Industrial ยท Grounding
We buy grounding grid conductor.
Grounding grid conductor is the easiest material in this trade to value, because there is no insulation to argue about: it is copper from the surface to the core, and the scale settles it.
Call or text the buying desk954-740-1983
MaterialBare or tinned copper
Typical sizes2/0 to 500 kcmil
BondsExothermic welds
Priced onClean metal weight
Get a buy quote
Send the reel list. A buyer reads it.
Six details are enough to start. Tags and photos can follow by text or email once a buyer has looked at the basics.
- A buyer reviews the lot: construction, footage and condition, not only metal weight
- Copper and aluminium, 600 V building wire through 345 kV cable
- Full reels, partial reels, cut lengths, pallets and truckloads
- No fee, no obligation, and no automatic pickup
Reel list · Grounding Grid
Reviewed by a buyerTell us what you have and where it sits. Nothing is moved until written lot terms are agreed.
A substation or facility grid is bare copper buried in the yard, bonded with exothermic welds, and sized for a fault current that may never flow. When the yard is rebuilt, the grid is cut out in sections and the copper comes up with the welds still on it. It arrives as straight runs, not as a coil.
Bare copper holds few secrets. Tinned copper costs more to make and looks better after years in soil, but it is still copper underneath, and the buyer's questions are condition and weight rather than specification. There is no footage to estimate and no voltage class to establish, which is why this conversation tends to be short and the number tends to hold.
01
What a grid looks like coming out
Grid conductor is laid in a mesh across the yard, with risers up to equipment and ground rods driven at the corners. It is cut out in whatever lengths the excavator and the bolt cutters allow, so a removed grid is a pile of straight runs rather than a coil.
The welds come with it. Exothermic connections are copper-based and stay attached unless someone cuts them off, and a riser that ran up a structure arrives with the lugs and clamps still on it.
- Bare 4/0 and 2/0 grid conductor in straight runs
- 500 kcmil ties and risers to equipment
- Ground rods, usually copper-clad steel
- Exothermic connections and cable-to-cable bonds
- Tinned conductor from a newer or coastal-influenced yard
02
Why clean copper is easy to price
Most cable valuation is an argument about what is inside the jacket. Bare copper skips that argument, because the whole weight is payable metal once the attachments are off. There is no insulation to strip, no footage to estimate and no voltage class to establish.
The work is in the preparation. Steel clamps, galvanized hardware, ground rods and soil have to come off, and a grid pulled wet weighs more than it should. Those are the only three things that move a grounding quote.
03
Tinned against bare
Tinning is a thin coating applied to resist corrosion, and it does not change how much copper is in the conductor. A tinned lot looks better after a decade in soil, which matters to a buyer looking at a photograph.
It is worth saying which one you have, because a tinned grid is often newer and cleaner, and it reads that way on the scale ticket. Bare copper that has been buried for thirty years will be pitted and dull, and it is still bought on weight.
- Tinned: thin coating, same copper content
- Bare: dull or bright, valued on weight
- Green patina: normal, not a defect
- White or grey crust: soil and galvanic debris to clean off
04
Grids from facilities, not only yards
Plants have ground rings around buildings and tanks. Towers have counterpoise and footing grounds. Data halls have signal reference grids, often in tinned copper, laid under a raised floor and removed when the room is reconfigured.
Those lots are smaller than a substation grid and they arrive more often. They are also cleaner, because an indoor grid has not been in soil, and clean copper is the one material here that can be quoted almost entirely from a weight ticket.
| Form | Typical size | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Bare grid conductor | 2/0 to 500 kcmil | Buried, patina, cut runs |
| Tinned grid conductor | 2/0 to 350 kcmil | Indoor, clean, straight |
| Ground rods | 5/8 to 3/4 in | Copper-clad steel |
| Bonding jumpers | 6 AWG to 250 kcmil | With lugs attached |
| Exothermic connections | Cable-specific | Welds still on the conductor |
Questions
Answers before you send anything.
If your question is not here, call the desk. A buyer answers, not a call centre.
Do you buy buried copper with soil still on it?
Yes, but it is weighed as it comes and the soil comes off the number rather than the copper. Knocking the heavy dirt off before loading is the single easiest way to improve a grounding quote.
Are the exothermic welds a problem?
No. They are copper-based and they travel with the conductor. A grid cut into short lengths at every weld is the normal outcome of a removal, and it is priced on weight rather than length.
Is tinned copper worth more than bare?
It is bought on the same metal basis, with a nod to condition. A clean tinned grid is easier to place than a pitted bare one, but the difference is smaller than sellers expect, because both are sold on copper content.
Can you collect a grid that is still in the ground?
No. The conductor has to be out, cut free and stacked where a truck can reach it, since removal is excavation work that belongs to the contractor doing the yard rebuild. We will look at photographs long before that, though.
Keep reading
Related pages
No fee · no obligation
You have the cable. We have a scale and a check.
Send the reel list, the tags or a photograph of the pallet. A buyer comes back with what the lot is worth and how pickup would work, before anything is moved.
954-740-1983 Call or text
- Reel tags, or the print on the jacket
- Reel count and footage, even roughly
- Where it sits and what can reach it
- Whether the cable is still energised