2-wall gaylord boxes

A double wall gaylord has two layers of corrugated board where a triple wall has three. It is the light end of the 2-to-5 layer range, and it stays light on strength as well as price: the Cary Company lists double wall at 275#/ECT-48, against 1100#/ECT-90 for triple wall. That is a different box for a different job, and it is the right one more often than buyers expect.

What the wall count suits

• Light bulk: film, foam, packaging and textiles that fill the box long before they weigh much.
• Returns and overflow staged in a heated room.
• Collection of scrap where the box is going straight to the baler.
• Short, single-trip moves with no stacking.

Where it is the wrong box

• Dense parts, castings or chips of any kind.
• Anything that will stand under another box for weeks.
• Unheated docks, trailers and covered outdoor storage.
• Loads that sift, unless the bottom is a full flap.

How a used one stacks

Stack Check starts from the low end of the commonly cited range, 800 lb for this wall count, and then cuts it for grade, storage place, days under load and pallet overhang. Below is what comes out for two loads: 500 lb and 700 lb a box. Read down for grade, across for place.

A box weighs something too

Stack Check adds 30 lb for each empty box, the figure Uline lists for its octagon bin, to the load before it stacks. A 700 lb load is therefore a 730 lb box, and that is what the bottom box has to carry once for each box above it.

What to put on the request

1. The footprint and height.
2. The wall count and, if it is printed on the box, the maker's mark.
3. The grade you will accept.
4. The weight of a full box and where it will stand.

Ask for the maker's mark. Many double wall boxes carry none, and with no mark we plan from the low end of the range.

See also the triple wall page, weight capacity, the edge crush test and Stack Check.

Questions, answered