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Tank Talk Episode 015 – Open Ended Soil Remediation Questions

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In this episode, Pete talks with a client about the open ended soil remediation process.

Questions Asked…..

  1. Any extras that will make the invoice higher then the quote? 35 sec
  2. What happens if job takes longer then one day? 2:15
  3. What would be the additional fees if you have to come another day to finish? 4:30
  4. Is there a way to cap the costs of remediation? 6:00
  5. If we stop the remediation, can we finish it one year later? 7:40
  6. Is the $400 NJDEP review fee in addition to the quoted price? 9:00
  7. If we do not finish the job, are we still responsible for the remedial action report? 9:30

Episode 15 Transcript

Announcer: Welcome to Tank Talk with Pete, a podcast talking all things related to residential oil tanks. You have questions, Pete has answers

Caller: Hey, Pete. How are you?

Pete: I'm good. I'm good. I got your email. So yeah, I want to just kind of go through that with you. You have a second?

Caller: All right. I'm sorry. Yes, go ahead.

Pete: Okay. So yeah, let me just pull that email up, um, and see the questions that you had. Let me see.

Caller: Yeah. So I can just walk you through it. So, like, the first question that I have… Yeah, like yesterday we talked about the, um, you know, like what will happen if, if it goes over twenty-fi– or over twenty tons. And you mentioned that, you know, some of the variable costs will be the transportation of the contaminated soil and the, um, clean, uh, fill material. But I just wondered if there was anything else that will increase the cost of the quote by any, like, any other variables that will make it higher

Pete: more than-

Caller: Yeah.

Pete: So, yeah, so there, there, there's three line items that, that we have to be concerned about if we go over thirty tons of soil. So the first one would be, um, the waste classification sample. So that's gonna increase an additional six hundred dollars. That's what the, uh, facility charges to bring in additional soil over thirty tons. It's a one-time charge. So, I mean, it could go up to, uh, five hundred tons and there's no additional fees. But if it's over thirty, they will charge us that additional fee. So that's one, that's one variable. And then the two other variables is the soil disposal at seventy-five dollars a pon– a ton, and then the clean fill at twenty-five dollars per ton. So whatever that tonnage is, if it's forty tons, we're gonna bill you that for that exact tonnage for removal and replacement.

Caller: Got it. Um, okay, so it's just a waste classification. So it would be like an additional six hundred, so it would be like a total of, um, a thousand ninety-five?

Pete: Exactly. That'll be the exact… E-e-exactly, yep.

Caller: Okay. And, um, so, so and I noticed, for example, the, uh, you know, like all of the costs of the excavator and the trucks and everything, I assume that's for the day, right? It is. So what happens if we have to go to a, you know, if this takes more than one day? Will that be like an additional cost of all that, or that-that's all for the job?

Pete: No. Yeah, so it's, it's, it's, it's the open-ended contract is time material. I could tell you that about ninety percent of our jobs we finish in one day. It's very rare that we have to return for a second day or a third day. I mean, it does happen, but it's, it is very unusual. Uh, and we c- we are capable of removing… And this is a question that is, is a good question because there's c- some companies that what they do is they, they mobilize with really small equipment, so they can only take- Yeah … out, let's say, thirty or forty tons of soil in a day, and then they, they, they want to charge you for a second and third day. We don't, we don't operate like that. When we mobilize to your house, we have the capabilities of moving, and depending on the access, anywhere between a hundred to a hundred and fifty tons in one day if we have to. Obviously, you know, we're not taking that out if we don't have to, but we have the capabilities of doing that amount of soil in one day, which is a really, a, a lot of soil.

Caller: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Uh-

Pete: So we're, yeah, we're not looking to, you know, milk a job and, and, and have it run into a second or third day. That's the last thing we're trying to do. And our guys work from, from basically seven AM till, you know, seven, eight o'clock at night to, to sundown. And we– A lot of companies, again, same thing, two o'clock comes around, "No, we're eight hours. We're leaving. We're gonna come back tomorrow." We don't play that game. We'll– We work until basically the, the facility's shut down, which is about four thirty, five o'clock, and then we, we could be on site for another two hours finishing up.

Caller: Okay, got it. So basically, I mean, basically what you're saying is that, you know, the, the, um, you know, the, um, the eighty-five hundred quote is really for… Okay, so it's for one day of work for twenty-five, for twenty tons and, uh, you know, and then it will, it will increase depending on the tons of soil that you take out and there was specification. But then if it takes up to a hundred and fifty tons to take out in that one day, that remains, like all of the other costs remain the same. Like that-

Pete: Exactly. The only variable that will be is the s- is the soil itself. That would be the only variable cost in that. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So, uh, yeah. And then if it does so happen that, you know, we wind up pulling a hundred and something tons, and then we have to come back to backfill or something, then there will be some additional fees for the equipment and the labor

Caller: And what will be those fees like the, um-

Pete: So you're looking at, uh, the, you know, again, it depends. If we're just backfilling the hole, let's say we got all the contamination out the first day, and now we, you know, it winded up being a so- you know, a hundred something tons, and we have to come back to backfill. Well, we're only gonna ch- we're not charging you for a subsurface evaluator because he's the guy who does all the samples. So that would have been done the first day. You would have, um, you would have a field foreman, environmental technician, you'd have the service truck, you'd have the excavator, those line items

Caller: Okay, got it. So basically everything, ex-excavator service truck, a few vehicles. Um, okay. All right.

Pete: And again, it's very rare. I mean, it would be… I mean, and we'll know by eleven o'clock. The day we come out to do it, but typically by eleven, eleven thirty, we know, uh, you know, how extensive it's gonna be. Majority of the time, we get all the contamination out by noon, and then the afternoon we're filling in the excavation, we're done.

Caller: Yeah. No, no, I get it. I just, I'm just trying to, you know, I'm just trying to, uh, to prepare for, for a worst-case scenario. Hopefully that doesn't, that doesn't, um, that doesn't actually happen, you know?

Pete: Um- Absolutely.

Caller: No,

Pete: I get it

Caller: So the other thing, um, is that, you know, in the, in, you know, in the very rare case, hopefully this doesn't happen, that this is, you know, this is looking to be, you know, over a hundred tons of soil, you know, depending on how, how you guys are looking at that. Um, you know, because we have a budget for this, right? So like the eighty-five hundred is really just about the top of what we, we can actually, you know, afford to, to spend on this. So like if it goes for another, you know, two thousand dollars or something like that, I mean, that's doable. But if it goes way be- you know, above that, you know, it will be hard for us to be able to cover that. Is there, is there any way that, you know, we can assess how, you know, the, the tonnage that you guys are taking and be able to like stop at some point if it goes beyond something that we're able to, you know, to actually, you know, cover

Pete: or pay for? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So here's the thing. So if you say to me, "Okay, Pete, I got, you know, ten thousand dollars is the absolute max," and that's, let's say that's forty tons of soil, whatever that calculation comes out to, which is roughly about two trucks of loads of soil. So once… If I know that, once we get to that point on the job, let's say I'm out there and we, we get the one truck out and we say, "Oh, you know what? It still looks kind of dirty." Let's say we, we make a decision together on site. Do you wanna take, take another truckload out? We– And you, you agree 'cause you see the soil, you smell it. The geologist on site says that we should. So we take out that second truck, but now you tell me, "Okay, I'm maxed out. I, I don't have any more funds." So we can sample the excavation at that point and backfill the hole, finish all the site work. Now, even though those samples are gonna have an odor to it, mo- you know, because obviously, I mean, unless they're clean, and obviously we know it's finished, but if it's not, we could still stop the job and say, "All right, let's take the samples anyways. Let's backfill the hole. Let's see what those lab results are." Because even if it's contaminated, as long as it's under the s- the level of acceptable limits, we can close it out and, and, uh, we could absolutely stop the job at that point. Now, I can't guarantee that it's gonna be… those samples are gonna be clean and you're gonna pass, but we can stop the job at that point, absolutely.

Caller: Yeah. Because exactly. So what I was, what I was wondering, because, you know, I, I want to get this done, but obviously I don't want to… this to be like a twenty thou- you know, two hundred thousand dollar job because I don't think we can afford that. But what I would say is that I would want to be able to say, okay, so if we can, you know, like, like if it… Yeah, if we at some point we realize that it's gonna go be, you know, above what we're, you know, able to pay, stop it at that point and maybe we can, you know, you know, finish it up, you know, in a year or, you know, two years from now. Is that something that

Pete: is possible then? A hundred percent. Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, hopefully, you know, again, like, I mean, I've had this happen in the past where, you know, customer tells me, "I have a limit." We– And we stop and we, and we take our samples even though they're dirty, uh, and, and they, and they come back and they're, and they're passed and they're under the limits, and then the client's finished a hundred percent. So that's capable. Now, let's say worst case they don't pass. Yeah, you're not under any kind of timeframe where you have to then finish it in a certain timeframe. You could tell me, "Hey, Pete, I gotta, you know, save up some money. Uh, when I have another couple thousand dollars to complete it, um, you know, I'll let you know." And y- and the thing is, at that point, let's say those five or six samples comes back and only one of them is over the limits. Well, I'll be able to come back to you and tell you, "Hey, we only have one area that we have to dig out. It's this one sidewall. So here's the estimate to do that to come back." And at least you'll have an idea what that additional cost is gonna be, and then you can determine around when you're gonna have us come out.

Caller: Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. Um, okay, great. Um, I think… Oh, yeah, and the other question is the, um, that I had is the, uh, the four hundred check to the treasurer. Is that– So that's on top of the, of the five hundred dollars, uh, prep fee, right?

Pete: Yes. That's a, that's a separate check that at the end of the project, you're gonna cut a check directly to the treasurer, state of New Jersey. You're not gonna send it to them. You're gonna give it to us. We're gonna attach it to your report, and we're gonna send that to the state once the project is a hundred percent complete. So until that report is finished and we're a hundred percent ready to submit it to ask them for an NFA, that check is not due. So don't send them any money, don't do anything until the final pro– uh, report is done, and then we'll tell you what the process is from

Caller: there. Okay. Oh, yeah, so that's, actually that's another question. If for whatever reason we don't happen to finish the job this time around because, you know, it goes above what we're able to pay, so the, all of these fees around the action report and everything, that wouldn't take place, right? Because that only happens when it's done.

Pete: Exactly. Yep. Yeah. So you mean, you know, you could, you could hold back that money. So, you know, on- initially how it works is the fifty percent deposit. So we take that- Yeah … fifty percent deposit, we schedule you, we come out, we do the work. If there's a situation where, you know, one of those samples is not, is, is not clean, and you tell me, "Hey, I, I can't finish this," then, yeah, you don't have to pay. You could pay the balance minus the report and, you know, uh- Yeah … and the reporting fees. Yeah, absolutely. A hundred

Caller: percent. Okay. Okay, that makes sense. Um, all right. Thank you so much for the information. I really appreciate you taking the time to, to walk me through this. I'm going to, um-

Pete: Yeah, man. Any other questions, you let me know. I mean, uh, we're, we're scheduling about a week and a half out right now, so as soon as you, you know, give us the green light, I'll get you ca- I'll get you scheduled in right away.

Caller: Okay, sounds good. Thank you so much.

Pete: Thank you, sir.

Caller: Have a good day.

Pete: You too.

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Tank Talk Episode 014 – Realtor Representing Buyer Who Wants To Buy A House With A Leaking Underground Oil Tank!

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In this episode, Pete talks with a client who is representing a buyer who wants to buy a house with a leaking underground oil tank. The buyer is looking for a fixed price for the project.

Questions Asked…..

  1. Do you guys offer a flat rate or fixed price for remediation? 1:25
  2. How can I get a fixed price? 2:15
  3. How long is the price good for? 3:15
  4. Does the initial cost of $600 get credited back to my account? 3:30
  5. What are the payment terms? 3:50

Episode 14 Transcript

Announcer: Welcome to Tank Talk with Pete, a podcast talking all things related to residential oil tanks. You have questions, Pete has answers

Caller: Hey, sorry about that, Pete.

Pete: Yeah, no worries. What's going on, man? How can I help you out?

Caller: Um, well, uh, I was referred to you by, um, Saeed Hammond Group.

Pete: Oh, yes. Yeah, I do a lot of work with Saeed.

Caller: Yeah. So we, uh, we're… have a house. I have the buyer, uh, they have the, uh, short sale listing and, um, you know, they did disclose that there was a oil tank, but, uh, they said it was empty. Uh, we went, and we went to the property and w-we think the, th-the property is basically contaminated, right?

Pete: Wha-what's making you think that? Do you have, uh, do you have any kinda like lab results that were done or?

Caller: Yeah. Yes, we do. We do. We, uh, my, my guy, Raul, um, who does my oil tank sweeps and he also do the testing, he, um, the soil… But it's a, it's like eleven hundred gallon, uh, tank.

Pete: Okay.

Caller: And, uh, the thing… the, the problem was that, um, it was filled with water, like, like half, half of the tank was filled with water. That's interesting. But, um, yeah. But, uh, yeah, the, the soil, uh, testing came back, um, c-uh, contaminated. So what, um, you know, we was trying to do was see who's gonna pay for the, um, you know, for the removal and for the, um, you know, the, uh, remediation. And, um, uh, they had proposed that, um, you guys do a flat rate

Pete: Yep. Yeah, yeah,

Caller: absolutely.

Pete: We could help you with that. I mean, this, you're gonna… So essentially you're gonna get the bank to, uh, you're trying to get the bank to pay for it, and you wanna give, uh, get a proposal for a fixed price. Is that kind of what you're looking for?

Caller: Uh, that's kind of what we looking for. Now, the, the thing about it is that, uh, the, the bank, uh, the short sale bank, they not gonna pay for it. That's what I'm being told.

Pete: Yeah. Usually that's the case. So

Caller: they trying-

Pete: As is. Yeah.

