Short answer
Single wall has one fluted layer between two liners and suits products up to roughly 15 kg in short supply chains. Double wall has two fluted layers and three liners, giving much higher stacking and puncture resistance for heavier, palletised or export loads, at roughly 30 to 50% more cost.
The difference in one table
| Single wall | Double wall | |
|---|---|---|
| Layers | 3 (liner, flute, liner) | 5 (liner, flute, liner, flute, liner) |
| Typical weight limit | Up to about 15 kg | 20 to 40 kg and above |
| Stacking strength | Moderate | High, holds pallet loads several layers deep |
| Common flute | B, C or E | BC or EB |
| Relative cost | Baseline | Around 30 to 50% more |
When single wall is the right answer
Most e-commerce and shelf-ready packaging is single wall. If the product is light, the box is not stacked high in a warehouse, and the journey is a day or two on a domestic parcel network, single wall does the job for less money and less board.
When to step up to double wall
- Palletised goods stacked more than two layers deep.
- Export shipments and multi-leg journeys with repeated handling.
- Heavy, dense or sharp-edged products that can burst a single wall liner.
- Long-term warehouse storage, where humidity slowly reduces compression strength.
Cheaper than the damage
A double wall upgrade often pays for itself on the first month's damage figures. If you are replacing damaged goods, paying for return carriage or reworking pallets, the extra pence per box is usually the cheapest part of the equation.
Frequently asked questions
- How much weight can a double wall box hold?
- It depends on the board grade and box size, but 20 to 40 kg is typical, and heavy duty grades carry considerably more.
- Is double wall recyclable?
- Yes. Both single and double wall corrugated is widely recyclable through standard cardboard streams.
- Can you make double wall boxes to my size?
- Yes, we manufacture single and double wall boxes to bespoke internal dimensions at our Letchworth site.
Think your packaging is bigger than it needs to be?
Send us your product dimensions and we’ll come back with a right-sized option. There is no minimum on stock lines, and bespoke corrugated runs can start from as little as one, but we will advise the most cost efficient run rate depending on size and board grade.
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