Scrapping out a house!

The story so far:

So, I just got a call from my grandmother about a house she's been "renting" out. She's been letting my aunt and uncle live there for the past year or so. My uncle had cancer and they were there to be closer to some specialized clinic. Now that the cancer is gone, they're moving out in May. My grandma said the house wasn't worth it and she's "seriously considering" having it torn down. She said I could scrap it out for all it's worth if she decides to get rid of it. You all have no idea how psyched I am.

This is an old house, so everything is copper: the water lines, wires, etc. As far as I know, there's no PVC pipe or whatever the new stuff is called. The furnace, water heater, boiler, and everything else has to go. The only catch is that I can't have the stuff that's good enough to furnish another apartment she owns. I'm hoping to make at least 1k if I scrap everything. That means ANYTHING that can get a quick buck on craigslist. I'm starting to save my 5 gallon buckets. I'm going to need them.

I'm gonna try to post pictures every few days and make progress reports once I start, kind of like Instaed did with the mobile homes. Also, if anyone knows of a cheap company near Binghamton, NY that takes down houses, please send me a PM with the company's contact info. I told her she should burn it down and collect the insurance instead of paying someone to take it down LOL.

On a side note, I made my first official trash day find. A bit of duct work, a bathroom vent, some aluminum trim (the stuff you put under doors) and a small peice of aluminum drain pipe.

super sweet...I for one can hardly wait to see the pictures. Good score.

many places you can get a tax right off by donating the old home to the fire department to burn down. You still keep the property. They just burn it and use it for training purposes. Check into that for her. They may burn it and put it out a few times before they let it all go down.

so your going to rip into all the walls for the pipe and wires?? which is great and all... Im sure you could do more than 1k if you are also selling contents of the house .... the question I have is, do you realize what kind of undertaking you are getting yourself into?? You are probably going to need a dumpster and if the house is really old you might be looking at some asbestos and what not.... This might be a bigger job than you think as you will have to demo the walls to get to the copper and wires... I'm assuming your not going to just leave the debris in the middle of the rooms... Gonna need a BIG dumpster...

No, no, I'm not the one who's going to be tearing it down. She's hiring another company to do that. As for asbestos, it's not THAT old.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by parrothead

many places you can get a tax right off by donating the old home to the fire department to burn down. You still keep the property. They just burn it and use it for training purposes. Check into that for her. They may burn it and put it out a few times before they let it all go down.

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That's a good idea, but there are other houses and trees around it.

Hey Scrap Man. Let me know the condition of the frame of the house before you let you're grandma tear it down. (and where it's located) Depending on condition, I may be interested. :)

Another thing depending on age of the house is selling old doors, door knobs, and things like that. One other thing is before you contract will a demo company let them know you are gutting the house. Some salvage companies get salavage rights as part of the deal to take down a house. I lost out when the home onwer was going to let me strip a house out before the salavage company came, but they reminded him they had all salvage rights.

I was planning on selling the doors and everything else separate. The doorknobs are just standard cheapies and not worth selling separate. I think there's some drop ceiling tiles in there too.

Saroro- I'll send you a PM in a sec

the cheapie doorknobs are brass..

I was just gonna sell the knobs with the doors.

Just got an oppurtunity to do the same with a friends "in law" house out back. A converted garage-to-house that they are tearing down. I'm on my way to pick up some inital scrap but will be getting all the copper wiring and pipes in the house. I'll give you a report when I get back.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NJSouth

Just got an oppurtunity to do the same with a friends "in law" house out back. A converted garage-to-house that they are tearing down. I'm on my way to pick up some inital scrap but will be getting all the copper wiring and pipes in the house. I'll give you a report when I get back.

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About what size is it (sq. ft, stories, etc)?

Small.. story and a half inlaw sweet... I'm gonna guess at 900sq ft. Good for me though.

I just got the O.K to start. I'm hoping to start today or tomorrow. I'll post pictures when I get there

that's great Scrap man ! Looking forward to following your progress. I have two possible houses I'm working on and I wouldn't know where to start !!

Ah good. I like following a story.

there a bunch of derelict houses and buildings around here. I'd love to get into the demo business too.

Here's the house:
http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/...6/248bc053.jpg
The bottom part towards the front is the garage. There's a wall between the two sets of doors. The right side is full of tools and most of the garbage that needs to go. Then there's a hallway after that where most of the goodies are; water heater, furnace, steam(?) radiator, some other unknown items, and lots of other junk. Towards the back is the basement where the washer and dryer were. I've started my piles back there. The second floor is the living room, kitchen, 1 bedroom, bathroom, entrance to the basement, stairs, and back porch, in that general order. The third floor (starting from the stairs and going forward) is a small closet, bathroom, general purpose room, small walk in closet, 2nd bedroom w/ closet, and master bedroom. Get the picture?