Caller: Yeah. So-

Pete: That's exactly why we have this program, to be honest with you. It's for investors. I mean, we're very investor-friendly. We came out with these programs for people that are in your exact position because-

Caller: Mm-hmm

Pete: you know, as you probably know, in the industry, it's, uh, it- it's, it's very common to get what's called an open-ended contract, and they could, you know, quote you at eight grand, and then you buy the property, and it costs you 30 or 40, you know? Um-

Caller: Yeah

Pete: so that doesn't happen with us. The way that it works is we charge a fee. It's $600 to come out. We do a soil investigation that consists of us determining how deep that contamination is, how far out it traveled. We determine if groundwater's impacted. We determine if it's under any structures, if it's offsite, all those data points we need to gather, and then we can come back to you with a fixed price contract. That price does not fluctuate. It's an all-inclusive contract, a guaranteed no further action letter, unlimited amount of soil that gets disposed. It's all included in that price. So there's no gimmicks. There's no catches. Uh, I know there's another company right now that's giving a flat rate, but it only includes 20 tons. Anything over that, you're responsible, so it's not a true fixed price. Um, so our, our contract is a true fixed price. It will not fluctuate. So if the deal makes sense, and I come back to you with a quote, let's hypothetically, it's $12,000, that makes sense for your deal, you close on it, we come in, do the work afterwards, and that price is not gonna change.

Caller: Oh, okay. Okay. All right. Uh, and that price won't change, okay.

Pete: No. Yeah, it doesn't change. It, it's a fixed number. Once I give it to you, that's g- that, that g- that's good for, you know, s- six months. I mean, you know, as long as you close and get it done within six months, you're, you're… and that number is not gonna change.

Caller: Okay. All right. All right, so I just wanted to get a little bit of information from you. So it's, um, the come out is six hundred dollars.

Pete: Correct. And that six hundred we will apply towards the, uh, as a credit towards your file if you decide to move forward. Mm-hmm. So, um, you know, the six hundred will… You know, if it's a ten thousand dollar quote, y- you would only owe us ninety-four hundred bucks. Um, so we'll get applied as a credit.

Caller: Okay. And, um, do you, you need all, uh, monies up front or you… What is, what is the, uh, um-

Pete: Well, tell me what you're doing. So are you– is this a flip for you or are you gonna renovate it and flip it?

Caller: No, this is like a actual buyer, like a client who's looking to be a owner occupant.

Pete: Okay. So yeah, that… w- in that situation, we… yeah, the way that it works is we would get a fifty percent deposit, uh, before the job starts, and then after the site work is complete, we ask for the, the balance. Um, you know, typically, if you were representing a seller and you had a buyer involved and there was a closing coming up, we could arrange for s- to get paid at closing. Uh, but in this situation, I mean, unless there's some way you could get money put in escrow from the closing from the seller, I mean, I, I don't know how you would do it, but yeah, typically we get paid fifty percent upfront and then the balance after the site work.

Caller: Okay. Uh. All right. Now I got to figure this out 'cause, you know, it's, you know, I'm trying to bring both sides together, well, at least, you know, tell my buyer, you know, "Hey, you know, they are willing to go lower on the price, so you actually get… you getting, uh, you know, you getting on the back end." You know, she- Oh, exactly. She seeing right now. And

Pete: what we can do that- Yeah … on the back. So I'll work with you, man. We're, we're real investor-friendly and we're, we're trying to make it work for everybody. And, uh, we, you know, we do accept all major credit cards as payment, um, you know, a- and obviously ch-ch-checks and cash as well.

Caller: Okay. All right. Thank you. I appreciate you. I have some information to take back to her.

Pete: All right, Hassan. If you have any questions or if they wanna call and have any questions about the process, uh, you know, feel free to have them give me a call.

Caller: Will do. Thank you.

Pete: All right. Thanks. Bye.

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Tank Talk Episode 013 – My Oil Tank Leaked! Now What? Part 2

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In this episode, Pete talks with a client in regards to their soil sample that was extracted the day of the tank removal. The lab results came back over the NJDEP clean up standards.

Questions Asked…..

  1. What do my soil sample results mean? (25 Seconds)
  2. What type of pricing options do you offer? (1 min)
  3. Can you just sample the excavation instead of remediating? (2 min)
  4. Is the subsurface evaluator included in the price? (2:52)
  5. If we go with open ended contract, you will just come out and start digging? (3 min)
  6. How often does groundwater get contaminated? (3:30)
  7. How much does it cost to investigate the soils for a fixed price? (5:30)

Episode 13 Transcript

Announcer: Welcome to Tank Talk with Pete, a podcast talking all things related to residential oil tanks. You have questions, Pete has answers

Pete: Hey, Chris, it's Pete from Simple Tank. How's it going?

Caller: It's going all right.

Pete: I, I got a chance to speak to your, uh, to your wife, I believe, right?

Caller: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so I got the news that, uh, the sample you guys took was above, uh, standard, uh.

Pete: Yeah, unfortunately, it is. Uh, it's, uh, the standard is five thousand one hundred, and I believe yours came in at twelve thousand six hundred.

Caller: Right.

Pete: So, you know, it tells us one thing. It tells us that yes, there's some contamination out there that's over the limits. What it doesn't tell us is how much is out there, and that's what ultimately drives the price. Um, and you know, a lot of times I have these where, I mean, I just like really high sample results, forty thousand, fifty thousand. And you would think, "Oh, this is gonna cost a fortune." But I go out there, and they only traveled a foot, so it, it was cheap to clean up. You know what I mean? So that's the only thing we don't know. We don't know the exact cost of what it will c- what it will be. So there's two options I was telling your wife. We have two options to go about this. One way is I can give you what's called an open-ended contract. The way that works is it's a starting price. It's about seventy-nine hundred bucks, and that doesn't include any soil. So, so the way it works is we come out there with an, a, a subsurface evaluator, and he will do oversight. He'll tell us where to dig, when to stop digging. So depending on how much soil we take out and replace, that'll drive up your, your, your total invoice. Typically, the eighty percent of the jobs we do range between about eighty-five hundred to fifteen thousand. That's a typical soil remediation range. That's one way to go about it. The other way, if you really are dead set about knowing exactly what the cost would be, we could come in there beforehand. I could drill around to determine how far this stuff traveled, and I'll know exactly what's in the ground, and I can provide you with a fixed price to do the job.

Caller: Mm-hmm. Okay. And what about… I'm reading on your site that you can come out and probe and send those samples?

Pete: Well, yeah. So that's the– So all right. So there's… Uh, which part of the site are you on? Are you referencing?

Caller: Soil investigation, um, coming out, probing around to grab six samples from the previous tank excavation. They're gonna be sent to a state-certified lab.

Pete: Okay. So yeah, that option unfortunately is not available to us. So if you had your results that ca- If your lab result came back under a thousand, then I would say, okay, you have two options. One option is I could come out there and just sample it, and as long as all six are below, then you're good. But when you have one, the first initial sample, when that's over the limits, then we only have one option, and that's to remediate. Oh, oh, I

Caller: got you. Okay. All right. Yeah, that makes sense. Okay. And the subs, um, the, uh, subsurface evaluator, is, is that price included?

Pete: In the, in the contract that we quoted, that I sent out, yes, that's, that's included. The– everything is, a hundred percent is included. The only thing that's not included is a four hundred dollar review fee that gets paid to the state, uh, at the end. Right. So that's the on– you know, that's a direct cost to the state.

Caller: Gotcha. Four hundred dollar review fee, come out, initial contract. So if we did the open contract, you just come out and you start digging right away?

Pete: Exactly. And typically, you know, we clean these up anywhere between one to three truckloads. That's an average cleanup, and that's where, you know, you fall within that eighty-five hundred to, you know, fifteen thousand typically.

Caller: Right. Right. Right. And, uh, what about the– How often does water get contaminated?

Pete: So that's a good question. Um, uh, now you're in Cranford, right?

Caller: Yeah.

Pete: So do you have a– Are– Do you guys have, uh, some pump in your basement? Like, tell me what's, uh- No,

Caller: we don't, we don't, we don't have a basement. No.

Pete: Okay. No

Caller: basement. There was a little bit of water when he… at the bottom of the tank.

Pete: Okay. So the way that groundwater works is when we come out to do our excavation and we dig out the contamination-

Caller: Yeah

Pete: um, we are gonna dig until we get clean soil. Once we get to that clean soil, let's say it's at nine feet deep, okay? Right. Once I'm at nine feet, our geologist, our subsurface geologist will take a sample of the soil, and then he's gonna tell us to dig an additional two feet excavation. And we do that to see if we're gonna encounter groundwater. If groundwater is within that two-feet section, which we'll know because it'll start filling up the hole, just like it does at the beach when you dig a hole, uh- Right. Right.

Caller: Exactly.

Pete: Yeah. If that happens, then the state will require us to come back out afterwards and done at a different time to test the groundwater. And what we do is we would put it in a well, which is basically a PVC pipe. We would drill it down, and then the geologist would suck the water out. Now, groundwater is– it, it sounds scary, but as long as I get the source out, which is the soil, that's what's gonna- Yeah … that's what's gonna clean up your groundwater. So, and that's what the state wants us to prove that, yes, we got the source out and the groundwater is not contaminated.

Caller: All right. Yeah, 'cause that's, that's the nightmare that I've been hearing about.

Pete: And so it can be a nightmare, but if you get all the, the source out, it's really just a, a, it's a, it's, it's a process that you have to go through. Um, but it, it, you know, if it's contaminated and let's say… Okay, I'll give you a scenario. Let's say I can't get all the contamination out. Let's say I have to leave some behind because it's impacted by utilities or it's going under a structure. Uh, so I have to sample it and let's say, okay, yeah, it, it's, it's under the state standards for soil criteria, but it's gonna continue to contaminate my groundwater. And that's where it becomes an issue. Uh, and that's where we have to repeatedly test the groundwater and try to clean it up. But if I get the source out and I'll know that day when I do the remediation, I'll be able to tell you with confidence, yes, I got the source. There's nothing left behind. Then nine out of ten times, my groundwater sample is gonna be clean.

Caller: Okay. Okay. And I'm sorry, you may have said this, but, but for you to come out and to, and to do that, uh, the, not the open-ended contract, but to come out first and to drill, how much is that to start?

Pete: So we charge six hundred for that investigation, and then we would roll that fee into the fixed price contract if you decide to go that way. And, and you're not obligated. So let's say, hey, in fact, I come out there, and this happens a lot where, you know, it's– you spend the six hundred, we go out there and we find that it's not that bad of a leak and it didn't travel far. We always give our clients the option to go with the open-ended contract or the fixed price at that time once they know the number. 'Cause a lot of times you could save money. If it's minimal, you'll save money by going with the open-ended contract 'cause You're paying a premium with a fixed price contract because it's like an insurance thing. You know what I mean? Like you're, you're- Yeah. -you're sure that it's not gonna go over a certain number. So, but on the- Yeah. And you guys

Caller: have to protect, you guys have to protect your side too. Yeah.

Pete: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So if it's a minor cleanup, a lot of times I'll also let my clients know after that investigation, I'll say, "Okay, here are the results. This is what we found. Here's my recommendation. I think you should go with the open-ended contract. You'll save probably two thousand or whatever." Uh, or I'll come back and say, "You know what? It's a pretty big cleanup. You know, this is, uh, I would recommend going with the fixed price because you, you'll be safe knowing that it's not gonna morph into something crazy, you know?"

Caller: Oh, okay. Okay. That makes sense. Okay. And how, how soon could you come out and do the, that drilling? I think I might go with that.

Pete: So let me look real quick, um, let me look at the calendar. I would say we'd be able to get out there within the next, uh, you know, couple days. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of next week. We already have a mark out- Yeah. -all cleared. So yeah, I could get out there, uh, within the next couple of days. I could get you squeezed in for sure.

Caller: And how long do those, uh, those samples take to process? Is that like another week?

Pete: So no, we don't need any more samples because we already have the one that's showing us that it's over the limits. Oh. So what we need to do now- Yeah. -is we need to figure out how far it traveled, and that's what we're gonna know. So I'll be able to tell you, hypothetically, if my guy comes out on Monday, uh, he'll put his notes in the file, and I'll call you, and I'll let you know, "Okay, here's our findings. Here's what we think." And we'll be able to tell you at that time too if we think groundwater is impacted- Yeah, yeah, yeah. -'cause we'll be able to drill down to see where the impact is, and I'll be able to tell you at that time if I think groundwater is gonna be an issue. So you'll definitely have a lot more data at that time.

Caller: All right. Yeah. Let's, let's do that then.

Pete: Okay, cool. So I'm gonna send you a, a proposal the same as last time. It's electronic proposal. Just e-sign it, and then I'll get you scheduled in, and we'll call you to confirm what day it's gonna be.

Caller: All right. That's great.

Pete: All right. Thanks a lot, Chris.

Caller: All right. Thank you. Bye. Take

Pete: care. All right, bye.

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Tank Talk Episode 012 – How Can I Protect My Downside When Buying A Home With An Oil Tank?

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In this episode, Pete talks with a future client about buying a home with a previously filled underground oil tank. The seller is pushing back saying that they have all the proper documents. Pete explains why it is so important to not trust those docs!

Questions answered in this episode…

Questions Asked…..

  1. The seller refuses to remove the tank, is there anything I can do to minimize my risk? 1:00
  2. Does the cleanup mean we need a No Further Action letter 2:30
  3. How can you see if the soil is contaminated 4:30
  4. Is the tank filled properly, what is the chance you will find a oil leak? 5:30
  5. If the tree is on top of the tree, will your company take it down? 6:30
  6. How big will the holes be when you test the soil? 7:30
  7. How much does average oil tank removal cost? 8:30

Episode 12 Transcript

Announcer: Welcome to Tank Talk with Pete, a podcast talking all things related to residential oil tanks. You have questions, Pete has answers

Caller: Hi, uh, my name is Andrew. Um, I got a question, uh, related to oil tank removal.

Pete: Sure, I can

Caller: help you with that. Uh, I hope you can help me with that. Um, so the situation is that I, uh, I'm gonna buy a house with a underground oil tank. Um, it's a five hundred fifty gallon tank, um, which is under the, um, the front yard of the house. Um, it was, uh, properly, uh, abandoned in nineteen ninety-six. Um, the, the– my situation is that the, the seller of the house refused to do anything. So I have to like take the risk to buy the house with the tank. Um, but before I do that, I want to find out is it any precautions there, like any soil testing that I can do in the inspection period, so I can at least to have a better idea, like whether there's a oil leak and whether there's a soil contamination, uh, around the tank. Is this something that possible or there's no way to tell?

