Copper Thefts

[jmellc]

I did a 2nd copper theft rewire recently for the same house. Had a carpenter friend rework the crawlspace door. 1st fix didn't work. Checked out another theft nearby, thieves got some of the wire, all the plumbing pipe & some of the HVAC eqpt. He'll have about $10,000 damages altogether.

Please warn your customers to secure their crawlspaces.

 

[ceb58]

I did a 2nd copper theft rewire recently for the same house. Had a carpenter friend rework the crawlspace door. 1st fix didn't work. Checked out another theft nearby, thieves got some of the wire, all the plumbing pipe & some of the HVAC eqpt. He'll have about $10,000 damages altogether.

Please warn your customers to secure their crawlspaces.

You may be able to retire on this one house. I haven't seen the plumbers use copper in a long time. All pex or cpvc. I did do a service call on a late 60's house back in the summer. Had to go in the crawl space to trace out wires for the sprinkler. They had plumbed the drain lines in 1 1/2" and 3" copper.

 

[masterinbama]

You may be able to retire on this one house. I haven't seen the plumbers use copper in a long time. All pex or cpvc. I did do a service call on a late 60's house back in the summer. Had to go in the crawl space to trace out wires for the sprinkler. They had plumbed the drain lines in 1 1/2" and 3" copper.

My mothers house is all copper. When my dad passed away her insurance company sent her an audit asking the age of the electrical service and the condition of the HVAC and plumbing. I had reworked the service and installed a new heat pump so that was covered. I had already called a plumber to replace the water heater and asked if he would sign off on the condition of the plumbing. As soon as he saw the copper drains he told me that he had to run his snake machine on a copper drain system once in his 30 years. Impressed me.

As for the copper theft I had a roll of bare #4 and bare #6 walk of my employees truck last week. Come to find out the bin they were in could be unlocked with about anything.

 

[jmellc]

The 1st house already had mostly pvc water lines. I suspect it had copper lines stolen before. May have had galvanized too, it was built about 1930's or so.

2nd house was built about early 1960's, all copper water lines. The thief got more of the water lines than the wire. Some ckt loops were still in place where I could put j boxes & do new HR's. I gave a price & recommended plumber & HVAC people to him, but I suspect he's getting prices from everyone in town. My project would be replacing damaged meter base, riser & cable to indoor panel, partially replace wiring, add smoke detectors, replace all receptacles & plates.

I think HO got more than he bargained for. He bought it as a foreclosure, to use as rental house. Then found out the extent of thefts.