money to be made in metal?

shirefairy

Hi everyone,

Just doing up our little old house at the moment and are removing some cooper piping, the old radiators, and combi boiler from the old central heating system. Also have a few other bits of metal lying around that were dumped by the old owners... a few bike frames, washing line poles, old saucepans etc

I am sure I've seen on the news lately that there are shortages of metal esp copper. I just wondered if there is now any money to be made in selling scrap metal? has anyone done it? what are the likely returns? how would I go about it?

When I scrapped my poor old car about two years ago I only made £12!

Thanks

madeane

I am sure that it is only the metal from some poor unsuspecting s*d's bay window or from your local church's roof that attracts a premium payment. I'm probably wrong but this would be typical wouldn't it!!!

lawrie28

yeah, take it all down the scrapyard, you never know. Copper has gone up so much that screwfix have a sign saying the price of pipes and cables are now higher than the published price in the latest catalogue.

agent_orange_2

slightly different but, I noticed in our local 'freebie' paper, that a scrap dealer would pay £145 for old scrap motors (delivered to the yard).
I remember not so long ago people would dump 'em and burn them out because scrap yards wanted paying to take them

beer_tins

I took my old hot water cylinder and a few lengths of old piping to the local scrappy around a year ago. Got about £45 at the time. It's worth doing.

shirefairy

Thanks for the advice. Is it worth shopping around for scappy's or are they pretty much all the same?

Incisor

shirefairy wrote: »

... Just doing up our little old house at the moment and are removing some cooper piping, the old radiators, and combi boiler from the old central heating system. Also have a few other bits of metal lying around that were dumped by the old owners... a few bike frames, washing line poles, old saucepans etc

I am sure I've seen on the news lately that there are shortages of metal esp copper. I just wondered if there is now any money to be made in selling scrap metal? has anyone done it? what are the likely returns? how would I go about it?

Make sure you cut all tinned ends off and all soldered fittings. These the scrapman will take, but for less value as 'braziery copper'. If you leave them on, then the whole lot is regarded as braziery. Separate out the brass too, in order to get a good price.

plumb1_2

madeane wrote: »

I am sure that it is only the metal from some poor unsuspecting s*d's bay window or from your local church's roof that attracts a premium payment. I'm probably wrong but this would be typical wouldn't it!!!

Went to a job on Tuesday, scumbags had got on the roof and caused £75K+ worth of damage.
Ripped the Lead off £5k to replace.scrap value £50
Cut out the copper condensing lines to the refridgeration packs scrap value £70 , £25k just to replace the gas, £2k to replace the pipes and £40k+ loss of stock.

Bungarm2001

DEFINITELY worth taking to the scrappers.

My OH took a load of old lead pipe, box of copper pipe offcuts that I religiously saved (when I could) off every job he did, plus a few other bits and pieces and got 70 quid for the lot. He thought the girl who paid him had him mixed up with the previous bloke.

Needless to say, my OH now keeps everything, even 3-4mm offcuts of copper since he is now convinced of their collective worth. He very definitely mourns the loss of all the bits he left under the floorboards thru the years of plumbing work....!

PS My Dad was an electrician and as tight as a ducks bum. He used to strip wiring down to the metal and get the resultant mess to the scrappers. There's dedication for you...he would have loved this website!

crunchynut_2

just cleared our back yard, took 2 boilers, 2 pub dishwashers, trampoline frame, old bikes scooters, gazebo frame, bits of lead and some copper piping. got the princly some of £198. not bad eh and copper fetches £1500 per ton aluminium £100 per ton by us. you can't imagine how many scrap vans and dealers pulled up outside my house trying to pinch or tell me they'd take it for free to get it lol. in the the end i tied the dog to trailer whilst we fetched the stuff round the front.

shirefairy

Right I am off to the scrappy...but will have to wait until I next see my dad in June as he's got a car...hopefully prices will have gone up even more by then : )