Tanks For The Memories
Surprise! This was the scene at our house yesterday:
Allow me to explain. We decided to test the soil around our home’s underground oil tank (we have oil heat) a few weeks back to assure any interested buyer that it’s in tip top shape. Much to our horror, it wasn’t. Soil tests came back indicating that we had a small leak. We felt like somebody punched us in the face. Here we are with our rain barrel and our compost bin along with all of our energy star appliances and our cloth diapers in an effort to be green while our oil tank has been oozing nastiness underground without our knowledge. Shudder.
Luckily we learned that it’s something that the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality feels so strongly about fixing that they actually offer a credit to homeowners in our situation, so we only had to pay a $500 deductible for the removal of the old leaky underground tank (and the gross oil-riddled soil around it – hence the excavator pictured above) while the government covers the rest of the usually-around-$2,000 project. Nice right? But we did have to kick in about $1300 to install a new above ground tank (which will never secretly leak since it’ll be visible instead of buried). The good news is that it’s kind of like we’re paying it forward since we’re leaving a new tank for our home’s next owners and our new house actually also just got a new above ground tank (so we’ll inherit one that’s just as new and shiny). Ain’t she pretty all tucked quietly behind our azalea bushes?
Especially when you compare her to ol’ Rusty. They estimated that our tank was about 30 years old after unearthing it. Here’s hoping 30 is kinder to me when I hit it next year.
The funny thing is that as gross as that sucker looks, they could only find this dime-sized hole at the bottom (though they said others might be too dirt-clogged to see).
The good news of the whole oil-leakage incident is that since oil doesn’t move very much through compacted dirt like ours, it’s not believed to have traveled very far underground. So the Virginia DEQ just requires the removal of the tank and a bit of surrounding soil to rectify the situation. Okay, maybe a “bit of soil” is an understatement. This was the hole they dug:
They had to dig up two azalea bushes to make that hole but luckily the process didn’t disturb the driveway or any large trees. And they replanted the pristinely removed azaleas after filling the gorge with gravel and topsoil (though they were the first to say that they make no guarantees about their future survival). Cross your fingers, I guess?
Even though it’s bittersweet to have sunk money into unsinking this leaky tank for our buyers (yay environment, boo spending) we’re definitely comforted by the fact that we’re getting a new shiny tank at our new house (how funny is it that the current owners ran into a similar situation with their underground tank and just upgraded to an above ground version too?). So I guess we could call it good house karma paying off. If you can count following government orders as karma.
Have you guys had oil issues? Or other appallingly ungreen discoveries in general? Nothing like a little unplanned spending around the holidays to get your blood pumping.
Psst- Holy amazingness. Check out this sweet DIY play kitchen that was made from an old TV unit over on BabyCenter.
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to answer Lornas question at 1:28 Heating oil is combustible, not flammable. In order to get it to burn, you have to heat it to 140 degrees. Therefore, it is legal and perfectly safe to install heating oil tanks in the basement. In comparison, because propane is flammable and highly explosive, it is illegal to install propane tanks in the basement.
MAXX ME!
Well, the top gift request for me this year is some nice leather gloves. It doesn’t get too cold down here in GA, but every now and then the steering wheel just gets too cold :-)
As for the fun part…I’m looking forward to giving my grandma a pre-arranged set of wall picture frames so she can put up new family photos!
Actually, until recently I had never heard of someone having an oil tank as opposed to a water heater! Never heard of it! Why do they use oil tanks out there anyway? A friend of mine lives in NY and is looking to buy a home in CT and they use those up there too. Glad you were able to get it resolved and had some help from the state. Yeah for shiny new tank at your new house too!
I think you guys in effort to prove everything is tip top just cost yourself unneeded costs. I think you guys are impressive in terms of the new owner is getting their monies worth however it comes at your expense and the expense of your new home which i guarantee don’t have current owners as diligent as you. Hope you don’t spend all your cash on a house you already sold.