Pete: Absolutely. Yeah, I could definitely help you with this. Um, so I'll explain typically how the industry works. Um, for soil testing around a tank like this, basically, they will send, uh, somebody out to do it by hand, and they bore down alongside the tank. But a lot of times they don't get to the proper depth, and they don't ever back up the, uh, results with some kind of warranty or guarantee. So for you as a buyer, if you were to pay somebody five or six hundred dollars and they gave you results with no guarantee, you are gonna be liable for a potential cleanup in the future. So that's not gonna work, right? So we have a program where we can come in. We have a special machine called a Geo Probe that probes around the side of the tank. I just pull a lever so I know my guy is gonna, is gonna get to the proper depth. If we can prove that the soil around the tank is clean, we're gonna offer you an optional guarantee for that. It covers you for up to six months, so as long as you hire our company to pull that tank within six months. And if we find any contamination, it could be, uh, fifty thousand dollars worth of cleanup, you're covered. We would cover it and clean it up for no additional cost to you if you take the optional guarantee.

Caller: Okay. So the cleanup doesn't mean that it's like go to township and, and get, uh, like no follow-up action certificate?

Pete: Yes, that's what I mean. So let's say hypothetically, y- we test the, the tank next week. I tell you that the soil is clean. You say, "Great, I'm gonna buy the house." Two months from now, you close on the house. You hire us to pull it. I come out and pull that tank out of the ground, and I find that it's riddled with holes and there's contamination directly under that tank that we missed. We would then have to get a case number from the DEP. We'd have to then clean up the soil and wr- and write a report to get you that no further action letter. That is gonna be all included in your guaranteed price.

Caller: Okay, I see. So that means it's kind of an insurance, so maybe like you charge a little bit, uh, more than the other company, but you guarantee that you kind of take care of the follow-up.

Pete: Exactly.

Pete: Okay. The first step is we charge six hundred dollars for the investigation. So you're gonna have two outcomes. If you could picture this, you'll have two outcomes on that initial test next week. One outcome, we're gonna find clean soil. I'll come back to you. I'm gonna send those samples to the lab, get lab results, and give you those results and tell you that you're all clear, you're good to go. Okay, that's one outcome. The second outcome is that we find contamination. And when we're out there that day, if we find contamination, we're going to do what's called a delineation. What that means, in layman terms, is we're gonna figure out how deep the contamination is, how far it traveled in each direction, and we're going to give you a fixed price that you can then go to the seller to negotiate. We even have a program where, let's just… I'm gonna throw numbers at you. Let's just say it's a fifteen thousand dollar remediation. We could come in now, do the remediation at no cost to you or the seller, and the seller could pay us at closing once we give him the clean bill of health.

Caller: Okay. I think that makes sense to me. I think that's a more safer approach. Um, but I– do you mind just to explain a little bit like the soil contamination? I d- I don't think it's like a zero and one thing. So is it like certain… How do you consider the soil is contaminated? Is it, uh, really a black and white case or- Yeah … there's some gray area?

Pete: It's very black and white. It's, it's very obvious. So you as a homeowner, a potential homeowner that has never seen an oil tank come out of the ground, you don't need me or a, a township inspector to tell you it's leaking. It's very obvious. You could see the soil, it's discolored. It's got an odor to it. The, their tank is riddled with holes. It's a very obvious thing. So it's a visual inspection initially that's done, and then a sample is typically taken from the bottom of the, of the excavation to determine what level the contamination's at, okay? Because you are allowed to keep contamination in the ground up to a certain level, uh, and we would have to go through that process once the tank is out. But yeah, if you have the guarantee, you are completely covered. You have no additional worries. You have nothing else to worry about, um, uh, once you close on that property. You have no extra liability. You have nothing that's gonna pop out at you down the road that's gonna cost you a fortune.

Caller: Okay, got it. Uh, do you mind if I ask two more questions?

Pete: Absolutely.

Caller: Uh, the first one is, um, based on your experience, if the tank is like sealed properly, like in nineteen ninety-six, what's the chance to have like the oil leaking from that-

Pete: Very high.

Caller: tank?

Pete: Very high. And let me explain.

Caller: Very high.

Pete: Yeah. Let me explain. Okay. Let me explain why it's very high. Because in nineteen ninety-six, they decided to take that tank out of service. Most of the time, the people didn't just decide on a whim that they didn't like oil heat anymore. Most of the time. Most of the time they… That, that tank was taking on water and it wasn't heating the– the heating system wasn't properly working, which means they had no heat. So what they did is they followed all the proper rules and regulations back then. They opened it up and they threw sand in it. The problem is it wasn't required to test the soil around the tank, so there's no way to tell back in ninety-six that that tank was actually leaking. So a lot of these previously filled tanks were actually leaking before they were filled in place. So once we pull it, we're gonna find that out or once we do our soil investigation, we're gonna know that.

Caller: Okay. I see. Um, another thing is that, uh, it's look like there's a tree, uh, on top of the oil tank. Do you also take care of the tree removal, or I need to find a different company to handle that?

Pete: It depends on the size of the tree, but when we come out to do our soil investigation, we'll be able to let you know if we can handle it and how much it would cost or if it was too big and you had to hire someone else to remove it. When we do our soil investigation, we're gonna know the exact location of that tank, and we'll let you know which landscaping will be impacted during the dig, and we'll be able to give you a fixed number on what the cost would be to remove it and, um, and all that stuff at that time. And we'll be able to tell you if we can handle the tree or not.

Caller: Okay. Um, and I think you mentioned you have tools to kind of, uh, drill down into the ground to, to, uh, test the oil. Um, what will be the impact? Is it just a small hole or there will be a big hole that you need to dig from the ground?

Pete: It's a two-inch piece of pipe that gets drilled in through the ground, so it's a two-inch hole, and we fill the hole in when we're done. So y- uh, when we leave, uh, initially doing that investigation, you won't even know we were there.

Caller: Understood. Okay. I think that's really helpful. Uh, let me just talk to, uh, my real estate agent. Um, I think most likely I will just call you back and arrange a visit to your house.

Pete: Okay, perfect. Yeah, call back, and I can take your info, email you out a proposal. Everything we do is electronic. You would sign it electronically. We'll call you for a fifty percent deposit. Um, and then one– we'll set you up on the schedule, and then when we come out, you pay the balance.

Caller: Okay. Um, sorry, just one more thing before I get asked. So, uh, six hundred dollars for the inspection, and we want to remove the oil tank. They assume there's no soil contamination. What's the, like, the FH cost for that?

Pete: So it's about fifteen hundred dollars typically, plus permits and, and, and, you know, if it, you know, if the sand inside of it is contaminated, there's typically a charge to dispose of that. If it was done in ninety-six with a permit, most likely that sand's gonna be clean. I'm gonna reuse that sand as fill material, so there's no charge for that. But if it's contaminated, there'll be an additional fee. So all that will be spelled out in the contract if you decide to go forward with us, uh, on the guarantee, and that'll be in the contract itself.

Caller: Okay, sounds good. Um, uh, what's the name?

Pete: My name is Pete, P-E-T-E Slack, S-L-A-C-K from Simple Tank.

Caller: Uh, so if I call back, do I need to ask for you or I can just speak to somebody else?

Pete: If you want, what I could do is I could take your info right now. I'll email you a proposal within the next few minutes, and then if you decide you wanna move forward, alls you have to do is literally open up the email and click approve and type in your name, and then we'll get everything rolling from that point. Would you like to do that?

Caller: Yeah. Sounds good. Let's do it.

Pete: Okay, perfect. Look in your email inbox in the next few minutes. You'll have it there. If you have any questions, my name is Pete.

Caller: Okay. Thank you very much.

Pete: All right. Thank you, sir. Bye-bye.

Caller: Okay. Thank you. Bye-bye.

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Tank Talk Episode 011 – Homeowner Not Happy With Lowest Price Contractor!

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In this episode, Pete talks with a homeowner that we sent a quote to remove her underground tank and install a new above ground tank. She decided to hire another contractor because he was cheaper. Once the tank was out of the ground, the contractor found a few pin holes and tried to pressure her to sign on for a soil remediation right away! He did not take any samples of the soil to determine the contamination levels to properly advise her. Please do your homework and don’t hire the cheapest contractor to remove your oil tank. The process that the contractor follows once the tank is out is more important and if not followed properly can cost you thousands of dollars in the end.

Transcript

Episode 11 Transcript

Announcer: Welcome to Tank Talk with Pete, a podcast talking all things related to residential oil tanks. You have questions, Pete has answers

Pete: Hey, guys. So I don't typically hop on, uh, before, uh, the podcast starts, but I, I really felt the need to just get on real quick and explain this situation. So this client, uh, qu- had us quote them to remove their underground tank and install a new tank. They're out in Philipsburg area. So we gave them a very competitive price, we thought, uh, and they did some price shopping. They got somebody who was cheaper that was more local to their house, and, uh, they were able to save, you know, a couple hundred bucks on the project. So we have not heard… We didn't hear from them after the project. Well, we get a call, and that contractor pulled the tank, and now there is a problem. They, they have, uh, holes in the tank, and there's some contamination there. And the contractor did not follow the proper procedure, did not take a sample of the soil. That's number one. Okay? He did… And he's now… And he's- then he's trying to force a remediation on them right away. That's a, you know, it's a tactic that they like to do, uh, to, like, to pressure you to do that remediation right away because they wanna get that money out of your pocket and get that job done and collect the balance. Okay? The proper procedure is to sample the excavation, determine the ex- the level of the contamination, and then give the client some options. That is not the process that was followed. So she called us. We are going to now s- uh, give her a quote to go down to her property and perform what's called a fixed price investigation. So we will probe around her tank, I mean, around the area where the tank was located. This way, we could get an idea of what the level of contamination is, and then we're gonna provide her with a couple options to close out her case number. That is the proper procedure. We could have skipped this step, which is a $600 step, if the contractor pulled the sample the day he, he removed the tank. We would've had an idea of the levels of contamination, and then we would've been able to just ta- uh, you know, explain to her over the phone what her options are. But because he didn't follow that procedure, she's looking now at additional $600 to investigate it, and then we're gonna go back to her with some options on how to close out her case number. So listen up, and, uh, hope you get some value out of this call.

Caller: Hi. Um, good afternoon.

Caller: Uh, this is Dolly Tubani. I have used your services in past, and I wanted to inquire about a property where we took out a 1,000-gallon tank today. Uh, the guy, uh, said like since there was a hole in the tank, right, they put it as a contamination

Pete: Okay. Uh, where, where is the house located? What, what town is the house located in?

Caller: How would I know? Like, what, what, what are my next steps? Because I was not very happy and excited with the company who took out the tags. They were… I feel like they are overselling me.

Pete: Yes. Yeah. Uh, unfortunately, a lot of that happens in this industry. Um, it's really unfortunate. Uh, uh, you know, if I had to take a guess, I'd say you're out by Philipsburg, right?

Caller: Yes. So head tongue is literally by pharynx. But in fact, you can call it as a pharynx hook.

Pete: Yes. Yes. Um, so did you use the local guy over there, ADS?

Caller: Yes.

Pete: Yeah. Did they take any samples when they removed the tank yesterday or today?

Caller: No, they removed it today. And no, they did not.

Pete: Yeah.

Caller: I mean, the weird thing was like, uh, they just, uh, called up immediately to NJDEP saying, saying there are two holes in the tank. Tiny, teeny-tiny holes. Okay? Now, um, and then they– the inspector didn't even look at the holes or anything. They just said, uh, it, this is the NJDEP ID, uh, ID.

Pete: Wow. Yep, yep. Th-this is ex– this is exactly what a lot of these guys do. It's really a shame. He, he– You know, they really should have taken a sample. So did they explain to you that you're allowed to keep contamination in the ground up to a certain level?

Caller: No, no, no, that's the problem. See, again, I am a person who goes by rule book, right? You can't bullshit me. He says, "Oh, this looks ugly. This looks bad." Come on, dude, there has to be some kind of a process in place. This is US. This is not like third world country where you don't know what you're talking about.

Pete: Yes. Yes, exactly. And it- And

Caller: he's, he, he… I, I, I'm, I'm very upset, okay? I'm sorry. It's just-

Pete: Mm.

Caller: I'm like, I need to call up. I wish I had gone with you guys, but your case, y- well, see, the budget was like a thousand dollars difference between your estimate and the guy's estimate, and I don't have any complaints on taking the tank out. It's more of like after this thing, and they said like, "We can start tomorrow." I'm like, "No." Literally you should have looked at his face the way I said, "No, you guys come up tomorrow."

Pete: No, that's the thing. They try to pressure you. It, it's, it's a pressure, it's a pressure j- move. You know what I mean? They try to get you to do it right away, right away. You gotta be careful. And now let me ask you this. Are you selling the property or anything? What was the reason for removing the tank?

Caller: See, I got the property. I'm do- redoing it because my sister wants to move in. Okay?

Pete: Okay.

Caller: Unfortunately, unfortunately, my next door neighbor is a police cop, and we had to cut his tree pine, uh, bushes down to get it out my oil tank. Somehow the oil tank is like on a very tight spot between the two houses. So he wants to make sure… And I, o- obviously I don't want an oil tank on my property. Underground oil tank, no way.

Pete: Wow. Yeah, no, absolutely. You did the right thing. Absolutely. Yeah. I see that in our files. I guess we did send you a proposal, so for, for a removal and an install and then also one for removal. So w- were we that much more expensive than those guys?

Caller: Yeah, you were thousand dollars more expensive.

Pete: A thousand? Wow. So they, they did a what? A removal and an install for twenty-five hundred bucks?

Caller: Yeah.

Pete: Wow. Yeah. See, this is the problem in this industry.

Caller: They,

Pete: they, they-

Caller: No, and we, uh… No, I had to

Pete: pay, uh- Go ahead.

Caller: I had to pay a little more extra because it turned out to be thousand dollars, right? Instead of five hundred dollars.

Pete: Okay. So that's a– I mean, see, this is the thing. They, they try to give a very low price, and they wanna get the– they wanna be able to just get that tank out, and then the first thing they do is report you to the state when a lot of times it's not even required to report you to the state. You know? Because you could have a hundred holes in your tank, I don't care. If it's no contamination, I'm not reporting you to the state, but that's not how everybody works.

Caller: No, he said like, "Smell the…" Yeah, no, he said, "Smell the soil. It smells bad, so you definitely had a leak."

Pete: Did you smell it, that you had, had an odor?

Caller: Very slight odor. It wasn't like, "Oh my God, I ca– I have to close my no–" Um, I mean, honestly, see, it was raining and it was pine tree freshly cut. I don't even know whether it was like petrochemical, but it was a weird so… And I don't know if it's a clay soil, right? You're talking to a wrong person.

