6 Items Every House Flipper Needs to Save During Demo

Demolition day is exciting and fast-paced, but house flippers need to slow down in order to grab the valuable scrap metal. In fact, there may be enough scrap metal in your demolition to pay for a few extras in your project. 

Depending on how old your flip is, you might run across copper pipes. Copper is valuable at the scrap metal yard and is often sorted into different grades. The three most common types of copper grades are bare bright, #1, and #2. Bare bright copper is strictly for clean, untarnished copper wire. Grades #1 and #2 are used to sort and price copper pipes, wire, and other construction materials that are slightly tarnished, discolored, or painted.

In newer flips, you will likely come across galvanized plumbing pipes. Galvanized pipes are often replaced during a whole house remodel because they can contain lead, rust, and other contaminants. While not as valuable as copper, they can still be recycled at your local salvage yard for cash.

Vinyl siding is a popular upgrade for flips because it is maintenance-free. Save the old aluminum siding from the dumpster, though. You can recycle aluminum siding, gutters, and trim pieces regardless of color and condition. The money you earn can help pay for the replacement vinyl siding.

Older homes also can have copper flashing and gutters. Keep the copper separate from the aluminum. Presorting the metal you collect from a flip makes the whole process go smoothly when you turn it in at the recycling.

Chain-link fences do their job but are not that attractive. If you plan on replacing an existing, older chain-link fence with a new wood picket fence, save the fence material, gate, and fence posts for the metal scrap center near you. As you take down the fence, try rolling the fencing back up to make it easier to transport.

Some recycling centers take aluminum windows. While the glass is not valuable, the aluminum frame is. Be sure to talk to your local metal recycling first, however, to discuss what to do with the glass inside the frames.

Sometimes flip homes have doors that can be saved and sometimes the doors are too damaged. Before giving your crew the go-ahead on demo day, make sure that the doors you are tearing out do not have brass hardware. Doorknobs and hinges made of brass are heavy and can translate to a tidy sum at the salvage yard, even if they are covered in paint. Assign a team member to remove all the hardware and put it in a bucket.

While most doors are wood, some homes have metal doors. Fire-proof doors between the house and the garage, screen door frames, and even metal safety bars on windows can all be recycled at the metal salvage yard for money.

If your flip has larger items, like metal doors, or a copious amount of metal to recycle, consider renting a secondary dumpster on demo day for storing metal items that are meant for the recycling center. Make arrangements to have that dumpster transported at the end of the day. Leaving it at the site overnight may encourage theft of the metal your crew worked hard to salvage.

Buying a home for the purpose of fixing and flipping is a stressful way to make a living because there are many unknowns in any flip. Salvaging a nice pile of scrap metal from the job site, however, helps make it worthwhile and can earn you a little extra wiggle room in your overall budget. Contact Bruce Metal & Salvage to learn more about what can be recycled.