Hi there, curious question for you..We have copper piping in our house, and recently we have been getting little plumbing jobs done. Everytime, the plumber saws off and takes whatever copper he removed. No big deal, except for the fact that now we are having a HUGE plumbing job done and there is a lot of copper involved. Copper is very valuble, and would help take away some of the financial stress of this job, so I dont want them to take it!!Am I allowed to tell them that I dont want them to take the copper? Are they obligated or something? I just dont appreciate paying them 1000 dollars for this job, and then they can go and make even more money selling the copper that they took from me.Thanks!
Get them told that you want to take any excess scrap copper ! They are basicly taking money for the job and then taking scrap and handing it it for money!! You should Take the scrap cut into smaller peices and crush and fold as much as you can manage to add weight! then take it to a local Scrap Metal merchant! (or hold on to it untill scrap prices are high again ;) and aslong as it is your boiler you have the right to keep unnecicary bits n peices Good luck ;)
a contractor will clean up their mess thus take the copper with them, unless you tell them not to. its really no big deal even in plumbing a whole house only talkin couple hundred dollars in scrap
look, im a plumber and when i do a job, yes, i take the copper,but not becasue its valuable. i take it because when im done with the job i do all the clean up. i take it just as i also take all the trash. most plumbers take it becasue most home owners dont want to be bothered. you need to remember when we do a job, most of the time the amount of copper is small and we save it up until we have a bunch of it to take in. if i came to you house to change out a valve and there was a piece of copper 6 inches long, are you gonna take a 6 inch piece to the scrap yard? the answer is no. if you want to keep it, it really is no big deal, just tell them, but keep in mind that if you want to keep it, then you need to do that part of the clean up. its only fair that if you want it, then you pick it up. we dont go to a job and think, wow, look at all this copper i can keep, its the last thing we think of and only during clean up. people really need to stop thinking all plumbers are just trying to rip you off, not all of us are. there are rip offs in all businesses, but not all are rip offs. BOTTOM LINE, TELL THEM, ITS NO BIG DEAL, BUT TELL THEM BEFORE THEY START OR YOU COULD COME OFF AS A DICK. remember if you hire a big company, the workers are still only making an hourly rate, most plumbers in my area that work for a large company only make about $23 and hour, not the $95 the company charges.
I would keep the copper and sell it your self. The only thing is if you are going to do this you need to tell the contractor befor he starts the job or you could be in for a real fight and he may leave with an unfinished job or half *** it. You should also call local scrap yards for the curent price on copper because it isn't as valuabale as it used to be. You will get top dollar for your copper if you cut all the soldered joint off and sell it seperately from the pieces that are pure copper. They have no obligation to take it.
Absolutely positively do NOT let them take the copper. You are paying them to do a certain job, and they do NOT have the right to take your copper unless they ask you for it and you agree to give it to them! It is NOT part of the job and useless or not, you still own the copper they remove. As you have already noted, copper IS expensive now, even as scrap, and YOU should get the money for the scrap. There are scrap metal recyclers all over the place these days, and you should be able to find several local ones in the phone book. You won't get anywhere near enough to pay for the job they are doing, but I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how much you DO get for the scrap. Hey, I'm not saying you, or your plumber for that matter, are going to get a bundle of money this way, but the copper does belong to you. If you want it taken away as part of the clean up that is perfectly fine, but it's also perfectly fine to have it left on site for you. I would (and DO) put it in buckets and/or put it all in one place, but then ask the homeowner what he or she wants to do with it. Al
