Should I sell or dispose of old radiators, copper pipes etc?

[LondonSuperTrooper]

Please help! We are changing our entire heating system - copper pipes, radiators, hot water cylinder and cold water tank and replacing it with a combi boiler. I asked the plumber to get rid of all these items. But now someone suggested that I should hang on to this and try and sell it?

My questions is how easy is it to sell these items? I have no idea in term of their value. Plus how do I find out who to sell it to? I'm based in Guildford so if there are any local metal scrap yards then please let me know.

TIA

It depends on weight. Scrap yards have a weighing platform and you dump everything on and they give you what it's worth. If you can get the stuff there then its worth doing.

You could stick on eBay. A friend of mine was having building work done and put loads of old bits on eBay (pick up only obviously). I was quite frankly astonished at what he got for a load of tat I would have put in a skip

Blimey - copper goes for a BOMB so don't let he plumber take it unless you REALLY like him!

Or put it outside your house, or anywhere visible as someone will pinch it.

Yes take to a reputable scrap yard - I took the lead from our roof when we had it repaired, a few years ago - just a few lumps that were taken off - and sold it for a quid a kilo, which was about 41 quid.

I told the landlord after and he said keep it and use it towards ongoing renovations - I was doing up the kitchen at the time

The roofers looked well disappointed when I took the lead from under their ladders though, and hid it round the back - I don't think they thought a girl would know it was worth anything

Thanks for the replies. If we have to take it to a metal scrap yard then we would have to hire a van....... by the time I paid for the van hire I don't think that I'd have a lot of money left over.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll have a look at ebay

Look up in yellow pages btw.

that's what I did. And just turn up. They will weigh it and give you the market value.

oh sorry! Still, yes try ebay and don't accept any offers, let it run as auction.

And keep it well hidden. People do break in to vans belonging to gas workers and so on, just to pinch the pipes/old tanks.

Thanks Rooney, it seems that I have a lot of homework tonight!

Scrapyards will collect but will charge a lot to do so. So ebay a good idea I think. Good luck!

You could negotiate with the plumber. Tell him he can scrap it but you want 50%, if you trust him to be honest.

My dad was a central heating engineer years ago and always considered the price of the scrap when quoting for a job. Anyone insisting on keeping the scrap to sell themselves was always quoted more. So I would make sure your plumber is aware of your intentions.

It may take you a couple of trips, but it is worth getting it in the car if you can. If you have the seats down you should be able to manage it - we've done it with a Nissan Micra! When you get to the scrap yard, you drive on to the weigh bridge. Once you've offloaded your scrap then you drive back on and they pay you the money. Sometimes they put the scrap straight onto a weighing scale, give you a ticket and then you get your money.

Due to recent legislation they may give you a printed out ticket and then you get the cheque on a different day. You will also need to take a passport or driving licence with you as proof of identity.

Copper is currently £4 a kilo at our local scrap dealer, so a tank, plus pipes will get you about £100 quid, maybe more. If you don't mind removing the brass stops/fittings (use a hack saw to cut through the pipe) you will get more money per kilo. You then weigh the copper and brass bits in separately. The pipe is fairly easy to bend if you get leverage, so you can fold it up, or saw it up to get in a car.

The radiators aren't copper so are worth less, you may just want to leave those out for the scrap man.

My parents had a new central heating boiler put in a couple of years ago and we got £190 in scrap for the various bits.

Worldgonecrazy - Wow, thanks very much for your comprehensive reply.

I have emailed the plumber requesting that he does not dispose of the materials. Not sure how honest he'll be as he'll be working in an empty house!