Pallet stock

For about a week now, I have been dreaming up a use for excess pallets. Although there are pallet recycling facilities, millions of pallets are shredded, burned or just stacked up and left to waste away.
I think recycling pallets is a great solution, I recently noticed that Quikrete, the "King of the concrete jungle" adds in a $15 deposit for their pallets. I was building a small deck and needed to pouring some Sonotube concrete forms. When all the materials for the deck arrived, the driver mentioned to me that there was a $15 charge that was associated with the Quikrete pallet. At first, I was like, damn, I have to take this thing back? But then after thinking about it and checking out the sturdy, branded pallets I thought it was pretty neat. This way, Quikrete can both promote and protect.

Promote their brand with their logo and colors emblazoned on their rugged pallets, and protect their investment by keeping tabs on all their pallets.


Now that is a great model for businesses to follow, but for all the excess, i envision tool sheds, coal/wood bins and maybe even houses made of pallets.
I'm not the only person thinking of using recycling pallets to construct buildings, by no means. I just read an article about an ecovillage built it's floor system on sturdy pallets utilizing wood floor trusses to support their ends.

My idea is much simpler, but just as effective. I see using pallets for walls in tool sheds wood bins and small structures.

My idea is simple and pretty efficient.

Utilizing a standard three stringer 40x48 pallet is 40 inches wide and 48 inches tall (stringer axis). I would incorporate both conventional stick framing (2x4,2x6 etc) and post & beam framing to construct the walls. Pallets can be left out, or cut out to accommodate windows and doors. The beauty of this system to me is that the boards on top of the pallets could be used as sheathing, eliminating the need for plywood. The exterior can be finished with inexpensive ship lap siding or cedar shingles. The roof can be finished with the ubiquitous asphalt/composite shingle that graces most roofs around the country.

Lateral bracing (side to side) is my biggest concern, since that is one of plywood's main purposes. During my test project of a wood bin at my mother's house I will ascertain the bracing issue and address it on site. I have drawings of a prototype shed/cottage I have begun to draw up, but I can't switch them to a viewable format for the web. :(