Pallet Wood quality Question

[jennyjj01]

Calling all Pallet busting, shed building, wombles. Will Pallet wood last?

Our 8'x6' shed is in a bit of a state of decay. It was one of hubbies custom projects, back when we had money and it has lasted very well. Nice overlapped wood.

However, the tongue and groove floor has rotted around the edges and the bottom 3 inches or so of 3 of the walls has gone too, so it's slumped down and the door drags. I want it repaired, not replaced. Hubby reckons he can somehow lift the walls up and slide a new base under (I'm not convinced). I thought he'd dismantle it, but it would be out of service for too long. I don't want to have it out of service for months. Floor is beyond repair. From 6" up the shed's still in good condition.

I'm inclined to get him to try to fix it by making a new base, slide it under and repair the side panels separately. Then paint it to get maybe another 5 years out. Oh. It's sat on concrete slabs, but had rubbish ventilation, hence the rot.

Now..... The big question..... Would the wombles amongst you dein to use wood from newish pallets for the base, or should I use big roofing(?) boards or should I invest in tongue and groove again. I have a plentiful source of pallets and as I see it has...

Pallet Pro's: Free - Doing our bit to recycle - Pallet busting is therapeutic - Easier to replace odd small pieces than sheet boards if/when they rot again.
Cons: Low quality soft wood - in short lengths - Not tongue and groove. Hubby has a router and could possible tongue and groove it himself.

I know pallet wood is cheap and soft rubbish, (pine?) but if treated, could I get decent service out of it? Or am I being daft to not just go to B&Q and spend maybe £100 on boards and bearers? Is there a middle ground, using boards, just replacing the 3x2 bearers by unmodified and loosely attached pallets? I like the idea of the ventilation of a pallet base. Should we further raise them a cm or so on something waterproof, like a dozen tiles, or some pieces of rubber?

Am I overthinking this. LOL. All ideas gratefully received. If you think I'm a stupid cheapskate, break it to me gently.

Bonus request. If you built a pallet shed, can I see pictures?

[Yorkshire Andy]

Pallet wood is generally as good as most.....

Now the biggest killer is rot yes no sh1t but most modern treated timber in the DIY emporiums is errrr uc1 grade treatment ie its green and looks good intended for above ground use .. for flooring / joists on a shed your wanting uc4 treatment...


But that's going to cost a fortune as the time in the tank and concentrate level is double that of uc1 &uc2 .. want to know the score ask the merchant what grade treatment it has had... Most will shrug at you

https://www.travisperkins.co.uk/content ... plications.

So ahem look away tree huggers ... Pallet wood soaked in a mixture of diesel and old diesel engine oil... Yes bad for the environment but a good 50:50 mix will stink for a good few months but nothing will attack it for years. More friendly is ronseal shed and fence preserve but they recommend 3 coats and it's £30+ for 5l

My shed the floor is paving slabs on a 3" bed of dry sand and cement plastic membrane on 4" crush and run on Top of hardcore left it a month before building the shed so the dry mix got a good soaking

[jansman]

I’m with Yorkshire Andy on this. Pallets work. My main workshop was built with 3 concrete panel walls and the front overlapped PALLETS . As noted by YA as a good idea, mine were soaked in creosote and used car oil ,drained and fixed. 34 years ago! I also have a lot of picket fence made and treated the same way ( garden is huge) fixed to concrete posts. Another good age!

And we burned some up the chimneys too pallets are good,in good condition.

[jennyjj01]

I’m with Yorkshire Andy on this. Pallets work. My main workshop was built with 3 concrete panel walls and the front overlapped PALLETS . As noted by YA as a good idea, mine were soaked in creosote and used car oil ,drained and fixed. 34 years ago! I also have a lot of picket fence made and treated the same way ( garden is huge) fixed to concrete posts. Another good age!

And we burned some up the chimneys too pallets are good,in good condition.

Cheers.
The diesel is to help the oil soak in, and from what I read, doesn't preserve the wood itself. I'm a bit concerned about how many months we'd have a slimy oily mess that would make it unusable without risk of ruining clothes or treading oli everywhere. Also, it sounds like a big fire risk, even by my standards.

But it does look like I'll be using pallets rather than bought timber.

[Peter]

I always used to add old engine oil to creosote, and a good dollop of black bitumastic paint, (loverly smell and you knew you had good protection), it took a couple of weeks to dry, did fences every other year. Modern fence paint does not last as long but it’s easy to spray.

[jennyjj01]

Pallet wood is generally as good as most.....

