Oil Tank Sweep in Essex County, NJ

Necessity of an Oil Tank Sweep in Essex County

Real estate professionals in Essex County and throughout New Jersey agree that an oil tank sweep is now a vital course of action before closing on a sale. Reasons include:

• A prerequisite to mortgage: In order to get a mortgage or bank loan approval, you might require an oil tank sweep. In other cases, realtors are required to have a sweep done before listing and selling a property.
• Liability: If you are the owner of the property, it is your responsibility to remedy any environmental hazard on site. You will be liable for all cleanups, damages, and lawsuits caused by a leaking oil tank. In Essex County, as in other New Jersey counties, you may have to obtain soil tests certification by a laboratory to ensure that the oil tank sweep and removal (if required) was successful.
• Environmental Damage: For any neighboring property, water supply, or aquifer, oil tank leakage is a persistent threat. Similarly, oil contamination can harm the groundwater and soil. An ensuing cleanup could cost tens of thousands of dollars. Of course, an oil tank sweep is an affordable way to ensure you will not have this responsibility when selling your Essex County home at some point in the future.
• Fire Hazards: The vapors caused by oil leakage from an oil tank could result in a combustion and fire to the property.
• Health Risks: Heating oils that were once commonly used in Essex County may contain carcinogens which, if leaked, could transmit to the human body in the form of vapor. Ailments like respiratory infection and nausea are sometimes caused by this.
• You May Not Be Covered By Insurance: Even if your insurance company asks for a prompt notification of oil tank sweep results, it is not likely to bear any costs associated with remediation. Depending on the leakage and damages, cleanup costs could reach up to $15,000 or more. State provided financial assistance has been provided only in rare cases as of recent years.
• An Oil Tank Can Undermine The Value Of Your Property: There is no way to be sure for how long an oil tank has been leaking. Ultimately, without an oil sweep having been done by the previous buyer, they could have inherited a leaking tank themselves that has been lurking underground for many years. Moreover, this has an immense effect on the value of your property. Nowadays, any Essex County property owner with a buried oil tank would have a hard time finding a buyer.

What exactly is an oil tank sweep?

An oil tank sweep in Essex County, NJ is usually performed by an environmental company like ATS using specialized equipment built solely to detect abandoned oil tanks underground. When a suspect oil tank is located in the sweep, many times soil samples are taken to further investigate underneath the surface.

Is an oil tank sweep necessary to find a leaking tank?

When an oil tank is located above ground, it can be inspected for leaks over time and a swift action could be taken to fix it. For an underground tank, though, it is quite impossible.

Most of the oil tanks we encounter beneath the soil in Essex County are made of steel. It is now well known that that the soil surrounding these steel tanks has a corrosive effect. This corrosion could happen even after just a few years of installation.

The capacity of these underground oil tanks are between 250 to 1,000 gallons. Although the leakage can start from just a small hole, over time it could spread to 5 feet or more below the surface. In some cases, an area with an absence of vegetation in comparison to surrounding areas may indicate the presence of a leaking tank underground. In less common instances, an odor can be detected from the area around the tank, or drinking water can have a foul taste or order – especially if serviced by a well.

However, there is no way of telling for sure without having an environmental professional perform an oil tank sweep and soil tests, if necessary. When the oil tank is leaking underground, the tank will have to be removed and the soil will need to be cleaned up until the level of contamination is below an acceptable level.

What are the chances that you will encounter an oil tank in Essex County?

As this report by the New York times mentions, many New Jersey homes have had oil tanks buried within their boundaries. If your property had a house built on it in between 1900-1935, it is more likely that there is an oil tank buried underneath. During this time throughout New Jersey and other states throughout the East coast, underground oil tanks were installed to provide cooking and heating to homes. As many older homes in Essex County specifically have been knocked down and rebuilt, a newer home may still indeed have an oil tank buried beneath the soil on the property. An underground oil tank may have been abandoned there when a new tank was installed above ground, or when the home was eventually converted to a gas heating system.

An oil tank sweep in Essex County, NJ is highly recommended since these oil tanks have been found to last only 20-30 years in most cases before developing leaks. Certainly, today many of these old underground tanks are in a decaying state, and can be causing contamination to the soil and, perhaps, the groundwater. If an oil tank sweep is done before closing a sale and a tank is found underground, usually the property owner will pay to remove the tank and any necessary remediation before the sale is complete.

An Oil Tank Sweep in Essex County, NJ Helps Complete a Sale on any Home

As realtor.com acknowledges, very few potential buyers would show interest in a house with an underground oil tank, which could be a hazard and financial liability for them in the future. Thus, it is a common practice for buyers and sellers alike to perform an oil tank sweep in Essex County, NJ. In New Jersey, today real estate agents are quite conscious about the presence of underground oil tanks. Thus, it is regular practice for any experienced agent in Essex County to recommend an oil tank sweep be done during the inspection period.

To schedule an oil tank sweep quickly, give our office a call right away. We perform tank sweeps as soon the same or next day in Essex County, and provide a conclusive report before the technician leaves the site.