Demolition and strip-out cable
Stripping a mill or a plant is not the same trade as selling surplus. The cable comes out in whatever lengths the saw allows, and the value sits in the metal, the jacket and how clean the separation is.
- Pulled and chopped
- Jacket intact, kept dry
- Copper by weight
A demolition contractor is paid to remove, not to inventory. The schedule is set by the building coming down, the labour is priced by the ton, and the wire is a by-product until somebody decides otherwise. That is the honest starting point. We buy strip-out cable on those terms and we do not ask a demolition crew to behave like a storehouse. Sorting is a cost against a fixed price, and every hour spent on it has to come back from somewhere.
What changes the arithmetic is segregation. Cable removed with the jacket intact and kept dry is worth reviewing as conductor. Cable dragged through mud, baled with conduit or mixed into structural steel is scrap and will be priced as scrap. The difference is a few hours of sorting on a mill floor, and it decides which door the load goes through. A rough sort at the point of removal costs less than a proper sort in the yard two weeks later.
What we will look at
Not everything in this situation is buyable, and the honest version of the list is more useful than the sales version.
- Feeder pulled in workable lengths
- Tray and rack cable with jacket intact
- Control cable from process areas
- Copper building wire, separated
- Bare copper grounding, coiled
- Medium voltage cable, proven dead
- Aluminium feeder, kept separate
What comes out of a mill or plant during strip-out
Older buildings carry more conductor than the drawings suggest. Feeder in conduit, tray cable on the racks, control cable through the process areas and, in anything built before the nineteen eighties, conductor whose insulation has gone brittle and whose print vanished decades ago. Mills carry their own electrical history as well. A line rewired three times leaves three generations of cable in the same trench, and only one of them is worth separating.
What we need from you at the gate
Tell us the building type and era, the rough volume, how the cable is coming out (whole reels, pulled lengths, chopped), whether it can be kept dry, and where it can be staged. One photograph of the first day’s pile tells us more than an estimate, and it tells you whether sorting is worth the labour.
Then tell us what else is in the building. A strip-out that runs into asbestos insulation, lead-sheathed cable or oil-filled equipment changes the job. We would rather hear it before a truck is dispatched than turn it around at the gate with a load already on the deck.
What makes it harder: abatement, live services and contamination
Asbestos abatement sets the sequence in older mills. Cable that passes through a sprayed fireproofing or sits above a suspended ceiling may not be touched until an abatement contractor has cleared the area, and no buyer can shortcut that. Live or supposedly dead services are the other hazard: a feeder that is still connected at the switchboard is not ours, whatever the panel schedule says, and it is not yours to cut without the utility’s sign-off.
Contamination is the quiet one. Cable that has sat in flood water, in a plating room or under a leaking roof carries moisture into the strands, and moisture in a stranded conductor is not always visible from the jacket. We will ask how the building flooded and how long the pile sat before it was moved.
Questions sellers ask
Do you buy cable that has been pulled out in short pieces?
We do, but it is priced as recovery material and often weighed rather than measured. Chopped conductor with the jacket still on, kept dry and separated by metal, is straightforward. Short pieces mixed with conduit, strapping and steel are a scrap load and are handled by a scrapyard, not by us.
Can you take cable that is still connected at one end?
No. Nothing connected to a service is in scope, even where a panel schedule says the circuit is spare. Isolation, lock-out and a proven dead test come before any removal, and that is the electrical contractor’s or the utility’s work. We will buy the cable once it is down and proven dead.
What should we do with reels found in a mill basement?
Photograph the tag before anything is moved, then get them above ground and under cover if you can. Reels in a basement are usually the best material on the job and the easiest to ruin, because water sits on the flange and wicks into the outer wraps. A dry reel with a legible tag is reviewed as inventory.
Is it worth separating aluminium from copper on a strip-out?
Yes, every time. The two metals are different markets and mixing them drags the whole lot to the lower value. Aluminium feeder is common in older mills and easy to mistake for copper once the print has gone, so a magnet and a file on the cut end settle it in seconds per piece.
Send the demolition and strip-out cable details
A short description, the quantity, the city and the deadline is enough to start.
Or email saleselectricalbuyers@gmail.com
- No fee and no obligation to sell.
- Written lot terms before anything moves.
- Pickup scheduled around your access rules.