Pete: Yeah, yeah. Th-

Caller: When

Pete: it comes to soil. Now, did he take– He di- and he didn't take one. He didn't tell you that he's taken a sample or any of that stuff, right?

Caller: No, no, no.

Pete: So the process he should have followed, and here's how it works. This is the way it's supposed to be done. He should have take one sample from the bottom of the excavation where the tank was. He runs that to the lab. He gets results within three to four business days. Then he should come back to you and tell you, "Okay, here the le– here's the level of contamination." Because depending on what the level of the contamination is-

Caller: See, that's the problem

Pete: then you have options. He's not giving you any options. He's trying to pressure you to do it right away. That's not good business, man

Caller: Yeah, that's– See, he lost my business because obviously I went to him right over you guys, and now I'm calling you back. That should tell you. Uh, my problem is, um, first of all, honestly, listen, I don't know whether I have a problem or not. So I'm– You– It's kind of like… No, I definitely have a problem because he reported it to NJDEP and the case is there. So there is a problem. Now, I don't know how to address that because I have zero clue. Google is not helping me out, and I'm like at dead ends, and I don't want to go back to that guy no matter what.

Pete: Yeah. I mean, we can definitely help you out. I'll, I'll give you some different options. Uh, but what I would recommend, since he didn't take any samples, what I would recommend is… Did he– Now, did he backfill the hole? Is it all the way backfilled up to grade and everything?

Caller: Yes. I'm sorry to say this. I was so upset, so upset with him. I said to him, "Why don't you leave it like that?" He said, "No, no, no. By law, I have to do it." And do you know what he did? He took out and he mixed all the… I mean, that, that's not the way it has to be. The way you need it is like if you take two, three lay… If you took the– If you dug through three layers and you made like three different sta-stages, right? You don't mix all the three stages together and put it back. Right? If there is a contamination, right, you, you leave the contaminated soil the bottommost, then you put, you put the fresh soil. He mixed all the soil, so now I- Oh, man. If there's contamination, I have like whole house-

Pete: Yeah, he should have- He said- The, the right process is to line the hole with plastic, and then you put the clean stuff on top of the plastic. That's the proper way to do it.

Caller: Yeah. No, he did not do anything like that. He just put, put it back. Dump, dump, dump.

Pete: Well, uh, so all right. So here's what I would recommend. Yeah, please. We can, we, we can, we can definitely help you out, but we– the first step, okay, we need to know how extensive this contamination is. What I would recommend is have us come down. We would drill around in that area. It's a two-inch pipe that we would drill down holes, and then we would pull the soil up, and we would see what the level is of the contamination. If it's under a certain level, then we could just write a report for the state and you, and you're done with it. Okay? If, if it's over- And what is the

Caller: certain level?

Pete: The… Well, the, the initial investigation is six hundred dollars. That's what we charge for that, that service. And that'll tell us that-

Caller: No, no, no, no. Uh, no, no, no.

Pete: Go ahead.

Caller: What are the certain levels?

Pete: Oh, the levels. Levels. Levels. So- For

Caller: the soil

Pete: all right. So there– it's like a two-step level, uh, levels basically. So ideally, you really want everything to be under a thousand parts per million. That's best case. If it's under a thousand, we don't have to do any additional analysis at the lab, and we could close out with a report to the DEP, and they'll give you a no further action letter. That's best case. Okay? If it's over a thousand parts per million but below five thousand one hundred parts per million, technically it can stay in the ground, but it will have to pass additional analysis at the lab. So, you know, a lot of times if it is in between those two numbers, it will pass. So really, you know, you really want it under a thousand. Next best thing is under fifty-one hundred. Anything over fifty-one hundred has to get remediated.

Caller: Okay. Now, can you help me out? Uh, if it's under fifty-one… No, I'm understanding. I don't even know. I don't even freaking know. I'm sitting here right now that it's under thousand or it's under fifty-one hundred or under six thousand. Okay? So, uh, sitting here, I'm asking you, uh, how would I know, like, um, if it's– Just giving you vague example, if it's four thousand, what will be the next step?

Pete: So, okay. So if it– So we come down there and drill around, and I, and I– my, my– this is what I would do. I'd go down there, drill around. I would send the sam- one sample out to the lab. Let's see what that sample is, okay? And if it comes back at four thousand, like you just said, and that– whenever it comes back over a thousand, uh, during this initial investigation phase, I would recommend taking a little bit of soil out, okay? Because we can go back and, and take our six… 'Cause you need six samples taken with the oversight from a geologist, and we don't wanna spend all that money initially if the s- if it's gonna be over the limits. That's why the first phase is just investigation. It's, it really is only for your use and my use. It's not for the DEP. It's for you and I to figure out how extensive this cleanup is. It, you know, and then we could come back to you with some pricing. But if it's, uh, four thousand parts per million, that first sample, I would recommend, uh, you know, to take out a little bit of soil in that situation.

Caller: Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, and this has to be done by a certified licensed professional like you, or can I just do it like and give it to the lab and figure it out?

Pete: No, it ha- it has to be done by a certified contractor. You know, in order for us to come down there and really drill down and, and figure this out. For us, when we do that investigation, once we're done, I'm gonna be able to tell you to the dollar, and it's gonna be a fixed number, exactly what it's gonna cost for you to close this out. All these other guys give you open-ended contracts. So they're gonna tell you, "Oh, it starts at six thousand, and then it goes up from here," and then they don't tell you what the final invoice is gonna be. A lot of times they come out, that six thousand dollar quote, the invoice is twenty thousand dollars at the end of the day. So you gotta be very careful. Our program, when we do our investigation for six hundred bucks, I'm gonna give you a fixed number. That number does not change. You make the decision before the project starts if you wanna pay, and then that number will not fluctuate.

Caller: Okay. Okay. Okay. So that's an, uh,

Pete: nice thing to know about. If now, if he, now if he, if he had, if he had a sample, that's why I asked. A lot of times we get these phone calls where another contractor pulled a tank, they took the one sample, so they followed the correct process, and then the c- No, we did

Caller: not.

Pete: Yeah. See, and then the co– the, the homeowner would call us at that time, and then I ask, "Do you have a sample?" They say, "Yes." "Okay, what are the results?" And then we don't have to do this next step. So because he didn't do the six hundred dollar… I mean, he didn't do the sample, I h– we have to now go out, down there and, and probe around to, to find out.

Caller: No, he said there is no need to. Uh, yeah, he said you can see it, uh, from a naked eye, right? That there is an oil contamination. And I'm like, "Okay." See, you go by what they say, right?

Pete: Well, of course, he's trying to tell you that because he wants you to do the most expensive job, which is a remediation, but you may not even need that. You might be able to just sample it and write a report. It's, it's a… And a lot of times it's a quarter of the price of a remediation. You know, a typical remediation, just so you understand, if you have– if we find that we have to take soil out, just so you understand cost, you know, typically on average they're about eight to fifteen thousand. So it's very expensive. I can close, uh, i-if I could prove that that soil is under the limits, I could close out something for like forty-five hundred bucks. I could close the whole job, it could be finished

Caller: Oh, okay. Uh, mm, I mean forty-five hundred dollars, um, uh, I'm, I'm not able to understand, like, um… Okay, you need to repeat again what did you just say?

Pete: So, okay. So, uh, if, if we find– Okay, so step one is for us to come down there and probe around to determine the level of contamination. That's step one. Once we have the level, then I'm gonna come back to you with options. I'm gonna say you have– Here are your options. Option one is gonna be for us to basically re-re, to come back and take the six samples that are required. And that's something like that with the report is about forty-five hundred bucks.

Caller: Forty-five hundred bucks.

Caller: Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Depending on the re-readings, right?

Pete: Ex-exactly. Exactly. We

Caller: need that initial

Pete: reading. Depending

Caller: on the first sample. Exactly.

Caller: Okay. Uh, let me, let me do one thing. Uh… Sorry, my… I came over, uh, came back h- to my house, and my little one is, like, literally all over me because I did not– he didn't see me since morning. You there?

Pete: Yes, I'm here. Yep.

Caller: Hello?

Pete: Yeah, yeah, I'm here. Can you hear me?

Caller: Okay. Give me some… Yeah, I can hear you. Give me some time, okay? Uh, let me… I'm, I'm not available tomorrow and day after tomorrow. I want to meet the person who will be doing the sampling. Let me circle back with you Friday first thing, like, around eleven-ish, okay? And then schedule a time for Monday or Tuesday.

Pete: Okay. So yeah, the way– I'm gonna email you right now. I have all your info. I'll email you the proposal for the six hundred bucks. Once you sign it, uh, it takes about four business days for us to get out there on our calendar. So, so just keep that in mind. But I'm gonna email it to you so you have it in your inbox. If you wanna call on Friday, that's fine, but it'll be about four business days out on our schedule.

Caller: Okay, perfect. Perfect. Thank you.

Pete: All right. Thank you for calling. Take it easy. Bye-bye.

Caller: Bye-bye.

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Tank Talk Episode 010 – My Oil Tank Is Under My Driveway! What Are The Steps To Remove It?

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In this episode, Pete talks with a prospective client about the oil tank buried under their driveway! The client had some really nice things to say about Simple Tanks online reputation and not so nice things about some of the other contractors out there. Pete will explain the step by step process to remove an underground oil tank that is located under the driveway!

Questions answered in this episode…

  1. What damage will there be to my front lawn since the tank is located in the driveway
  2. What is the process to get the tank removed from the ground?
  3. Once permits are approved how long does the job take to get done?
  4. What is the process once the tank is out?
  5. Will I be able to communicate with the employees that are sent to our house.
  6. Will you come to my house to look before the work is started?

Episode 10 Transcript

Announcer: Welcome to Tank Talk with Pete, a podcast talking all things related to residential oil tanks. You have questions, Pete has answers

Pete: Thanks. This is Pete. How can I help you?

Caller: Hi, Pete. My name is Chris. Um, I live– I'm a resident in Union. Um, and I-I've been searching for quite some time for a company to come and remove an oil tank, uh, that is under my single-car driveway. I kind of abandoned it. About five years ago, I switched over to gas, and I know I have to take care of this removal of this tank and, and, and, you know, finalize that everything is all right with the ground as well. Um, looking online just at all these different companies in the area, it just appears that your company just gets great reviews all around. Hundreds and hundreds of reviews. Everybody's very pleased with your, with your company. And, and other area companies don't get such a great rep, you know. They're– Even the Brinks Company, most of their reviews are just bad. It's– they're not even people half-satisfied. It's just one stars.

Caller: Yeah.

Caller: And you're saying, "Don't use this company, don't use this company." Um, so I'm, I'm kind of wanting to understand the process and, and how all of this comes about to have this tank, uh, on my property removed.

Pete: Sure. Absolutely. I could definitely help you with that and walk you through that. And I can appreciate the fact that you've done your research, and we really do pride ourselves on those reviews and, and getting, you know, our– getting those reviews at the end of the project. We work really hard to satisfy our customers 'cause, you know, we really- Uh-huh. Uh, those reviews help us, uh, obviously, as it is, you know, helping in this situation 'cause you're calling about, you know, you see our reviews. So we do work very hard to gather those reviews. Yeah.

Caller: It's a single-family house with a single-car gara– a single-driveway garage, and the tank is under the driveway. It's not under the ground. It's not under the lawn. It's under the paved driveway.

Pete: Um, so- Okay. What is the address of the property? I'm gonna look it up on Google just to see the access.

Caller: Okay. It's, it's, uh-

Pete: Cool

Caller: and it's just accessible from the street. It's just, you know, over the sidewalk and you're on the driveway, and, uh, very easy access. I had a bunch of questions as to, you know, what happens after it's out and, and just the whole process of… You know, my home is meticulously kept. I have beautiful lawns. You know, the d- the sidewalks were just replaced. You know, what kind of damage is done? H- how much of the lawn gets damaged from all the digging in the driveway? I, I just, I have a lot of questions.

Pete: Sure. Absolutely. No, I, I, you know, I could kind of go through the process with you. I'm looking at the front of your house right now. Looks like, um, it's a, it looks like a white siding. It has a one-car garage.

Caller: Yeah.

Pete: Okay. Perfect. Mm-hmm. So I, I see

Caller: the- Right in front of the one-car garage.

Pete: Exactly. Perfect. So the way that I would, uh, get this project done, uh, eh, you know, I would come in there and we would dig down to the top of that tank. The, the material that I'm gonna pull off the top of that tank- Yeah … I would, uh, put- Mm-hmm … I would keep it all within the driveway area. So n- the grass would– as long as that tank is within that driveway, there should be no damage at all- Mm-hmm … to the, to the grass area or the Belgian block or anything like that. It should just be within the driveway.

Caller: Okay. Yeah, I understand the- Yeah, I understand the job that has to be done. Um, you know, if, uh, if they have to dig all this dirt, um, I don't know, i-in such a short period of time that it will be, you know, out of the hole, we could cover or, or do something with one of the lawns on the side if they had to put it somewhere to try to preserve just removing the tarp and it's fine underneath. Uh, but, you know, i– you gotta do what you have to do. I, I get it. But, you know, I'm just, you know, concerned that, you know, minimal or no damage to whatever doesn't have to be damaged in this process.

Pete: Absolutely. Yeah. And, and we're gonna make-

Caller: And, and it's just… Yeah.

Pete: Yeah. We're gonna try everything we can to do to keep all the damage to minimal. So yeah, I would not wanna use-

Caller: Uh-huh

Pete: your grass area as a staging area. If anything, you know, it's nice and clear. Okay. I could swing in the driveway, put the material into a truck. There's a lot of different ways you could go about it. Okay. But there's definitely… Uh, as long as that tank's within that driveway, there should be no damage at all to the grass or Belgium block.

Caller: Other tanks in the neighborhood have been removed and with experience of other tanks being removed, it is just within the driveway. But- Perfect … you know, from house to house they do. It could be completely different in another house.

