Salvage Kings
Season 3 History (*186) 19:25 Reality
Ted Finch knows all about demolition. But he also knows about saving things and that’s why he’s leading the salvage team on reality “rescue” series Salvage Kings. “Often we’re called in to demolish an office building and you’d be surprised by what has been left inside,” says the 50something businessman. “Once we came away with about $10 000 (R200 000) worth of office equipment – printers and computers that were still in their boxes and had never been opened.”
But the job is more than just clearing out buildings and then using the giant wrecking balls and earth moving equipment to tear down walls. Ted and his team need to understand business and how scrapping works. “We have contacts all around the country who’ll buy specific things from us. So if I’ve got 10 tons of steel, I know that I have one guy on the West Coast who’ll take all 10, or I’ll have two guys on the South East who’ll both take five tons – then I’m just trying to work out what’s going to be the easiest and cheapest for me so that I still make my profit at the end of the demo,” says Ted.
That also means the demolition crew need a keen eye to sort rubble and refuse from anything that can be sold or used. “You’d be surprised by what people will buy or use; they upcycle and recycle things that the average person throws away,” says the lead star. “When we first started the family business (Priestly Demolitions), we had a tiny amount of startup capital and our first-ever job was big enough to pay off our debts in one shot. We had enough money to immediately buy our equipment that we still use – paid for by ‘scrap’.”