Home inspections are a normal step in the purchase of a home (buyers), but being proactive on the inspection can be a wise move when made by the sellers. 

Why would a home seller want to have their own home inspection?  

Even brand new homes have issues that home inspections will detect.   An older home will have issues as well, and as a home seller you want to maintain positive control over the transaction.

Timing of Repairs

Addressing buyer requests in a timely fashion is a good faith effort to keep the transaction moving forward.  Mortgage commitments don't last forever and locking in a low interest rate can cost money every week settlement is delayed. So even if you are committed to doing the work requested it may not be an easy task.    Ever think your mechanic has taken advantage of you?    Horror stories from contractors are all the more common.

Don't be naïve, qualified licensed, contractors are busy and some work requires permits (permits can take weeks to get).  So  a seller tasked with making repairs with a small window of time is hard, and more costly than people realize.   If you can call someone and they can show up in a few days to make repairs, how good is the company?   Better companies are weeks if not months out on taking on new jobs.  Sure people can squeeze you in, but you are going to pay a premium for sure.  Think you will be able to get three quotes? Good luck getting one.

Honesty is Refreshing

Picture this you are buying a home, and getting ready to make an offer.  Seller provides you their recent home inspection which had 12 To Do Items, owner states they have done 5 but not all 12.  There are receipts and invoices from contractors for the work. Do you sharpen your pencil on your offer after reading the inspection report?   Maybe you see about getting costs for the 7 items that were not performed (This puts you weeks ahead of the game).   Did I mention the sellers are not saying don't do your own inspection, they just wanted you to know what they knew.  Honesty is refreshing and it prevents surprises. 

To be fair any home inspection company will tell you that you have to prioritize the list of requested repairs, being thoughtful that at what point would you say the buying is being excessive (jerky, because you are not selling a new house). 

We work for sellers all the time with environmental issues before they list a property for sale, because they want a fast transaction and want to limit surprises.  We do tank sweeps for sellers to ensure no tank is present.  Sellers also call us to remove long out of service oil tanks because they know that tanks will be an issue.    Well a home inspection report with a To Do List, will also affect the sale. 

Sale Falls out of contract

Every seller wants a buyer.  Every buyer needs a seller.  So buyers and sellers are a match made in heaven, until something goes wrong.  Perhaps there is a serious defect or repair that is requested maybe its even needed to get a CO (Certificate of Occupancy) or a mortgage.  The more expensive and longer the repair takes the transaction falls on shaky ground, buyers have options to back out of a deal, they may even find a better home.   Your home looks worse the longer its on the market and any time it falls out of contract, people assume something is wrong if the home doesn't sell quickly.    Buyers can also smell blood if your house sits on the market too long, expect buyers to make low ball offers thinking you are a desperate sellers.  The buyer doesn't know that the contractor is 4 weeks out on parts and labor to fix what the buyers is requesting and then the buyer walked and the home looks worse now than if it was never under contract.

Control the flow of repair costs

Fact, a buyer's home inspection will find issues with your home and want some repairs completed.   You will pay more on those repairs than if you had more time to get quotes and vet contracts to fix them.

Full Disclosure

Get a home inspection months before you list your home and make the repairs you believe are most pressing.  Disclosure what you fixed and the items you did not and let buyers know you are pricing your home on this information.  Honesty is refreshing.   Trust me buyers are still going to refinish floors, replace rugs, change the paint color, but replacing a 20 year old Hot water heater, replacing missing gutters, repair rotted wood, likely not a repair they wanted to undertake. 

Quick story, we do thousands of tank sweeps, and find many, many tanks.  Invariably, when we find a tank the better part of 50% of the time, the owner admits they knew the tank was there and even have paperwork.  The buyer's response, "What else are they not telling me?"

Buying a home the single biggest purchase, wouldn't you want to feel that the seller is being totally aboveboard with you?

Lets flip the coin, what would be the negatives of the seller completing a home inspection.

