Grounding grid conductor buyers in Tennessee
Bare soft-drawn copper and copper-clad steel from station grids, bought as store-room coil or as excavated conductor, and priced differently for each. We separate the two before we quote, because they behave differently at the scale.
Send us your reel list
Six details are enough for a first review: what the cable is, the metal, the size, the footage or reel count, the condition and where it sits. Photographs can follow by text or email. There is no fee and no obligation, and nothing moves until written terms are agreed.
Bare copper arrives at a station in coils and leaves as a grid. The conductor is soft-drawn, from 2/0 AWG up to 500 kcmil on the main runs, with copper-clad steel where the design wants more strength or a different fault behavior. It is buried, welded at the crossings, and then forgotten for thirty years.
That long life is why station work produces so much of it. Grids are extended for new bays, cut back for replacements and lifted when a yard is reconfigured, and the copper that comes out is still copper, usually with a known origin and a recorded size.
Lot basics
- Material
- Bare soft-drawn copper
- Grid sizes
- 2/0 AWG to 500 kcmil
- Also used
- Copper-clad steel
- Form
- Coils and straight runs
What a station ground grid is made of
Main grid conductor is normally bare soft-drawn copper in sizes from 2/0 AWG to 500 kcmil, buried at a depth set by the design and joined at the crossings. Soft-drawn matters because it bends without work hardening, which is what lets a crew route it around foundations and along a trench by hand. It also takes a weld without losing temper at the joint.
Copper-clad steel appears where mechanical strength or a specific fault-current behavior is wanted: ground rods, some grid runs and the counterpoise that leaves the yard. Connections are made with exothermic welds or compression fittings, and every weld leaves a lump that has to be cut out before the conductor can be sold as reusable. That is a cutting job rather than a scrapping one.
Grid work during expansion and replacement
A new bay means new grid. The excavation opens the yard, existing conductor is cut back to a point where a weld can be made, and new runs are added. Those cut-out sections are short and irregular, which is why expansion copper usually sells on weight while a full coil from the stores sells as conductor.
Full replacement is a different proposition. A grid lifted in long runs, still straight, is a product. The same grid chopped into two-foot pieces during excavation is a weight ticket. The gap between those outcomes is created by how the work is sequenced, not by anything about the copper. Sequence is a decision made weeks before the excavator arrives.
As-built drawings are the other half of the record. A grid drawing shows the runs between welds, which tells a demolition crew where to cut for length instead of where it is convenient. Where the drawings no longer exist, the lengths in the ground are a matter of luck, and the lot is priced as though they are short.
Why grounding conductor counts as inventory
Stores hold coils of bare copper against the next grid job, and those coils are the cleanest material to sell when a utility or contractor needs space. They have a size, a tag and a footage, and none of the uncertainty that comes with conductor that has spent decades in soil. A tagged coil needs no explanation and no inspection beyond the wrap.
So a grounding lot is often two very different things at once: a coil on a rack and a heap of excavated conductor. We quote them separately and say which is which, because averaging the two produces a number that is wrong for both halves of the lot. We would rather quote two numbers than one that suits neither half.
- Store-room coil: priced on footage and size
- Excavated grid: usually priced on weight
- Welds and rod stubs are cut out first
Questions sellers ask
Can excavated ground grid be sold as conductor?
Sometimes. If it was lifted in long straight runs and still has its original temper, it can be sold to someone installing a grid. If it came out in short pieces, was kinked by a bucket, or is studded with weld lumps, it sells on weight. Both are legitimate, and we will say which applies after seeing it.
How do you price copper with welds in it?
The welds are cut out and the remaining lengths are priced. A grid run with a weld every twenty feet yields short pieces, so it lands close to scrap value even though the metal is clean. Where a run has only one or two welds, cutting them out leaves useful lengths and the price reflects that.
Is copper-clad steel worth the same as bare copper?
No. Copper-clad steel carries a copper skin over a steel core, so its copper content is a fraction of its weight, and mills price it on that basis. It is still worth buying, particularly in long counterpoise runs, but it should never be listed on the same line as solid bare copper.
What lengths matter for grid copper?
Roughly the distance between welds on the grid you are removing. A run that comes out at forty feet or more can serve again as a grid run or a down lead. Anything shorter is priced on weight, and there is no point coiling it carefully to present as footage.
Send us your reel list
Six details are enough for a first review: what the cable is, the metal, the size, the footage or reel count, the condition and where it sits. Photographs can follow by text or email. There is no fee and no obligation, and nothing moves until written terms are agreed.
Grid copper to clear?
Tell us whether it is coil stock or excavated grid, and send one photograph of each with a tape alongside.
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