Stacking notes
Stacking notes and gaylord guides
Short, sourced guides on how high gaylords stack, what weakens them and how to read a size, a grade and a price.
The guides are written like a stacking note pinned by the dock door: the number first, the condition second, and a straight answer about whether to stack. Each is sourced, dated and linked to the tool that does the arithmetic, Stack Check.
Start here
- What is a gaylord box? The name, the build and the trade's words.
- How high can you stack gaylord boxes? The answer, with the arithmetic.
- Cold docks, warm plants and condensation Why the metro's winter is the hard case.
- How much weight can a gaylord hold? By wall count.
| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| What is a gaylord? | A gaylord is a pallet-size corrugated bulk box. Where the name comes from, how one is built and what people ship in them. |
| How high to stack | Rated capacity, grade, humidity and time under load decide how high gaylords can stack. A conservative way to work it out. |
| Weight capacity | Commonly cited capacities by wall count, why the maker's rating counts more, and how used boxes compare. |
| Compression strength | What box compression strength is, how ECT relates to it, and how humidity and time cut it. The method behind Stack Check. |
| Winter docks | Moving corrugated from a frozen dock into a heated plant can sweat the board. What that does to a gaylord and how to avoid it. |
| Edge crush test | What an ECT number means on a gaylord, how it differs from a burst test rating, and why it predicts stacking. |
| New or used | When a used gaylord does the job and when new triple wall is worth it, by load, stacking and trips left. |
| What sets the price | Grade, walls, size, quantity and freight move a used gaylord's price. What to tell us so a quote comes back accurate. |
| Octabins for the harvest | Getting octagon bins on the farm before pumpkins and squash come in: sizes, bottoms and need-by dates. |
| Slip sheets | Why partial flap bottom gaylords need a slip sheet, what it does, and what happens without one. |
| Poly liners | When to line a gaylord, what liner thickness people ask for and how a liner changes reuse. |
How the guides are kept honest
Each guide names its sources at the foot of the page and gives the date it was last reviewed. Where a figure is our own planning number rather than a published one, the page says so. When a source changes, the guide changes with it, and the date moves. If you find a number that looks wrong, say so on a request.
Questions, answered
Are the numbers load ratings?
No. Every figure on this site is a conservative planning estimate. Check the box maker's rating and your own safety rules.
Sources and last reviewed
Facts on this page were last reviewed 2026-11-11.
- PaperIndex Academy: humidity and corrugated strength: How corrugated board loses compression strength as relative humidity climbs from 50% to 90%.
- AICC: strengthening corrugated against cold weather: Industry guidance on cold weather, condensation between temperature zones, and strength lost over 90 days under load.
- Climate of Minneapolis-Saint Paul (Wikipedia): Winter and summer temperature and snowfall averages for the metro, used for the cold-dock reasoning.