Pallet Life Extension - Rotting

When they become too rotted to use anymore just get rid of them (compost pile would be good considering they're already partially composted) and replace with new ones??

heat treated/hardwood ones seem to last longer in my opinion.
Also you could look at getting plastic pallets although I doubt youd be able to find those for free

I tried 12" x 12" paver bricks this last fall for an area on my back patio where I stack a cord. They elevate by 1 1/2" and they are 1.10 to 1.60 a block.
I tried the pavers because I normally use 2 x 4s and they always rot along with the first layer of wood.
Im not sure how much water the pavers will wick up from the ground but if you lay them on stone gravel and then the pallets it may preserve the pallets a few more years.
I use cement pavers under my pallets.
I bought 5 pallets of pavers years back for an Elizabethan knot garden I never finished.
I love stone and it never rots.

I have some junk 1" boards.. that didn't get finished. Live ends, oddball bad cuts from the sawmill. I throw those on the ground before the pallets. burn em when they get a bit funky themselves. sacrificial boards. Good part is, the pallets themselves are cheap or free, and you can burn them up too. watch for the nails, depending what you do with your ash.

I'm gonna have to do something else. I just used pallets on the ground and all of them are rotten after 1 year. Made quite a mess to clean up

Also interested in the answer to this... about to put down a bunch of pallets as part of a wood shed and would rather not have to replace them all 3 years from now. Even if they are free they are still annoying to move around.

I use a generic brand of Thompsons and it helps a lot. Pallets, like any wood, left on the ground, are gonna rot. Pallets in my area are becoming more difficult to scrounge for free and I can't say why.

Pallets on the dirt will never last. Get them up on bricks or 1/2 cinder blocks. I use 1/2 cinder blocks and pressure treated 2x6 or 4x4. Pallets tend to introduce nails and staples into the yard, which causes other problems for me.
I get used lumber from CL. People are removing old decks this time of year.

FWIW I tried stacking pallets on top of cinder blocks and pavers on all four corners and they would sag in the middle. Adding another one in the center helped, but the sides would sometimes still sag.

The absolute best thing that I have found for setting up pallets is the vertical posts from pallet racks laid out horizontally as stringers. I came across a bunch of pallet rack veritcals that had the diagonal bracing cut out a while ago. Why they were cut apart I have no clue, but when they were offered I took some and I kick myself in the butt for not taking the rest. The ones I got are 14' long which amounts to 4 pallets laid on the 40" side with a little space between them. The benefits extend beyond pallets lasting. They make for a perfect and stable deck when used with 6x6s and 4x4s and other scrap to level them out. (I only support the metal at three points, center and within 18" of each end.) You can put a pallet crushing load of wood on top without hurting the metal. I originally used them as stringers for stacks, 2 per row. I wizened up after a little while and realized that I could get get 2x the wood on top if I used pallets. Although I have no empirical proof, I think the extended airspace under helps with drying. It certainly does not hurt.


You can sort of see the metal under the high cube which was nearly 6 cords.