Oil Tank Removal: Your Ultimate Guide to Oil Tank Detection

Buying or selling a property is typically the most common reason that someone would need an oil tank detection and oil tank certificate.

Oil tank detection, oil tank scan, oil tank locating and oil tank search, are a couple of phrases that you may hear for the first time when you have decided to purchase or sell a home in the Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley area.

Most likely you have come across this article in hopes to get more information about what is involved in the oil tank detection process, and where to start.

What Is An Oil Tank?

To understand the importance of an oil tank detection, it is helpful to know what an oil tank is and why they were used.

In Greater Vancouver before natural gas was the most common source for heating homes, oil tanks were one of the most efficient methods to keep out the cold.

A standard buried oil tank is cylindrical and varies in size. Most residential oil tanks are approximately 8 ft long by 3 ft wide.

Due to their size, many homeowners usually opted to have their oil tank or underground storage tank (UST) buried underground for aesthetic purposes.

For older homes, there were alternative fuel source options that may have been installed when the house was initially built;however, it is important to note that the homeowner may have converted to fuel oil heating when it became more readily available.

Other alternative fuel sources included:

• Coal burning furnaces
• Sawdust burning furnaces
• Wood burning chimneys

In comparison to these alternative fuel sources, oil tanks were seen as a space saving, cost effective solution that usually required less direct work from the homeowner.

The alternative heating methods would usually require the home owner to devote an area in their home to store coal, saw dust or wood.

In comparison:

Oil tanks did not take up much square footage in the home because many times they were buried underground outside.

Additionally, the above alternative heating methods typically required the homeowner to manually load fuel into their furnaces.

In comparison:

Oil tanks were many times considered to be the hassle free heating alternative because they only had to be filled occasionally by a fuelling truck.

Oil Tank Detection:

What Age Of Homes Have A Higher Risk Of Having An Oil Tank?

Depending on the location of the property, natural gas was implemented into each municipalities infrastructures at different times.

In comparison, Vancouver started to use natural gas around 1957;however, Maple Ridge started using natural gas around 1975.

Important Note: even though a city had started to use natural gas, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it was available in your neighborhood at that time.

Furthermore, it should be noted that some homeowners were more comfortable with fuel oil heating and may have made their decision based on personal preference.

For the above reasons, we feel that any house built before 1975 has a higher risk of an oil tank being on the property at one point and should have an oil tank detection as a precautionary measure.

If your house was built after 1975, you may still want to get an oil tank detection as a precautionary measure depending on the location and the history of the property.  

Some of the reasons that you may consider getting an oil tank detection if your home was constructed after 1975 are:

Located In A Rural/Remote Area

Some properties still use oil tanks for their primary heating source. In some areas, gas heating is still not readily available or it is too expensive for the home owner to convert to natural gas.

Later Installment Of Natural Gas

The further you travel from outside of Vancouver the later natural gas was installed, so depending on when natural gas was installed in your city, the oil tank could have been installed after 1975.

Previous Structure Had Fuel Oil Heating

With older homes, it can be difficult to know the history of the property.  The original home could have had an oil tank and albiet a rare situation, they may have not removed the oil tank before building the current structure.

Subdivided Properties

There is a chance that while sub dividing a property, the new set property lines left the old oil tank on the newly created neighbouring lot.  

As a result of the new property lines, this new lot could potentially have an oil tank, even though there was no previous structure fuelled by an oil tank on this lot. 

Commercial Properties

If the property was or is used for commercial purposes, there is a chance that even a newly constructed building could have a storage tank, for example, but not limited to:

Auto Mechanics: May have a waste oil storage tank on thier property for oil changes etc.

Dry Cleaners: May have a chemical storage tank

Important note:

It is always better to be safe than sorry when dealing with oil tanks. 

There are not many records available prior to the year 2000 for oil tank installations, oil tank removals, and oil tank decommissioning.  

The best way to tell if you have an oil tank located on a property is to get an oil tank detection.

Reasons To Get An Oil Tank Detection

The number one reason to get an oil tank detection is usually because someone is selling or purchasing a property.