Pete: Of course. Of course. Absolutely. Yeah. Um, but yeah, we, we would take care of everything for you as far as the permits go with Union Township. We would overnight the permit application to you- Okay … uh, to the township, and the township would approve them. They take about five business days in Union to approve them. Okay? Um, once they- Okay … approve your permits, we are about a week and a half out in our schedule, so we'll contact you and let you know, "Hey, we're scheduled for this day. The town's gonna come out." We schedule it the same day. So the town's gonna come out the same day we pull your tank. They're gonna do a visual inspection along with us as well. I mean, we are certified by the DEP. So w– between the contractor and the town- Mm-hmm … you're gonna have a visual inspection done. As long as that visual inspection passes, there's no signs of a discharge, then we're gonna be able to backfill your hole, take the tank away. We would backfill in the driveway area with stone, okay? Because you're gonna want to be able to drive- Yep … over that that day. So, you know, i-i– you could definitely do that. The only thing we don't do is we don't do the final restoration. So the driveway repair work.

Caller: Yes. I, I, I understand that. Yeah, you'll fill it all in and then, and it's up to me to have the driveway refinished. When I, when I had abandoned the, uh, the oil tank and put the gas in, my driveway was in good shape, and at the time I was just like, "I'm gonna rip out a driveway that's perfectly good." And I kind of waited and waited and waited because I figured I'll take the tank out when I need a new driveway, and now I really need a new driveway. So I'm anxious to get a new driveway, but I'm not gonna certainly put one in with the oil tanks there. So-

Pete: That's smart. That's smart. You'd be surprised. I mean- Yeah we just did one the other day with brand new driveway. We had to dig through it 'cause they forgot when they pulled the tank, they didn't pull the vent pipe, they didn't pull the copper line, so the buyer thought the tank was still there, and we were getting some metal readings in a brand-new driveway. We had to unfortunately dig through. It was such a shame, and there was nothing there. So-

Caller: Once all these permits go through and, and there is a actual date set to do a project, how long does it take to get that out? Is it a day job? One day?

Pete: Oh, yeah. It's a one-day process. We come in, we dig down to the top of the tank, we cut a hole in the top of it. We remove any material that's inside the tank. We enter the tank. Okay. We wipe it down completely dry, and then we pull it from the ground. Okay. And once we pull it, then that's when the town's gonna wanna come out. They wanna see the tank out of the ground. Of course. So once they come and see it, they'll look in the hole, look at the tank, and then they'll say, "Okay, everything looks good." We backfill with stone, take the tank away, and you're done. Everything will be done in one day.

Caller: Okay. Now, what, w- uh, what is a process now? After the tank is out, what happens and what is the process after that tank is out? Is it the, as quick as the town just looking at it and then all the paperwork is done and, and it's, it's that, that quick?

Pete: Well, so yeah, once the project is done that day, so the town is gonna require a scrap receipt for where the tank gets disposed of, and also an oil manifest for wherever we dispose of the oil. So we run our tanks- Okay … and our oil gets run in a bulk, uh, scenario. So we, you know, once a week we have someone come and, and pump our material out of our, uh, from our property, then we run our, our scrap, you know, once a week. So, so essentially within a week you'll have a, you know, all the documents that the town will need will get submitted to the township, and we'll send you your summary letter that you'll have everything with photos of the job, showing everything that was done.

Caller: Okay. Just hopefully, uh, I'm being told by lots of people and even the insurance company that at one time insured this tank that, uh, the fact that it's under the driveway and not the lawn is a good protection over the years for it and that, you know, hopefully it's just a clean removal. I never had any issue with my heat. Never had any water in the tank. So there- That's good. That's- Hopefully it's just a clean removal.

Pete: Yeah, those are all good signs. I mean, um, yeah, that's definitely all good signs for sure. Familiar. Uh-huh. But we do a ton of work in Union. Um, and it's really a 50/50 thing in Union. So like, you know, really some of these tanks that have been there for a really long time and they're great condition and then some of them that are fairly new, when I say fairly new, I mean put it in the '60s or '70s and, and they're not in good condition. Yeah. So, you know, there's so many different variables that come into play. Um, but it's not like if you- Yeah … lived in Cranford, I would tell you almost guaranteed there's gonna be a problem because it's such a high groundwater table there and the water just eats away at the tanks.

Caller: Yeah.

Pete: So-

Caller: Okay. Well, let's, uh, let's do what we have to do to, um, you know, move the process along. I mean, I don't know how much more I have to investigate a company. Um, I really do need to take care of this, and, and let's, let's just move ahead with whatever has to be done to, um, you know, for me to get, you know, an estimate and for you to look at this, and then I can decide if, if, um, you know, if and when we can do this.

Pete: Sure, yeah. Our process is basically very simple. So I have a, a perfect view of the front of the house, so access I know is not an issue. So I could quote this right, uh, through the email. So everything we do is electronic. Mm-hmm. As soon as we hang up, I'll email you out a proposal. Within that proposal- Okay … it'll have all our terms, and it'll also show you a, a, an example of what your summary report is gonna look like once the project is complete. Uh, if you decide you wanna move forward- Okay … with our company, it's an electronic signature. You just click Approve, type in your name, and then, then that'll get the process started. We'll send you a link for a deposit. We take a fifty percent deposit. You can pay with a credit card. Okay. And then we overnight the ap-application to Union. The next time you hear from us will be when Union calls and says, "Hey, your permits are approved."

Caller: And now let me ask you one other quick question. Um, the, uh, workers that come, um, are they usually the same workers on job to job, or you have tons and tons of workers that just get dispersed? Because I wanna be able to, when I'm here, be able to communicate with somebody, and I find most of the time when you're dealing with contractors, nobody speaks English.

Pete: You will not have that problem with my co- my company. We actually-

Caller: Okay

Pete: only, we only have one gentleman out of the– We have a crew of five guys that are out in the field, and only one gentleman actually speaks- Okay … English and, and Spanish. But, uh, you know, yeah, absolutely, we'll have no issues with that. Uh, the project manager that I would assign to your project, he is our top guy, so his name is Matt. You'll have no, no issues communicating with him at all.

Caller: Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I just in the past have dealt with people on the phone and, and completely fine communicating, and then they come to replace the roof on my house, and not one person speaks English. Got it. And I'm trying to relay and tell, you know, what, what's this and what's that, and there's nobody speaks English, and you're kinda left to not be able to communicate whatever– anybody who's really doing a major job on your property.

Pete: I can completely understand that. So, uh- I, I actually was renovating houses for a while back in two thousand and sixteen, and I had that same problem- Mm-hmm with a lot of contractors. So I definitely understand where you're coming from, and that will not be an issue here.

Caller: Okay, great. Okay, then I'll wait to hear from you, uh, in an email and, uh, let me read everything all over and we'll see about getting this process, uh, done. It's a good time to do it now since I'm home.

Pete: Absolutely. Absolutely. Um, yeah, we do a lot of communicating via text. Um, do you– would you like to give me your cell phone number?

Caller: Okay.

Pete: You found us on Google, just, just looking around?

Caller: Yeah, just looking around. I gotta tell you, I've had… My, my brother, uh, is a contractor and he flips houses. And I have a lot of realtor friends who buy old homes up in Bernardsville and have to take oil tanks out, and they're always coming across that oil tank. You know, buying and selling a house, that oil tank's gotta come out. And everybody was referring me to– A lot of people said, "Just use Brinks. That's who we use." You go online, and more than seventy percent of all of their reviews all over the internet are just outright bad. Yeah. And, and you– I can understand, you know, every once in a while, you know, somebody's just ridiculous and, uh, you, you know, a, a bad review here and there on a company, you know. But, but when you see m-more than al-almost seventy percent of the people, like, didn't even give it a star and said, "This company's horrible. Don't use them," I mean, have you had– I mean, I'm sure you go online and see that. Oh,

Caller: absolutely.

Caller: Yeah. If I'm reading reviews and there's a couple of hundred reviews and every tenth one is bad, not a big deal. But when you're reading reviews and there's a hund– there's three hundred, and seventy percent of them don't even get a star and say, "This company is horrible. Don't use them," you gotta kinda think maybe there's something to that. Yep. But, like, I was on your site and, and some of the other c-nearby companies too don't get such good ratings. There's another one nearby that gets very, very good ratings. I don't remember what it was. It was, it was, it was not, not far from here. But when I came across yours, I mean, there were like three hundred and twenty-three reviews on just a Google site alone, not even Yelp or all the other ones. And I tell you, everyone was pretty four to five star and, and that's really good. Ma-that makes you kinda lean a little bit more toward saying, "Okay, a lot of people are happy."

Pete: Yep, no, absolutely. So, um- And, and, and it's, it's something that we, like I said earlier, is something that we really work hard to… You know, from the time you call our company to the time we close out your project, we are- Yeah you know, working hard to, to, to satisfy our clients, to keep them happy so we can get those reviews. 'Cause social proof is huge- Yeah … these days and, well, you know, just like you're doing, everybody goes online and does their research so.

Caller: Okay. And then you do, if, if I do decide, w-well, well, if I make the decision, do they come out to assess anything first?

Pete: Uh, nobody would come out. We never-

Caller: Is there any reason that you would come here before?

Pete: No. There- No. Unless I couldn't get a visual sight on it, if it was in the backyard, then yes. But because it's right front, easy access, I got a perfect view online, there's n-not necessary for someone to come out.

Caller: Yeah. Okay. Yeah, it's very easy access from the street. Okay.

Pete: Yeah. So yeah, we're all good. I have everything I need. I'll get this out to you. Okay. And, um, yeah, we'll go from there. Thanks for the call, Chris.

Caller: Okay, sounds great.

Pete: All right.

Caller: Thank you. Okay, thank you. Thank you. All

Pete: right, thanks.

Caller: Have a good day. Bye.

Pete: You too. Bye.

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Tank Talk Episode 009 – I Am Buying A House With A Previously Filled Oil Tank, How Can I Protect Myself?

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In this episode, Pete talk with a prospective client who is an investor buying a property with a previously filled oil tank that was properly permitted. Pete explains that the soil around this tank still MUST be investigated since it was not required before it was filled in place.

Questions answered in this episode…

  1. The house I am buying has a previously filled oil tank that has all the proper permits, does that mean the soil is clean around the tank.
    45 seconds
  2. How can you tell with 100% certainty that the oil tank has contamination? 2:20
  3. How much does it cost for the soil investigation around an existing underground oil tank? 3:20
  4. How long does it take to get on the schedule for a soil investigation? 4:45
  5. How long does it take to get the results from the soil investigation? 6:15
  6. When is the guarantee offered with the soil test? 8:00
  7. How much does it typically cost to remove a 550 gallon UST? 8:45
  8. How much is the soil sample guarantee? 9:05
  9. How can you figure out an exact price for the cleanup by sending one sample to the lab? 9:55
  10. Can you explain the entire soil investigation process again? 10:40
  11. We you stand behind your fixed price remediation contract? 13:30

Episode 9 Transcript

Announcer: Welcome to Tank Talk with Pete, a podcast talking all things related to residential oil tanks. You have questions, Pete has answers

Pete: Thanks. This is Pete

Caller: Hi, Pete. Uh, my name is Jennifer Kingston. Um-

Pete: Oh, yes. How you doing?

Caller: Good, thank you. So my husband and I have a, uh, an accepted offer on a HUD home that has a properly permitted decommissioned oil tank.

Pete: Okay.

Caller: And I naively thought that, you know, if it was permitted and it was decommissioned, that that would mean that everything was fine, and that's not what I understand to be the case, and I was wondering if there was any way to mitigate the risk through testing or something. We're interested in the place, you know, and I mean, probably everything's fine, but I understand that that doesn't mean certainly everything's fine, you know?

Pete: Cor-correct. No, you're a hundred percent correct, and you are absolutely taking the right precautions because most people believe what you believed, that if it had proper permits, that everything is good. It's the absolute complete opposite of that. We actually find that a lot of these tanks that have permitted and were filled properly, inspected, a lot of those tanks, majority of them, were actually leaking before they were filled in place, and they- In place. It wasn't detected because it's not– it wasn't required to test the soil. So there's a visual inspection, which you can't tell if the tank was leaking at the time, and they just fill them in place. So we have a, a, a we have a product or service that is set up exactly for this, where we come in- Oh, wow. And we probe around the tank, and we, uh, can tell you with a hundred percent certainty if there is a problem, okay? And if there is a problem, we'll tell you to the exact penny on how much it would cost to clean up. Uh, if it's clean-

Caller: Wow. You're exactly the person I was looking for.

Pete: Yes. Yes. I mean, we have these are services are set up for ninety percent of our clients are real estate-related transactions, so we, we have very unique services that are r-really set up for exactly what you're trying to do. Um, and we actually have a product where I could test it, and if I tell you it's clean, we back it up with a hundred percent guarantee. Um, as long as you pull that tank within six months by us, if there's any contamination that we missed, we're gonna clean it up at no additional cost.

Caller: Oh my gosh. How's that

Pete: sound? I

Caller: can't believe this. I called so many people, and everybody's like, "Oh, there's no way to know." So how do you know? Help me understand.

Pete: Okay. So here's the trick.

Caller: I don't even

Pete: understand how that- Here's the… Yeah.

Caller: And tell me what it costs because that's very important.

Pete: Yes, absolutely. But go ahead. So I'll go through it. So yes, if you call ten companies, nine of them are gonna tell you it's impossible. We're the only company in the state of New Jersey. We actually come out, and we bore around your tank with a, what's called a geo-probe. It's a tracked rig machine. It's about a hundred and fifteen thousand dollar piece of equipment. The other guys that do your testing, they come out with hand boring equipment, and they send- Yeah. The guy out there that's, you know, ten, twelve dollars an hour. He's not gonna get to the proper depth. He's gonna get you a false reading, all these things. That's why they don't back it up with a guarantee. When we do our testing, we're using a very high-powered piece of equipment, and our tech is gonna be able to get to the proper depth because that equipment is capable of going down to thirty feet if needed. I only need to go down to seven or eight. Oh. So I know I'm getting to the proper depth. So it's… If I, if there's a major, major problem out there, I'm gonna find it. Yep. The only thing I could miss is I could miss a leak under the tank, right? But it's gonna be very minor because I know I sampled at the proper depth. Uh, and that's why we offer a guarantee. It is an optional guarantee. There is a fee for it. So the way that works is, um, the initial investigation is six hundred dollars. Okay, so for six hundred, I'm gonna come out there next- That's a

Caller: bargain. My God, that's such a bargain.

