Ten Ways to Spot a Defective Pallet

The National Wooden Pallet and Container Association (NWPCA) recommends that employees be trained to look for the following problems:

  1. Protruding, broken or missing stringers
  2. Sagging deck boards and bowed stringer boards
  3. Defects such as notched areas, including splits, decay and excess knots
  4. Splits in the wood, especially around fasteners and stringer feet
  5. Broken or missing wood exceeding allowable limits
  6. Damaged wood or poorly repairs damage to wood or plastic pallet components
  7. Decayed wood or unsound knots, especially around fasteners
  8. Repairs above a notched area on stringer boards
  9. Replaced pallet components that have notably different dimensions from companion pieces on the same pallet
  10. Pallets with nonconforming dimensions, including squareness or flatness

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