Typically when a property goes on the market, the listing realtor will recommend to their client that they get an oil tank detection done before listing their home.

Oil tank detections are usually recommended to protect their client and to make the property more marketable.

If the current property owner declines to answer if there is an oil tank on their property or to provide an oil tank detection certificate. Sometimes potential buyers will hire an oil tank removal company on their own to perform the oil tank detection.

In either case, it is important to get a property inspected for an underground oil tank to mitigate potential risks/liabilities and to appease the requirements of all parties involved.

Below are the Top 7 Reasons To Get An Oil Tank Detection:

1. Selling or purchasing a property
2. Renewal of mortgage or refinancing
3. Renewal of home insurance
4. Local municipality requirements
5. Renovations
6. Pipes or oil tank related items found at the property
7. Being Pro-Active

Oil Tank Detection: Signs That You May Have An Oil Tank

As previously mentioned the best way to tell if you have an oil tank on your property is to get an oil tank detection.

Keeping this in mind, there are some signs that you can look for:

• Filler pipes
• Vent pipes
• Feeder lines
• Oil burner emergency shut off switch
• Depressions in the ground
• Oil in your basement
• Broken or replaced concrete path in your basement
• Oil Present in your drainage system
• Dead or evidence of oil on your grass
• Evidence of pipes removed

How To Book An Oil Tank Detection

At Tri City Tank Tech we try to make this process as simple, convenient and hassle-free as possible

Contact Us

It is important to us to make this process as fast, and convenient as possible, so we offer many ways to schedule your appointment.
Feel free to contact us or fill out our Book Your Scan form online.

Pre-Inspection Questions

Before we schedule your appointment we go over a series of questions that can help prepare the property and reduce the risk of exemptions on your oil tank detection certificate.  

Book An Appointment

Once the pre-inspection questions have been answered, we can typically perform your oil tank detection within 1-2 days.

Sometimes we can do an oil tank detection on the same day.

However, we recommend that you get your oil tank detection done sooner than later so you do not lose a potential deal over an oil tank detection.

Additionally, if an oil tank is unfortunately found on your property, you will have more time to address the situation.

Oil Tank Detections:

Most Common Types Of Equipment

The 3 most common types of equipment used during an oil tank detection are:

Metal Detectors

This instrument can locate a wide variety of metals, but it usually cannot penetrate the ground as deep as the other methods of scanning below.

Depending on the type of metal detector, this type of scan is more susceptible to interference because it detects a wider range of metals that are not related to oil tanks.

Magnetic Locators

This instrument locates objects with ferrous or iron content, measuring the magnetic field that the object resonates.

This method can typically scan deeper than metal detection and is less susceptible to interference.  

In comparision to metal detection, magnetic location can lower the risk of interference from other metals such as copper, aluminum, and brass.

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)

This instrument utilizes high-frequency radio signals by transmitting a signal through the ground.

When this signal reaches the buried object, it reflects a signal back to the GPR receiver.  From that point, the GPR equipment can then record the depth and orientation of the object.

What To Expect During An Oil Tank Detection

If there are not many anomalies or obstructions, a standard oil tank detection usually takes approximately 20 minutes to 1 hour.

During the oil tank detection, our expert technicians use high-quality magnetic locators to scan the perimeter of your property.

While scanning your property, we will look for oil tank related pipage and/or indications of oil tank pipage that may have been previously removed.

If we do not find any indications of an oil tank, we will provide a detailed oil tank detection report (also known as an oil tank certificate).

If an oil tank is unfortunately found on your property, we will provide a detailed quotation for your oil tank removal and thoroughly explain each step of the oil tank removal process.

Oil Tank Detection Certificate

Once your oil tank scan is completed, if no tank is found during your oil tank detection, we will provide you with a detailed oil tank detection certificate/report.

If potential buyers, lenders, or other parties request an oil tank detection certificate, it is important to have this information readily available upon request.

We feel it is always better to be pro-active than re-active.  

Not having an oil tank detection certificate available upon request can push potential buyers away.

The more prepared you are at your first open house, the less likely a prospective buyer will move on to the next property.