Block vs. Stringer Pallets: Which One Belongs Under Your Load

Nearly every wooden pallet on earth is one of two designs. Once you can tell them apart and know what each trades away, you stop buying the wrong platform — and you stop paying for strength or access you don't need.

How each one is built

Stringer pallets

A stringer pallet uses three (sometimes more) parallel boards — the stringers — running the length of the pallet, with deck boards nailed across them. The stringers are the structural spine and also the thing your forks and jack slide against. The classic 48x40 GMA is the definitive stringer design.

Block pallets

A block pallet replaces the long stringers with nine solid blocks — corners, edges and center — sandwiched between top and bottom deck boards, often with stringer boards tying the blocks together. Those blocks create open channels on all four sides. The European EUR/EPAL pallet is the best-known block design.

Entry: the difference that matters most

This is where the two designs really split, and it's the first question to answer before you buy.

• Block pallets are true four-way. Forks and pallet-jack wheels enter fully from all four sides because the blocks leave clean openings everywhere.
• Solid-stringer pallets are two-way. Forks only enter the two ends where the stringers run open.
• Notched-stringer pallets are 'partial four-way.' Notches cut into the stringers let a forklift enter the long faces, but a pallet jack's wheels can't fully clear the notch — so jack access stays two-way.

If you run pallet jacks and need to pick loads from any side, that notch limitation is the whole ballgame — and it's the number one thing operations miss when they assume 'four-way' means 'four-way for everything.'

Forklift vs. pallet-jack access

Forklifts are forgiving: their forks ride above the deck boards, so both designs work, and even a notched stringer gives usable four-way forklift entry. Pallet jacks are the fussy ones, because their wheels drop through to the floor and need a clear channel with no stringer or notch in the way. Block pallets serve pallet jacks from all four sides; stringers serve them from two. Match the pallet to whichever piece of equipment is least flexible in your building.

Strength and durability

Block pallets are generally stiffer and more durable. The nine-block structure resists racking and twisting better than three stringers, and there's no single long member to crack across the middle. Stringers, by contrast, have a well-known failure mode: a forklift tine that catches a stringer can split it end to end. That said, a well-built stringer pallet is plenty strong for the vast majority of loads — durability differences show up most in demanding racking and automation applications. For the numbers behind all this, see pallet load capacity explained.

“Blocks buy you access and stiffness; stringers buy you a cheaper, lighter pallet that's trivial to fix. Neither is 'better' — they're answers to different questions.”

Repairability

Stringers win decisively on repair, and this is a bigger deal than most buyers realize. A cracked stringer can be reinforced with a companion board — a technique the trade calls a 'stringer repair' or plugging — in minutes, using reclaimed lumber. Block pallets are harder and costlier to repair because the blocks are load-bearing and buried in the structure. In a reclaim-and-reuse operation like ours, that repairability is precisely why the stringer design keeps so much wood in circulation. See how we handle it under recycling.

Cost

Stringer pallets are cheaper to build and cheaper to buy: less lumber, simpler assembly, and a deep reclaimed market. Block pallets cost more up front — more wood, more fasteners, more labor — but earn it back in demanding, high-cycle applications where their durability lowers cost-per-trip. For most Ohio warehouses running standard freight, the reclaimed stringer is the value play.

Choosing, in one page

1. 1Pallet jacks picking from all sides, or automated four-way handling → block.
2. 2Forklifts and standard racking, standard freight → stringer (notched for forklift four-way).
3. 3Tight budget, high repair volume, reuse-focused program → reclaimed stringer.
4. 4Export to Europe on EUR/EPAL exchange → block, specifically EPAL.

Still unsure which fits your dock? Browse the full pallet types catalog, consult our grades reference to pair construction with condition, and when you're ready to spec a truckload, we'll steer you to the lighter, cheaper option whenever it'll carry the load.