Our New Pallet Coop

[gtaus]

Pallet wood is chemically treated and not really considered safe. Yikes!

I have been building stuff with pallet wood for about 3 years now. I have yet to see a pallet that has been chemically treated. If you are concerned about chemically treated pallets, they will be marked with "MB" and those are not safe for home use. I personally have never come across one of those chemically treated pallets. All my pallets are marked "HT" for heat treated and are perfectly safe for home use.

Of course, I also use common sense and if I find a pallet that has some oil or other chemicals spilled all over the wood, I pass on that pallet even if marked as HT.

If you know how to read the codes on the pallet wood, you should not have to worry about the safety of the unit. Sometimes you can save a lot of money by reusing that pallet wood and saving it from being dumped into a landfill as waste.

 

[McChooky]

I have been building stuff with pallet wood for about 3 years now. I have yet to see a pallet that has been chemically treated. If you are concerned about chemically treated pallets, they will be marked with "MB" and those are not safe for home use. I personally have never come across one of those chemically treated pallets. All my pallets are marked "HT" for heat treated and are perfectly safe for home use.

View attachment 3871056

Of course, I also use common sense and if I find a pallet that has some oil or other chemicals spilled all over the wood, I pass on that pallet even if marked as HT.

If you know how to read the codes on the pallet wood, you should not have to worry about the safety of the unit. Sometimes you can save a lot of money by reusing that pallet wood and saving it from being dumped into a landfill as waste.

Yes MB was banned on pallets many years ago in the United States and other countries

 

[gtaus]

@gtaus, come look at this!

@Bantams182, PLEASE post this on the pallet project thread.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/show-me-your-pallet-projects.1541562/page-289

That coop is beyond cool.

@Sally PB thanks for the shout out.

@Bantams182 that is a great job on that build. Please consider copying and pasting your project into the Show Me Your Pallet Projects! thread. I am sure lots of people who follow that thread would love to see your build. You might find some pallet projects on that thread that you could use at your home as well. Lots of good posts and pallet project over the years to be found there.

 

[gtaus]

I tried to take apart one pallet for scrap and quickly realized it just wasn't happening.

That can be the most challenging aspect of using pallet wood. But there are many ways to take apart pallets in little time, depending on what you want to salvage from the wood. If you get a chance, visit the Show Me Your Pallet Projects! thread and you will find a number of methods to disassemble pallets that might be easier than what you tried.

Of course, my favorite pallet projects tend to be those that use the whole pallet. Having said that, I can disassemble my pallets for wood for my raised bed projects in about 5-10 minutes using a circular saw. Pallets can be a great resource and projects like this pallet wood coop by @Bantams182 show what can be done with "free" pallets and some imagination.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

View attachment 3870681
This will give you an idea how it looks,hard to get large pictures inside.

Fantastic!
Very nice. Thank you for posting additional photos.

 

[thistlewick]

Yes MB was banned on pallets many years ago in the United States and other countries

I have been building stuff with pallet wood for about 3 years now. I have yet to see a pallet that has been chemically treated. If you are concerned about chemically treated pallets, they will be marked with "MB" and those are not safe for home use. I personally have never come across one of those chemically treated pallets. All my pallets are marked "HT" for heat treated and are perfectly safe for home use.

View attachment 3871056

Of course, I also use common sense and if I find a pallet that has some oil or other chemicals spilled all over the wood, I pass on that pallet even if marked as HT.

If you know how to read the codes on the pallet wood, you should not have to worry about the safety of the unit. Sometimes you can save a lot of money by reusing that pallet wood and saving it from being dumped into a landfill as waste.

OH THANK GOODNESS!!


I just remember hearing about it a few years ago when pallets became all the rage on Etsy for everything and had read about the chemical output from degassing -- also NEVER burn them -- but that must have been that MB stuff. I am glad we've banned it here in the US and (most likely) EU.

Lots of pallets come in from overseas, I definitely need to go peek at the ones stacked in my barn loft lol

 

[gtaus]

I just remember hearing about it a few years ago when pallets became all the rage on Etsy for everything and had read about the chemical output from degassing -- also NEVER burn them -- but that must have been that MB stuff. I am glad we've banned it here in the US and (most likely) EU.

There is a lot of stuff that I used to think was correct, like never using treated lumber for a raised garden food bed or using pallets for a build because of chemicals. I remember hauling our treated wood to a landfill because we knew not to burn it. But fortunately, we have moved on to safer methods of wood preservation and my old wisdom had to be updated. For me, I am glad to know that we have safer products today than what I grew up with back in the day.

Again, for about the past 3 years of my pallet project builds, I have never come across a pallet marked with "MB". They might still exist somewhere, but I just have not seen one where I live.

 

[fuzzi]

Wow!

I second that WOW.

Fantastic job @Bantams182 ! You have a lot of talent and experience, it shows.

 

[Ocho 8 Farm]

Just completed our pallet coop,all used material other than pressure treated 2x4s on the ground, pallet wood is not for the faint at heart, it takes a lot of time demoing and trying to make odd pieces work into the build,you also loose at least 20% of your pallet from it busting while disassembling. It has been enjoyable, built it in two phases, 7ftx12ft first, then a 7ftx8ft, 20ftx7ft total, I left them where they could be separated or could open up to use as a whole.
View attachment 3870499

Amazing!! I absolutely LOVE IT!!!

 

[McChooky]

OH THANK GOODNESS!!


I just remember hearing about it a few years ago when pallets became all the rage on Etsy for everything and had read about the chemical output from degassing -- also NEVER burn them -- but that must have been that MB stuff. I am glad we've banned it here in the US and (most likely) EU.

Lots of pallets come in from overseas, I definitely need to go peek at the ones stacked in my barn loft lol

I used whole pallets from the food banks for the base of my run and framed up the top with scrap lumber.Be forewarned you'll need a plan for disposal of the 'waste' if you break your pallets down