OK, I recently relocated from South Florida to North Dakota so I’m a little green about this heating stuff…
A friend of mine is moving into a property that’s been vacant for several years… (frame bungalow built in 1910-ish w/ a dirt floor basement)
Oil furnace has been replaced, and oil tanks removed from the basement, but the lingering smell of fuel oil is horrible. It really makes the property unlivable.
Any suggestions for alleviating the smell?
Thanks.
Replies
Remove the contaminated dirt.
Right... that's kinda what I was thinking... but how far down would you guess I have to excavate?
In Canada, residential and commercial oil spills have become big business. Some spills have cost over $500,000 to clean up since anything over a 100 liter (about 26-27gal US) must be reported to the dept of Environment so they can monitor the situation to make sure it's all cleaned up, especially if it's spread to other properties. In 1 or 2 cases it may have been cheaper to tear the existing house down completely rather than to excavate soils under the footings while having to support them
Some tanks and lines leak slowly for years and hundreds of gallons of oil disappear into the soils. There have been rural cases in which the water has been made undrinkable for cattle (they're 17 times more sensitive to oil in the water and refuse it). Big costs if you have to truck water in for 150-200+ cows.
Yoikes!
Sounds exactly like what he's up against... I suspect a slow leak over a long period of time.
If he were to excavate a foot or so of soil and then compact the subsoil and pour a slab, I don't imagine the smell would permiate the concrete, do you?
is there a well on the property? -
capping the nasty would solve the immediate problem -
in the shortest term, several bags of kitty litter over the top of the existing would give some relief -
"there's enough for everyone"
Note that the walls in a basement like this are typically stone or old-fashioned concrete block. The footings, such as they are, are just below floor level. You need to avoid excavating too close to the footings and undermining them.(Of course another option would be to simply have the entire basement replaced.)
If ignorance is bliss why aren't more people
happy?
Excavate about a 8-12" deep and maybe 3 feet away from the likely leakage spots. See if you can use the color of the soil as a clue, but go at least 6" beyond any color change (or until China is in sight). Replace with fresh soil, then spread plastic on the floor and ventillate for a few days. If the odor is gone, you can pour the slab (but leave the plastic there).
Also check for leaks into adjacent walls and framing. Be sure to remove any slab the furnace was on -- probably oil-soaked big time.
If it wasn't for the fact that winter is about to return big time it would be wise to install a small constantly running vent fan.
In extreme cases you'd run drainage tile through the soil and attach a vent fan to that.
happy?
I would recommend the poly be laid between the undisturbed soil and the clean fill. This would demarcate the clean from original in case there was a need to revisit the excavation, the clean fill could be reused.
There are dry chemical fuel oil deodorants that are designed to kill the smell of small petroleum spills. Most fuel oil delivery truck guys carry a can of the stuff for incidental drips. Last year one of the 275 gallon tanks sprang a leak in the basement. Lost about 10-20 gallons which caused the entire building to reek (that's how the spill was discovered).
I mopped up the spill as best I could with oil pads, plus took out a few bucketfuls of heavily impacted soil (basement has a dirt floor), then generously sprinkled the powder over the whole spill, then covered that with poly. After airing out the house, the smell was gone within a day. After a week or so, we yanked the poly and no residual smell at all.
I don't remember the brand name but it is readily available, is fairly inexpensive, and really works, but this was a small spill that didn't have much time to soak in.
In maine, a small percentage of he cost of heating oil goes into a fund for cleanups of contaminated soil. Your state might have similar. The dealer should know. He would have a hotline to call.
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A local fuel company delivered 1000 gallons of fuel oil to a vent that someone had left after they removed the tank- in a $1 million home (10+ years ago in Toronto this was a pretty nice place). After a basic clean-up and some immediate digging, it took excavation UNDER the footings in the affected areas (i.e. underpinning) to finally get the horrible smell to completely die. Even active venting of the soil was ineffective. The fuel company ended up buying the place.
If there's a lot of fuel oil residual in the soil, concrete won't stop the smell. 6 mil poly vapour barrier will only slow it down a bit- it's not that permeable to water but it's pretty permeable to hydrocarbon vapours at that thickness. A few feet of clay will do the trick, but even that's not permanent. Good luck to you- this one may not be easily won.