Weight/Price Breakdown of a 18' haulmark office trailer

[ScrapmanIndustries]

I've seen and heard it all over the place. People trying to give away their mobile homes/office trailer/rv's to a metal recycler expecting to get paid for them. I've also seen a lot of them go up for free on craigslist and get nabbed up by some poor sap thinking they're gonna get rich with the aluminum siding. Well I just did a job for someone cutting up and removing their 18 foot haulmark office trailer that someone abandoned on their moms property. So I'm gonna give a breakdown of everything that I was able to recover from that job to help customers and service providers alike better understand what all is involved in these types of projects. And keep in mind I charged this guy $150 to do this job. If I had to do another job like this I would say $300 minimum.

1st Load of Metal hauled in the Dodge Dakota

200lbs. steel siding,@$6/100lbs. = $12
3lbs. Aluminum,@$.40/lbs =$1.20

2nd (main) Load of Metal hauled in Dodge Dakota

Light Iron-600lbs.,@$6/100 =$36
Harness Wire-9lbs.,@$.50/lbs.=$4.50
Ballest-6lbs.@$.06/lbs.=$.36
Aluminum-30lbs.@$.40/lbs.=$12
Extruded Aluminum (found buried behind trailer, Not part of Trailer)-40lbs.@$.42/lbs.=$16.80
Cu/Al fins dirty (found in Ac unit attached to trailer)- 14lbs.@$.85/lbs.=$11.90
Sealed Unit (from same Ac unit) 22lbs@$.10/lbs=$2.2
Romex Wire (stripped)-10lbs.@$2.20/lbs.=$22
(if unstripped add 30% weight @$.95/lbs.)

Total price of recovered metal $118.76

Load of Trash hauled away in a 6x12 dump trailer with crappy side boards
2400lbs. total with a cost to dispose of $102.
(only about 50-75% of the trash in that load came from the trailer. the rest from my dads remodeling business and ac units i tore apart. so $75 is a rough guess of how much it would cost to remove trash from trailer.)

If done for free that would leave you with $47 give or take to pay for expenses. I also get $.50/100 more than public price for steel at the shredder yard I work at. If brought to a feeder yard you would be lucky to break even. YOU NEED TO CHARGE TO MAKE MONEY REMOVING THESE THINGS.

All in all it took me 8 hours to complete by myself (no helper, I do everything alone) since the battery on my impact died and I removed half the screws by hand. The tools I used in the order of most commonly used

Splitting maul
Dewalt 12v Impact driver
Crowbar
hex bit driver with 1/4" bit and #2 phillips bit
side cutters
oxy-propane torch
'98 Dodge Dakota
'05 F250/w trailer
ratchet straps.
tow chain attached to Dakota (trailer was to close to building to tear down without moving a few feet)

If you have a skid loader this job will take considerably less time but the recovery of recyclable material may be a bit less.

I hope this helps any one who may read it.

[JJinLV]

This is a great educational post. Thanks!

[ScrapmanIndustries]

This is a great educational post. Thanks!

you are welcome.

[andyheim]

I'm surprised at the lack of aluminum. Perhaps I'm picturing a larger unit than what you were actually working with.

[ScrapmanIndustries]

I'm surprised at the lack of aluminum. Perhaps I'm picturing a larger unit than what you were actually working with.

The unit was 8'x18'. Steel siding. The only aluminum on it was in the window frames and the painted trim going around the very bottom and very top to hide the transitions where the pieces came together. If it had aluminum siding I'd imagine it might add another 50lbs or so. Maybe someone else who did an aluminum one could chime in on that.