Step 1
Photograph a sample
Five or six boxes showing typical damage. We tell you honestly what share is likely to be repairable before you ship anything.
Services · repair
Twenty minutes of bench work against twenty dollars of new box.
A third of what arrives here as a reject needs a patch, a staple line or a new sleeve. Baling it is easy. Fixing it is better — for the customer, for the fibre, and for a yard that would rather sell a box twice than pulp it once.
- Typical cost
- $1.90 – $4.25 per box
- Trips gained
- 2 – 3 on average
- Turnaround
- 3 – 7 days
Send boxes to the bench
Tell us the box, the quantity and what is wrong with them. Photographs of the damage speed this up enormously.
Answer first
What can be fixed, and what cannot.
Repairable: torn or opened seams, missing or split flaps, damaged corner tabs, failed staple lines, surface punctures away from the vertical edges, and bodies that are sound on a base that is not (or the reverse).
Not repairable: crushed or rounded vertical edges, delamination between liners and flutes, moisture damage above about 12%, contamination or odour. Those go to the cutting table if the panels are sound, or to the baler if they are not.
The distinction is structural. Vertical edges and the bonds between plies carry the load. Everything else is, in the literal sense, surface work.
The bench
What each repair involves and costs.
| Operation | What it fixes | Typical cost | Strength restored |
|---|---|---|---|
| Re-taping with reinforced gummed tape | Opened manufacturer joints, seam separation | $1.90 – $2.40 | 90 – 95% |
| Re-stapling | Failed staple lines at joints and flaps | $2.10 – $2.60 | 90 – 95% |
| Flap patch | Split, torn or missing flaps | $2.40 – $3.10 | 85 – 92% |
| Corner reinforcement | Damaged corner tabs, not crushed edges | $2.60 – $3.40 | 85 – 90% |
| Sleeve replacement | Sound base, worn body | $3.50 – $4.25 | Effectively new body |
| Base replacement | Worn base, sound body | $3.20 – $4.00 | Effectively new base |
| Full clean and re-grade | Cosmetics and label removal | $0.85 – $1.40 | No structural change |
Toll reconditioning
Your boxes, our bench, back to you.
- 01
Send them in
On your freight or ours. Flattened and banded travels far cheaper; we will tell you the difference before you book.
- 02
We triage
Every box assessed against the same criteria we use on our own stock. Anything unrepairable is reported, not quietly discarded.
- 03
Bench work
Repairs performed to the operations list, with a per-box record so you can see exactly what you paid for.
- 04
Graded and returned
Repaired stock comes back graded, banded and counted — with the unrepairable share either returned, bought from you, or baled with the tonnage credited.
Questions
Reconditioning, answered.
Is a repaired box as strong as an unrepaired one?
For the repairs we perform, close enough that we rate it as sound 3A stock - typically 85 to 95 per cent of the original compression figure. A patched flap or a re-stapled seam restores the load path. What we cannot restore is a crushed vertical edge or delaminated board, which is why those go to the cutting table instead.
Can you recondition my own boxes rather than selling me yours?
Yes, and for customers with a consistent box this is often the cheapest option available. Send them in, we work the bench, we send them back graded. Turnaround is three to seven days depending on volume.
What does it cost?
Typically $1.90 to $4.25 per box depending on the work required. Against a replacement cost of $7 to $11 used, or $21 new, it usually pays for itself on the first trip after repair.
How many extra trips does reconditioning buy?
Two to three on average across our own stock. The bench is not magic - it returns a box to service, it does not reset it to new.
Triage
The repairable list and the terminal list.
The dividing line is structural. Vertical edges and the bonds between plies carry the load; everything else is, literally, surface work.
Goes to the bench
- Opened or separated manufacturer's joint — the most common repair
- Split, torn or missing flaps
- Failed staple lines at joints or flaps
- Damaged corner tabs on sleeve-and-base constructions
- Surface punctures away from the vertical edges
- Sound base under a worn body, or a worn base under a sound body
- Heavy label and tape residue needing a clean and re-grade
Cannot be repaired
- Crushed or rounded vertical edges — the load path is gone
- Delamination between liners and flutes
- Moisture above about 12%, now or historically
- Contamination or odour of any kind
- Base panels cracked along score lines
- Boxes that will not square up — permanent set
- Cut discharge ports in an octabin body
Toll repair
Sending your own containers in.
For customers running a consistent box, repairing yours is usually cheaper than buying replacements — provided the damage is on the repairable list.
Step 2
Flatten and band
Flattened stock ships at roughly a third of the cost of assembled. On a repair job the freight both ways can otherwise exceed the repair.
Step 3
Triage on arrival
Every box assessed against the same criteria as our own stock. Unrepairable boxes are reported, not quietly discarded.
Step 4
Bench work
Repairs performed to the published operations list, with a per-box record so you can see exactly what you paid for.
Step 5
Graded and returned
Repaired stock comes back graded, banded and counted, typically as sound 3A.
Step 6
The remainder
Unrepairable boxes are either returned, bought from you for the cutting table, or baled with the tonnage credited. Your choice, stated up front.
Economics
When repair beats replacement, and when it does not.
Repair is not automatically the right answer. Here is the arithmetic on a five-wall 48 × 40 × 36, in batches of fifty or more.
| Situation | Repair cost | Alternative | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opened joint, otherwise 2A | $1.90 – $2.40 | $9.00 – $11.00 used 2A | Repair, clearly |
| Split flap, otherwise 3A | $2.40 – $3.10 | $7.25 – $8.75 used 3A | Repair |
| Worn body, sound base | $3.50 – $4.25 | $9.15 landed used | Repair, marginally |
| Multiple repairs on one box | $5.00+ | $7.25 used 3A | Replace — the box is telling you something |
| Single box, no batch | Setup exceeds value | Buy one used | Replace; we will decline the job |
| Crushed vertical edge | Not repairable | $7.25 used 3A | Replace; sell us the panels |
| Batch of 50+ light repairs | $1.90 – $2.60 avg | $9.15 landed used | Repair — this is the sweet spot |
| Damp stock | Not repairable | — | Neither. Bale it and fix the storage |
Before you bale them, let us look.
Photographs of the damage and a count. If the bench can save them, it is almost always cheaper than replacement.