Pete: Yes, it is a good price. It is very, it's very comparable to any… A regular soil test is around five, six hundred bucks, and these guys are doing it by hand, and they're not giving you all the information I'm gonna give you. Um, so we charge six hundred initially. So worst case scenario, if I come out there next week for six hundred bucks and I find a mess, and I come back to you and say, "You know what? You have a complete mess out here. It's gonna be fifteen, twenty thousand to clean up," you could walk away. You're only out of pocket the six hundred dollars. Okay? Um, if I find that it's, um, clean, okay, you would then go and buy the house. You close on it in sixty days, whatever. After the closing, then you would pay me, um, the, a deposit for the tank removal, which is typically about fifteen hundred dollars.

Caller: Mm-hmm.

Pete: And then we charge, if you want that guarantee, uh, it's an additional fourteen hundred bucks on top of the removal cost, and then you're a hundred percent covered for any liability.

Caller: Okay.

Pete: So all in- So- It's about thirty-five hundred bucks if it's clean.

Caller: When are you available to bore around the tank?

Pete: Uh, so if you signed on today, I could email you a proposal right now. It's all electronic. I could have a guy out there. Um, we have to call for utility mark outs. What town is it in?

Caller: Blairstown.

Pete: In Blairstown. So we'd probably be looking at Tuesday the twenty-sixth.

Caller: What's today?

Pete: Today's Tuesday the 19th. Oh, so

Caller: like

Pete: a week?

Caller: That'd be next Tuesday.

Pete: Yeah, one week from today.

Caller: Yeah. So you come out with a high-powered piece of equipment for six hundred dollars, and you bore around everywhere. So you're taking basically lots of soil.

Pete: So we-we-we're doing… Wh-why our equipment is the proper way to do it is 'cause it's really the– it's not the amount of soil, it's the, it's the, um, the depth of where you're taking your sample. So for example, if a guy goes out there with hand boring equipment and he gets stuck around four or five feet 'cause he hits a rock and he can't hand bore- Yeah -through it 'cause he doesn't have the power, well, he's gonna take a sample at four or five feet, give you the test results. Those test results, ninety-nine percent of the time are gonna be clean because the proper depth where that oil is gonna be leaking is around seven or eight feet. That's where the bottom of the tank is. So I know with my equipment, my guys just have to pull a lever, and it, like I said, it could go to thirty feet if it wants to. So I know I'm getting to the proper depth, and that's why we're, we are able to give you a guarantee on it 'cause I know I'm gonna get to the proper depth. Worst case, if I miss something, it's gonna be very minor, and we're willing to clean that up at no additional cost, um, you know, if you take the guarantee.

Caller: All right. And the name of your company, I wrote it down so sloppily when Sue gave me the thing, is what?

Pete: It's Simple Tank Services. Um, if you go on our website, which is simpletankservices.com, there's a ton of video content on there, and you'll be able to see, um, h-what that machine looks like and how the process works as far as the borings go and everything. Um, and you'll be able to watch a short YouTube video on it. But, um, yeah, we can do it typically within four, four business days, and I'll have verbal results for you that day. I'll be able to tell you kind of what's going on, and then the lab results take five business days.

Caller: All right. I'm sorry, what's the four business days?

Pete: Four business days is like if you sign today, I have to call for mark outs. It takes three days. So y- typically on the fourth day when you sign on is when I can get you scheduled in.

Caller: Okay, but can you get me– If I sign on right now, can you get me scheduled for next Tuesday?

Pete: Yes. That's what– If you sign today, I'm gonna email you right now. I'll take some of your info, I'll email you out the contract. You just click approve on it. I'll send you a link for deposit. I'll set up your file and put you on the schedule for Tuesday.

Caller: Okay. So, okay, but, uh, and forgive me, I'm a little distracted. So it's six hundred dollars. You're boring around, you're taking lots of samples, right? And then how does it go from there? You'll tell me that day, this place is a disaster, you don't wanna buy it, or I think it's pretty good. Correct. That day.

Pete: Mm-hmm.

Caller: Now, is it you or is it your guys?

Pete: No, I'll have somebody out there. It'll probably be, um, one of my two project managers will be doing the borings.

Caller: Okay. So, so I pay a deposit, I pay the remain … Tuesday is the twenty-sixth. So, um, you bore around, it's six hundred dollars. You tell me that day it's good or bad, and then what happens from there?

Pete: So I send those sa- I'll take, I take one sample, I send it to the lab. Uh, the lab will pick up on that Wednesday, and it'll take about five business days. So the following week I'll have you those lab results, which that just gives me confirmation. So if the soil's clean, we wanna see the lab results come back, um, non-detect, which means there's no detection of oil, and then that's when we offer you the guarantee, which you decide on when you want it. You don't have to pay for anything until you close on the property as far as the guarantee goes and the tank removal.

Caller: Mm-hmm.

Pete: So you, you know, you, you pay, the only thing out of pocket is six hundred dollars. You know, three hundred today, three hundred next week when we do the job, and that's it. And then once the deal closes, if everything's clean and you close on the deal, then you call us up, we send you a contract for the tank removal itself, and then the, also the guarantee that would be included in there. And then you're a hundred percent covered. You have no risk at all. If we messed up and we didn't find contamination, and we completely missed it, we're cleaning it up at no additional fees on top of the guarantee cost and the removal cost.

Caller: All right, so the removal is how much?

Pete: Typically, without looking at the job, I mean, typically it's about fifteen hundred bucks to remove a tank, you know, if it's easy, easily accessible.

Caller: Mm-hmm.

Pete: And, um-

Caller: And the guarantee, and you have to decide obviously before you remove it if you're taking the guarantee or not.

Pete: Exactly, yeah. As long as you just tell us no the day before we pull it, and yeah, yeah, I want that guarantee, then, you know, and you pay for it, uh, with a credit card and you're covered.

Caller: All right, and the guarantee is another fourteen hundred?

Pete: Fourteen hundred, correct.

Caller: All right. So you're basically– you have a high-higher tech way to ga-gather the thing. So but like next Tuesday, your guys will be able to tell me like, "Yeah, you should go for this place or not." Yes.

Pete: Like,

Caller: you'll know if it's a mess.

Pete: Exactly. I'll be able to tell you with a pretty good confidence level of what it looks like. Um, and if it's a mess, mess, I'll be able to really tell you, "Hey, listen, this thing is a mess." I'll be able to tell you a hundred percent. Yeah, next week you'll have a verbal answer of kind of what's happening out there. I won't be able to put an exact dollar figure on it until I get those lab results, typically. Um, but I'll be able to tell you like, "Hey, this is pretty nasty. It's leaking all over the place. It's ten feet deep, it's five feet in this direction." We're gonna figure all that out

Caller: And you're able to do that only sending one sample to the lab?

Pete: So that's a great question, but the, the lab result really is a, a minor point of the equation. It's– it doesn't tell us that much. The main data that we need is how deep the contamination is, how far did it travel in each direction, and how deep did it go. That's, that was-

Caller: And you can basically tell that by looking at the soil that you bring up.

Pete: Exactly. When I drill a probe down, uh, it's a two-inch piece of pipe, and I'm basically hammering that into the ground, let's say eight feet. I pull it up, I have an eight-foot sleeve of soil. I open it up and I can see, all right, at three feet, that's where the contamination starts. It stops at seven and a half feet or, you know, and it tells me all that stuff.

Caller: Um, so yeah. So, um, so I hire you, you come out, it's six hundred dollars. I'm sorry, I just want to fully understand- Yep … the process because it's all new to me. You bore around, your guys bore around with these, uh, big, expensive machines, and that day you'll be able to tell me this place is a mess or not, right? So I'll know whether or not to, to go forward.

Pete: Correct. Exactly. Yep.

Caller: Right. Okay. And then from there, so obviously you're not gonna… Oh, 'cause you only offer a guarantee if you feel it's not a mess. Like, you'll be able to tell me, "This place is clean," and you'll be so confident. So next Tuesday, when I speak to your guys, you're either gonna say, "Buy this place, it's clean, and I'm willing to remove the tank for fifteen hundred dollars plus another fourteen hundred dollars to guarantee my work," or you're gonna say to me, "This place is no good. Don't buy it."

Pete: Well, y-yes, sort of. And the reason why I say sort of is because we really– if, um, if the soil is clean, I'll be able to tell you, "Hey, everything looks clean, it appears clean, but we will need confirmation before I offer the guarantee." So because the reason is, like, it may be such a small trace of, of contamination that we not, may not pick it up visually, um, or with our meters on site. We may have to wait for the lab to come back and tell us, "Hey, here's your, your results. It's a super low reading." At that point, then we don't offer the guarantee. But I will be able to tell you confidently like, "Hey, this is a very minor issue here. You're not going to have any major problems." You know what I mean? I'll be able to tell you that for sure. But the confirmation of that lab result really needs to say non-detect for me to offer the guarantee. That's how it works.

Caller: I say. So, but, so if I schedule you and you're not available any sooner than a week from now?

Pete: Uh, the problem is, I mean, unless I can get one of my guys to come in on Saturday, which is possible, I could talk to him. Um, but I might be able to do it Saturday because I have to call for utility mark out. That takes three business days to clear, so it's already Tuesday. So Wednesday, Thursday, Friday is no good. Mm-hmm. Um, so Saturday would be the first day. Uh, Monday's a holiday and then Tuesday. So either Saturday or Tuesday.

Caller: Monday's a ho– Oh my God, it's Memorial Day already? Wow.

Pete: Yes.

Caller: Okay.

Pete: Yes.

Caller: Um- Coach said- So basically, like, so you wouldn't be in a posi– but that would be before we close. So, you know, if, if it's six hundred dollars, I pay six hundred dollars, and you're like, "Oof, this place," then I lose six hundred. Correct. You know, I lose my thousand- Exactly and six hundred. Well, I could probably get the thousand back if the place is a mess. And then when the lab results, the only way you'll offer… So when the lab results come back, you'll be able to s– will you be able to price the cleanup at that point?

Pete: Well, yeah, e-exactly. Once the lab results come back, I'll be able to put in– either tell you, "Hey, you have a guarantee," um, um, or, "Here is a cost for the fixed price remediation."

Caller: Okay.

Caller: And you'll be able to like stand behind that cost. It's not like you'll say, "Oh, the cost is five thousand."

Pete: No, no, no. That-

Caller: Twenty-five thousand.

Pete: That's what's very unique about our company and our service is once I give you a number, I mean, it's literally to the penny. It's gonna say, let's say nine thousand seven hundred and sixty-five dollars and thirty-two cents, like it doesn't change. Mm-hmm. Like that, that's the quote. And it like, if we completely mess up our investigation and I misquote you and I come out there and I find a major mess, I'm gonna do it and you're gonna get a no further action letter and your invoice is still gonna be that nine thousand seven hundred or whatever the quote is. That's how it works.

Caller: Okay. All right. Well, send me your stuff. I can't wait to hire you. And I'll give you the deposit so you can pencil me in, put me in for next Tuesday.

Pete: Okay. I'm gonna email this to you. You'll have it literally in a few minutes here. Uh, if you don't get it in like five minutes, just call me back. That means I have your email wrong. Um-

Caller: Okay. But

Pete: I'm gonna send this out right now if you have any questions. Otherwise, just click approve, type in your name as a signature, and then once that happens, I'm gonna send you a link for the deposit, and I'll put you on the schedule.

Caller: Okay. All right, awesome. I'm not home now, so give me a couple minutes to get home, and then I'll take care of it as soon as

Pete: I can. Yeah, yeah, no worries. Take your time.

Caller: Thank you.

Pete: Thanks, Jennifer. All right. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

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Tank Talk Episode 008 – Should I Remove My Tank Now Or Later?

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In this episode, Pete talks with a potential client about the best of plan of action for removing their underground oil tank. They are not selling but are concerned that it could start leaking one day. Pete explains why they shouldn’t wait and what the project consists of.

Questions answered in this episode…

  1. How much is it to remove an underground 550 gallon oil tank that is easily accessible? 1:40
  2. I’m not selling, should I remove the tank now or wait? 2:30
  3. How quickly can you schedule the project once I sign on? 3:20
  4. Does the NJDEP get involved? 4:00
  5. How do you close out a case # with NJDEP? 4:20

Episode 8 Transcript

Announcer: Welcome to Tank Talk with Pete, a podcast talking all things related to residential oil tanks. You have questions, Pete has answers

Caller: I'm getting a ballpark figure on a tank removal.

Pete: Sure. Yeah, I can help you with that. Where's the tank located on the property?

Caller: Uh, between the house and the driveway.

Pete: Between the house and the driveway. Okay. And, um, you said, is it a five hundred and fifty gallon tank?

Caller: Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's five fifty.

Pete: Is it actively being used or it's, uh, was there- No.

Caller: It's, uh, been deactivated for a couple of years now.

Pete: Okay. Was it filled in place with sand or anything like that, or foam?

Caller: No. It's got about fifty gallons of residual oil.

Pete: Okay. Perfect. That's, uh, that's better. Um, sometimes the ones with the previously filled sand get more… can be more expensive to remove, um, because it's not cleaned out properly, so that's good. So yeah, I'm looking at the property. Looks like it. Yeah, I see it. Okay. So it looks like there's a tree when you first pull in the driveway to the left.

Caller: Uh, yeah, the tank is to the left of the driveway.

Pete: To the left of the driveway. Okay. Yeah, that's easily accessible. Yeah, so something like that. So, you know, pretty basic. Um, you know, typically how it works is we go to the town of Highland Park, we get the permits for you. Once they're approved, we come out, we cut, uh, down– we dig down to the top of the tank, cut it open, take all the oil out, wipe it down completely, and then we pull it. Once it's out, we'll have the town come do their visual inspection. This is all gonna happen in the same day. As long as their visual inspection passes, there's no sampling required, um, it will-we'll be able to backf-backfill the hole and take the tank away. And you'll get a certificate from the township once we submit to them, uh, the disposal documents for the tank and the oil. Um, so something like that, you're looking at fourteen hundred bucks. The only additional cost would be the permits. I think they're seventy-five dollars in Highland Park. Um, and if there's any water in the tank, we charge a dollar a gallon to dispose of the water.

Caller: That sounds

Caller: fairly, sounds pretty good to me, actually.

Caller: I've been sitting on that tank for twenty years, and, uh, we used it for like twenty out of the twenty-five years. And then a couple years ago, I just got paranoid, had them put in a tank in the house and disconnected that one.

Pete: So yeah. You have any plans of selling in the near future or?

Caller: No, but, uh, I don't want to… It just– I'm afraid someday it's just gonna rot through and leak. And then I'm uphill from the river, the, the oil will flow downhill, and I'll be responsible for everybody from here to New Brunswick.