Actually (to Dave) environmental liabilities like oil spilled in soil follow you even after you have sold the house. So it is a good idea to be able to prove that when you left the property, it was clean. Even if it requires clean up, it is better to oversee it yourself than to have a future owner send you the bill! I worked at a house that incurred $100,000+ cleaning up after a leaky home oil tank (oil spilled, travelled along pipes under house and entire house had to be jacked up to clean underneath it!)
Are you kidding!? I had no idea to even look for something like this. I’m about to go tromping around my house to see what’s what. By the way, that is really conscientious of you to do that for the future homeowners. Lots of good karma must be flowing your way :)
I am sorry for the major “upheaval” that you had to go through, but I loved loved loved reading this post. I work my state’s DEQ. For over the past year, I have been involved in removing and cleaning up underground storage tanks (think 6000+ gallons!) at abandoned gas stations around the state. It is so nice to know that some people just want to check up on things instead of waiting and fighting about it when it becomes a major problem.
In basement tanks are fine and normal. In ground are less desirable these days because of what we’ve just read.
Mike – what fuel does your boiler use to heat the water? Normally it’s oil or gas, unless you have a geothermal system.
We had oil heat in our ranch when we moved into it in 2007…just a few months before winter struck. That was the coldest 3 months of my life, I think…keeping it at 58 degrees (keeping in mind the house had none of the insulation that we quickly installed before the following winter) our oil bill was still $400 a month on average. The following winter (in addition to the insulation), we installed a brand new electric heat pump! It was only about $5k, and it’s a great efficient system! Our heating bills only creep close to $300 one month out of the year, and we reap the savings just as much in the summer months as we do the winter. Bonus? We got rid of our above-ground tank (which was only a few years old) for a sleek under-the-house furnace (or whatever you call it!). :)
Lorna – my parents had an oil tank in the basement but they switched to natural gas heat a long time ago and the tank was removed. So much better than having it underground! Oh, they live in WA, and I saw some other commenters in different states have basement ones too, so I don’t think it’s a big deal. For what it’s worth.
No oil tanks around these parts (I’m in Ontario, Canada) but we recently replaced our circa 1980 gas boiler. We have hot water radiant heat in our century old home. Our old boiler was so inefficient, we were spending over $500/month on our gas bills in the winter!
Since September, we’ve has insulation blown into all of our exterior walls from the outside, and put in a fancy new boiler, that also acts as an instant hot water heater. Our gas bills are a fraction of what they were last year, and the new boiler has a crazy high efficiency rating :)
Thank goodness for Canadian and Ontario eco-rennovation grants, we’ll get about half of the $15,000 we spent back in our pockets by the end of the year.
Have you guys considered installing a tankless hot water heater? They’re fantastic!
Hey Katie,
Yes! We have definitely considered one for the new house down the line. Glad to hear that you love yours!
xo,
s
My oil tank is in my basement as well as my in-laws’ oil tank, both in MA. My parent’s oil tank in NH is in their basement as well… I’ve actually never heard of an outdoor oil tank. Maybe it’s regional based on the area’s weather conditions?
Sorry this is way off the subject but when you mentioned about paying forward, I thought of this movie I just saw “Pay it Forward” it’s about 10 years old. Helen Hunt, Kevin Spacey and then little boy from Forrest Grump star in it. It’s a touching story about one boy out to change the world. Check it out….
I just posted my first comment the other night..Sherry is super fast to respond…love your blog.
Hey Maribel,
Thanks for the recommendation. I’ve actually seen it! Total tear-jerker…
xo,
s
In our house now we have natural gas that comes right to our house – no tank required. However, in our old house we had an oil tank in the basement. It was easy to see leaks, but I’m glad to be done with oil!
Ew, nasty job to have to deal with! Glad it ended up being fairly painless.
The 1950s house I grew up in had a buried oil tank, but it had been converted to electrical heat several years before my parents moved in. The tank was buried in a high traffic area (right outside the side door!) so when it finally rusted through it’d give way under whatever unlucky person stepped on it. So my dad dug it up. There were also several inches of sludge in the bottom of the tank. Either it couldn’t be drained fully, or whoever did the conversion got lazy. Yuck!
