated with methyl bromide bear the initials MB near the IPPC logo. “From 19 March 2010 the use of Methyl Bromide as an acceptable treatment according to ISPM15 [25] has now been phased out.”
Pallets made of non-wood materials such as engineered wood products like plywood, exempt from ISPM 15 regulations.
We’ll incorporate this info into the post to make sure people can find it. Thanks again.
Hmm – I have not seen anything about pressure treating being an acceptable form of heat treating. I looked at a couple of pallet sites and it looks like heating in a kiln to a specific temp for a specific amount of time is the only method of heat treating. Not trying to be nitpicky – I’ve recently come across and easily accessible source of pallets (and bought a reciprocating saw) and want to find out for my own projects where chemical contact would not be okay.
where do you get your pallets?
If you read about 3/4 of the way down, you’ll see our favorite source for chemical-free wood pallets, Uline: chemical-free wood pallets at Uline. Otherwise, if we find a good-looking one on the street, which read it’s markings to see if it is one of the safe kind.
A fascinating look at a the different variety of pallets.
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I recommend checking out the pictures of how these folks sanded the pallets to a furniture grade finish.
Of course I built my project BEFORE hearing about the possible dangers of palette wood! I built a headboard out of palette wood that was discarded at a mechanic shop down the street. It was used to ship lawn equipment. I cleaned it off and sealed it with a polyurethane stain. In an initial attempt to find IPPC logos, I struck out. Is my only other option to give it the eyeball test to determine if it is pressure treated? If I sealed it with this stain, does that help at all? Thanks.
I would think that poly would help seal it, but can’t say for sure. If it was water-based, it will have less ability to do that. I recommending doing a search on the internet, not necessarily re pallets but re sealing with polyeurathae to prevent contamination or something like that. Best of luck.
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