how to keep pallets off the ground

[Highbeam]

I lay the pallets right in the dirt, they do their job for 2 or more years and then get reused only if they are not totally rotten. Pallets are free if you look around. If I could find plastic I would absolutely pay a few bucks to aviod replacing the old rotten ones.

 

[velvetfoot]

I'm thinking of laying down landscape fabric, sans pallets (hard to find here). Anybody else do that?

 

[red oak]

Stacking on a rolling surface, using splits right on the ground I would say is easier. I've had fairly good luck with rotting, but I wonder even if rotting did ocurr, would it only be confined to the bottom layer? I have a fair amount on pallets, but they are hard to come by, and as I said, it's easier to follow the undulations of the ground without. The ground isn't really wet though.

Anybody else just stack on the ground?

I did for many years, and still have a couple of stacks directly on the ground. The very bottom layer doesn't dry well obviously. The others seem okay, but just okay. I think more air ciruculation would've helped the wood dry a good bit more. I'm trying pallets for the first time this year, and those stacks are only going up about 40" or so. Saplings are a great idea also as I have been using these the last couple of years too.

 

[Trilifter7]

I'm thinking of laying down landscape fabric, sans pallets (hard to find here). Anybody else do that?

I was thinking of putting landscape fabric down under my pallets. It would keep grass and weeds from growing under them and keep the pallets out of the mud. Might still put the pallets on some bricks placed on top of the fabric.

 

[Woody Stover]

I lay the pallets right in the dirt, they do their job for 2 or more years and then get reused only if they are not totally rotten.

That's why I'm putting my pallets on blocks. It's more work up front, but I have some that have been out there more than ten years.

 

[velvetfoot]

My local hardware store, where I used to get them, got an outdoor boiler and now they're burning their pallets in it. Is that ironic, or what?

 

[blacktail]

I used pallets for the floor of my shed. They're on the cheapest concrete blocks I could find.

 

[maple1]

If you keep any amount of wood, pallets are out the door and 3" saplings cut to length are the ticket

If you handle any amount of wood, pallets can decrease the wood handling significantly when combined with a FEL & pallet jack. My wood gets piled on pallets directly from the splitter. The next time I handle it, it's to take it off the pallet & put directly into my boiler fire in my basement. In between, after seasoning, the piled pallet gets set into my ground level basement doorway with a FEL, then gets rolled into place next to my boiler with an old pallet jack.

On the OP question, I have always just stuck some bigger splits off the pile under the pallets. I'm also now thinking of maybe investing in some concrete block seconds (0.50 ea.), or PT landscape ties, on top of landscape fabric. Usually by the time I put my wood inside, the splits have settled into the ground & started rotting. A nice long raised gravel pad would also work pretty good, I think - something else I'm considering.

 

[Machria]

Hmmmm, a big raised gravel pit! Brilliant! Cheap, easy and prolly last longer than all of us. Wood will stay dry, drain well, and no growth.... Great idea.

With all the work you guys do with pallets... Why not just build simple racks like I did? Fairly cheap, will last for as long as I need them (treated lumber), easy to build, and great for seasoning.

 

[Ashful]

With all the work you guys do with pallets... Why not just build simple racks like I did? Fairly cheap, will last for as long as I need them (treated lumber), easy to build, and great for seasoning.

I did, and they were great! Then I realized I'd need something like 40 of them scattered about, to hold 3 years worth of wood at my usage rate.

Plans for a more permanent solution are in the works... between building a new shop, barn, replacing 26 windows, new baby, regular maintenance, etc., etc...

If you handle any amount of wood, pallets can decrease the wood handling significantly when combined with a FEL & pallet jack. My wood gets piled on pallets directly from the splitter. The next time I handle it, it's to take it off the pallet & put directly into my boiler fire in my basement.

I've considered this many times, and every time I have it in my head to do it, I uncover a nest of mice or other varmint in one of my wood piles. There's a benefit to shaking off the splits and re-stacking, when you're moving it to the house. I do aim to eliminate the handling most folks do, when moving from their outdoor stacks to their wood shed, though.

 

[jeffesonm]

I put them on old pavers or bricks.

 

[Stegman]

If you don't mind spending some money, you can do what I did and build a gravel base. Here's a thread I created a couple of years back when I was done with mine:

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/firewood-storage-area.67734/

I've since built a woodshed, so I use this strictly as my drying/seasoning area.

 

[Shari]

18" tapering to around 6" of traffic bond w/pallets laid on top of the gravel works best for me. I originally tried pallets on top of cement blocks but had too much shifting/setting and big critters living under the stacks. Now I only have little critters (voles?) that sometimes live between the slats of the pallets. Those voles (?) are curious creatures - they will get a vantage point and sit there watching me move splits around.

 

[lukem]

I'm thinking of laying down landscape fabric, sans pallets (hard to find here). Anybody else do that?

Landscape fabric is going to do nothing for keeping your wood dry. If anything it will make it wetter than directly on the ground. Landscape fabric under whatever you are stacking on would be fine.