January is the slowest month in this yard and the hardest on the stock. Those two facts are related, because slow months mean platforms sit, and sitting is what damages wood.
The freeze-thaw cycle
Mid-Atlantic winters do not simply freeze; they oscillate. Wood absorbs water, the water freezes and expands, the wood fibre is pushed apart, then it thaws and the fibre does not fully recover. Repeat forty times between December and March and joints loosen, fasteners back out, and boards that were sound in November develop end checks.
Our repair volume peaks in late February every single year, and it is not because anyone is handling platforms harder in February.
Where damage concentrates
- Board ends. End grain absorbs water far faster than face grain, so checks and splits start at the ends and work inward.
- The bottom course. Sitting on concrete or frozen ground, wicking moisture upward with nowhere to drain.
- Nail joints. Repeated expansion around the fastener enlarges the hole. A stem-threaded nail resists this far better than a smooth shank, which is the whole argument for them.
- Wrapped stacks. Film plus condensation plus a cold snap plus a warm week equals mould in the dark.
What actually helps
Cover, elevation and airflow, in that order. A simple roof over a stack is the highest-return winter investment available. Getting the bottom course off the ground on dunnage stops wicking. Airflow on two sides lets the surface dry between weather events. None of this requires a building.
The fourth thing, and the one people resist: do not wrap over winter. Film is for transport. A stack that will not move until March should breathe.
The commercial side
Winter is when recycled platform prices are at their softest in our market — agriculture is dormant, construction is weather-limited, and the retail peak is over. If you have flexibility on timing, buying in January and February against a spring requirement is reliably cheaper than buying in September. The constraint is that you then have to store it through the worst season for wood, which is exactly the problem this article is about.
What we do differently in winter
Repair bench runs four-day weeks and we move people onto the millwork side, because that is indoor work and there is a pile of short boards waiting. Kiln runs more often, because moisture complaints cluster in the first warm week of spring. And we go out and do free dock audits, because January is when a customer actually has half a day to walk their own building with us.
The February peak, in numbers
Our repair bench volume is reliably 20 to 30% above trend in the last two weeks of February and the first week of March. It is the most predictable pattern in our records and it has nothing to do with handling intensity, which is at its annual low in that period.
What it tracks is freeze-thaw cycles. A Mid-Atlantic winter delivers somewhere between thirty and fifty transitions across freezing between December and March. Each one puts water into wood fibre, expands it by roughly nine percent as it freezes, pushes the fibre apart, and then thaws without the fibre fully recovering. Joints that were sound in November arrive in March with movement in them.
End grain is the vulnerable part
End grain absorbs water ten to fifteen times faster than face grain, because you are looking straight down the cell structure. This is why checks and splits always start at board ends and work inward, and why a stack standing with its board ends exposed to weather degrades faster than one with the ends sheltered.
It is also why a simple roof — not a building, a roof — is the highest-return winter investment available to most sites. You are not keeping the rain off the top; you are keeping it off the ends.
The commercial counterpart
January and February are the softest weeks of the year in our market. Agriculture is dormant, construction is weather-limited, the retail peak is over, and the core pool has been replenished by the autumn's activity. Recycled platform prices in that window are reliably below the annual average.
So the buying opportunity and the storage hazard are the same eight weeks, which is a genuinely awkward piece of seasonality. The resolution for most customers is to buy forward against a spring requirement and let us hold the buffer in our covered shed rather than in their yard. We are set up for it and they usually are not.
What we change for the season
- Repair bench moves to four-day weeks and people shift to the millwork side, which is indoor work with a waiting pile.
- Kiln runs more frequently, because moisture complaints cluster in the first warm week of spring and we would rather pre-empt them.
- Free dock audits are offered in January, because it is the only month a customer actually has half a day to walk their own building.
- Outdoor stock gets re-stacked with ends sheltered and bottom courses lifted, which takes a crew two days and saves considerably more than that.
Dale, repair lead · Pallets Recycle, 1113 Ingram Ave, Richmond VA · published January 14, 2025 · 851 words. Corrections welcome — tell us if we have this wrong.