I’ve never heard of having oil heating for a house until I read about it here. It’s great the you two are so responsible about fixing things before you close. We had to fight the previous homeowners to fix some things before we closed. And even then many things were done half way.
Add us to the list of people with oil tanks in the basement, it’s very common in the Philly area. Our old home was the one with a basement tank, our new home is basementless and has a garage tank.
We had an oil furnace at our rancher that was above ground. Great heat! But the a/c was electric and needed replacing, so we got a combo heat pump. Since our tank was above ground, we left it in the side yard, because we didn’t have the money to have it disposed of. We ended up giving it to our neighbor who turned it into a beautiful gigantic BBQ cooker! He can fit two whole hogs on it! Would have sold it had we known people use them for stuff like that.
another comment for lorna re: the oil tank in the basement – my father-in-law has one in the basement of his house (built in the late ’40s in northern va). he pays so much for oil heat, though – $300-400 per month! he’s exploring converting to natural gas heat as some people above have mentioned. anybody know how much that sort of conversion costs?
OMG loooks so scary!
Glad that is solved!
XOXO,
http://outfitidentifier.com/
Here in Maine many (I’d venture to say most) oil tanks are in basements, and the oil goes to either: a furnace that pushes hot air through duct work that comes out vents in the floor, or to a furnace that heats water that gets pushed through pipes in the wall to radiators and baseboards. The other common option here is kerosene and those tanks are often outside (which I don’t understand). Propane is becoming more popular as a heating source, especially with the on-demand hot water heaters becoming affordable. Natural gas is only an option here in cities that have it. Here in the rural parts we don’t have the natural gas infrastructure. So for us, we have oil for heating the air, and propane for heating water for hot water in the faucets.
As far as the people saying they have “hot water heat” – the water doesn’t get hot magically on its own. It’s got to be heated by combustion of either oil, propane, natural gas (yes, natural gas is different from propane), or kerosene. Or as some have mentioned, geothermal or a heat pump.
Underground oil tanks are frowned upon because they do fail over time, leak, pollute ground water, etc. Above ground tanks outside seem like not a good idea for the winters here – the weather elements would rust it out so quick, in my opinion.
Very interesting how it differs depending on geographic region!
my father has been telling me this for years. So I just thought it was common house hold knowledge to remove your underground oil tank ASAP! Glad you guys have brought this to everyone’s attention!
Oh boy can I EVER relate!
I’ve had this house 10 years, it was built in the 60′s. A few years ago, I happen to notice a teeny puddle under my outdoor oil tank. Mine stands up higher than the one you have, on legs. I had to get a new tank and luckily no real “leak” so I was *extremely* fortunate to have happened to see the leak START!
Here is what I’ve learned in the past few years. I’ve had many problems with lines freezing and the oil jelling up, all the repairmen say “you really should get an indoor tank”. If water makes it’s way in, the water sinks to the bottom and will rust out your tank. Water can enter through loose caps, drain-off from the roof, snow, rain, etc. Not only THAT, but if your tank is half full, that leaves plenty of room for condensation to happen INSIDE the tank, if the sun hits it when it’s cold.
Bottom line: look into *fuel additives*. Many fuel companies add them in when they fill up your tank, ask to be sure. I add in my own. I’ve been recommended to use “Heat” (same thing you use in your car) and my repair guy really likes a product called “Hot 4-in-1″ it displaces the water and saves not only your tank but your furnace. (If water gets pooled and then fed to your furnace, it will go out. You’ll need a repairman. It has happened to me twice so far this year and I’m hoping the problem is solved for good!) When the weather gets better, I have been told I may want to paint my dark brown tank to a reflective silver finish, to help avoid condensation.
Here’s hoping your climate is easier on an outdoor oil tank. Here in Minnesota, I haven’t had good experiences with them the past few years, sorry to say. But I always look on the bright side: my Rat Terrier, Sadie, thinks the furnace repair man is her “bestest buddy”!
