Finance Your Home Improvements With Scrap Metal From Remodeling Projects

 

If you are like most homeowners, there is a good chance you are missing out on a great opportunity to finance your home remodeling projects. Scrap metal recycling is often an overlooked opportunity. You may not even realize how much value scrap metal has to offer. Here is how you can pay for home improvement using scrap metal from remodeling.

There Are Many Benefits to Selling Your Scrap Metal

The biggest benefit of selling scrap metal to recycling services is the cash-in-hand feature. You can sell your scrap metal and walk out with a pocketful of cash toward your home improvement, but that is not the only benefit of getting rid of all that metal. There are several reasons why selling off scrap metal is a smart move.

Let’s say you are working with bath remodelers, and they are removing your old metal pipes to install PVC piping. You wind up with a pile of old metal piping. You can have the remodelers take away the debris, and they will likely go and sell it to the scrap metal recyclers and earn even more money from your project. Or, you could make money yourself.

In either case, and hopefully, you choose the latter, the metal pipe debris will be gone. That is the beauty of scrap metal recycling: you profit from trash and get rid of the trash. It is an easy solution to reduce the amount of debris lying around during remodeling to a minimum.

Additionally, if the old aluminum pipe is not sold, it will need to go to the landfill. Selling off the pipe fattens up your bank account and is better for the environment. It can take thousands and thousands of years for metal to break down in a landfill, and when it does, it leaches many different chemicals into the soil. Selling off the metal is the better decision for the environment. Metal can be recycled in an endless loop. It saves energy and conserves resources.

Recycled metal is often used in sheet metal fabrication to create new metal items. If you don’t do it for the environment, do it for your wallet. If earning money does not move you, do it to keep the clutter down. It would help if you sold off your scrap metal from remodeling.

Some Metals Are More Valuable Than Others

You may have a full load of scrap metal from remodeling that you want to sell to fund your home improvement. Some of the metals in your coffers will be more valuable than others. For example, iron castings may be more valuable than your old aluminum awning. How do you know which metal is more valuable than the other?

Before you head to the recyclers with your scrap metal from remodeling, it is strongly suggested that you do your research. Plenty of online resources will tell you what a specific metal is trading that day. The price of the metal, like the price of other commodities, changes every day. Several things influence the price of the metal.

Metal production influences the metal price at the scrap yard. If there has been a high production of the specific metal, you can expect a lower price per pound (metal is sold by the pound). If there has been low production, you can expect a higher price per pound.

If there has been a problem with the metals’ raw material supply chain, you will get top dollar for your scrap metal from remodeling. The type of metal also plays a critical role in how much you can get for the scrap.

Copper is one of the most valued metals and typically gets top dollar. Copper recyclers follow the current market value of copper to assess your scrap metal from remodeling. However, you will not get the full market value for any metal.

The recycling services have to consider the cost of their expenses to recycle the metal when they are making you an offer for your scrap metal. If copper is going for $5 a pound on the market, you can expect to get about ¼ of the market value for copper scrap metal from remodeling.

Do keep in mind that your scrap metal is waste that would wind up in the trash if you do not sell it. Any money gained from scrap metal from remodeling is pure profit.

How to Get the Most Money From Selling Scrap Metal

If you want the most money for your scrap metal for remodeling (and you should), you will need to put a little work into the process. In the end, the effort will be worth it. You will get top dollar for scrap metal if you make the process easier for the purchaser. You will need to do a few things listed below.

First, you need to sort all the metal. You do not want to put your metal drain pipe with a load of copper wire. Create different piles for the different types of metals. If you cannot identify the type of metal, a quick Google search will give you some answers.

Sort metals by type of metal. If you plan on using a trailer to haul the metal, sort the metal right on the trailer in the order you want it to be unloaded. Sorting is a critical step in the process of selling scrap metal.

If you do not sort the scrap metal into different piles determined by the type of metal when you get to the scrap dealer, they will price the entire pile based on the metal in a pile with the lowest value. You could lose out on quite a bit of money by not following this step in the process.

