Oil Tank

These lines are clearly from an abandoned exterior Oil Tank (buried)…
Seller claims that when they purchased (5 years ago) their Inspector told them these lines were from a former HVAC line set…
(not likely)
The question now is …
Is there a tank?
Where is the tank?
and the condition of the tank and soil…?

Way beyond our scope of inspection. Good job identifying such but that battle of He said She said, is the buyer and seller’s issue. By me its approx $1600 to have tank located and abandoned properly with a certificate by licensed company. And usually responsibility lies with seller to pay for it. Small hiccup i would think on a sale of $300,000 house.
No need to get soil tested. Town just requires abandoned properly.

I would think there would be an odor with fuel oil…

Did you smell anything like that?

Refer out what you think MAY be outside…your opinion (hard to say for sure)…and move on, eh?

Having worked for Sunoco (Sun Oil Company) for 20 years…
Copper lines are clearly identifiable as oil supply & return lines

Natural Gas Fired Boiler (current install) is approximately 12 years old which indicates the time of abandonment of the tank (tank may have been removed).

No one (Seller and/or Agent) knows the actual condition or state of the system / supply storage tank.

I would agree. As you know, lines that are of the same and similar size, as these, are not HAVC. If they were you’d most likely have one small and one larger line. Lines of this type and size would indicate to me one for oil supply and one for return.

You didn’t mention it but what was the age of the home?

Here’s a similar one I found on a 1935 home

Home is 75 years old

Don’t you wish they were all this easy to identify!

I agree with you the “other guy” is way off or someone is blowing smoke.

And once you find it, you have to do this to get rid of it along with any contaminated soil if any.

Here is the home
Tank is paved (asphalt) over in the driveway / parking area…

On what side of the home were those pipes you assumed to be oil lines. The right side?

A metal detector would help not?:slight_smile:

The right side (side yard in photo).
The driveway area had been expanded and paved up to the sidewall of the home.
A metal detector may help but I have never offered a Tank Location Inspection as part of our services.
We just report what we find…

I agree, I was just guessing as to where one would start to find it. Chances are it is no more than ten feet from the house. :wink:

Here’s one I found last week but was pretty obvious. Confirmed it with my septic probe, down about 2 1/2 feet.

Funny this was the seller had the replacement oil tank permit posted in the basement above the new tank, no final inspection by the fire department. Ooppps

Buried oil tank b.JPG

Buried oil tank.JPG