Pallet wood

[Ally]

Hmm, I was hoping to burn some huge pallettes I have at work, they were used for shipping those water ski bike things, so very thick solid wood....just too tempting not to burn....now I'm not sure......

[Beaker]

Hmm, I was hoping to burn some huge pallettes I have at work, they were used for shipping those water ski bike things, so very thick solid wood....just too tempting not to burn....now I'm not sure......

 

Go for it, if they're specially built for purpose, they probably won't be treated wood, and you can always mix some hardwood in with it.

[pistnbroke]

If its got preservative in it it will have a burnt in stamp saying so ....That is so you can use it to send goods to say australia where they dont want wood bugs ....unstamped its OK

Edited November 22, 2013 by pistnbroke

[Redeye]

Hmm, I was hoping to burn some huge pallettes I have at work, they were used for shipping those water ski bike things, so very thick solid wood....just too tempting not to burn....now I'm not sure......

 

Hi

 

If the pallets with the water bikes have come from the far east it is likely that they are hardwood and unlikely they have been treated so they should burn well. Same goes for the boxes that stone paving slabs come in as they are likely to have come from india or africa where hardwood is readily available. Anyone concerned about the environment should be aware that even untreated tree wood contains metal species that have the potential to be hazardous in the ash, metals are absorbed by root uptake from the soil depending on where they are grown, the best solution is to ensure that the ash is properly disposed of (this has been discussed before). Any organic preservative is likely to be burned in the stove and shouldn't make it out of the chimney unless the the stove is basically shouldering and the wood is pyrolysing (loads of smoke and tar produced), the nasties given off in the smoke are a whole different story and are likely to be way more hazardous than any potential residues from the preservative.

 

My suggestion would be to always ensure that the fuel burns cleanly with a clear chimney, granted this is not always possible.

 

Hope this helps, I treat the ashes produced by wood burning incinerators and others as my day job.

 

Redeye

[George Kennedy]

For what it's worth....

Pallets are heat treated not treated with preservative.

Colouration (including those Chep blues) is water soluble.

Composite blocks will contain a binding agent and will likely produce resinous deposits in your chimney.

Nails will drop into the ash pan and not explode through the stove glass.

Most pallets are made from pinewood, in the case of Chep and other good quality pallets - Portuguese pine

The calorific value of a block is proportional to its weight, the heavier it is the longer it will burn.

 

Conclusion? If you can get your hands on a supply of pallet blocks, grab them, remove any composite ones and burn the rest without fear.

[junior]

Isn't the majority of kindling wood made of chopped up pallets?

[Beaker]

Isn't the majority of kindling wood made of chopped up pallets?

Most of mine certainly is.

[Denizen of the Deep]

Pine pallet-chopping keeps me almost as warm as sitting in front of the fire kindled with it. Reducing a pallet to a big bag of kindling ought to be an Olympic sport :-)

[Beaker]

Pine pallet-chopping keeps me almost as warm as sitting in front of the fire kindled with it. Reducing a pallet to a big bag of kindling ought to be an Olympic sport :-)

Confucius say:

 

"Chop your own wood, and it will warm you twice"

 

(OK, it was Henry Ford, but Confucius should have said it.)

[DHutch]

We burn 'pallet ends' which are the left overs ends of planks from manufacturing pallets, as kindling on the stove and in the boiler. They are fairly light softwood, but as they come in 6-10inch peices, 4-6inchs wide, and are usually very straight grained and knot free they dice into pieces in seconds and cost us nothing.

 

Daniel

[Cosmic]

I looked up the details about whether pallets are poisonous a while back. I posted something on a blog here.

 

Essentially, you need to look for the "IPPC" logo stamped on the pallet. If it includes the letters "HT", it has been heat treated and is ok to burn. On the other hand, if it has "MB", it has been treated with methyl bromide, which is really nasty and mustn't be burned.

 

Most countries have now banned methyl bromide but there are still some (notably Chile) that haven't phased it out completely, so they could still be around for a while. I don't think it was ever used in Europe, so anything with a stamp indicating European origin should be ok too.

