Danged barbed wire

**wwhijr** · 06-23-2018, 12:59 PM

Last week I got a job cleaning up an old farm in Charlotte, NC. A large portion of the first load was barbed wire fencing. It had been down for years and was so rusted you could break it with your hands. In the past I have had no problems with taking it to scrap yards.

We went to the first yard and sat for a long time to get to the scale, then were told they would not take it. So we went to a second one that I have dealt with in the past. They wouldn't take it.

I began to make phone calls. After calling all over town I found one yard that said no problems. SO we drove from north Charlotte to south Charlotte, only to be told they didn't take barbed wire.

Finally I had enough and I drove to and hour away to where I knew they would take it. And they did.

By the time we got the job done it had turned a 6 hour day into an 11 hour day.

Has anyone else had problems with Barbed wire?

**CJBlackburn** · 06-23-2018, 02:24 PM

Haven't had any issues with barbed wire for several years now. I remember at one time it was a problem for the shredders, but haven't heard that in a long time.

**mikeinreco** · 06-23-2018, 03:54 PM

General rule of thumb....have a plan in place to get rid of all material before you load it....would have saved hours waiting in line....and yes most yards will not take fencing/barbed wire etc

**Patriot76** · 06-23-2018, 05:52 PM

Barb wire is a pain putting it up, taking it down, and scrapping all around. Pound for pound it is the scrappers nightmare, but yards around here will take it. I have seen yards reject it, if the customer is not a regular. When it is loaded helter skelter with posts, grass, and dirt a person will have a hard time unloading it.

A lot of business can be obtained if a scrapper is willing to take the barb wire with the other steel. This is a sample of a farmer that was not able to sell various wire to the scrap yard and gave me the business if I could get rid of it. A good working relationship with the yard is valuable.

**Proton** · 06-23-2018, 06:28 PM

In BC it's common practice to bundle logs, after years of accumulation there was a mountain of cable to dispose of I spent the better part of two weeks cutting cable into random lengths. I sent out two semi loads.

When I arrived to load the last trailer one morning found it was already loaded the owner of the Ready Mix Plant put one of his guys on it. Still had tons more of heavy scrap to cut up, spent three months at the plant doing a clean up.

There were a couple of ready mix drums from truck where the engine of hydraulics had malfunctioned and the concrete solidified. Like fourteen yards of solid rock, a telephone call was made to the yard and they said no problem they would break it up and use the crushed cement for fill.

The excavator would not lift them had to dig a hole for the trailer to back into then roll the drums onto the trailer from the side, they of course deducted for the waste material but since they were paying for the trucking not a big deal.

You ship in a lot of iron and the yards will treat you right and make allowances for the odd load of crap.

**wwhijr** · 06-26-2018, 02:46 PM

Originally Posted by mikeinreco

General rule of thumb....have a plan in place to get rid of all material before you load it....would have saved hours waiting in line....and yes most yards will not take fencing/barbed wire etc

I didn't wait in line for hours. Phone calls didn't work because one yard said they would take it and then changed their mind when we got there.

I had a couple of yards in Charlotte I dealt with a lot, but they got ridiculous with what they would not would not take. The first yard I went to I have taken miles of barbed wire to in the past. Now, suddenly, it will break the shredder. It was so rusted my wife was breaking it in her hands.