1.  Any seller that performs a home inspection is looking to find issues to either address or disclose.   There is not much grey area here.
2. Maybe the seller hired an incompetent home inspector, I mean it can happen, you also could hire a real hack.    Being provided a home inspection report doesn't mean you have to rely upon it, but it's worth a read to see what was found.   Hire your own inspector, let them read your report for feedback.  Home inspectors are not like attorney, its a much smaller pool of people.  Your inspector may know the other inspector, but no matter what you can have your expect review their experts report, in the industry its called a peer review.  
3. Maybe the report has some items that were not addressed and are deal breakers for you.  Better to know that at the start rather than finding out after you do your own inspections.  
4. Maybe the report is old?   I have seen people do their own home inspection a year ago and now the property is listed for sale.  Well any number of things could have gone wrong in the last year so an updated report is fine.  Do your own inspection. 

Pro Tip

We recently polled a group of home inspectors regarding was it a god or bad idea for the buyer to arrange all the different inspections on the same day?   Slightly better than 50% of the group thought it was a good idea to have the inspections on the same day, because you can share information.   The next question would you want to read an inspection report that the seller paid for, the overwhelming answer was yes.  More information is better.

At Curren we don't do home inspections, but we do mold inspections, tank sweeps, tank testing and a number of other environmental related evaluations and testing.  

Did you know that Mosquitoes, like all insects, are cold-blooded creatures? Because of this, mosquitoes are incapable of regulating their body heat and their temperature is essentially the same as their surroundings. Mosquitoes will function best at 80 degrees F, then becoming lethargic at 60 degrees F. Mosquitoes cannot function below 50 degrees F. In most tropical areas, mosquitoes are active year-round. In temperate climates, adult mosquitoes of some species become inactive with the onset of cool weather and enter hibernation to live through the winter.

I don't care if you are a 1st time homebuyer, or have owned multiple homes over the years, here are 7 tips you should do as part of the home buying process and post purchase.

1.   Pay for all the inspections that are necessary to complete your Due Diligence.  Due diligence is what a prudent buyer does to evaluate real estate prior to purchase.   You can think of it as a health check on a property.  If the house has a pool, have a pool inspection, pool repairs are expensive.   Same goes for termite inspection.  Get a home inspection, which inspects a variety of components of a home, you can find out the roof has little life left, HVAC system is old, or perhaps there are numerous building code violations that need to be fixed do to a DIY handyperson.

2.  Circling back to inspections, and your repair requests.  In short, maybe you find 10 issues and request 5 to be fixed.  If the 5 items get fixed ask for receipts to verify the repair and who did it.  Why?  Don't you want an electrician to fix electrical issues?  Short story, couple bought a home and one of the items that required repair was a new cap on a chimney.   About a year after ownership they noticed water coming into the chimney, the newly installed cap ($600) was defective.  They had to track down the sellers and get the paperwork for the company that did the cap, as it was under warranty.   It was a total PIA to track the paperwork down and it would have been so much easier if they had the receipts prior to settlement.    Second story,  sellers were supposed to address  basement water issue (water was coming into basement on one side),  sellers said they installed a membrane to the exterior basement wall.  Well water was still an issue, new owners had the wall dug up ($$$) and found no membrane.  Buyers had no documentation that the work was done, threatened to sue sellers who conceded (they forgot to do it) and paid for the work 9 months after they sold the work.   Seeing is believing.

Bottom line if you request a repair, get paperwork and warranty from the sellers for your records, and protection.

3. Do a little historical research on the home by contacting the local municipality and request records for permits of work performed.  Home improvement shows have enticed homeowners to do work themselves where permits were required but may not have been obtained.   Hey if you find a roof was installed 5 years ago, its likely under warranty for another 15 years, maybe you want to request the warranty?    Maybe the new hot water heater (the tag on it will tell you the year of manufacture) was not installed by a licensed plumber.    Short story,  owner was finishing their basement (Covid Remodel),  they had a heating oil Aboveground Storage Tank (AST) in the basement they wanted removed because the remodeling contractor couldn't do that (contractor thought the tank was empty but it was 1/2 full).  When we informed the homeowner that the local inspector would have to go in the basement when the tank is removed, she said it wasn't possible, because they didn't get any permits for the remodel.   (I mean this was a floor to ceiling remodel, bat, bathroom, many trade services were needed and permits were absolutely required.)  Imagine you buy the home, how do you know the work was done correctly.

4.  Save permits for work performed.  Meaning when you buy the home ask for copies of permits and after you buy the home save permits.  You can conveniently save these documents by the HVAC unit, there is always a holder on the unit for instructions and you can save the permits there. 

