Scrapping out a house! - Page 2

If I have time to recover some of the wood, I'll try. I'm going for the metal first. I don't think the house is very old, though.

I actually started scrapping stuff today. After I finished cleaning out the basement, I started by turning off the water, draining the boiler and water heater, and other prep work. I started the actual scrapping by cutting off the two pipes from the radiator. I disconnected the boiler and water heater next. I spent the rest of the day pulling out the copper pipes. I have about 50# ready to go when I get the chance.

All the garbage we've pulled out so far:


My pile of iron and steel:


The boiler and water heater:


The radiator:

It's iron. Is it still worth something?

What I plan on doing is start with the pipes, work my way upwards with those, then cut all the wires on the upper floors and pull them down into the basement so I don't have a million little pieces to worry about. When the pipes start going into a wall or ceiling, I cut them at the closest fitting I can get to so I can pull the rest up when I get to the next floor.

There was a lot that would have needed fixing, the tiles on the outside are asbestos (I'm not touching them, don't worry) and would have to be removed and replaced, the heating bills are ridiculous in the winter, the basement floods a lot when it rains due to foundation problems, it isn't insulated, and it's right next to my grandma's backyard. Those were the reasons she gave for tearing it down

Well, it's pretty fun, but it's tough and i'm definitely working for the money.

That house you're going to do sounds great. Just be careful of the rotten parts on the floor. I'd watch out for asbestos too. Is there copper tubing and wiring or is it steel and aluminum?

Not much to report today. I got the boiler and water heater disconnected. I pulled out another 10# of copper pipe and about 5# of brass fittings, including the thick pipes and fittings from above the boiler. I started getting the coax cable off the outside of the house. I had to stop early because I was told someone was coming to get some of the shelves in there and I didn't want to get them dirty from tearing down the Sheetrock. I'll be out of town next weekend so I won't be scrapping then, but I get out of school on the 8th, and I might continue then.

Another short day today. I cut some of the gas line, a little bit of copper, and a
few of the dangling wires that were in my way before calling it quits for the day.
.
Here's my pile of brass and motors so far. There's about 10-15 pounds of brass
there.

I was looking around a little bit more and I found a bag with two pairs of brand
new work boots. Needless to say I put them to good use immediately. I also
found this:
Its some kind of aluminum siding or roofing but it seems too good to scrap. I
think I'm gonna put it on Craigslist.

Wow, have I been slacking on my posting duties. To be honest, I kinda forgot this thread even existed. Oh well, I'm back now.

It's been slow going since I posted last, but it's just recently started to pick up. I've managed to pull about 3 buckets of Romex and a bucket of the flexible steel coated stuff. One bucket of Romex is already stripped down and I just brought home another bucket to start on. I also have quite a pile of aluminum going. I pulled some of the gutters off, plus I added the aluminum siding stuff I mentioned in the last post. The water heater, boiler, and radiator are still there. I cashed in the big pile of stuff from the initial cleanout and had just under a metric ton (2240 lbs). I also cashed in the brass and some of the copper for about $100 total.

I completely gutted the two upstairs bedrooms, which was fun except for the cleanup. Apparently the demolition company can't have drywall and insulation all over the floor when they tear it down. It didn't really make sense to me why not.

The house is completely disconnected except for some phone lines, which are coming down soon. The electric company guy left me a nice chunk of wire when he cut the main power lines. The copper has to be at least 1/2 inch thick on those! The only problem is getting them down off the top of the third floor.

An update on the asbestos:
Apparently it's going to cost quite a bit to remove. In addition to the outside tiles, there's something under the carpet upstairs that has to be removed too. Wonderful. The best part is, if it was still livable, the asbestos could just be removed and put to the curb. Apparently that's a law in my city. I wish I had known before I started cutting the wires and pipes. Whoever said education is expensive wasn't lying.

I'll try to take some pictures when I'm there tomorrow.

I'm still working on the house at this point. I've removed more wire, more gutters, and more pipes. I still haven't taken in the boiler and water heater I removed, or any steel for that matter. I'm hoping to do that this friday.

The asbestos has been completely removed, which is good. It's ready to be torn down at this point, but I still have metal to remove. I'm hoping to finish by early January.

I didn't go back and re-read all the posts. Did you keep of total of all the metal you recovered? Oh yea how about some pictures? Welcome back, Mike.

I didn't keep any weight or exact payouts, but I'd say I've probably made about $400 off a load of tin, a few bundles of copper pipe and buckets of wire, some brass, and some other stuff.

I'm gonna be over there on Friday and I'll make sure to take pictures.

This is the house now that the outside tiles have been removed



These are a few of the rooms that I've completely stripped so far. My IPod died while I was taking pictures so these were the only ones I got

Wow! When I think of all that installed value, I can only cringe when I hear what your payout to date has been. I am thinking that you'd have been light years ahead on this if you practiced/learned some renovation skills here instead of scrapping skills. Fixing it up and then having both equity and rental income forever makes better sense than $400 bucks and having to pay for demo, asbestos and what ever other expenses would be involved. I guess you are past that point now, so what I am saying is a moot point .but next time.....

Couple of questions.......

Is the foundation coming out too?
Are there plans for the soon to be vacant lot?
Which town are you in NY?
Did the town make you get a permit for the demo?
Have you addressed the devaluation with the town/county/school tax folks?

It's important to make sure you are going to be assessed on land value only and you need to make that happen physically because most yearly assessments are done on paper only, without actually seeing the property. And.....from experience here in NY....... if you miss getting that assessment stuff sorted out early or by the deadline, you could go another year at full assessment. They tend not to adjust anything mid-stream so to speak and quite literally, sooner is better.

First of all, I listed quite a few reasons why it was coming down. The main reason was that my grandmother didn't want an apartment right in the middle of her back yard. Plus it would have taken thousands to get it back into rentable conditions. I hate to see it wasted too, but oh well. It would have been more trouble than it was worth.

About all the tax stuff, it belongs to my grandmother, and she's taking care of all that. She's been researching a lot about it and knows what she's doing.

As for your questions;
1. I'm not sure how much of the foundation is coming out. But I know the driveway in front is coming out as well as the concrete walls on the ground floor
2. My grandmother is either building a small storage shed or just planting grass
3. I'm located in the Binghamton area, specifically Johnson City
4. The demo company she hired is taking care of all the permits and such
5. See above

It's already been taken off the insurance policy as well as utilities, and now she's working on getting some money together to have it torn down

I know in the picture it looks like hardwood floors, but its actually pine boards covered in some kind of black stuff. Plus I tried pulling a few of them out, but they're so brittle they just break