Pete: Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, here's the thing. So y- you know, you definitely want to remove it now, even… And the reason is 'cause, yeah, it will eventually leak. All these tanks, they're, they're steel, they're gonna corrode. So if it's not leaking today, it could start in a year or two years. They will leak. The– And the best part about it is if you pull it today, let's say worst case scenario, there is a leak, it's– a lot of people think that that starts the ball rolling and then they, they don't– they fear that if they pull it, then they're gonna open up a can of worms, and they have to clean it up. With residential sites, since you're not selling right now, you can pull that out, and that's what my recommendation would be. And if you don't have the funds to go forward, you can wait until you have the funds. There– Nobody's gonna come after you to make you do the cleanup. Uh, and the only thing is, if you wanna sell the property, then you have to do the cleanup. But other than that, it's good because you're getting the source out, so it can't get worse, you know?

Caller: Right.

Pete: Um, so that's, you know, definitely recommended to pull it.

Caller: When would be the earliest we could schedule something like this?

Pete: So I could email you out a proposal today. When you sign on, everything is electronic. You just click approve, type your name in. We'll send you a deposit, uh, for the, uh, link for the deposit, and then we overnight the permit application to Highland Park. They typically take, take about two weeks, uh, to approve it. Uh, they are still open, Highland Park. Some of the towns have slowed down because of COVID, but Highland Park- Right is still, uh, is still, uh, actively open, uh, from last time we checked. So I always figure two to three weeks.

Caller: Not bad. Um, now does the state have to approve it? You told me I get, uh, stuff from the municipality, but does the state have to approve anything? Give me any kind of certification that the tank's removed?

Pete: So as long as the township visual inspection passes, and there's no holes in the tank, there's no visible signs of a discharge, the DEP won't get involved. If, if that does– If it fails inspection, then you're gonna get what's called a case number. What– That's from the state. Once you have a, a case number from the state, there's two ways to close it out. Either, one, you sample the excavation to prove to them that, yes, there's been a discharge, but it's below the cleanup standards, so we don't have to go any further. Or B, we have to remediate, which means we have to take out that soil that's dirty- Right … sample to make sure we got it all out, and then, and then replace it. So those are the two ways to close a case number out, and that's the only time you'll get involved with the DEP. So if the first inspection passes, you're good to go.

Caller: All right. Okay. Thank you.

Pete: All right. You're welcome. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

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Tank Talk Episode 007 – My Tank Leaked! Now What?

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n the episode, Pete talks with a client about what the next steps are since their oil tank failed the township inspection. Simple Tank grabbed a soil sample when the tank was removed and the results were 35,000 PPM. This is way above the cleanup standards of 5,100 PPM. We gave them some options with open ended contracts and also a fixed price cleanup contract.

Questions answered in this episode…

  1. What line items are variable in the open ended soil remediation contract? 1:15

  2. Can you give me a price from the one sample you took on the day you removed the tank? 3:45

  3. How far do you think the contamination traveled? 5:10

  4. How much should a groundwater investigation cost? 6:10

  5. If the initial groundwater samples fails, will we be charged every time you return to sample? 7:25

  6. What is the worst case scenario cost for the cleanup? 8:30

  7. How does a soil delineation work to get a fixed cost? 9:50

  8. Does the state certified subsurface evaluator work for you? 11:00

  9. Does the township have to do another inspection? 12:05

  10. How quickly can you get the final report that needs to be reviewed by NJDEP? 13:25

  11. Can we pay at closing? 14:00
    Is there an additional fee to pay at closing? 15:00

  12. What are the odds of hitting groundwater in Metuchen? 17:20

Episode 7 Transcript

Announcer: Welcome to Tank Talk with Pete, a podcast talking all things related to residential oil tanks. You have questions, Pete has answers

Caller: Jenna Lawson

Pete: Oh, hey, Jenna. How's it going?

Caller: Good Husband, I think he had a couple questions for you if you have a minute.

Pete: Absolutely. How, how can I help, guys? Okay.

Caller: Uh, I'm, I'm looking over the, like, kind of the open-ended quote to understand, you know, with like, uh, going in and doing soil samples to get like a fixed price. I mean, it kinda, kinda is what it is, right? Like the, if the soil's affected, it, it's gonna need to come out. So don't necessarily, you know, feel the need to go in and do like a, a separate soil test. Um, but I, I'm looking at, um, you know, kind of like the open-ended price quote that you guys sent over, and I think it totaled like ninety-five hundred and like five dollars. Um, I, I was curious, like some of this stuff like, you know, you got the excavator and the, the mobilization, demobilization charges, that sort of stuff. Like how much of the, how, how much of the items are, are really kind of, um, you know, open? Like, you know, is, is the, is the excavator, you know, potentially gonna need… Are we potentially gonna need two of those? Like a- you, you understand what I'm asking? Like-

Pete: Yeah. No, yeah, exactly. Yeah. The really only variables, uh, on that whole contract are really three items. You have the waste classification sample. Um, if that– If, if we take out more than thirty tons of soil, we have to run a, a additional sample analysis to g-get rid of the material, and that's in– that's below, uh, if you scroll down under the terms, there's an additional six hundred dollar charge for that. Sure. So that's one, that's one variable. And then the other two is just the soil, depending on, um, you know, how much soil has to come out and how much soil has to go back in. So those two line items, seventy-five dollars a ton and twenty-five dollars a ton. Um, and you know, as long as we can finish this in one day, there won't be any other additional charges for, for labor or equipment. Um, you know, and ninety percent of these jobs we finish in a day. I mean, and we stay. We don't, we don't like– like a lot of companies will just pull off at like two o'clock, two thirty, say, "Oh, we're here for eight hours," we go home, 'cause they wanna charge you another day for all the equipment.

Caller: Sure.

Pete: We-we're, we'll work till it's dark. You know what I mean? Like we, we, we, we get it done 'cause we want– we don't wanna come back, and we don't wanna have to charge you. So, um- Sure … it really should just be only a, a basic remediation, and the only variable is the, the tonnage, which, you know, that could, that could change the invoice a lot because it's a hu– it's basically a hundred dollars a ton to, uh, come out and go back in. So if we take out an extra thirty tons on top of the twenty we're quoting you, that's an extra three thousand dollars. Yeah. So it could get, you know, it could… That could drive the price up pretty quickly.

Caller: Sure. And yeah, I, I get that. Um, and, and that, that totally makes sense. I just, I, I was looking at it and I'm like, you know, I've got a– you've got a, a project manager or two project managers in here. Like the office administration, that sort of stuff. Like, I didn't know if that kind of varied based on, you know, the amount of time that it takes or anything like that. But from, from what you're saying, it's, it's really just the, the potential six hundred dollars on the waste classification and then the, the hundred dol… And, and I get like, you know, the soil and then, then the put back basically, uh, you know, a hundred dollars a ton. What, what like a– I mean, I guess, you know, what the typical, a typical job is, I mean, it, it's, it's kind of a moot point, right? It's, it's whatever it, it is for this case. I mean, what– When you see something with the soil samples kind of as bad as, as ours came back as, uh, what do you typically see, like the amount that needs to be taken out? I mean, I guess it's all over the board, but do you have kind of like an average?

Pete: Yes. Exac– So here's the thing. So th-that level, the only thing that sample result tells us, it tells us that we have confirmed that there's soil that are, that is, that exists out there that's above the cleanup standards. What it doesn't tell us, it doesn't tell us how deep that contamination goes. I mean, that could clean up fairly quickly within a, within a foot or, or, or two feet, uh, you know, which is, that's gonna be able to, you know, that's what generates the amount of tonnage that comes out. So we don't know how deep it is and how far it travels in each direction. That's what that other investigation would, would tell us. So, so, you know, on average, these things are anywhere between eighty-five hundred to sixteen thousand typically. Um, anywhere, you know, that's from ten tons of soil all the way upwards of sixty to seventy tons of soil that have to come out. That's a typical cleanup job. Um, that's what we, we typically see that, you know, uh, probably eighty percent of the time.

Caller: Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. Yeah, and I mean, I guess, I guess it just depends on how, how deep it really goes, right? 'Cause it, it's just right around the tank. It wouldn't have like seeps through the whole backyard or something like that,

Pete: right? Yeah, it's ev– Yeah, they don't really travel that far in clay, and McCutcheon is all clay soil. So, you know, we see that we have to open these excavations usually like a couple feet in each direction and a couple feet down. You know, usually it starts around six feet 'cause that's where the bottom of the tank was, and we dig down to ten to twelve feet typically to get it clean. That's typical cleanup, you know. And then, um, you know, a couple feet in each direction. So that excavation will open a little bit. Now, the only other thing, I mean, with touching, uh, you know, the possibilities for groundwater investigation, that is, you know, also in the terms where it says if groundwater or bedrock is encountered. Again, that, that's gonna be unknown until we actually do, do the dig, and we won't know until, you know, we're basically done cleaning up the soil. If we encounter groundwater or bedrock, there's gonna be additional costs for that investigation. So just to kind of throw that out there as well, just, you know, 'cause some people get shocked by that, you know.

Caller: Sure. Yeah. And on your fixed price, I guess, proposal that was sent over, um- Just to give us like a, a guideline for that template, it showed like twelve thousand dollars, I think, twelve five maybe was the amount for that, like potentially for if, if you encounter wastewater.

Pete: Correct. And that's, that's, uh, that's the fixed price. So, uh, if you go with the open-ended and just give you some scenarios, let's say we encounter– we're excavating the soil, then all of a sudden that excavation starts filling up with groundwater 'cause we– we're down to the groundwater table. At that point, if I'm able to get all the soil out, I'm confident that I'm g- I got all the soil out, I would recommend a temporary well point. That price is forty-six hundred dollars, okay? Um, now, if we have to do a bedrock well because I dug down all the way to rock and I can't dig anymore, the DEP will require I drill through that rock and f- get a groundwater sample. Something like that's about ninety-eight hundred. Um, the reason that you see that quote of eleven five or twelve thousand for the fixed price is because that includes, uh, God forbid, we have to come back to do additional samples or we have to clean the groundwater up. That's all included in that twelve thousand. Um, a-again, it's very rare that that happens, but that fixed price includes us coming back as many times as we have to to get clean groundwater samples.

Caller: Yeah. Versus if you do an open-ended sort of contract, then are we charged every time you have to come back to do additional samples? Is that how that works?

Pete: Yes. If the first round of samples comes back with, uh, contamination in it, then it's required by the DEP that I get two additional rounds of samples separated by thirty days apart, and they have to be con-consecutively clean. So there are certain things, depending on the level, that we'd have to do. I mean, this is very like down the road stuff, and majority of our projects don't encounter groundwater. So I just wanna let you know that this is not typical, but it does happen, so we have to put it in there obviously. But yeah, that's the worst case scenario that, you know, the first round of samples comes back with a contaminate– with contamination above the cleanup standards. Then we'll have to go out there and either, uh, you know, basically remove the groundwater and try to clean it up that way, or sometimes we let it naturally clean itself up by just waiting. Just there's a lot of different scenarios, you know?

Caller: Gotcha. Yeah, I mean, I, I, I'm, I'm just, you know, obviously it's, it's a little scary when you don't know, like, what the total amount of the, the potential project is gonna cost, right? So I think in our minds, we just are trying to understand, you know, if you do an open-ended contract like this, like really what's the, the kind of the potential, you know, worst case scenario, um, of, of cost. You, you understand what I'm saying?

Pete: Yeah, no, I get it, and I get that question a lot, and that's why we came up with that program 'cause, you know, I've been, I've been doing this for almost twenty years, and that's always been the, the big question. You know, like, what is this gonna cost? Like, and nobody, nobody in the industry was doing it for residential sites. We came up with a program a few years back where for six hundred bucks, which is affordable to come out there and what's– do what's called a delineation. That's basically what we're doing, and figuring out how extensive it is and then providing that fixed number. So that, that is that, that is an option where you will know before we start the job exactly what y-you know, the outcome will be. The only thing that we put in there, as you saw in that fixed price, is, uh, the groundwater is put as a line item because we didn't think it was fair to include groundwater, and then we go out there and don't find it. I don't, I don't wanna charge you for groundwater if it's not encountered, and we won't know that until we do, uh, the actual dig itself.

Caller: Yeah, gotcha. So when you come out, I mean, regardless of whether it's open or, or closed, like the, the contract, um, I mean, are you– It's– You're essentially bi– like drilling core samples to find out how deep you need to go and testing it, right? Or, uh, I te– I mean-

Pete: Yeah, exactly. We, we, uh, we basically chase the contamination plume. We start from very close to where the tank was, and we work our way in each direction to determine how far it travels in each direction and how deep it is. This way we can just put it in a calculator and figure out the tonnage. We come… You know, and that's not an exact science either. So, you know, we, we come up with a number, and then we stick to that. So if I tell you it's thirteen thousand five hundred, whatever that number is, if I mess up during my investigation, all the liability and risk is on me. You guys are, um, you know, completely, you know, that's it. Your liability is thirteen thousand five hundred no matter what. Um, so it takes all the risk, uh, out of your… and unknowns pretty much off of your hands and puts it on us. That, that's the main difference.

Caller: Yeah, sure. Sure. I get that. I mean, yeah, you're, you're estimating, um, uh, you know, based on what the, what the samples come back as. So I, I guess, um, when you're- Just probably getting way, way too much into it. You said it's on your, your proposal on the scope, it says a state-certified subsurface evaluator. Is that your own employee or is that like a, like an independent- He,

Pete: he, he's an independent contractor licensed by the state of New Jersey. Um, he does all the testing and the reporting. So at the end of this project, you're gonna need a report written. Uh, you know, typically, they're anywhere from a hundred to two hundred and fifty pages long, depending on the project. And that report gets submitted to the DEP, and the DEP will review it and give you what's called a no further action letter.

Caller: Got it. Got it. Okay. Yeah. I just, I didn't know, like, i-is everybody still working up there? You guys, I, I think you guys are on like a… similar to us, like a stay in place, but-

Pete: Yes. Yeah. See, we are, we are considered essential because we, uh, you know, we're dealing with a lot of clients that are in real estate transactions that have to get this done in order to close. Um, so- Yeah. You know, I- Oh, similar. Yeah. So yeah. So nine- ninety percent of our clients are in real estate transactions, so we've only really had like three clients, uh, that we can't do their job because either the town shut down or the client wanted to postpone it. Other than that, we're, we're still in, in business up here.