5. Death, taxes and utility bills will always be present in your life.  Taxes and utility bills will always increase.  Get copies of a year of utility bills before you buy the home, too many people buy the bigger home and are shocked by the monthly utility cost.

6. If you have air ducts in the home, get them cleaned.  The HVAC system is the Lungs of the Home and we have had to remove ducts during mold remediation and they are typically pretty disgusting inside.   You are breather air from dirty ducts and have n idea.  70% of homes we inspector have never had the ducts cleaned.  Oh and when you do, document the date on the duct (duct cleaning company actually cuts ports into the duct to clean them so having such a cut out tells you the duct was cleaned at least once.  

7. Double Circle back to the inspections you completed.  A home inspection could find a To Do List 20 items deep.  The problem is, unless your buying a brand new home (yes even brand new homes will have issues home inspectors will find, but 100% of them get corrected because its a new house), you can't get every item addressed, your not buying a new home.  Well after you move in you need to circle back to the items you didn't get addressed?  You paid for a professional inspection so why ignore the advice?

New Jersey has joined other states in taking a more proactive approach to managing lead.  A three prong bill has been passed to help reduce lead exposure.

Bill S-829  signed 11/08/2021

The property condition disclosure statement will now include a question concerning the presence of lead plumbing in a property being sold.  The question relates to the home seller’s awareness about the presence of lead plumbing and lead service lines onto the property.   This is meant to act as a step in education of home buyers regarding lead. 

How does Bill A5343 affect  Public Water Supply Lines?

The goal is to remove lead from drinking water. As part of a three-bill package signed by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, Bill A5343 that water companies in New Jersey will replace all  lead water pipes within the next 10 years. The bill is meant to   comprehensively address the longstanding health hazard of lead in the water supply system.  Water companies will be allowed  to raise rates on property owners to pay for the pipe replacements.  Although monies could be drawn from President Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan, which  explicitly calls for removing lead pipes nationwide. 

Will All Rental Properties be Subject to the Regulations?

Currently many properties will qualify for exemption. The regulations will NOT apply to:

1. Buildings, dwelling units, or common areas that have been certified to be Lead-Free in accordance with N.J.A.C. 5:17; or
2. A building or dwelling unit that has been certified as having a Lead-Free
   Interior in accordance with N.J.A.C. 5:17. Lead-Free Interior does not
   exempt the entire building; only the dwelling units or common areas
   identified on the certificate as lead free are exempt.
3. A seasonal rental unit that is rented for less than six months’ duration each
   year; or
4.  An owner-occupied unit.

 

When is mold not mold? Aka why Black Mold isn’t bad

 Mold, the 4 letter word, gets blamed for many things such as ill health, odors, why people don’t use exercise equipment. Ok the last one I made up.   But seriously mold is a common suspect when people think something is wrong.   A few thousand mold inspections later, we can say with a high degree of certainty that:

• Not all discoloration is mold
• Not every smell is mold
• And there is no mold called black mold.

 Two case studies where mold was suspected but was not present.

If you are living somewhere and you are having health issues or smell a weird odor, you will finger point that the problem is mold. For sure anyone can have a reaction when exposed to mold, but a common denominator is mold or should I say active mold growth is the musty odor associated with mold. The musty odor is the off gassing of active mold growth.

Case Study 1 Bathroom odor and mold is suspected.

Last Spring we did a remodel on our 2^nd bathroom  (new flooring, vanity and sink, and vent) and a short time later, there started to be a weird smell at times, which seemed to be coming from the sink water. It’s not all the time, but sometimes the smell is stronger than at other times. And sometimes it smells like rotten eggs.

Pro Tip

Rotten eggs is a sulfur related smell not mold.

This prompted me to call a plumber. They spent 1 ½ hours trying to recreate the smell, and ended up spraying mold spray in both the sink and shower overflows. The smell then went away for a couple of weeks, but the smell has since returned. My older daughter, when home from college, seems to notice it more and says that she has started to get headaches now when she’s home.

Pro Tip

Mold is a musty odor, and the fact that odor went away after a disinfectant was applied to the drain lines indicates that there was something happening in the piping, not behind a wall.