It’s awesome that you guys are so responsible!
Katie (at 3.40 pm) – I’m also in Ontario (South-western) and oil tanks are somewhat common here. The tanks are usually in the basement or outside; I don’t think they’re buried. Natural gas is definitely more popular, though.
Reading this, I’ve never been more pleased to live in the south (south Louisiana) and simply stick to central heat and air. My heat is natural gas and even with my poorly insulated old house, I never had a gas bill over $100 last winter. I just had new insulation blown in my attic and I expect it to keep my gas bills down even more!
I was wondering what the tank on the left side of your house holds? I think that you painted it to match your brick colour. I was thinking that that was your oil tank.
That’s a propane tank for the gas fireplace in the den.
xo,
s
Been on the lookout for a discarded cabinet to make a similar kitchen for my daughter. But then, about a year ago, I found this site and LOVE these little kitchens even better. I think Clara needs one of these instead since her parents are so handy!!
http://ana-white.com/2010/11/inspiring-play-kitchens-and-a-smaller-fridge.html
Huh. Never even heard of oil heat. We live in MI & have a boiler (hot water heat, which is heated with gas). Our house is the same size as yours & costs anywhere from $100-$300 a month depending how cold it is out (gets cold here!). What does oil heat cost a month? Just curious.
When people buy a house here, they have to consider the cost to heat it vs. square footage. Is that an issue in VA?
Hey Katie,
We usually get one refill of oil per winter for about $850 or so. Not cheap, but it’s nice to pay for it all at once and then be warm until the next winter rolls around. As for worrying about the cost to heat things vs. square footage, people usually ask about utility costs, but it doesn’t seem to be as much of a problem as you describe up in cold MI!
xo,
s
“Thank you!” to everyone who weighed in on the “Are oil tanks in the basement legal?” question. I’m so glad they are! I guess our last house was built by a New England guy who’d moved south to Virginia, and he just put himself an oil tank in the basement like he’d always known. A six inch gas main ran through the front yard, but the house was never hooked in.
To those who’ve never experienced oil heat… it’s glorious! It doesn’t smell any more than gas or electric heat. Imagine coming home to your house after Christmas at Grandma’s, and the heat has been set down to 55 F for a few days. You walk over, and turn the thermostat up to 75 F, and there’s a deep “Whoomf” from down below as the oil furnace fires itself up. Then it blows lovely HOT air! In about 15 minutes it kicks off again because the whole house is 75 F already, and the thermostat can be set down to a more reasonable 68 F.
Compare that to our current house, a well-insulated all-electric house with 3-year-old high-efficiency heat-pumps. We NEVER set the heat down to 55 F because it would take HOURS (maybe DAYS) to get it back up to 68 F. Each time the house cools to the point that the thermostat turns the heat on, it blows COOL air. Then it’s not just cold, it’s cold and WINDY inside. And our electric bills last winter topped $500/mo. for a couple of months – in Virginia!
Oh how we miss the oil heat! One day, when money drops out of the sky, we’re going to retrofit these heat-pumps with oil fired auxiliary (back-up) heat instead of miserable, expensive-to-run electric coils!
We live in Minneapolis. I have never heard of anyone not having natural gas heat. I would LOVE to not get a gas bill every month, especially in the winter!
I wonder if the cost of the oil system is comparable to being on the gas line? How often do you have to fill the oil tank?
Hey Lauren,
We usually get one refill of oil per winter for about $850 or so. Not cheap, but it’s nice to pay for it all at once and then be warm until the next winter rolls around…
xo,
s
I live in the mountains of the southwest and we don’t have oil tanks. But septic tanks are common.
When we sold our house 11 years ago, we discovered the septic system was failing and we had to install new leach lines. We lost our sale as the buyers weren’t willing to wait. But we had to wait….. 6 weeks before someone could even START working on it. And then it was Christmastime. We had to be very careful about how much water we were using (I even bailed water from baths out to the shrubbery). Our entire backyard and most of the front yard were torn up like a war zone.
