Wood Pallets Ontario: The Complete Guide for Businesses

Somebody handed you the pallet file. Maybe the last person retired, maybe a rack bay failed, and now it is your problem. Either way, the simplest-looking thing in the building turns out to have five or six variables behind it, and ordering by habit (“send us a load of skids”) is how a pallet collapses in a rack, gets turned back at a border, or eats an afternoon of re-stacking.

We build and recycle wood pallets that Ontario businesses load every day, from a yard in Norwich, and we have been doing it since 1999. This guide walks through the variables in the order a buyer needs them: what a pallet is, what sizes exist, what the load ratings mean, stringer versus block, wood versus plastic, new versus recycled, and what to have ready before you call. Each section points to a deeper article.

What a wood pallet actually is (and what a skid is not)

A wood pallet is a portable platform of deck boards fastened to stringers or blocks, built so a forklift or pallet jack can lift and move a unit load in one piece. In North America, the most common footprint is 48 inches by 40 inches.

Three parts carry most of the vocabulary you need. Deck boards are the flat boards on top that the product sits on. Bottom deck boards run underneath and spread the load onto the floor or the rack beam. Between them sit the stringers, which are long runners, usually 2x4s, or blocks, which are short posts, usually nine of them.

That middle layer is where the pallet-versus-skid line falls. A skid has no bottom deck. It is a top deck on runners. A skid uses less material and weighs less, and it fits into some machines a full pallet will not. It also does not stack or rack as well, and it drags across floors instead of riding on them.

Here is the practical warning. In Ontario yards, “skid” gets used loosely to mean any pallet at all. So when you order, confirm in writing whether a bottom deck is included. Do not assume the word means what it says.

The last term to learn is unit load: the pallet plus the product plus the wrap or strapping, treated as one object. Pallet performance is really unit-load performance. A pallet rated for your weight will still fail if the product overhangs the footprint, if the wrap is loose, or if the load is stacked top-heavy. Fix the load before you blame the pallet.

The parts of a pallet, named

•          Deck boards — the boards running across the top and bottom faces.

•          Lead boards (end boards) — the outermost deck boards at each end. They take the first hit from a forklift tine, and they are usually the first thing to break.

•          Chamfered edges — the bevelled edge machined into lead boards so a pallet-jack wheel rides up onto the deck instead of catching on it.

•          Stringers — the lengthwise runners in a stringer pallet.

•          Blocks — the short posts in a block pallet, set at the corners, mid-edges and centre.

•          Notches — the cut-outs in stringers that let forklift tines enter from the sides.

•          Fasteners — helically threaded or ring-shank nails. The thread grips the wood fibre and resists withdrawal far better than a smooth-shank nail. Nail choice is a quiet reason two identical-looking pallets last very different lengths of time.

Standard sizes for the wood pallets Ontario businesses run

The default is 48” x 40”, the GMA footprint, named after the Grocery Manufacturers Association. Unless something about your product, your rack or your customer’s system says otherwise, that is where you start. It is the easiest to buy, replace and recycle.

Other sizes turn up regularly in this province:

•          48” x 48” — drums and chemical.

•          42” x 42” — drums, paint, telecom reels.

•          36” x 36” — beverage.

•          40” x 48” — the GMA footprint rotated. Same platform, different orientation, and it matters for rack entry and truck loading.

•          1200 x 800 mm and 1200 x 1000 mm — metric and euro sizes, common where a European parent company or an export customer sets the standard.

The constraint behind all of it is the trailer. A standard 53-foot dry van gives you roughly 100 inches of usable inside width. Two 48-inch pallets sit side by side in that with almost no slack. Go oversize on a custom footprint, and you give up positions on every truck for the life of the product.

Full dimension tables and rack fits are in our guide to standard pallet sizes in Canada.

How much weight a pallet can carry

Three load ratings, and they are not interchangeable. Keep them separate in every conversation with a supplier.

•          Static load — what the pallet holds sitting still on a flat floor. The biggest number.

•          Dynamic load — what it holds while a forklift or pallet jack is moving it. The number most buyers actually need.