A DIY investigation of a sulfur odor source can take the following approach:

Confirm smell is from the water or the drain. Test this by fill a glass with water from the cold tap and take it outside to smell it. Repeat with hot water. . If there is odor in both samples, there is a high chance that the contamination is in the water supply. If the smell is only present in the hot water, the hot water heater maybe the source. If there is no smell in either sample, the likely source is the drain

A sewer vent blockage can interfering with the drain water flow (drainage from the toilet, sink or bath shower drain) creating pressure that pushes sewer gas through the sink trap. (if you note gurgling sounds and slow draining. The blockage may be caused by an obstruction in the waste line). You could also have a blockage from the vent stack opening on the roof, this is a little harder to inspect so always start with the easier approach.

In this circumstance, the owner had renovation performed in the bathroom, so since no odor was present prior to this work, the cause is likely tied to the work.   Sometimes when plumbing is renovated a pipe that was no longer necessary may have been capped off, allowing anaerobic bacteria to thrive, which can produce a sulfur smell or technically a hydrogen sulfide gas. You see if no water is flowing through the capped off pipe, anaerobic bacteria can flourish since water is unable to flow through the dead pipe.  The solution is to cut the dead leg out of the plumbing.

Bottom line a sulfur smell is not a mold smell and some DIY research and a competent plumber, the problem can be addressed.

 Case Study 2 - Residents have health issue, allergies generally. They did mention research on causes of allergies and finds that mold is a cause so they wanted a mold inspection with testing.

In this situation there were five people in the home that complained of allergies.   There were no specific areas of the house where the allergies were more severe and there were no must odors noted in the house by any of the residents.

We take health concerns seriously and without a specific area of the home, we evaluated the entire home and acquired nine air samples throughout the home. Air testing is performed where people live, so bedrooms, family room & entertainment areas.

Our inspection found no visible mold growth, no musty odors or evidence of water damage. Now we observed many other things, but nothing that would be a mold trigger. The air tests came up clean relative to mold (basically normal fungal ecology) but all samples had a higher debris rating than would be considered usual.  

The home was about 3500 sq. ft. and about 10 years old.   We observed while the home was not falling apart, there were visible layers of dust throughout the house on flat surfaces. The home had multiple cats and each bedroom had a cat bed and some form of scratching post. The air filters for the HVAC system were all in need of replacement (there were two units) and none had a date of last replacement. The home also had many candles they burn as well as scented vaporizers. Both can affect indoor air quality and not in a good way.

Our conclusions were that dust and airborne compounds and particulate can be an irritant and people can develop allergies to cats. The recommendation was a new cleaning service and thorough cleaning of the dwelling, replacing air filters every 3 months and removing cats beds from the bedrooms.  Shocker, the allergy complaints went away.

Examples of dirty. dusty ducts work. 

So not every mold compliant is actually a mold problem. 

Do you have mold questions?
Looking for expert advice?

Why Remove a Heating Oil AST (Aboveground Storage Tank)?

When you convert from oil to gas, you will spend thousands of dollars.   What you may not spend money on is removing the now obsolete heating oil Aboveground Storage Tank (AST).    Unless there is a local ordinance there are no state regulations for homeowners to decommission the AST.   Because of the lack of regulations and money issues, people leave these rusting metal tanks.  Properties will often be bought and sold with the AST still being present.

There are real hazards associated with leaving heating oil ASTs. 

Metal rusts inside and out. Low sulfur heating oil actually causes corrosion inside a tank, so don't think the oil is lubricating the tank.

Water gets in the tank through condensation causing corrosion.  ASTs are never 100% empty and banging on even a 1/2 full tank gives a false empty sound. Go push a 5 gallon bucket of water over, soo how far it spreads.

Quick story, couple buys a home with gas heat, basement has an AST that is not being used nor planned to be used.  Fast forward 15 years, strong smell of oil in the basement.  Call fire department, who pumps 160 gallons from the empty tank in the basement.  Oil has spread across the basement floor flowing into the sump (Fortunately the sub pump was broken) .  Oil hit boxes that are placed throughout the basement,  some cardboard boxes some Rubbermaid (Sound like your basement?)

Smell of oil in house is so strong, people have to move to a hotel.   Now the basement has to be cleaned up, the tank decommissioned and a hotel paid for.   Thousands of dollars spent.  Could have been avoided.

