A crate is a skid, a cleated frame, six screwed-on panels and a lid, built in that order. Get the skid wrong and nothing rides safely; get the panels wrong and the frame does all the work alone. This page covers the build itself, plus two carrier facts a builder needs before the saw comes out: a rule that almost never applies, and a fee that almost always does.
A frame is only as square as the base it is screwed to.
Everything below assumes ordinary lumberyard stock: 3/4 in plywood or OSB for the skin, 2x4 or 2x3 dimensional lumber for the frame and cleats, and deck screws throughout. A cordless drill, a circular saw and a square are the whole tool list.
Builders who have seen the ISPM 15 stamp on shipping pallets often assume it is a general lumber requirement. It is not, and confirming that saves both money and a special order at the lumberyard.
Read closely, the rule is about cargo entering the country from abroad, not lumber generally. A crate built from ordinary construction-grade plywood and dimensional lumber, loaded and shipped entirely within the United States, needs no heat treatment and no stamp. The rule only turns on again if the crate is later re-used to send something across a border.
If the finished crate is small enough to try on a parcel carrier rather than freight, one UPS rule decides whether it ships at the ordinary rate or picks up an Additional Handling charge on top of it.
Screw the internal cleats and framing members in place first, then measure the actual opening rather than trusting the plan on paper. Lumber runs slightly oversize from the yard, and a panel cut to nominal dimensions rarely fits the frame it is supposed to cover.
A crate protects against crushing and punctures, not against the item rattling against bare plywood. Line the inside faces before loading, the same principle as any other fragile shipment, just at a larger scale.
Our wood shipping crates guide prices stock crates from a published catalogue; for a one-off shipment, buying flat-packed and assembling with a screwdriver is often faster than a from-scratch build and costs less than the lumber alone once labor is counted honestly.
Carrier surcharge criteria and federal import rules are both revised without notice. The figures above reflect what each source published on the date read; confirm the current version before pricing a real shipment against them.
In four parts: a skid base sized for a forklift or pallet jack, a cleated frame of dimensional lumber screwed to that base, plywood or OSB panels screwed to the frame on all six faces, and a removable or hinged lid so the load can be inspected without destroying the crate. Screws throughout, not nails, so it can be opened and rebuilt.
No. APHIS states that regulated wood packaging material must be treated and certified to ISPM 15 only when it supports cargo moving into the United States from abroad, per aphis.usda.gov, read 2026-08-28. A crate built and shipped entirely within the country does not need heat-treated lumber or the ISPM 15 stamp.
Very likely. UPS charges an Additional Handling fee on any package not fully encased in corrugated cardboard, per ups.com, read 2026-08-28, and a plywood crate meets that description by definition. Skinning the outside in corrugated avoids the fee; leaving it bare does not.
Under UPS's own Additional Handling triggers, read 2026-08-28, that means a longest side of 48 in or less, a second-longest side of 30 in or less, and a cubic size under 10,368 cubic inches, with an average per-package weight at or below 50 lb. Cross any of those and the surcharge applies regardless of how the crate is built.