Like many homesteaders before her, Erin Peters first tried building with pallets because of a picture she saw on Pinterest.
Eight years later, the chicken coop the western Maine homesteader built out of pallet wood and other reclaimed material is still in great shape. She’s also made moveable “chicken tractors,” a pig pen, fencing to keep her dogs in, a set of outdoor furniture, a firewood box, a kitchen island, a desk for her son and even a partial replacement of her camper using pallets.
“It’s free wood,” she said. “Why would we not use it?”
Free pallets are easy to find and can be solid quality. With a little creativity, they are a good way to practice your woodworking skills or build on your homestead with a budget.
Pallets, also called skids, are used by businesses to store and move products. They’re often given away or head to the dump after they’ve been used by businesses. To find some, call around to local stores, search on social media or just keep your eyes open while driving.
Opinions can be divided about the wood’s quality and safety, so choose carefully. Pallets should be marked with stamps that tell you how they were made, which helps you decide if you’re comfortable using them on your homestead and for what purposes. An “HT” stamp means it was heated to kill any bugs in the wood, and “KD” means kiln dried, both of which should be safe. For more information about pallet types, check out specialty sites such as 1001pallets.com.
Old or weathered pallets are more likely to split or splinter as you disassemble them, but clean newer pine ones can be similar to new lumber, in Peters’ experience. You can take them apart with a hammer, but it’s easier to use a special tool such as a pallet buster or a wrecking claw.
Running them through a planer first will make the sometimes-irregular wood easier to work with. If you’re using them inside, you can sand, stain and seal them for a different look.
As-is, they can keep veggies off the floor in your root cellar or your woodpile off the wet ground or be used as a platform for moving loads around with a tractor or a simple table in the greenhouse.
You can use them as building blocks without disassembling them, too. You’ve probably seen pallet fences if you’ve lived in Maine for any length of time. They’re simple to make with the addition of some posts.
Intact pallets are also easy to turn into a compost container: secure four into a cube, with one on hinges so you can swing it open to turn the compost. Add a fifth pallet to the top with hinges and a latch to make a lid. Or, make a vertical garden for growing in a tight space.
Partially cut, pallets make quick animal feeders, holding a few flakes of hay off the ground for livestock to browse from. It’s easy to make a V-shape with two halves of a pallet, then secure that to a barn wall or a freestanding base made from other pallets.
Partially deconstructed pallets also lend themselves to shelters: sheds, small greenhouses, and animal huts.
Mainers have assembled many a chicken coop and pig shelter from pallets, as social media groups for homesteaders show. Peters built hers on a base of reclaimed pavers from a neighbor, with lots of hardware cloth to keep predators out and additional reclaimed deck boards for more security. Extra material from a family member’s roof replacement covers the chicken run.
Pig shelters are another option for pallet use, as they’re just about the right height for the animals. A simple three-sided hut design with a roof will keep them safe from the elements, or try a triangular hut by arranging the pallets into a pitched roof.
If building from scratch is a bit ambitious for you, the individual boards make good roosting perches or bars for chickens. Wide perches are better for their feet and can help them stay healthy in winter. They also work as a swing for the chickens.
A chicken tractor is an enclosure that can be used to move birds around a yard or field, which Peters does. As a stay-at-home mother and homesteader on an acre of land, she said the pallets are an important resource for living resourcefully. It’s also a good material for her kids to practice building things with, because there’s no investment lost if it doesn’t work out.
“Everything is built out of pallets here,” she said.