This house was bought and sold twice with an AST in the basement, even had a sign on it saying the tank was empty.  Curren removed approximately 200 gallons from the tank.   Caught this one before it leaked. 

Why did dad, the old owner, whoever leave the tank to rust? Because to do anything would cost $$.

Buying a house with an out of service AST, get owner to remove it. Selling a home with an out of service AST?  Remove it because the buyer is going to ask.

Due diligence is what a party does to  assess a property prior to purchase.  Due diligence would include a title search, home inspection, radon testing and a tank sweep.

To be clear, the concern with petroleum storage tanks is they leak product (oil) into the ground and sometimes groundwater, which can require remediation (cleanup).   The RP (Responsible Party) for cleanup is the property owner, even if they never used the tank, did not know the tank was present or were told that the tank didn't leak when they bought the property.

To avoid the above, you do a tank sweep to protect your interest when purchasing a property, residential or commercial.

What happens after you do a tank sweep and an undisclosed tank is found?

Eighteen percent (18%) of the time, the seller suddenly recalls that yes, an oil tank is present, sometimes they have paperwork, sometimes they do not.  100% of the time the buyer is upset they paid for a tank sweep and that the seller was not honest about the tank, so they question what else in the transaction is not 100% truthful.

100% of the time they have nothing that actually proves the tank did not leak, if they did like an NFA  or a report with laboratory testing they would have supplied it previously.  Because why would a seller want a buyer to do a tank sweep on a property the seller knows a tank was removed and has proof it didn't leak.  Sorry, that is a rhetorical question.  For you buyers out there, some properties have more than one buried tank, no lie, we have seen it before.

100% of the time the found tank must be removed and tested.

Greater than 60% of the time we find contamination, there are many variables that direct this outcome, of the leaks some need remediation some do not.

Sometimes the owner of the newly found tank doesn't want to do anything.  The deal clearly falls apart as contracts commonly have clauses to rescind the contract regarding environmental or structural issues.     The seller is now tasked with dealing with the tank, there is also now a record that the property was under contract and then out of contract.  Future perspective buyers can trace the paper trail to find out why the sale did not go through.   Rarely ever does the home sell with the tank in the ground, the ones that do typically end in litigation, we know because we wind up getting called by the buyer to assist after a neighbor or other good Samaritan tells the new owner that there is an underground oil tank.   The photo below 100% real, the writing suddenly appeared before settlement.

When Curren finds a buried tank during a tank sweep about 60% of the time we are contracted to remove the tank.  Some sellers accept a found tank for what it is, an obstacle to selling the home.  Yes the seller is upset, but most understand they wouldn't buy a home with a tank.  Some are upset because they did a tank sweep and the tank was missed.  More about missed tanks , shortly.

After we find a tank about 40% of the time the sellers hire someone else to remove the tank, we get blamed for finding a problem.  90% of the time the buyer, our client wants us involved with reviewing the contract for removal and the post tank removal report, so many times the contract doesn't include testing because the seller doesn't want to find a problem, they just want to remove the tank.   We had a site where an environmental attorney (yes someone well versed in environmental liability) had a tank filled in place without testing.  This is from someone who knew that if you test you might find a problem.  We had to reverse engineer the prior tank closure and test, yes some tank issues can get complicated.

What about missing a tank after a tank sweep?

First, most sites will not allow 100% coverage.  Why, well things get built over buried tanks, hot tubs, sheds, additions, woodpiles, boats, cars etc.  If you can't access the area, you can't inspect it.    Incompetence (lack of experience & training) of the individual performing the scan can also give bad results.  In short, if you don't actively remove tanks, you can lack necessary skills to provide a thorough tank scan, in 28 years of dealing with tanks even today we find unique tank situations, experience is invaluable. 

Equipment failure can be another reason a tank sweep fails.  Metals detectors which cost about $1,000 to buy and are used for the $200 tank sweep, hence low cost equipment not used for locating tanks, can commonly miss tanks.  A metal tank buried near a chain link fence will confuse a metal detector. and can miss a tank.

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is what is used on commercial sites because it is more thorough.    Really a mixture of tools is needed for a thorough evaluation.   GPR provides a graphic image of buried objects.  The image on the right side of the screen shows the radar signal of a found tank.

