Stringer Pallets — Two-Way and Notched Four-Way Entry Explained

01Anatomy in the terms your supplier uses

Stringer — the on-edge board running the 48-inch length on a GMA pallet. Usually 1.5 x 3.5 in nominal.
Notch — the cut-out in the stringer that lets fork tines enter from the side. Standard notch is 9 in long by 1.5 in deep.
Lead board — the outermost top deck board at each end. Takes the most abuse and is the most commonly replaced.
Deck board — the interior top boards. Coverage is quoted as a board count (5, 6, 7) or a percentage.
Butted / flush — deck boards ending level with the stringer.
Wing — deck boards overhanging the stringers, adding strap surface and edge-rack support.
Companion stringer — a second stringer nailed alongside a cracked one during repair. Its presence is what separates Grade B from Grade A.

022-way, partial 4-way, full 4-way

A notched stringer pallet is not a true 4-way pallet — a pallet jack's wheels cannot roll through a 1.5-inch notch.
Entry type	Forklift access	Pallet jack access	Relative strength	Typical cost
2-way (unnotched)	2 sides	2 sides	Strongest stringer type	Lowest
Partial 4-way (notched)	4 sides	2 sides	−10–15% at the notch	+5%
Full 4-way (block)	4 sides	4 sides	Highest overall	+15–25%

A notched stringer pallet is not a true 4-way pallet — a pallet jack's wheels cannot roll through a 1.5-inch notch.

That last row is the misunderstanding that costs money. Buyers specify '4-way' expecting to jack the pallet from any side, receive notched stringer pallets, and discover the jack wheels will not drop through the notch. If your operation runs manual jacks in tight aisles, you want block pallets, not notched stringers.

03Choosing between stringer and block

Neither is universally better. The decision comes down to four variables: how the pallet is handled, whether it comes back, how heavy the load is, and whether it goes onto a rack.

If your operation…	Choose
Runs forklifts only, one-way freight	Stringer, partial 4-way
Runs manual pallet jacks from all sides	Block
Sends pallets on a closed loop that returns	Block — the extra durability amortises
Racks heavy loads unsupported	Block, or stringer with wings
Prioritises the lowest landed cost per trip	Stringer
Ships into European or automated systems	Block

04What we stock

Stringer pallets are the bulk of our recovered volume, which means availability is good and pricing is competitive on almost any lane. The 48x40 GMA is stocked continuously in all three grades; other footprints run in batches as recovery brings them in.

48x40 GMA — continuous stock, Grade A / B / C
48x48 — regular stock, drum and chemical trade
42x42 — regular stock, telecom and paint industries
36x36, 40x48, 45x48 — batch availability, ask before planning around it
Custom stringer builds from 250 units, see custom pallets

Large indoor sorting area filled with stacks of used wood pallets of varying sizes and conditions, including some blue and red pool pallets. — Intake, before grading. Every pallet in this frame gets picked up and assessed by hand — about four seconds each.

A short stack of six different used pallets showing the variety of construction and branding, including a blue CHEP pallet and a PECO-stamped pallet. — Six pallets, six conditions. The blue CHEP and the PECO deck in this stack belong to pooling companies — we sort those out and return them rather than buying them.

By the numbers

The figures worth remembering

Four numbers that decide most of what follows on this page.

Stringers on a standard build: 3Stringers on a standard build
Standard notch, length by depth: 9 × 1.5 inStandard notch, length by depth
Lighter than the block equivalent: 6–10 lbLighter than the block equivalent
Cheaper than the block equivalent: 15–25%Cheaper than the block equivalent

Rules of thumb

Carry these in your head

01Nearly every stringer failure starts at the notch shoulder and runs with the grain.
02The notch is the first place a grader's hand goes.
03Stringer pallets win on one-way freight; block pallets win on closed loops after about trip three.
04A missing bottom board is invisible from above and makes the pallet unrackable.

Before you order

The decisions we will ask you to make

A quote turnaround is limited by how many follow-up questions we have to ask. Working through this list removes nearly all of them.

