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Note: home inspectors in North Carolina are not required to investigate and/or identify the past or current use of petroleum underground storage tanks. The information on this website is presented for the educational benefit of the inspector and buyer who wishes to use such information as they see fit. SSE strongly recommends having a property evaluated and/or inspected for the presence of a UST or past usage by an experienced, licensed environmental consultant, such as Mark Hosler, prior to the purchase of the property.

The first two clues to the presence of a UST, or past usage of heating oil, are the home's age and location. Age - many homes built prior to 1965, before natural gas became popular, used heating oil. Location - older subdivisions where oil was the popular choice for heat, and rural areas not served by natural gas.
Petroleum odors and stains in the basement or crawlspace - the odor of heating oil stays around a long time, especially when some has spilled or leaked into the soils or onto the floor under the house.
Fuel delivery lines - two copper or steel pipelines, usually about 3/8 inch in diameter, may still be in place, sometimes clipped off at the foundation wall.
Patched holes in the foundation wall - frequently, the fuel delivery and return lines will be clipped off at the wall and the hole patched. Or, if the tank was located under the house, larger holes where the fill and vent pipes were located may have been patched.
Coal chute is present - most homes that originally heated with coal converted to fuel oil in the 1940's and 1950's.

Rectangular depressions - under the house, a partially buried tank may have been removed (odors should be obvious when this is the case, unless the tank did not leak); outside the house, a removed tank would be less obvious, unless done recently.
Fill and vent pipes - often rusted away or hidden by vegetation.
Presence of an above ground tank (AST) - frequently, an AST is installed to replace a leaking UST.