In the cold of January I put both yards back together, piece by piece. Cathartic in a way. We resold the house in April! And our new home is on sewer, not septic. Yay for sewer!
We live in Stratford Hills…. We had a leak too, but since they determined it was not very bad, we were only required to empty it ad fill it with sand and plug it though! Though now I;m not sure that was very green of us :(.
Here in CT, underground oil tanks are pretty common in older homes. When we were house hunting, our agent told us that most people require the seller to remove the underground tank as a condition of the sale.
We didn’t have tank drama at this house, but we did have a problem prior to closing – electrician came in to make a minor repair, discovered a major issue requiring an expensive repair. It was resolved prior to closing, but what a headache!
I handle relocations for a national corporation and we *always* pay for an oil-tank sweep before allowing one of our employees to purchase a home. Most relocation companies will require a sweep and if any are found, that they are removed (even if not leaking) at the expense of the seller. Underground oil tanks are a big red-flag in our book, so lucky that you didn’t have a big cost or buyers that walked! You did the right thing!
Oil heat is rare in our area because of how costly it is in our cold climate but our house was so old it still was running off an oil tank in the basement. Burying oil tanks is illegal here because of our strict ground water laws. Our furnace was on it’s last leg of life. So you can imagine my excitement when last fall we invested in a geothermal system! It’s one of the greenest ways to heat your house and compared to a new propane system (no natural gas in the country) would pay for the difference in only 4 years! According to my calculations it will pay for itself completely in 8 years:
http://threeacres.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/going-geothermal-an-eight-part-mini-series/
Man, that would be amazing to get someday…
xo,
s
No oil tank problems, but when we were 3 days away from selling our Charlottesville home (on our way to Philly) the well ran dry! We had to spend $5K to have another one drilled, and thanks to a sympathetic driller, the closing was only delayed by one day. Still, it felt like money down the drain, ya know?
It’s interesting to hear about all the different methods we use to heat our houses. I’m in Alberta, Canada where it can get very, very cold at times and our central heating is a forced-air furnace that heats with natural gas and uses electricity for the fan to blow it through all the air vents. Trying to explain that to people who only know hot water radiators is often confusing, haha.
Soooo glad that there was the help for paying. What an unexpected “surprise” LOL. Glad it’s all working itself out though!
This is for Lorna, I know it is quite a few posts back now, but when we were house hunting we saw a house with an oil tank in the basement (along with a record collection of at least 50 milk crates full).
I live in Ontario, Canada and in the far north. Oil doesn’t seem to be too common here, most people are natural gas, radiator/boilers (older homes) or electric ($). I don’t think it’s illegal.
The tank we saw wasn’t sealed off, it was just tucked in the corner of the unfinished basement. Hope that helps. Maybe they are the only two houses ever to have them?
@ Lauren, I live in Minneapolis just like you, and I have oil heat.
I pay approx. $1400 a year to heat my home, sometimes it’s less. This year, I’m on a budget plan where I pay $135 a month for ten months. Sometimes I need to pay an additional lump sum at the end of the billing season, but not usually. Sometimes they even tell me to stop my monthly payments 3 or 4 months ahead of the plan, depends on the kind of winter we’re having!
I like the fact that you “paid it forward” – it IS good house karma, as far as I’m concerned.
When we moved into our first house 3 years ago, we turned the furnace on the afternoon we moved our stuff in. Guess what… significant problem with the furnace (can’t recall the details — but we had a horrible smell, and it was out of commission). Based on feedback we got, the previous owners MUST have known there was a problem before they left, but did nothing about it.
Let me tell you it sucked big-time (excuse by language). We were very excited to move into our “new” house… and here we were in very cold, fall weather with NO heat. Worse, we didn’t know any good furnace guys in our new town- and with a recent cold snap, it was a good week or two before we were able to get it fixed and have a heated house.
While we could have pursued this with the previous owners (on the basis that the house wasn’t in the same condition as when we put our offer in) – but we didn’t think it was worth pursuing. However, it was a stressful-and COLD- start to our new home!!