Apart from being a bit rough sawn, I think it'll do. We'll cherry pick the best pieces and soak them in 'something'

.. for flooring / joists on a shed your wanting uc4 treatment...

Is that OSB board stuff suitable? Seems cheapish. I think when the shed was originally built it was nice wood, but the floor was not properly treated at all. Maybe none of it was preatreated. Hubby used some smelly clear stuff on it, then ronseal.
[/quote]But that's going to cost a fortune[/quote]bu66er that then

Pallet wood soaked in a mixture of diesel and old diesel engine oil... Yes bad for the environment but a good 50:50 mix will stink for a good few months but nothing will attack it for years. More friendly is ronseal shed and fence preserve but they recommend 3 coats and it's £30+ for 5l

Drat. I managed to use up my diesel stash. I might have a source of suitable 'industrial waste'

My shed the floor is paving slabs on a 3" bed of dry sand and cement plastic membrane on 4" crush and run on Top of hardcore left it a month before building the shed so the dry mix got a good soaking

Our base is slabs on sandy dirt. Unfortunately soil tumbled down the back and blocked up the ventilation and drainage, wet soil in contact with the wood bu66ered it.

Chatting with MrJJ, tonight he has visions of somehow jacking the walls up and literally mounting the shed walls about 6" off the ground on 3x3 stilts screwed to the sides. This, I have to see. He had a play lifting it up an inch using the palletbuster as a lever. If he says he can. He will, but anticipate another visit to A&E

[jansman]

Floor definitely needs to be raised 3” min. It’ll outlast you that way.

[jennyjj01]

Floor definitely needs to be raised 3” min. It’ll outlast you that way.

Great. I don't want us having to rebuild again when we are in our 70's.
I could kick myself, because it's only rotted where soil was in contact, but that was 3 sides.
I know it was raised 3" originally, because for two years we had a hedgehog family under there

Once we have it solid, there'll be sacrificial pallets under it.

[grenfell]

Just to add pallet wood can be described as varied. There can be some that are little more than glorified firewood but then on the other hand I've had some that were a mix of hardwoods and useable for small pieces of furniture . Using the stuff can be fine. I've got a shed or rather woodstore that is built out of 4x2 with pallet slats as louvers. It's been there for nearly twenty years and is still fine. . I've seen people built raised beds with the same stuff and it's rotted away in no time at all. Using pallets for a shed base should be fine but keep it dry with ventilation and airflow. Treating isn't a bad idea and a damp proof to stop moisture rising is probably a better idea.

[ForgeCorvus]

I spent some of my furlow rebuilding one of my sheds (and moving the other two to more efficient positions in the workyard), so heres what I did.

From your pallet supplier(s), see if you can blag some plastic pallets. They come in standard sizes, normally Euro (800 mm × 1,200 mm × 144 mm/31.5 in × 47.2 in × 5.7 in ) and Standard (1000 mmx1200mm/ 40"x48"x6")...... Both my enclosed sheds are on these with an extra Euro acting as a doorstep.

Because all I could save of the rebuild shed was the floor boards and the front wall with the window in it,
I spaced the new frame so a half plank ended on the mid-line of the two middle wall upright. This means I can board up with a whole plank starting on the one side then a half to finish the run, with the next run starting with a half followed by a whole plank...... This may not be much use to you currently, but I mention it for future projects.

I painted the entire underside of the floor, all the replacement underframe and the bottom three runs of boards with bitumastic paint before I fixed anything to anything. I also painted the outside of the frame and the edges and ends of the planks before boarding out. The paint I used for this and the two coats (three on the short end thats nearly against the fence) on the outside is Bird Brand Outdoors ( not the Shed and Fence), its thick enough to fill small gaps and nailholes and fairly inexpensive.

I also changed it from a lean-to roof with the front as the high side to a lean-to roof with the front as the low side (another shed, the open fronted one, acquired a pitched roof around the same time).... You cannot have too much headroom. If you're going to lift the walls up a few inches you might as well lift them several inches and gain some extra space.

If you've got plenty of hight under the shed, think about extending the boards down well under the level of the frame. That way water will drip off and run under the shed.

Try to get a lot of overhang on your roof so it throws water well away from the walls, even if you have gutters (those can get overloaded ). Also if you can either extend the roof or fit some sort of 'porch' over the door, that will help keep water off the door and out of the shed.


Always use screws not nails to join frames together and to each other (I like Torx rather then Pozi), but you can nail boards onto the finished frame.