All Metal Items That Can Be Sold for Scrap During Repairs
Renovating or remodeling a home doesn’t come cheap: The average cost of a renovation is around $22,000 , while the cost of a complete home renovation and renovation can be as much as $200,000. However, the most frustrating aspect of home renovation is not the cost, but the unpredictability. No matter how meticulous you are with your budget, almost every home renovation project goes over budget—it’s a good idea to set aside an additional 10-20% of your original budget for unexpected expenses. However, there is a way to offset these costs that most people overlook: scrap metal.
If you’re gutting a room or an entire house, you’re likely removing valuable materials from the walls, floors, and ceilings. If you just order a dumpster and throw it away , you’re losing money on the deal—sometimes a lot of money. Here’s what to consider if you’re removing items from your home as part of a renovation.
Plumbing and wiring
Copper is not considered as valuable as gold or silver, but its importance as a building material and ease of recycling make it worth recycling (as well as worth stealing ). If you are rewiring your home and/or replacing old copper pipes with new plumbing, you should check the current scrap metal prices in your area. Copper typically sells for the highest price in the scrap metal world.
And it doesn’t matter what condition it’s in. Old, tattered items are just as valuable to a scrap metal dealer as any other. Keep in mind that the copper in your home may be mixed with other metals, so you may get an unwanted surprise when the seller inspects it and makes an offer; but if it’s pure copper, you’ll be in the money.
If you are renovating an older home, lead pipes also have value. Although lead pipes are terrible for those living in the home, lead itself is valuable. Not all scrap metal dealers handle lead due to its toxicity, so make a few calls before loading up your car.
Gutters and roofing
If your home has an old metal roof that you’re replacing, chances are these panels have some value, even if they look like they’re in poor condition. Common metal roofing materials include copper, aluminum, steel and tin, each of which has some value as scrap metal.
Old gutters may be made of aluminum, so if they are rusty, dented and in need of replacement, you might also want to check how much you can get for them from scrap.
Fixtures and equipment
Another potential source of profit from a renovation or remodeling project is the fixtures and fittings in your home: faucets, door handles, drawer pulls and light fixtures. They are often made from brass or other metals that have some scrap value. If you are pulling them out of a large house, there may be quite a lot of them.
The final potential source of scrap metal is steel, including stainless steel. Steel has a relatively low value in terms of scrap – it is usually priced by the ton, while copper and other metals are valued by the pound. This means it’s probably not worth throwing out all the steel in your home if you have a lot of it, but if you’re going to recycle other metals, you might as well throw away the steel panels from your kitchen appliances.
How to write off
If you’re planning a home renovation and want to cash in on that sweet scrap metal, it’s a fairly simple process: identify and organize your scrap by metal type, contact your local scrap metal dealer, and take the scrap metal there. Not all scrap pickers need all the materials, so you may have to contact multiple scrap metal dealers if you have multiple types of metal to sell, and you can certainly compare prices between different scrap metal dealers to make sure you get the best price for your scrap.
The iScrap app is a useful tool. He can help you find local scrap metal dealers and keep you up to date on national prices for various materials (currently the national average for copper is $3.15 per pound) so you’ll know if you’re getting a fair deal for your junk . .