Today was spent cleaning out the left hand side of the garage. We basically took everything out, put the good stuff in the right side of the garage, I started some piles in the basement. We threw away a bunch of wood scraps, a grinding wheel, and a bit of other stuff. There's still more stuff in the hallway.

I found quite a few tools: screw drivers, wrenches, a tool box, and a pair of massive bolt cutters. I'll post a pic tomorrow.

I didn't get the chance to take many pics today. I'll try to be better with that tomorrow.

Anyone know how to upload pics from the camera app from an iPod?

Phil says to get the Iphone Photobucket app and upload to photobucket then to here. I can't seem to put pictures directly on here either, thought it was just me messing something up. The insert image link doesn't work for me,,,

Wood from the house some people use for art so before you burn it or trash it see if anyone want it. Some people will pay real good for it. Another thing to look into is what kind of wood it is....some of the older wood that was used in them homes are worth a real nice penny.

If I have time to recover some of the wood, I'll try. I'm going for the metal first. I don't think the house is very old, though.

I actually started scrapping stuff today. After I finished cleaning out the basement, I started by turning off the water, draining the boiler and water heater, and other prep work. I started the actual scrapping by cutting off the two pipes from the radiator. I disconnected the boiler and water heater next. I spent the rest of the day pulling out the copper pipes. I have about 50# ready to go when I get the chance.

All the garbage we've pulled out so far:
http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/...6/6f259d62.jpg

My pile of iron and steel:
http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/...6/e11eb19a.jpg

The boiler and water heater:
http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/...6/8cadc99c.jpg

The radiator:
http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/...6/34313ba8.jpg
It's iron. Is it still worth something?

What I plan on doing is start with the pipes, work my way upwards with those, then cut all the wires on the upper floors and pull them down into the basement so I don't have a million little pieces to worry about. When the pipes start going into a wall or ceiling, I cut them at the closest fitting I can get to so I can pull the rest up when I get to the next floor.

I Think I would of Listed the House for sale and Let someone move it

There was a lot that would have needed fixing, the tiles on the outside are asbestos (I'm not touching them, don't worry) and would have to be removed and replaced, the heating bills are ridiculous in the winter, the basement floods a lot when it rains due to foundation problems, it isn't insulated, and it's right next to my grandma's backyard. Those were the reasons she gave for tearing it down

wow, scrap man, that looks like your having more fun than a pig in slop !! The house I might get to do was built in the 1920's or 30's and my aunt's heirs (my cousin's) have just let go....there isn't much but wiring and plumbing left. The floors are starting to rot in places, but it still seems safe enough to walk on. The best part is that it was a farm house and one of my uncle's was also a blacksmith. Some say his stuff is buried...some say it's gone....I say a metal detector will tell. My cousin's are kinda strange though....won't give me a yea or nay. Just..."we'll let you know.."

Well, it's pretty fun, but it's tough and i'm definitely working for the money.

That house you're going to do sounds great. Just be careful of the rotten parts on the floor. I'd watch out for asbestos too. Is there copper tubing and wiring or is it steel and aluminum?

Not much to report today. I got the boiler and water heater disconnected. I pulled out another 10# of copper pipe and about 5# of brass fittings, including the thick pipes and fittings from above the boiler. I started getting the coax cable off the outside of the house. I had to stop early because I was told someone was coming to get some of the shelves in there and I didn't want to get them dirty from tearing down the Sheetrock. I'll be out of town next weekend so I won't be scrapping then, but I get out of school on the 8th, and I might continue then.

Another short day today. I cut some of the gas line, a little bit of copper, and a
few of the dangling wires that were in my way before calling it quits for the day.
http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/...6/87829e9e.jpg.
Here's my pile of brass and motors so far. There's about 10-15 pounds of brass
there.

I was looking around a little bit more and I found a bag with two pairs of brand
new work boots. Needless to say I put them to good use immediately. I also
found this: http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/...6/e94a83ea.jpg
Its some kind of aluminum siding or roofing but it seems too good to scrap. I
think I'm gonna put it on Craigslist.

Wow, have I been slacking on my posting duties. To be honest, I kinda forgot this thread even existed. Oh well, I'm back now.

It's been slow going since I posted last, but it's just recently started to pick up. I've managed to pull about 3 buckets of Romex and a bucket of the flexible steel coated stuff. One bucket of Romex is already stripped down and I just brought home another bucket to start on. I also have quite a pile of aluminum going. I pulled some of the gutters off, plus I added the aluminum siding stuff I mentioned in the last post. The water heater, boiler, and radiator are still there. I cashed in the big pile of stuff from the initial cleanout and had just under a metric ton (2240 lbs). I also cashed in the brass and some of the copper for about $100 total.

I completely gutted the two upstairs bedrooms, which was fun except for the cleanup. Apparently the demolition company can't have drywall and insulation all over the floor when they tear it down. It didn't really make sense to me why not.

The house is completely disconnected except for some phone lines, which are coming down soon. The electric company guy left me a nice chunk of wire when he cut the main power lines. The copper has to be at least 1/2 inch thick on those! The only problem is getting them down off the top of the third floor.

