Guy wire and strand buyers in Tennessee
Galvanized guy strand and the anchors and fittings that arrive with it, bought by grade and weight from utility and contractor store rooms. Strand, anchors and clamps are listed and priced as three separate things.
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.
Guy strand is bought on a reel, used a few feet at a time and left over in coils nobody counts. It accumulates beside anchors, thimbles and clamps in a corner that is neither stock nor scrap. Most line store rooms have one, and most of them are holding more metal than the shelf suggests.
We buy those corners. Strand is identifiable from its construction and coating, it prices on grade and weight, and the fittings that came with it are worth listing separately instead of being tipped into the same barrel. A coil with a readable tag and a clean surface is the easiest thing in the store room to sell, and the crate beside it is often worth as much as the strand.
The fittings are usually worth more per pound than the strand they hold.
Lot basics
- Material
- Galvanized steel strand
- Grades
- Common, high-strength, EHS
- Sizes
- 1/4 in to 1/2 in
- Fittings
- Clamps, thimbles, anchors
What the grades mean on a strand reel
Guy strand comes in grades that describe strength rather than size: common, high-strength and extra-high-strength, usually written EHS. A 3/8 inch strand in EHS holds considerably more than the same diameter in common grade, and once the tag is gone the two are hard to tell apart by eye. Compare the wire pattern and the coating before assuming a grade.
Class refers to coating weight, from Class A through Class C, and it decides how long the strand lasts in a wet environment. Class C carries the heaviest zinc and is what you find on river crossings and in coastal work. Across most Tennessee distribution guying, Class A or B is what appears. Coating weight appears on the tag and almost nowhere else.
How strand accumulates in a store room
Guying is ordered in reels of a few thousand feet and consumed in short pieces at each pole. What remains after a rebuild is a partial reel. What remains after a storm is a pile of cut lengths that were used once and taken off. Both end up in the same corner, and neither gets counted.
Anchors tell the same story. Plate anchors, screw anchors and expansion anchors come in sizes matched to soil and load, and a store room will hold a mixture bought for different jobs over different years. They are heavy, they are identifiable by shape, and they are sold by count rather than by weight. A crate of anchors is a countable item, which makes it easy to list.
Not everything coiled in that corner is strand. Wire rope, chain, come-along cable and old conductor all end up on the same shelf, and each prices differently. A coil of wire rope offered as guy strand will be corrected at the scale, and the correction never favors the seller. Separate the two before the lot is weighed.
Identifying and selling strand
Strand is identified by diameter, number of wires, grade and coating class, and a tag gives all four. Without it, count the outer wires, measure the diameter and compare against a strand table. That narrows the grade to two possibilities which only a tensile test separates, so we price on the conservative one. A strand table and a caliper settle most of it in a minute.
Length comes from weighing against published weight per thousand feet, which is reliable for strand because the construction is consistent. Fittings are counted. A lot presented that way takes an hour to quote instead of a day, and the difference shows up in the offer. Footage on a partial reel is an estimate, and we treat it as one.
Where a full reel is still banded and the tag is readable, quote that reel on its own before anything else in the corner is touched. A banded reel with a manufacturer's tag is the one item in the pile that needs no explanation, and it is usually the item that pays for the trip.
- Diameter and wire count first, grade second
- Class A to C describes the zinc coating
- Anchors and clamps are counted, not weighed
Questions sellers ask
What is EHS strand used for?
Extra-high-strength strand is used where a guy has to hold a heavy load in a short run, such as a transmission structure or a large angle pole with limited right of way. On ordinary distribution guying, common or high-strength strand is normally enough, and the two are not interchangeable on a design.
Do you buy short cut lengths of guy wire?
Yes, as a weighed lot. Short pieces have little reuse value because a guy needs a continuous length from anchor to attachment, but they are clean galvanized steel and they sell on weight. Keep them separate from the fittings so the weight is not confused with castings.
How do you identify strand without a tag?
Measure the diameter with a caliper, count the outer wires and note whether there is a core wire or a fiber core. That combination identifies the construction. Grade is harder and often needs a tensile test, so we price unmarked strand at the lower grade unless the coating and wire pattern point clearly elsewhere.
Are anchors and fittings worth including in the lot?
Yes, and they should be listed separately from the strand. Anchors, thimbles, guy clamps and insulators are sold by count and by size, and a crate of them is often worth more than the partial reel beside it. Mixed unidentified castings are worth less, so keep the boxes and labels where you can.
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.
Strand and hardware in the corner?
Send a photograph of the reels, the coils and the fitting crate, and tell us what the tags say.
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