Once you have sorted it, it is time to clean the metal. You do not have to break out the wire brush and scrub away rust, but you do have to remove things like plastic connectors on a flexible metal hose. It would help if you stripped any wires of the metal, insulations, or labeling. The cleaner you present the metal, the better price you will get for the metal. You can lose money on scrap metal from remodeling if the scrap yard has to clean it up to recycle it.

Getting the best price for your scrap metal takes a little effort, but that little effort can mean a significant difference in the amount of money you receive. Take time to prepare your scrap metal and get the best price possible.

Deliver It Yourself or Do This

Your scrap metal will need to get to the recycler or scrap yard somehow. You have two choices, you can load it up yourself and take it, or you can choose to have the load picked up. However, it is strongly recommended if you can deliver it yourself, you should.

If you do not have a means of weighing the scrap metal, you have no idea its value. Most people do not have a way of weighing scrap metal. Not to say that you may get ripped off on the weight if you have a metal company pick it up, but it is better to load the scrap metal and take it yourself. When you take it yourself, you can be there when it is weighed. There will be no question of how much weight you are selling.

Additionally, if you have the scrap metal dealer pick it up, you must pay a premium for the service. They charge you and take the money out of your payment to pick up your scrap metal. That will cut into your profit.

Of course, if you cannot get the scrap metal to the processing site, you will have to have the company pick it up. If you must have the company pick it up, it is strongly recommended that you store your scrap metal until all your scrap is ready to go. Typically, a metal company does not charge you to pick up your scrap metal by the pound. That means you pay the same premium whether you have 300 pounds of scrap picked up or 30,000 pounds of scrap metal.

Storing and consolidating the scrap metal is more cost-effective than having a metal company make multiple trips and charge a premium for each trip. Spread out a tarp in the backyard and collect your scrap metal from remodeling until all the scrap is piled up, then call the scrap metal company to come and pick it up.

How Is Payment Calculated?

We touched on some variables that will affect how much you can get paid for scrap metal. Still, those things talked about, like the cleanliness of the metal or the type of metal, are only part of the formula that scrap metal recyclers use to determine the value of your scrap metal.

Prices fluctuate often. Right now, aluminum is at an all-time high and fetching around $3.98 per pound, according to IBIS, but next week it may be Iron topping off at the highest price per pound. Poundage is one of the most important variables that will affect the payment. Metal is valued at a per-pound rate. The heavier the weight, the higher the payment. However weight is another part of the formula, but again, there is more.

The grade of the metal also plays a role in how valuable your metal is. Whether the metal is ferrous or non-ferrous also will affect the value. Of course, we also mentioned how much effort the scrap recycler has to put into the metal would be a part of the pricing.

It is important to look up the pricing of metals before you head to the scrap yard. Remember, there may be a wide gap between what the metal is worth on the open market and what the scrap dealer will pay you.

Should You Shop Around for the Best Deal?

Here is how selling scrap metal works. The dealer wants to pay the lowest price to the seller and, in turn, charge the highest price to the buyer. They are middlemen. Everyone wants to make money which causes the prices to vary for scrap metal from home remodeling. One scrap metal dealer will offer you X amount of dollars, while another may offer a higher offer. Why? One dealer will take a lower profit than another.

Scrap metal dealers buy low and sell high. Some will pay you more and make less of a profit. If you can shop around, you should. You may be able to find a dealer that is willing to pay more for your scrap metal.

How Will You Get Paid?

If you deliver the scrap metal on your own, you will walk out with a payment. If you have the company come and pick up the scrap, you may have to wait to have a check mailed to you.

Some scrap yards will hand you cash, but most will write you a check for the amount they owe. You can handle the check the same way you handle any check. You can go to the bank from which the check is drawn and cash it at the teller’s window. You can deposit it into your bank account and wait for it to clear.

Selling scrap metal from remodeling is an easy way to save money on your home remodeling project. It is like free money that you would otherwise throw away. Call your local metal recycling facility to learn more about selling off your scrap metal from remodeling to help foot the bill for your home improvement.