•          Racking load — what it holds when it is supported only at the ends, with nothing under the middle, sitting in a rack beam. The smallest number, and the one that hurts people when it is wrong.

A well-built 48x40 hardwood stringer pallet typically handles a dynamic load in the range of roughly 2,000 to 3,000 lb, about 900 to 1,400 kg. Static capacity runs several times higher than that. Racking capacity sits substantially below the dynamic figure.

Treat those as typical ranges, not guarantees. Real capacity depends on species, board thickness, stringer dimension, how many deck boards you have and where the fasteners land. Confirm the rating with the manufacturer for your exact build before anything goes in a rack.

One more thing about racking. Capacity is usually governed by deflection, not by breaking point. A pallet can hold the weight and still sag in the middle far enough to be unsafe, to jam a beam, or to make the load lean. If the deck bows, the number is wrong even though nothing snapped.

More on ratings and safe storage: how much weight a pallet can hold, and how to store and stack pallets safely.

Stringer pallets vs. block pallets

Stringer construction is three 2x4 stringers running the length of the pallet with deck boards nailed across them. It is naturally two-way entry: tines go into the two open ends. Notch the stringers, and you get partial four-way access. A forklift can then enter from all four sides, but a pallet jack still cannot, because the notch is not tall enough for jack wheels. That one catches somebody out every week.

Block construction uses nine blocks, four at the corners, four at the mid-edges and one in the centre, with stringer boards running perpendicular over them. That gives true four-way entry for forklifts and pallet jacks alike. It is the norm for euro-style pallets and for heavy export work.

	Stringer pallet	Block pallet
Entry	Two-way, or partial four-way if notched	True four-way
Pallet jack access	Two ends only	All four sides
Material used	Less	More
Empty weight	Lighter	Heavier
Rough handling	Holds up well	Holds up better
Typical fit	Forklift-only handling, domestic freight	Mixed handling, tight aisles, export

The decision rule is short. If your product is only ever picked up by forklift from the ends, a stringer pallet is the efficient answer, and there is no reason to build more pallet than the job needs. If pallet jacks are in the mix, if your rack aisles are tight, or if you cannot control how the pallet is handled once it leaves your dock, block construction earns its extra material. Full side-by-side: stringer pallets vs. block pallets.

Wood, plastic, or something else

The honest version. Wood is repairable. A cracked deck board is a quick fix and a broken stringer can be plugged or companioned. It is stiff, it holds a load in place because the surface has friction, it is recyclable at end of life, and it is the only common material that goes through the ISPM-15 heat-treatment route for export.

Plastic gives you the same weight and the same dimensions every time. It washes down. It has no nails to work loose. It is also generally not repairable, so a cracked pallet is finished. The surface can be slippery under a wrapped load, and it is a much larger single up-front commitment, because you buy the fleet at once instead of topping up as you go.

Plastic genuinely wins in closed-loop systems, where the same pallets circulate, get washed and come back. Pharmaceutical handling, parts of food handling and returnable automotive programs are the clear cases.

Think in cost drivers rather than sticker comparisons. Three questions get you most of the way. How often will this pallet need repair or replacement? Does it come back to me, or is it gone the moment the truck pulls away? What does a failure actually do to me in damaged product, downtime and rejected shipments? Answer those, and the material usually picks itself. Longer treatment: wood pallets vs. plastic pallets.

New pallets vs. recycled pallets

A recycled pallet is not scrap. It is a used pallet that has been collected, sorted, repaired where it needed repair, and graded. The grading is the part most buyers skip past.

Grades run roughly from A, also called #1, which is clean with both decks sound and minimal or no repairs, down through B or #2, which has been repaired with plugs or companion stringers and shows visible wear. Combo pallets are built from a mix of new and recovered components.

The decision rule:

•          Recycled fits one-way shipments to a customer who will never send the pallet back, internal yard movement, and general warehousing.

•          New fits long-term racking, food-contact-adjacent handling, high-value freight, unusual footprints, and export loads where the stamp has to be right.

