This my first project I built about 15 mos ago. It was made out of pallet wood. It is where I keep my charcoal and wood for my smoker. As you can see the top isn’t looking good. Any ideas of what kind of wood would work any better? It is kept outside year around as I use my smoker year around.   Thanks

18 minutes ago, KevTN said:

Any ideas of what kind of wood would work any better?

Few questions to aid you.

1. How did you put it together?  Screws? Nails?  Glue?

2.  What does the underside look like?

3. What is inbetween the boards? Caulk? Nothing?  Tar paper?

You may be better than I at telling what pallets are made from , but they tend to use junk wood. It is not very resistant to decay and may explain the damage you have. Might have done better if painted.

 

Some alternate woods to think about are : cypress, white oak, cedar, then the ubiquitous treated pine.

Kevin, is this in a location where it gets wet?  It looks like those two boards have gotten wet and swelled.

Is the top hinged, or do you lift it off?

I would also like to see the underside of the lid to see how you put it together.  What are the dimensions of it?

 

I wouldn't be afraid to make another go at it with pallet wood again.  Use the experience gained from this one to do improvements on the new one.

Yeah, treat that pine.

 

Paint it!   :-)

Pallet wood can be about anything.

 

I think the first thing I'd do in a re-make is to put a little angle on it so the water runs off and not just sits there.

 

Second is to allow for some seasonal (i.e., wet-dry) expansion and contraction.  It appears that it blew it apart when the wood got wetter.  "You cannot stop expansion and contraction, but you must allow for it."

 

Paint would be good, Helmsman spar varnish would not be.  Nor would Thompson's water seal for the long run.  Metal roofing would be great -- I used this on a sandbox cover.  You might be able to buy some damaged stuff at the home center and use the undamaged section.

 

I would be tempted to do the following, if you want to stay with the unfinished pallet wood motif.

• put about a 15 degree slope on the top, running off the back side.
• ship-lap the boards over the top, overlapping about 1"
• put the boards heart side down so that if/when they do warp, the top is convex, not concave

 

Just running some ideas up the flagpole.

 

Edited July 2, 20206 yr by kmealy

Thanks guys. I now understand that pallet wood is meh. It was free and helped me catch the bug. The sides slates are brad nailed and glued I put silicon between the slates.The bottom is single sheet of plywood. The skeleton is glued and screwed together. The top is plywood with the top wood is brad nailed. I got happy with the brads. The lid lifts off. This stays out in the weather year around.
 

I appreciate everyone’s input. I just could not get a good idea what to do. Kmealy I like your sloped idea and then painting.

Tongue and groove them but make sure you put a good marine spar varnish on it before you assemble the boards on top using stainless screws or stainless ring shanks.

If you tongue and groove or ship lap, be sure to leave some room for expansion and contraction due to weather.  Don't clamp them up tight across the grain, or it will probably just blow apart again.

I have some old flooring could that be used?

Flooring is not likely to hold up to weather, even with poly or paint it would be a huge gamble

On 7/3/2020 at 9:26 PM, KevTN said:

I have some old flooring could that be used?

It would work. It needs to be finished on bottom and edges BEFORE you put it down to seal it, edges too. This will also keep the expansion/ contraction down to a minimum.