Pallets for decking?

[judsley]

Has anyone used wooden pallets as a form of decking in the awning?

I was thinking of using them on our seasonal pitch next year and then covering them with ply wood before putting a carpet down.

Any ideas, comments, suggestions?

Thanks

Jon

 

[Parksy]

We were on a seasonal pitch for a couple of years next to my best mate, who's still there.
He builds lorry bodies for a living and he uses the left over scrap wood composite flooring nailed onto fence posts as decking for his awning and he buys roll ends of carpet for about £10 to make his awning into a home from home.
He's perfected his 'system' over the years so that it comes up in sections and he stores it under tarpaulin on site during the four month winter break when the seasonal site closes. He's done awning floors for most of the old timers on that site over the years.
As long as the pallets are solid there shouldn't be any problem if the site owner is ok with it.

 

[Mel]

I was on a C&CC site (can't remember which one) and one of the wardens had pallets as flooring in his awning. You could tell that there were pallets as he had tacked the mud wall of the awning to the inside of the canvas on top of the pallets. It looked quite tightly sealed. I guess that pallets would be really good as they would lift your floor off the ground so you wouldn't get the damp rising up through the groundsheet.
mel

 

[ProfJohnL]

There are numerous types of pallets out there, so choosing the right ones could make the difference between a successful awning floor and one prone to problems.

Very few pallets come with a totally solid top, so unless you are lucky you will need to consider a layer of plywood to make a continuous surface.

Whilst there is a euro standard pallet, even within that standard there are considerable manufacturing tolerances, which in particular means you will have to check the thicknesses of the pallets you choose.

From a practical point of view, you will either need to be very lucky with the ground you are setting the pallets on, as any unevenness, will be mirrored and possibly magnified by the pallets so getting and even level floor may be very tedious.

Pallet wood is unlikely to have been treated with water and rot proofing, so if they are in contact with wet ground, they will wick moisture as Mel infers. But equally if the pallets have been used in heavy industry, they have become impregnated with grease and oils, or other less than healthy products.

By creating a void under the awning floor, you may find the awning becomes more draughty, and it also creates the perfect space for vermin such as rats

I have used pallets for short term outdoor staging (village/school/church fayres), but for longer term usage they would need to be laid in a more sustainable way.

 

[Surfer]

In addition, not all sites will allow you to leave the caravan on site 12 months and if they did, you would need to lift the pallets and store them somewhere. We got around this by buying a non breathable groundsheet, a sheet of thick plastic and vinyl floor covering.
We placed the groundsheet down first, then the thick plastic sheet, the breathable ground sheet and finally the vinyl covering. The plastic sheet kept water out as it was curled up around the edges. The trapped air under everything kept the floor "warmer" than the ground area even in the most severe winters. If we had to move quickly , it was just a matter of folding or rolling up everyhting.