Scrap Metal Collecting

Owning a storefront comes with a never-ending to-do list.  The last store owner left a ton (well at least half a ton) of useless junk in our basement and Randy's been wanting for months to clean it out so we have more room and can better organize our own stuff.

The junk in the basement was primarily wood and metal scraps from who knows what in the past.  Most notably there was an enormous metal air conditioning unit that was bigger than a refrigerator and taking up some serious floor space.  We store most of our inventory downstairs and space is at a serious premium in this city.

On day one of major basement clean-up, Randy hauled all the wood and trash to our dumpster and arranged for a special heavy pickup.  On day two, he rented a U-haul and carted all the metal out of the basement to take it to a scrap metal facility, including the a/c unit he dismantled - motor, turbine, shell, and all.  You'd have to see how narrow the stairway is between floors to truly appreciate the difficulty of this.

Randy scrapping with the best of them!

We went to the 24-hour scrap metal yard around midnight which was originally due to poor planning (and a lets-just-do-this-thing-now attitude) but ended up being good planning because there was hardly anyone else there at that time.  It's pretty cool, they weight your vehicle when you arrive and again before you leave, and pay you by weight.  The only downside is they don't handle money at night so we had to return the next day to get paid.

It's a seriously busy operation during the day.  There were about 10 vans dumping at one time.

Thanks to all my construction site experience, I felt pretty at home among the cranes, loud noises, and male dominated crowd.

The bottom line:

Total metal weight from the basement:  540 lb (Randy has sore arms!)

$45        450 lb #1 Steel
$24        8 lb #2 Copper
$72.50   58 lb Aluminum/Copper Radiator
$4.80     24 lb Electric Motor
$50        Money saved using U-haul truck for lumber delivery (for new shelves)
($110)   U-haul rental

($65)     Ticket for parking the U-haul in a residential area at night.  Doh!
$21.30

Getting this junk out of our basement and a metal scrap yard adventure...Priceless.  And approximately $200 saved by not having it done professionally.

We hoped to come close to breaking even by doing it ourselves, so mission accomplished, but it stings that we would've come out more ahead without the darn parking ticket.

Of course now we see metal ($$$) everywhere we look.  Trash can!  Car bumper!

And just so you know he cleans up well...

Randy's BBQ Birthday Dinner from earlier this week.  Happy 32 years!

This guy deserves some meat!