[Pykebird]

Just been given a car full of clean, dry pallet wood, really thick stuff. As it was free, it will be burnt.

[Dottyshirl]

I would/will burn pallet wood, that is what sticks are made of, in our place anyhoo x

[Dave Payne]

 

 

Actually you know, putting some carcinogens into the atmosphere might be a good thing to do, if we really care about the future of the human race. A few wars wouldn't go amiss, and more natural disasters. And perhaps a slowdown in medical research. Without any of these a bigger horror awaits, there's no doubt.

 

 

Ha ha, i like your way of thinking....

[sassan]

The wood makes great kindling/emergency wood. The compressed blocks are fantastic when you want a quick burst of heat (they produce a very nice amount of heat very quickly), but as others have said, you may need to clean your chimney more often.

[madcat]

I will burn anything remotely combustible, being cold is not an option . The chunks off the corners of pallets are a good source of heat.

[ackdaw]

i think most wood imported for use and id think we dont produce much home grown , has to be treated at least for insecticides , before it can be inported , thats to kill any bug eggs etc that might be in the wood and , that may well be able to do you long / or short ? term damage as such and warming up/ burning the wood might just help release the toxins insecticides that are in the wood as such ?

i think they just put it in a large container the planks of wood , suck out the air to vacum it and release the insecticides into the container and anyrthing else they want to treat it with , which gets sucked into the wood not just treating the outside of it

so id think people might think its not treated , waterproofed ? , but id tend to think that all of it has to be treated even if its only gets used for fence wood etc

and as said the compressed woood chip board etc contain lots of chemicals in the glues etc

mind how long the insecticide lasts in the wood ? i dont know ?

Edited November 26, 2013 by ackdaw

[pistnbroke]

what part of if its treated it will be stamped as such dont you understand? This is so that customs in countries with real border controls ( ie australia) can check. They open and unload every container that goes into the country. Australians will not burn treated wood on open fires because of the toxins in the smoke.....

Edited November 27, 2013 by pistnbroke

[Boat&Bikes]

So are you saying treated pallets are stamped?

 

Ian.

[Dottyshirl]

If I was cold and saw an abandoned pallet or some one gave me a pallet or I bought a pallet....... If I was cold I would jump up and down on it and smash it to bits and Burn Baby Burn it ....

[Dave Payne]

You need to be really cautious when burning pallets, most are heat treated which contains no chemicals.

 

Some though were treated with methyl bromide, i do believe this is no longer allowed in the EU since 2010, however some pallets can sit in warehouses for years before someone gets hold of it, or come from a country outside the EU.

 

Easy way to spot is on the pallets there should be some markings, HT means heat treated and MB means methyl bromide.

 

I have to say why would you take the risk, you wouldnt go to bed if you knew your gas boiler may leak fumes!!

 

 

 

Just spotted someone else already covered this earlier in the thread...

 

Also spotted some people really have no clue, and will still burn pallets, even pallets with no markings are dodgy.

 

Think of all the pallet yards out there that dont bother with marking them up, they buy scrap pallets and fix them up for reselling and have no desire to stamp them up.

 

Your choice but choose carefully!

Edited November 27, 2013 by Dave Payne

[Dottyshirl]

So really they should be licenced and returnable either to be safely disposed of or reused ! That would stop me as a numpty burning them me thinks .... Not to cause offence or an argument... Just my opinion lol

[Dave Payne]

Sorry, wasnt aimed at you...

 

As with anything in this life, there are people out there who will fudge/fake and lie to earn a penny. If you know your pallets are coming from a reputable company and are stamped with the HT mark, then i would say fine, burn them.

 

However, if you do not know where it has come from and has no stmap, or even if it has the HT stamp, do you really want to be taking the risk!!

 

If you take the risk then i hope you are taking this risk on your own and not involving other people...

[Dottyshirl]

Do you mean me Dave ? No problems we should not burn toxic stuff but there should be rules in place that stop such products getting into "cold peoples" reach x

[Dave Payne]

Aimed at everyone who burns pallets Dotty...

 

I think the only rule needed is common sense to be honest.