01
Notched or unnotched
Unnotched is the strongest stringer configuration. Notch only if forks need to enter from the side.
02
Who handles it
Forklifts only → notched stringer is fine. Manual pallet jacks from all four sides → you need a block pallet, no exceptions.
03
Stringer count
Three for up to about 2,800 lb. Four or five for long footprints, heavy point loads or racked storage of dense product.
04
Wings or flush
Wings add strap surface and edge-rack support at a small cost in material.
05
Lead board condition
The outer top boards take the fork strikes. A pallet with two new lead boards and everything else original is usually a good buy.

What goes wrong

Expensive mistakes, and the fix for each

Every one of these turns up in ordinary purchase orders. All of them cost multiples of whatever they appeared to save.

01

Specifying '4-way' and receiving notched stringers

Notched stringers give four-way forklift access and two-way jack access. Jack wheels cannot drop through a 1.5-inch notch.

FixSay 'full four-way, block construction' if jacks must enter from all sides.

02

Racking a stringer pallet the wrong way round

Beams must support the stringers along their length. Rotated ninety degrees, the 0.625-inch deck boards do the spanning and you lose 40–60% of capacity.

FixTrain it once with a pallet on the floor, or deck the rack with wire mesh.

03

Rejecting companion stringers on principle

A companion roughly doubles the material at the notch, which is where stringer pallets actually fail. It is stronger there than the original was.

FixAccept companions for general freight. Exclude them only for weight-sensitive or retail-facing loads.

Side by side

Entry types, honestly labelled

'Partial 4-way' and '4-way notched' describe the identical pallet.
Entry type	Forklift	Pallet jack	Relative strength	Cost
2-way (unnotched)	2 sides	2 sides	Strongest stringer type	Lowest
Partial 4-way (notched)	4 sides	2 sides	−10–15% at the notch	+5%
Full 4-way (block)	4 sides	4 sides	Highest overall	+15–25%

'Partial 4-way' and '4-way notched' describe the identical pallet.

Against our interest

When this is the wrong answer

We would rather lose the order than sell you the wrong thing. These are the situations where this page is not what you need.

01
Manual pallet jacks working from all four sides
A jack's load wheels cannot drop through a 1.5-inch notch. Notched stringers give four-way forklift access and two-way jack access, and no amount of specification changes the geometry.
02
Closed loops running past three round trips
Block construction costs 15–25% more and lasts two to four more trips, with cleaner repairs. By trip four it is cheaper per trip.
03
Heavy racked storage with uncontrolled orientation
If nobody can guarantee the beams support the stringers along their length, you will lose 40–60% of the rated capacity at some point.

What moves the price

Cost drivers, and roughly how much each one is worth

A quote is not a list price with a discount applied. It is these variables added up, which is why two quotes for nominally the same thing can differ so widely.

Indicative. Your lane, volume and specification decide where inside each range you land.
Driver	What it is	Rough effect
Stringer count	A fourth or fifth stringer shortens the unsupported span and adds material.	+10–18% per extra stringer
Notched or unnotched	Notching removes material and adds an operation, but unnotched limits fork access to two sides.	~+5% for notching
Deck coverage	Five, six or seven top boards, or solid decking for small and unstable cases.	+6–25%
Wings	Overhanging deck boards add strap surface and edge-rack support at a small material cost.	+4–8%

Indicative. Your lane, volume and specification decide where inside each range you land.

Due diligence

Questions to ask any supplier

Us included. The answers tell you a great deal, and so does how quickly they arrive — a yard that has these documents ready is a yard that has thought about them.

01
“Is this partial four-way or full four-way — and can a pallet jack enter from the long side?”
02
“How many stringers, and what is the notch dimension?”
03
“Are companion stringers permitted in the grade I am buying?”
04
“How many bottom boards, and will it be racked?”
05
“What is the diagonal tolerance?”

The rulebook

Standards and authorities that actually apply

Plenty of pallet marketing invokes standards loosely. These are the real documents behind this subject, and what each one does and does not cover.

ANSI MH1

Defines stringer, deck board, notch and the rest of the component vocabulary used on every quote.

