{"id":35274,"date":"2022-07-28T08:25:36","date_gmt":"2022-07-28T15:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/blog\/?p=35274"},"modified":"2022-08-22T07:55:11","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T14:55:11","slug":"buried-oil-tank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/blog\/buried-oil-tank\/","title":{"rendered":"Should You Leave an Underground Oil Tank Buried?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a scale of “good” to “not great,” buying a house with a leaking buried oil tank is usually closer to “not great,” especially when you didn’t know about the tank beforehand.<\/span><\/p>\n

The good news is that properties with underground oil tanks are rare. But these homes do exist, and tank decommissioning can be a hefty expense.\u00a0<\/span>Here’s how you can prepare for any variables that come up along the way.<\/span><\/p>\n

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What is an underground oil tank?<\/span><\/h2>\n

An underground oil tank (or buried oil tank) is a large metal container that used to contain or currently contains fuel oil. The oil was used mainly as a heat source for the home.<\/span><\/p>\n

But why bury them? At the time, it solved two problems:<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. It hid the tanks from view<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. It made it a lot harder to steal the valuable oil inside<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The last 40 to 50 years have seen a dramatic shift from oil to natural gas as the primary fuel used to heat houses. This happened when oil got more expensive and prone to price swings.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Natural gas isn’t that old in the grand scheme of things. In <\/span>homes in Seattle, WA<\/span><\/a>, for example, natural gas wasn’t piped in until the 1960s. That means any homes built before the 1960s probably had oil-powered heating at one time, even if they use natural gas or electricity now.<\/span><\/p>\n

    You can typically put these homes into one of two categories:<\/span><\/p>\n