We buy surplus electrical wire & cable · San Antonio & South-Central Texas

San AntonioElectrical Wire Buyers Surplus wire & cable desk
Situation ยท Demolition clearance

We buy cable from demolition clearance.

Cable is worth the most in the week before the excavator arrives and the least the morning after. Stripping it out is a scheduling problem before it is a material problem.

Call or text the buying desk954-740-1983
Two people walking between stacks of cable reels and pallets in an outdoor storage yard Yard & substation · South Texas
WindowSoft strip, before the push
SortingCopper and aluminum apart
Typical lotSkid steer to roll-off
ConstraintThe demolition sequence
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 · Demolition

Reviewed by a buyer

Tell us what you have and where it sits. Nothing is moved until written lot terms are agreed.

No fee and no obligation. Nothing is bought, moved or scheduled until written lot terms are agreed.

Prefer to talk? Call or text 954-740-1983 · saleselectricalbuyers@gmail.com

Demolition runs on a sequence: abatement, then soft strip, then structural removal. Cable lives in the soft strip, and it has to come out while there is still a building to walk through. A crew that reaches the cable after the ceilings are down and the walls are pushed is picking through debris, and the value leaves with the debris.

The lot from a good strip is mixed by nature: service entrance at the switchgear, feeder in the risers, tray cable above the ceiling, branch circuits in the walls and a pile of cords and leads from the shop. Separating copper from aluminum, and cable from scrap, is the difference between a load and a sorting job.

01

Strip before you push

The economics of a demolition job sit in the days, not the weeks. Every hour a machine waits is money gone, and cable removal is slow manual work that holds the sequence up when it is left to the end. Crews that do well at this treat the strip as a scheduled phase with its own labour, not as something to pick up when there is a gap.

  • Service entrance and switchgear feeder at the point of entry
  • Riser and busway feeder between floors
  • Tray and conduit runs above ceilings and in plant rooms
  • Branch circuit conductor pulled back to the panel
  • Welding leads, cords and portable cable from shop areas
02

Scheduling against the demolition sequence

Agree the pickup date against the sequence, not the calendar. A strip that finishes on a Tuesday and a machine that arrives on a Wednesday leave no room to load. The workable pattern is to stage the cable to a laydown area outside the push zone, keep it on pallets, and have the truck come while the building is still standing and the gate still takes a trailer.

  • Strip date, agreed with the demolition foreman
  • Laydown area, outside the push zone
  • Gate hours that still accept a trailer
  • A named person who signs the load out
03

Contamination and mixed loads

Demolition cable comes with things attached: conduit, straps, tape, fire caulk, insulation, dust and sometimes material that has to be handled by an abatement crew before anyone else touches it. A load visibly coated in mastic or lagging will be treated as contaminated until it is proven otherwise, and that is a delay rather than a rejection. Cut the ends clean and keep the cable off the floor.

04

Copper and aluminum do not travel in the same pile

They can ride in the same truck, but not in the same heap. Copper conductor and aluminum conductor are bought on different bases, and a mixed load has to be sorted at the yard before it can be weighed properly. Where the strip is large enough, two roll-offs or two pallet groups make the whole job simpler: copper in one, aluminum in the other, and a third for the steel and the material that is neither.

Where the cable hides in a commercial strip
LocationWhat is usually thereHow it comes out
Main switchgear roomService entrance and feederCut at the lugs, coiled
Riser shaftsFeeder and buswayPulled, or cut in floor sections
Above ceilingsTray, MC, branch circuitsStripped with the ceiling grid
Mechanical roomsMotor feeder and controlDisconnected, then pulled
Shop and yardWelding leads and cordsRolled and banded by hand
Questions

Answers before you send anything.

If your question is not here, call the desk. A buyer answers, not a call centre.

Call or text 954-740-1983

The building comes down next week. Is it too late?

Not if the strip has not started. What matters is whether the cable can still be reached and staged outside the push zone. If the ceilings are already down the lot is still buyable, but it will be read as mixed recovery rather than as cable.

Can the roll-off go straight to you?

A roll-off is the right container for a strip and the wrong one for cable, because the cable ends up under everything else. If it has to go in a roll-off, load it last or keep it in the front third so it can be lifted out cleanly.

Does armoured cable count as copper?

It counts as copper with work attached. The armour has to be separated from the conductor, and the value of the whole piece reflects that. Loose MC and BX in a heap is still worth buying, but it is bought as a sorting job.

What if the site has no power for a forklift?

Then the load is planned around that: a lift gate, a ramp, carrying to the curb, or staging next door with the owner's permission. Say what equipment is on site when the pickup is booked, not when the truck is already at the gate.

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

Send your reel list

Demolition
No fee and no obligation. Nothing is bought, moved or scheduled until written lot terms are agreed.

Prefer to talk? Call or text 954-740-1983 · saleselectricalbuyers@gmail.com

Call 954-740-1983 Get a Buy Quote