Storm damage conductor buyers in Tennessee
Conductor and cable left over after storm repair, bought as two products: what can go back on a line, and what goes to 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.
Storm work produces a mixed pile. Some spans come down intact, some are torn into short lengths, and some lie in a ditch for a week before a crew reaches them. What arrives at the yard is the residue of a repair rather than a shipment, and it has to be read that way.
We buy storm lots knowing that most of the tonnage is scrap and a portion of it is not. The seller's job is to keep those two apart on the ground. Ours is to say plainly which is which before a truck leaves with the lot.
Lot basics
- Typical material
- ACSR, AAAC, service drop
- Usual damage
- Broken strands, kinks, tree rub
- Form it arrives in
- Coils, spans, cut lengths
- Deciding evidence
- Photographs of the damage
What actually survives a storm
Conductor that parted at a tie or a splice is usually the strongest part of a storm lot, because it failed at a weak point rather than along its length. Conductor brought down by a tree is the worst, since the damage runs the span and shows as flattened strands and deep abrasion. Both end up in the same pile if nobody sorts.
Service drop and covered conductor rarely survive reuse after a storm. The cover hides strand damage, and a cover stretched during the event will not sit back on the conductor correctly. Those go to scrap. Bare primary conductor is where the reusable material sits, and only where a piece is long and straight enough to restring.
Separating reusable spans from scrap
Sorting is most reliable where the material lands, before anything is coiled. Three categories are enough: conductor with no visible strand damage, conductor with damage that can be cut out locally, and scrap. Once it is all coiled together, the sorting cost moves onto the buyer and the offer reflects that. Sorting later costs the same effort and loses the knowledge of which piece came from where.
Cutting out a damaged section is worth it when the good part is long. A 900 foot span with twenty crushed feet near one end becomes two pieces, one of which is still useful. Cutting a 200 foot piece in half to remove damage leaves two pieces nobody wants on a line. Judgement about where to cut is worth more than the cutting itself.
How to present a storm lot honestly
Photograph the damage rather than the pile. A wide shot of coils tells a buyer nothing. A close photograph of the crushed section, the frayed end and any surviving tag says whether the rest of the lot is likely to be clean, because storm damage is not evenly distributed across a system. A clean-looking pile with one bad span inside it is the usual case.
Say where the material came from and how long it sat. Conductor that spent two weeks in a wet ditch holds water in the strands and corrodes at the cut ends, and that changes the number. None of this is a reason to leave anything out. A described lot with known defects is easier to buy than a clean-sounding lot with surprises in it.
Load the material the way it was sorted. A roll-off that mixes clean coils with scrap undoes the work done in the yard, and a tarp over the top keeps rain out of open ends. Weigh the scrap portion on your own scale if you have one, since a ticket from the seller removes an argument later.
Questions sellers ask
Can storm-damaged conductor still be reused?
Some of it. A piece that parted at a tie or a splice is often sound through its length, and if it is long enough it can be restrung on another line. Anything a tree brought down, or that was dragged during cleanup, is scrap. The proportion varies enormously between storms, which is why we look before quoting.
How should a storm lot be sorted before pickup?
Into clean, repairable and scrap, with the clean material coiled separately. Keep any reel that still carries a tag with that reel. Avoid cutting long pieces to fit a trailer, because length is the property that makes storm conductor worth anything beyond its weight at the scale.
Do you buy conductor still on broken reels?
Yes. A damaged drum is a handling question rather than a material one, and we will respool or take the coil as it lies. What matters is that the material on it is still identified, so keep the tag with the drum even after the drum itself is finished.
What photographs help with a storm lot?
One wide shot for scale, then close shots of the worst damage, the cut ends and any surviving tags. If the lot is large, photograph each pile separately and say which is which. That is enough for us to estimate how much is reusable and how much is heading for 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.
Storm material to clear?
Send a photograph of each pile and tell us what came down, and we will say what is reusable.
Tennessee only · statewide pickup planning