GMA specification

The Grocery Manufacturers Association layout that standardised the 48x40 in 1968 — seven top boards, three stringers, defined notch placement.

A trade specification, not a formal standard. Not every 48x40 is a GMA.

ISO 8611

Test methods for flat pallets, including the bending tests that reveal how much a notch costs in practice.

Vocabulary

The terms used on this page

Defined the way the trade uses them, not the way a dictionary would.

Stringer: The board set on edge that separates the top and bottom decks of a stringer pallet. Usually 1.5 x 3.5 inches nominal.
Notch: The cut-out in a stringer allowing fork entry from the side, typically 9 inches long by 1.5 inches deep. Also the most common point of structural failure.
Lead board: The outermost deck board at each end of the pallet. Takes the most abuse from fork tines and is the most frequently replaced component.
Companion stringeralso: Sister stringer: A second stringer nailed alongside a cracked original during repair. Structurally sound, adds 3–5 lb, and disqualifies a pallet from Grade A.
Wing palletalso: Overhang pallet: A pallet whose deck boards overhang the stringers, adding strap surface and improving edge-rack support.
Flush pallet: A pallet whose deck boards end level with the stringers, with no overhang. The opposite of a wing pallet.
Two-way entry: Fork access from two sides only, because the stringers are unnotched. The strongest stringer configuration.

All 42 terms

From the journal

Longer reading on this subject

Written by the people who grade, repair and haul the wood — including the articles that argue against buying from us.

Aug 22, 2024Materials6 min readRay Castellanos

Stringer vs block: the pallet jack test settles it

I have watched this argument run for an hour in a conference room when it could have been settled in ten seconds on the warehouse floor.

Read

stringer
block
handling

Aug 19, 2025Operations5 min readRay Castellanos

Racking a pallet the wrong way round loses 40% of its capacity

This is the most common serious warehouse hazard I see, it costs nothing to fix, and almost nobody has been told about it.

Read

racking
safety
load capacity

Reference

Full specification

The numbers our own graders and builders work to. Print it, or paste it into a purchase order.

Specification	Detail
Stringer dimensions	1.5 x 3.5 in nominal (2x4 rough)
Stringer count	3 standard, 4–5 on wide-span builds
Notch dimensions	9 in long x 1.5 in deep, centred
Top deck boards	5, 6 or 7 boards; solid on request
Bottom deck boards	3 standard, 5 on heavy-duty
Fastener	Helical drive screw, 2.25 in
Weight (48x40 mixed hardwood)	38–48 lb
Weight (48x40 SYP)	33–38 lb
Dynamic load	2,500–3,000 lb

Questions

Answers to what buyers actually ask

Straight answers, including the ones that cost us the sale.

Is a notched stringer pallet the same as a 4-way pallet?

Not for a pallet jack. Notched stringers give full forklift access from four sides but only two-side access for a pallet jack, because a jack's load wheels cannot pass through a 1.5-inch-deep notch. True four-way jack access requires a block pallet.

How many stringers should a pallet have?

Three is standard for a 48x40 carrying up to about 2,800 lb. Four or five stringers are used where the span between supports must be reduced — very heavy point loads, long footprints over 60 inches, or racked storage of dense product like tile or castings.

What is a companion stringer and should I accept one?

It is a second stringer nailed alongside a cracked original during repair. Structurally it works well and often produces a stronger member than the original. It does add weight and it disqualifies the pallet from Grade A. For general freight, accept them; for retail-facing or automated handling, specify no companions.

Why do the outer top boards break most often?

Those are the lead boards, and they take the direct hit when a fork tine is driven in slightly high, or when a pallet is dragged. They are also the cheapest board to replace, which is why a pallet with two new lead boards and everything else original is usually a good buy.

Can a stringer pallet be used in racking?

Only across the stringers, and only if it was rated for it. Racked in the wrong orientation a stringer pallet loses most of its capacity, because the deck boards then span unsupported. If the load has to sit on beams, specify racked capacity and mark the handling orientation.

Stringer pallets: the North American default, explained properly

Price this, properly