Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[gtaus]

Additional Thoughts on Stackable Compost Bin

I had some extra pallet wood sitting in the garage today that needed to be moved, so I decided to build yet another stackable compost bin tier for my stackable bins. Might as well make something out of pallet wood and move it at the same time. Yeah, it was only one tier, but they add up fast...

That was the stock photo from the .pdf DIY Stackable Compost Bins instructional from Wildflower Yard that I modified for using pallet wood.

With that picture in mind, if you use standard sized store-bought lumber, they had a diagram that looks like this using outside dimensions...

Of course, you can make the tiers any size you want. The idea in the end is that they stack into one another.

The problem with using pallet wood is that you are dealing with lumber of different thicknesses. That can throw off your dimensions from tier to tier, making them impossible to stack. In order to overcome the problem with using pallet wood planks of different thicknesses, I had to redesign my tiers, so the inside dimensions were exactly 36X36 inches. Then, the difference in the thicknesses of the pallet wood planks is on the outside of the bin and will not affect the ability to stack the bins - because all the pallet wood tiers are 36X36 inches on the inside.

When working with free pallet wood, you sometimes have to rethink a project to account for using non-standard lumber without the same dimensions and thickness. In this case, I had to use inside measurements instead of outside measurements to account for the differences in thicknesses of the pallet wood planks.

I also made a slight change in the legs. I have the top gap at 1-1/2 inches instead of 1 inch. The gives me a little more room to stack the legs. Also, I taper the legs on the bottom, so it fits into the tier below just a little bit easier. I think that helps. That gives me a 1-inch gap between the tiers, which is fine with me, compared to the 1/2-inch gap between the tiers in the instructional.

Getting back to the start of this post, that each tier I make really adds up fast... How fast? Well, I calculated today that each tier I make can hold 4.5 cubic feet of material. That's the equivalent to 6 bags of topsoil (0.75 cubic feet per bag) from Menards per tier!

Well, that's one of the things I was thinking about today when I built another tier. You can really hold a lot of material in each stackable tier. 6 bags of topsoil per tier, for example, is a lot of topsoil if you have to buy it and load it up in your vehicle.

Of course, I always am happy that I use free pallet wood instead of buying store bought lumber for these compost bin projects. Here is a cost estimate for a 4-tier stackable bin using store lumber with 2018 prices...

I don't know what the current prices in 2025 are for that lumber, but the pallet wood is still free for me. I guess I have built about $200 worth, or more, of stackable bins over the past 2 years using free pallet wood.

I am perfectly happy with the looks of pallet wood for a compost bin, just rough cuts with no sanding or staining the wood. But if you wanted to spend the money, you could really build a nice-looking stackable compost bin with that DIY instructional and put it out on display in your yard. My compost bins are hidden in and amongst some trees, out of sight, for the most part. It's the concept and ease of portability that I really like about these stackable tiers.

Here is a picture of a pallet wood stackable compost bin filled up with leaves for the chicken run last winter...

After every snowfall, I would just toss out some dry leaves on top of the snow in the chicken run and my hens would come outside and walk on the leaves. They will not come outside and walk on the white snow...