DIY Pallet Bridge

Hair in the Air
by Hair in the Air
5 Materials
$5
4 Hours
Easy
Our foot trail crosses a small creek which made it unusable parts of the year. A few pallets, beams, and precast pier blocks made an easy foot bridge and allows us to use the trail year-round while keeping our feet dry (although the kids seem to still end up in the mud ). We've even seen deer crossing on our bridge.

Be sure to watch the video at the end of this post for a project time lapse.
Scroll down to see all steps in this project and a time-lapse video.
Step 1: Use a shovel to clear away soft topsoil and clear a flat area. Place a pier block on the cleared areas. For maximum bridge height, measure your beams and place the piers blocks near where the beams will end and estimate the width.
Step 2: Set the beams and attach to the pier block flange using nails. The beams should be shimmed with boards so that they are approximately level.


Step 3: Attach the pallets to the beams. We set our pallets so that the outside 2x4's are flush with the beams. We also left enough room on each end for a 2x6 step.
Step 4: Add a rail to the bridge by cutting two pallets in half and attaching the halves to the beam and deck pallets using nails. The nails have to be driven at an angle.
Step 4: Add a rail to the bridge by cutting two pallets in half and attaching the halves to the beam and deck pallets using nails. The nails have to be driven at an angle.
Step 5: Attach a 2x6 to the beams at each end, if necessary. We didn't plan ahead for this step and had to make it work in a less than ideal way. Ideally your step would bear on the beam instead of being attached to the bottom of the beam.
The primary purpose of this project was to teach the kids how to use tools, especially a tape measure. Our video does include a time lapse of the entire project. Time lapse is 63 seconds into the video.



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Several concerned comments on this project have asked if you could twist your ankle between the pallet boards. You can see here that we used pallets that are more sturdy than the average pallet and have smaller gaps. My daughter may not get her boots on the right feet but she's not going to fall between boards.
Resources for this project:
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Frequently asked questions
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  3 questions
  • Hod12678349 Hod12678349 on Oct 16, 2017

    Where do you get your pallets,how much do you. Pay for them

  • Kelly-n-Tony Kelly-n-Tony on Oct 16, 2017

    You list the cost as $5, is that correct?

  • Vic24090418 Vic24090418 on Oct 20, 2017

    How did you transport the pallets? Wooden pallets tend to break when they are old; not only that, the spaces in between are very wide. This project doesn't seem very safe.

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