One honest caveat: recycled supply is variable by definition. What is available in a given grade in a given week depends on what came through the gate. A recycled program works well with a supplier who has steady inbound volume and gets frustrating with one who does not, so ask what comes in the door, not just what goes out of it.

Detail on both: new vs. recycled pallets, and recycled pallet grades explained.

Ordering pallets in Southwestern Ontario: what to have ready

Before you call anyone, write down these nine answers. It turns a two-week back-and-forth into one conversation.

•          Product weight per pallet.

•          Product footprint, length and width, and whether anything overhangs the edge.

•          Handling: forklift only, or pallet jack too?

•          Racking: will it be racked, and on what, beams, wire deck or drive-in?

•          Stacking: will loaded pallets sit on each other in transit or in storage?

•          Exposure: indoors, or outside through a Southwestern Ontario winter?

•          Export: does it leave Canada?

•          Annual volume.

•          Delivery frequency you want, and how much yard space you have to take a drop.

Delivery cadence matters more than most buyers expect. Wood pallets Ontario operations buy in bulk take up a lot of room for what they weigh, so the gap between a supplier who can put a truck on your dock this week and one who cannot shows up directly in your storage space and your downtime.

From Oxford County, Norwich, Woodstock, Ingersoll and Tillsonburg are next door, and London, Brantford, Kitchener–Waterloo, Cambridge, Hamilton, Stratford, St. Thomas and Simcoe all sit inside a comfortable same-region radius. We run our own trucks, trailers and walking-floor trailers, so the schedule is ours to control rather than something we broker out and hope for.

If your load does not fit anything standard, that is a spec conversation and not a problem. Start with ordering custom pallets.

What happens to a pallet at the end of its life

The loop is short. Pallets come back in, get sorted, get repaired and regraded, and go out into service again. When a pallet is finally past repair, it is dismantled for usable lumber. What is left is ground into shavings and mulch. Very little of it needs to reach landfill.

Oxford Pallet runs a recycled-product receiving and reimbursement program called PalletWise for businesses that have used pallets to move. Recovered wood also feeds our pallet lumber and animal bedding lines, which is why so little leaves the yard as waste.

More on the loop: what to do with used and broken pallets in Ontario, uses for pallet lumber, and are wood pallets are sustainable.

Frequently Asked Questions

What size are most pallets in Ontario?

Most are 48” x 40”, the North American GMA footprint. Ontario operations also run 48” x 48” and 42” x 42” for drums, 36” x 36” in beverage, and metric 1200 x 800 mm or 1200 x 1000 mm pallets where a European parent company or an export customer sets the standard.

How much does a wood pallet weigh?

An empty 48” x 40” hardwood stringer pallet typically weighs somewhere in the range of 15 to 23 kg, roughly 33 to 50 lb, depending on species, moisture content and board thickness. Softwood builds sit at the lighter end of that range. Heavy-duty and block pallets sit at the top of it or above.

Can I get pallets delivered around Woodstock and London?

Yes. A Norwich-based manufacturer with its own fleet covers Oxford County and the surrounding corridor: Woodstock, Ingersoll, Tillsonburg, London, Brantford, Kitchener–Waterloo, Cambridge, Hamilton, Stratford, St. Thomas and Simcoe, on scheduled runs or on demand. Call 519-468-3400, and we will confirm lead time for your address.

Do I need heat-treated pallets?

Only if the wood packaging is leaving Canada. Domestic shipments do not require it. For export, wood packaging must be debarked and heat treated to a core temperature of at least 56°C for 30 continuous minutes, then stamped by a facility registered under the CFIA heat treatment program.

Get a Quote on Wood Pallets Built for Your Load

The right pallet is a spec problem, not a shopping problem. Once you know the weight, the footprint, the handling and the destination, the answer is usually obvious. When it is not, call us.

Send us your load weight, product footprint, handling and racking details and annual volume, and we will quote a build that matches. Family-owned since 1999, with more than 25 years of building and recycling wood pallets that Ontario businesses ship on, out of a 54,000 square foot facility in Norwich.

Request a quote, or call 519-468-3400 and talk to someone who has spent time in the yard.

Get a Quote Now