The photo below shows a typical set of tools utilized for a Geophysical evaluation or what people commonly call a tank sweep.   You want a full tool box.

You don't hold tank licenses in Delaware, New Jersey & Pennsylvania without having some level of expertise.  You don't remove tens of thousands of tank over 20 plus years and not gain experience. 

Call the Experts  888-301-1050

Mold is the new four-letter word of real estate transactions. If either mold is visually found or testing is done (airborne mold spores and/or surface sampling), the transaction has a high percentage that it may not happen. There are many stories of real estate transactions with mold growth, but this one is very interesting.

The story goes that a buyer was interested in a home and during the home inspection, the home inspector took an air sample in the basement and the outside (exterior) for comparison.  There was no photo or knowledge of where the air sample was acquired from, for example the photo below documents where the air sampling was acquired (ex. kitchen).

Back to the story - The buyers wanted the entire basement remediated down to the studs.  The seller contacted Curren Environmental and  we provided sampling as well.  Our sampling showed mold was present in the basement bedroom. 

What does this lab data mean?

 The Stachybotrys as shown above in the sample results prior to remediation , should not have a raw count above one, and it was at 43.  Penicillium/Aspergillus was also very high, with the spr/m3 at 23,467 where it is recommended that should not be above 1000.  The second set of numbers are after remediation where the airborne mold spores dropped dramatically and were within industry standards.  Note - no home will be mold free. 

As part of the story, you need to know that this property was vacant for over 2 years. The heat and air were on as part of maintenance but not properly dehumidified. Mold growth occurs where there is moisture and organic materials. In this case, there was visual signs of mold growth on some furniture in the basement bedroom, but not in the basement living space and  small visual signs on the sheetrock wall in the basement bedroom.  There was no need to remediation and remove the entire basement back to the studs. 

What happened next?

When the humidity is high and the property is not well ventilated, mold growth will occur. These spores can become airborne and move throughout the home. This home had a lot of carpet which holds mold spores. Curren Environmental provided Mold Remediation at this property.

• Carpet was removed and tack strips were removed.
• All organic furniture that could not be wiped down was disposed.
• Removed mold impacted sheetrock, 18 inches past mold growth in basement bedroom. 
• HEPA vacuum walls and floors in the entire basement
• A broad spectrum, FDA approved, fungicide was applied to the walls and the flooring in the rooms.
• Air scrubbers were on during remediation and left at the property for at least 72 hours.

As the story goes, post air testing showed elevated spore levels dropped dramatically at the property. Please see below. For this story, only the sheetrock area that had mold growth was removed and the carpet, no other sheetrock was removed.  

The ending, a happy buyer, a happy seller and clean home. Not every property that has elevated mold spores needs to have everything torn down and removed. A mold remediation professional will look at the data, photos provided and any other detailed information prior to handing over a cost. It is very important to understand that mold is everywhere and there are no “Mold Free” properties.

The saying we get better with age, well that relates to a foundation of knowledge based on years of experience.   At Curren Environmental those that know teach, those that know, know from decades of experience thousands of sites.   We do peer reviews of the work of other environmental companies every day, thousands of reviews a year.  These reviews are both paper reviews (in office) as well as on site over seeing work for clients protection.  Needless to say we see the good and the bad.  The bad is also not always the cheapest price.  Bad projects have a common thread of promising things that they cannot deliver on or to be put frankly telling the client what they want to hear, even though this may be the opposite of what other firms are saying.  Key topics, don't worry about a leak, we can manage the leak if one is found, lastly we can remediate for a lump sum and we do not need any testing data (these firms have x-ray vision.

Recently I had to oversee the removal of a residential oil tank.  The tank was actually found via a GPR tank sweep by Curren. The  owner had no knowledge that a UST was present Tank Sweeps with GPR.    Owner got a really inexpensive cost to remove, so client (buyer) wanted the removal to be overseen.   Now I am not saying cheap isn’t good, everyone wants a bargain, you don't want to pay full price, but you also get what you pay for.  Cheapest is rarely best, its the cheapest.

The photo below shows one of the onsite projects reviewed. I knew that the person wearing gym shorts at 9 am  and no shirt  meant the day was going to be interesting.  Let’s start by saying, gym shorts and a tank top are not proper work attire.  It’s was a hot day so the gym short person took the tank top off, at was maybe 9:10 am.  Things didn’t get better from there.

