tomorrow i am inspecting a music school. it has two (500gal or 100gal) fuel oil tanks stored indoors. it is in a space attached and accessible from the “living” space by a 2’w door. the space is about 6’ x 6’.
below this storage room is the furnace room (appears to be off of the basement). same 2’w door, same 6’ x 6’ space.
all i’ve seen so far is a sketch of the layout so i am unaware of any other conditions. i don’t know if the place is sprinkled.
is there anything you can recommend me to look for?
are there venting requirements for the oil tanks’ storage room?
fire rated wall/ceiling requirements?
rated door requirement?
In a commercial occupancy, they often want curbing around the room with enough capacity to contain all the oil stored in the tanks if they were to fail. Often times, this means that there is a curb right inside the door that you have to step over.
Suggest tons of insurance for an oil spill. I inspected a home over 1 year ago. It was reported that a “quart of fuel oil” leaked from a fitting at the system. The basement and crawl smelled of oil. Saw oil in the sump pump pit. Both heating systems sent contaminated air through the house as all of us were tearing during the 3 hour inspection.
I recommended that an enviromental specialist evaluate the home and certify that it is habitable and remediate as necessary. Buyers back out.
A year later, the seller’s agent told me that the clean up company is being sued, and that “unacceptable levels of benzene” were discovered through-out.
Fuel oil is a big problem. Suggest you recommend a specialist for the tank evaluation.