An update on the asbestos:
Apparently it's going to cost quite a bit to remove. In addition to the outside tiles, there's something under the carpet upstairs that has to be removed too. Wonderful. The best part is, if it was still livable, the asbestos could just be removed and put to the curb. Apparently that's a law in my city. I wish I had known before I started cutting the wires and pipes. Whoever said education is expensive wasn't lying.

I'll try to take some pictures when I'm there tomorrow.

I'm still working on the house at this point. I've removed more wire, more gutters, and more pipes. I still haven't taken in the boiler and water heater I removed, or any steel for that matter. I'm hoping to do that this friday.

The asbestos has been completely removed, which is good. It's ready to be torn down at this point, but I still have metal to remove. I'm hoping to finish by early January.

I didn't go back and re-read all the posts. Did you keep of total of all the metal you recovered? Oh yea how about some pictures? Welcome back, Mike.

I didn't keep any weight or exact payouts, but I'd say I've probably made about $400 off a load of tin, a few bundles of copper pipe and buckets of wire, some brass, and some other stuff.

I'm gonna be over there on Friday and I'll make sure to take pictures.

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/...6/ab6dae17.jpg

This is the house now that the outside tiles have been removed

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/...6/53c8eac0.jpg

These are a few of the rooms that I've completely stripped so far. My IPod died while I was taking pictures so these were the only ones I got

Wow! When I think of all that installed value, I can only cringe when I hear what your payout to date has been. I am thinking that you'd have been light years ahead on this if you practiced/learned some renovation skills here instead of scrapping skills. Fixing it up and then having both equity and rental income forever makes better sense than $400 bucks and having to pay for demo, asbestos and what ever other expenses would be involved. I guess you are past that point now, so what I am saying is a moot point .but next time.....

Couple of questions.......

Is the foundation coming out too?
Are there plans for the soon to be vacant lot?
Which town are you in NY?
Did the town make you get a permit for the demo?
Have you addressed the devaluation with the town/county/school tax folks?

It's important to make sure you are going to be assessed on land value only and you need to make that happen physically because most yearly assessments are done on paper only, without actually seeing the property. And.....from experience here in NY....... if you miss getting that assessment stuff sorted out early or by the deadline, you could go another year at full assessment. They tend not to adjust anything mid-stream so to speak and quite literally, sooner is better.

First of all, I listed quite a few reasons why it was coming down. The main reason was that my grandmother didn't want an apartment right in the middle of her back yard. Plus it would have taken thousands to get it back into rentable conditions. I hate to see it wasted too, but oh well. It would have been more trouble than it was worth.

About all the tax stuff, it belongs to my grandmother, and she's taking care of all that. She's been researching a lot about it and knows what she's doing.

As for your questions;
1. I'm not sure how much of the foundation is coming out. But I know the driveway in front is coming out as well as the concrete walls on the ground floor
2. My grandmother is either building a small storage shed or just planting grass
3. I'm located in the Binghamton area, specifically Johnson City
4. The demo company she hired is taking care of all the permits and such
5. See above

It's already been taken off the insurance policy as well as utilities, and now she's working on getting some money together to have it torn down

I would think you could get some money for them hard wood floors if you took the time to pull them out.

I know in the picture it looks like hardwood floors, but its actually pine boards covered in some kind of black stuff. Plus I tried pulling a few of them out, but they're so brittle they just break

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scrap man

First of all, I listed quite a few reasons why it was coming down. The main reason was that my grandmother didn't want an apartment right in the middle of her back yard. Plus it would have taken thousands to get it back into rentable conditions. I hate to see it wasted too, but oh well. It would have been more trouble than it was worth.

About all the tax stuff, it belongs to my grandmother, and she's taking care of all that. She's been researching a lot about it and knows what she's doing.

As for your questions;
1. I'm not sure how much of the foundation is coming out. But I know the driveway in front is coming out as well as the concrete walls on the ground floor
2. My grandmother is either building a small storage shed or just planting grass
3. I'm located in the Binghamton area, specifically Johnson City
4. The demo company she hired is taking care of all the permits and such
5. See above

It's already been taken off the insurance policy as well as utilities, and now she's working on getting some money together to have it torn down

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Ah, a JC Wildcat, eh?

I did see earlier where you said it was near her back yard, missed the part where it was in her backyard. I could see where she might not mind having family in there but draws the line at an all out rental.

I live downstate but have a couple of properties in Port ****inson, in fact my family goes back to my great grandparents in Bingo, I'm in my mid 50's and the first generation to not live there as an adult, was born there though.

There are investors buying up a bunch of those flood damaged homes in the area for 10-20k in the hopes of rehabbing and renting to gas drillers.............if they ever drill is another story ;)

Do you know how much your grandma paid to the demolition crew? I'm curious as it would be something I might be interested in doing on a bid basis in the future.