Yes that is a person inside the tank with no PPE (personnel protective equipment, respirator etc.), completely not according to regulations.  

Although the company had lettered vehicles they spelled remediation wrong.  If you say your do something  you should be able to spell it.  

So the tank gets excavated just enough to clean it.  Took them 2 hours to remove the tank after cleaning, because the tank was 80% buried. They couldn't see the logic in uncovering the tank to the 50% mark so the earth wouldn't hold it in place.  Over the course of two hours, they damage the driveway, killed mature shrubs and after removal hit a sewer line that would have been avoided had they had gone into the basement to evaluate for utilities.  Inspecting a basement to see where underwound utilities enter is excavation 101, utilities are not marked accurately 100% of the time, property owners may not know on where what utility is located and lastly not all utilities get marked.  In any event the damage could have been avoided.

Now the good part, tank is removed and it requires two inspections.  No one knew of or when that would occur.  To be brief they had no inspection, took no soil samples (sampling is the only way you can 100% verify the tank did not leak) and backfilled the hole.

How do you avoid tank removal mistakes?

To be clear removing a tank is not building the international space station, but there are a slew of regulations and protocols you must follow API, OSHA, NIOSH.  You can check reviews on line for sure, but here are some tips that can find out the good from the bad.

1. Was the person you spoke with more car salesperson than environmental consultant?  You don't want to be sold into making a decision.
2. Did the company walk you though the steps they will follow?  This is an easy one and even the bad companies do it.  
3. Did they  put their steps in writing?  Again easy.  There should be a report stated in writing you will receive after removal, its super important.
4. Did they discuss the possibility of a leak?   What about if levels of oil are above standard?   What are the standards?  What amount of oil is permissible?  Look every tank could leak so you need to know the dark side of a tank removal that leaks, this needs to be discussed and put in writing.
5. Is their email a Gmail or yahoo email.  It might not sound like much but if a company doesn't have a hosted web site with hosted email with their domain, well you maybe buying into a Chuck in a truck.

It's tough to compare environmental services to other industries, but our office get a large share of property owners gripping about how the hired the wrong company.  To be fair most people will never have to remove two tanks in their lifetime or complete two mold projects, so you are doing something once and likely won't do a good job at it.

Want expert advice and deal with professionals?

Tank sweeps/tank scans have exponentially increased in popularity for home buyers.   While a home inspection has always been part of buying a home, a tank sweep has become just as common.  The reason tank sweeps are so important is because a small tank leak remediation averages around $10,000.00     Remediation in excess of $100,000 are not uncommon either.

How do you know the home may have oil heat and a tank scan is prudent?

1. Oil heat was the choice of fuel source for close to 100 years
2. The older the home the more likely there was oil heat.
3. Many property owners removed evidence of their oil tank in lieu of removing it.
4. Many people also filled tanks in place as per construction codes, but never checked for leak's.
5. Many people bought homes knowing a tank was removed and not tested.

People also  bought homes that they knew had a tank filled in place.   Below is a true story. 

Curren was hired to do a tank sweep. Owner of home greeted our technician with "The tank guy is here". Curren locates a tank and informs our client (buyer).

Owner of home within 48 hours, releases paperwork for the tank.  Apparently  the tank had been filled in place in the 1990's by the previous owner.  In short, current owner bought house knowing tank was on site but did not disclose this nugget of information when the home was listed for sale.  Buyer was a little angry that this paperwork magically appeared.   Makes you think what else these sellers are not disclosing. Curren is hired to remove the underground oil tank,  and it is found to be leaking, buyer backs out of deal. 

Another true story.  Many people also filled tanks in place as per construction codes, but never checked for leaks. Owner is upset,  and said the tank was not a big deal to them when they bought it.   Remediation completed  was completed and the property was eventually cleaned up ($42,000) and sold nine months later.

Ever heard of Midnight oil tank removal?  It's when someone who is not licensed removes their oil tank so no one knows that they removed it.  Even though the tank has been removed, no soil samples were acquired and they may not have removed the supply and return line.  

Do your due diligence and do a tank scan prior to purchasing a property.