On the other hand, I feel good about the fact that we fixed a few things that went wrong in our condo right before we moved out (broken toilet handle etc.). There was a young girl moving into her very first place, and while it was a little bit of a hassle for us to fix them… I just thought it was so much better than her having a negative start to her very first home. Much better karma, me thinks.
Ugh; I never got why anyone thought it was a good idea to bury those suckers underground…we have friends who had a similar problem. We have an oil tank too, but it’s in our basement (we have basements up here in the northeast!) Hate using oil though; we went to pellet stove heat a few years ago. LOVE IT! Anyway, stinks that you had to spend that money, though.
I had a house in Richmond with an oil tank in the basement as well. The shame of it is that we had gas heat, and the tank had just been left behind (half filled with oil) by the former owners. The oil was there for so long, it had degraded, and was unsuitable for use anymore, so we couldn’t even donate it to an oil share program. The tank had to be taken apart with a blowtorch to get it out.
Just curious–Why did you do the test in the first place? Was it part of the inspection contingency?
Hey Richard,
Many sellers just opt to test their soil to prove that their oil tank is in working order before selling their house (which can be asked for as part of an inspection if it’s not already supplied beforehand). We were totally expecting a clean bill of health (since our oil was lasting from season to season and didn’t seem to be leaking in any noticeable way). Oh well, at least it’s all taken care of now. And after reading some of these comments it sounds like the $500 deductible is a lifesaver!
xo,
s
In our neighborhood the choices are gas or electric for heating. Sorry about the extra expense. susan
Wow- that is disgusting. So glad we live in Houston where heating is not as much of an issue.
Ya’ll have such a great attitute about this! Just wondering… Have you told the new owners about the blog yet? After they move in you definitely should! How fun for them to see the transformation that took place :)
Yes, we disclosed the blog to the new owners just because we thought they should know that photos of the house as it looked with our furniture would remain on our site (they had no idea we had a blog when they made an offer on our house, which is funny because we always a blog reader might buy our house). Thankfully they were totally cool with it!
xo,
s
My mom has an oil tank. It is above ground and lives in the basement. She has kitty litter spread around underneath the tank and the second there is a leak, you can see it in the kitty litter. I worry that your new tanks is still resting on soil and new leaks will go undetected.
Hey Julie,
When a tank is above ground the company that refills it (as well as the homeowner) can inspect it for leaks. And thankfully when there’s a refill if there’s even a small leak it’s usually very very very stinky a few hours afterwards- really. Soil with even a drop of oil will make the air smell like a gas station (which is probably true in your mom’s basement as well). So an easy way to ensure that the tank isn’t leaking (beyond looking it over and having the oil company do that when they deliver the oil as well) is to take a nice sniff after it’s filled (or even during the season to see if there is any scent at all). That’s how lots of people with above ground tanks are sure there’s no leak (as opposed to the underground ones that can silently be leaking without any indication). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Great that you tested it – no more nasties for you – and at least you have a shiny new one in the new house!
Happy 1st december!
Rachie xo
ah yes, my parents house has the oil tank in the basement. Not a happy tale this one: 15 years ago when the truck came to refill it, there was a small accident, and the entire basement flooded with oil. having removed and replaced the floors and had many machines there to clean it all out, the house still smells vaguely like a petrol station. the fight between the house insurance and the petrol company insurance on who should pay for the damage lasted for years and years.
Hi! Love your blog. I work for the State of WI regulating cleanups of spills just like this. What we see here with heating oil tanks is not so much the tank itself leaking but overfills from lazy delivery people not watching the tank to stop the fill up before it flows out. I am guessing that is why you found anything at all with the initial sampling since most sampling takes place in near surface soils, rarely will they go to the depth of the tank bottom unless the tank is being removed at the same time.
Nice to know that some states still have funds to help home owners out. Our fund here in WI is almost dry and there is a very small amount available and a fairly high deductible for heating oil tanks.
Keep up the great blogging with the next place so I can get ideas of what to do with my house. ;)