Caller: Gotcha. Well, and you– so you're, you're not reliant on, like, the town at all. The only, you know, governmental agency that you're essentially having to get something from is the DEP when you send the letter in,

Pete: um- Exactly. And they, they're running at half staff right now, so the turnaround time for the NFA is a little bit slower, but they have not shut down, uh, completely, so they are still open.

Caller: Gotcha. And what– like, is there a, an, an, a way that we can take… Uh, I mean, do you work with people to take that, you know, the report that the subsurface evaluator takes and/or does and if we can't get the, the NFA letter from the DEP, like, is there a way that we can work with our lawyer to get the, the property still closed? If– Because we're supposed to… I think the transaction is supposed to close at the end of April, so, uh, it doesn't sound like from the proposal that that's– it's really a possibility to get that NFA letter back before then.

Pete: I mean, if we did the rush service, so we, we have that in the contract, the nine ninety-five fee. I mean, we are- Yeah … letting our clients know that obviously, you know, we were s– we put in there ten days. Before all this happened, we were able to get that NFA letter in ten days. Now, it's out of our hands with the, with the state. So I mean, we're able to turn all the lab reports around, the geologist report, all that stuff I could get quickly within like seven days and then, you know, we'll send it down to the DEP and the, you know, uh, I don't… You know, right now they're taking anywhere from, we're seeing five to sometimes seven business days for that NFA. So, um, you know, it is taking a little bit longer than the ten days. But, um, yeah, typically it's like thirty days, thirty to forty days, you know, under a good regular turnaround time.

Caller: Gotcha. Okay

Caller: All right. And, and you guys are not be-based on the current, uh… I think Jenna had talked with you before about, like, potentially- Paying … paying with, like, uh, out of es- or out of ti- like, when the transaction closed. That you guys are not, you know, able to do that at this point?

Pete: So we, yeah, I mean, we were– as soon as this all kinda went down in the last two weeks here or so, whatever it's been, uh, we've obviously like everybody else, we're, we're very skeptical about where everything was going. So, um, obviously we didn't wanna put our neck on the line for, you know, if the real estate transaction's gonna fall through. But if you, if you have attorneys, if I was able to speak to both attorneys on both sides of the deal to make sure that, you know, it's just a pretty solid deal, and they're, you know… Uh, you know, I, I'd try to work with you guys or maybe do something where it's like a small deposit and then the rest at closing, uh, if we could get confirmation from both attorneys. But yeah, we're, we're definitely a little hesitant now. I mean, before we were doing a lot of that. Now, you know, we slowed down- Sure for sure.

Caller: Sure. And I, I totally understand that. Like, I mean, yeah, we– I mean, I think everybody that is giving anybody else credit at this point is a little skeptical. So, uh, is there an additional fee for that, or how does

Pete: it- There– The only thing that if we do payment at closing, we do require that you go through that rush service because what it does is it speeds up. That nine ninety-five, the report gives us the opportunity to get it back quickly and then get you guys hopefully to the closing table quicker. Um, so that, that's the only fee that we do require if you're gonna pay at closing.

Caller: Got it. Okay. Okay. Got it. That makes sense. I mean, we, we obviously need to, need to do it based on our timeline sooner than later as well. Um, so yeah. Let me, let, if you don't mind, let us, uh, just, just talk about it for a minute, and then, um, Jenna will reach back out to you, if that's okay.

Pete: Yeah. Any questions you guys have in the meantime, you know, just, you know, don't hesitate to call. I'm, I'm in the office. Just call anytime with any questions.

Caller: Okay. Yeah. I kind of bombarded you with questions.

Pete: No, that's all right. I don't mind. I get 'em, I get 'em all day long and, uh, you know, it's, it's– that's what I'm here for, you know? Try to walk you through it, 'cause it's a lot of unknowns and, you know, people typically don't usually go through this service more than one time. So, um, it's not something that people have a lot of experience with. So I, I don't mind.

Caller: Sure. Yeah. It's, uh, it's ki- and, I mean, for most people it is a considerable amount of money as well. Yeah. So it's like it's just all… And it's a lot of unknowns, so it's, yeah, it's kind of a, a strange like service. I didn't even know people had oil tanks, so if that tells you anything.

Pete: Are you guys from where? So you're out of state, you live out of state? Like, are you– where are you guys from?

Caller: We're, we're in Nashville, so.

Pete: Oh, okay.

Caller: Yeah. We're– There are no oil tanks down here that I know of.

Caller: Yeah.

Pete: No, no. And even the ones that are like in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, the laws are nowhere near as stringent they are in New Jersey. Like, the DEP here is so crazy. Like, I mean, obviously it's good for my business, but not good for homeowners, you know? So, um- But, you know, so yeah, this is, this is definitely a huge thing in New Jersey. No house can be sold, uh, without the oil tank being dealt with. And typically, no mortgage company will lend unless they get that no further action letter. That's why we've kind of fell within that essential, you know, construction business that's able to stay afloat here. So, um, yeah.

Caller: Gotcha. Okay.

Caller: Well, thank you. What… D- in the, in the city of… In, in like Metuchen, I mean, I know you guys came out and did the, did the oil tank. Like where, where the house is, you probably don't remember off the top of your head, but like the odds of, of, of hitting groundwater in Metuchen based on like your, your past experience, I mean, are they pretty high? It seemed like the, the area was kind of like high. Uh, like, you know, there weren't… I don't, I don't remember there being like ponds or lakes or anything like that kind of nearby.

Pete: No. Yeah. I'm looking, I'm looking right now at my files from Metuchen. We do a lot of work in that city. I don't think… Uh, I'm just gonna scan through the projects we've done there recently. Um, yeah, sixty-four John Street was the most recent one. No, there was no groundwater there. I, I mean, you guys should be fine with groundwater. Uh, Highland Park, which is not too far from you guys, I believe, right? Highland Park is somewhat close to Metuchen.

Caller: I think so.

Pete: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot. Like if you lived in that town, I would tell you almost with a hundred percent certainty you're gonna deal with groundwater or bedrock. But Metuchen, you should be fine.

Caller: Okay.

Caller: Gotcha. Okay.

Caller: Well, thank you. This was really

Caller: helpful. Yeah. Thank you so much.

Pete: Yeah, yeah, no worries. Like I said, any questions, uh, feel free to call or, or call or text. You can text this number as well.

Caller: Okay, great. Thank you. Okay. Sounds

Caller: good. Thank you.

Pete: All right. Thanks, guys. Bye. Bye.

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Tank Talk Episode 006 – Five Star Review From Seller And Realtor

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In the episode, Pete talks with a client about what the next steps are since their oil tank failed the township inspection. Simple Tank grabbed a soil sample when the tank was removed and the results were 35,000 PPM. This is way above the cleanup standards of 5,100 PPM. We gave them some options with open ended contracts and also a fixed price cleanup contract.

Questions answered in this episode…

  1. What line items are variable in the open ended soil remediation contract? 1:15
  2. Can you give me a price from the one sample you took on the day you removed the tank? 3:45
  3. How far do you think the contamination traveled? 5:10
  4. How much should a groundwater investigation cost? 6:10
  5. If the initial groundwater samples fails, will we be charged every time you return to sample? 7:25
  6. What is the worst case scenario cost for the cleanup? 8:30
  7. How does a soil delineation work to get a fixed cost? 9:50
  8. Does the state certified subsurface evaluator work for you? 11:00
  9. Does the township have to do another inspection? 12:05
  10. How quickly can you get the final report that needs to be reviewed by NJDEP? 13:25
  11. Can we pay at closing? 14:00
  12. Is there an additional fee to pay at closing? 15:00
  13. What are the odds of hitting groundwater in Metuchen? 17:20

Episode 6 Transcript

Announcer: Welcome to Tank Talk with Pete, a podcast talking all things

Announcer: related to residential oil tanks. You have questions, Pete has answers

Pete: Pete from Simple Tank.

Caller: Hey, so you got my note about your girlfriend there, Tiffany?

Pete: Yeah. Like what, what's that? You sent a note?

Caller: I sent you, I sent you an email, Pete.

Pete: Oh, you

Caller: did. It was something. Okay, so I know why you're, I know why you're calling me to tell me that that thing is out of the ground, right?

Pete: Yes.

Caller: What was it?

Pete: Well, I got great news for you. It was just a piece of metal and, um, we're actually– y-we actually owe you money. So I think you had a great day today.

Caller: You, you gotta be kidding me.

Pete: No, man. No, no. We, we, uh, we, we, uh… it was just metal. We, we took a bunch of photos. We had our inspection, we passed, and you're good to go. I'm gonna write you a little report. We'll close out your permit. Okay. You guys are good.

Caller: Oh my God, you have saved the day. So now let me tell you about Tiffany, okay? So my mother passed away January first, and I'm in the process of selling the house so that way it can be, um, demoed. And part of the contract was, is that there cannot be asbestos in the house or any tank below any kind of foreign substance or tank, oil tank, anything like that. So they did a, a tank sweep, and that's when they found this piece of metal, and I freaked out, of course, right?

Pete: Yeah.

Caller: Because I can't sell the house to anybody. And James did because he's the person that's purchasing the property. He recommended Simple Tank. And to be honest with you, um, Joe is very aggressive.

Pete: Yeah.

Caller: And he knows h- Joe has a reputation, and he likes what he likes. And to be honest with you, I'm not looking to piss him off, I'm looking to close. I wanna sell this house and close. Um, so he recommended Simple Tank. Tiffany, I don't know how she worked her magic. She worked her magic with the, with the town.

Pete: I don't know if you got a bad connection. You may have lost

Caller: me. Yeah, I'm sorry about that. Okay. So as I was saying, like, Joe has his own way of wanting to do things. And you know what? I wasn't gonna rock the apple cart with Joe, okay? So I was scared that it was something major. So, you know, to be quite honest with you, I'm just thrilled that you guys took care of it. It passed inspection, everything like that. The town was– The town gave you… Did, did they give you like a report or something like that?

Pete: So they gave us a sticker on site. That's gonna be part of your summary letter that I'm gonna write to you. But, um, and then we'll- Okay. We'll write that. We'll send that letter to the township, and then they'll close out your permits, and you're good to go.

Caller: Okay. Very, very good. Thank you so much. So how much of a re– So Tiffany, by the way, I don't know how she did it, but I explained to her I need to close by the end of the month because that's what's in the contract. And she, I don't think she harassed the town, but she was persistent, and that gave me tremendous peace of mind. So kudos to her. She's wonderful.

Pete: I will let her know. I appreciate the positive

Caller: feedback. She, she absolutely– She is, she's an asset to your organization. She really– She worked her magic, and it worked wonders for me. So how much money am I getting back? Like five dollars?

Pete: No. So, uh, so actually, so because we, you know, we mobilized to remove a septic or possibly an oil tank. We have the, you know, uh, extra equipment out there. Uh, so the fee would be a thousand dollars flat plus twenty-two dollars to ship the permit. So you're getting back two hundred and twenty-eight dollars.

Caller: I can't believe it. Okay.

Pete: Yeah. And, and so- Wow. And we're gonna– I'll get this report out to you, you know, within the hour here, and you'll be able– you'll be good to go, man. You guys are, you guys are in good shape out there.

Caller: Now, do you have my-

Pete: All right, Bruce. Okay.

Caller: Thank you so much.

Pete: All right, thank you.

Caller: I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Pete: Thanks. Bye. Bye-bye. How are you doing?

Caller: I'm good, thanks. How are you?

Pete: I'm good. I was just calling to give you an update. I don't know if you spoke to Bruce.

Caller: I did, and I just got a copy of the report. That's wonderful news. He's thrilled.

Pete: Yes. Yes. So you guys are in great shape, and, um, you're actually getting a, a refund for two hundred and twenty-eight dollars, so.

Caller: That's

Pete: what

Caller: he said. Um, and you know what? I am gonna recommend your company in the future. I have another client who's, um, using your services as well.

Pete: Awesome.

Caller: So, um, very, very pleased, and it's always good to be able to make recommendations. You were very responsive. Tiffany was incredible. So, uh, we're very, very happy. So thank you for everything that you did.

Pete: Okay. Okay, thanks so much.

Caller: All right. Thank you. Have a good day. All right.

Pete: You too. Bye-bye.

Caller: Thanks. Bye-bye.

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Tank Talk Episode 005 – Homeowner Getting Ripped Off by Another Tank Contractor

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In the episode, Pete talks with a client about her residential gas tank that was removed by another contractor. When the tank was removed, the contractor pressured her into signing a contract for a soil remediation. She gave him a $5,700.00 deposit. After he left her home, she called our office to get a second opinion. Since the contractor didn’t take any samples when he removed the tank, we recommended to mobilize to the site to delineate the soils to determine how bad the leak was.

During our investigation, we found ZERO contamination. We sent one sample to the lab to confirm and the sample came back ND (non-detect). Since this a residential gas tank that was previously used to fill up school buses that she use to drive, we needed to get a LSRP involved.

In this call, I gave her an update on where we stood with the project.

Questions answered in this episode…

  1. What happens when the soil sample taken after the gas tank was removed comes back clean from the lab? :35 Seconds
  2. What are the next steps after getting a ND reading from the lab when we have an open case number? 1:06
  3. Can the previous contractor keep my $5,700 deposit? 2:50

Episode 5 Transcript

Announcer: Welcome to Tank Talk with Pete, a podcast talking all things related to residential oil tanks. You have questions, Pete has answers

Pete: Davisons. Pete.

Caller: Good morning. I didn't mean to bother you. I'm just getting full of anxiety.

Pete: No, no, no. I know. I know. And, and I, I've been meaning to get back to you, but so here's the update. So the sample came back clean, which is good. Okay? Okay. But, but here's the thing. Because this is not an oil tank, it's treated– it's definitely treated differently because if this was an oil tank, I would be able to just call the DEP and, and show them that lab result and say, "Hey, there's no contamination out here," and they would close out your case number. But because- Okay. Because it's a gas tank, it's a completely different department. We have to deal with an LSRP. Um, they're basically, um, you know, they have a complete different process. A lot of other paperwork needs to be, um, put together. So basically what he's recommending at this time is to come out there and basically open up the excavation with his oversight, and then he's just gonna sample the excavation. Mm-hmm. That's the first step. Okay? So he's putting together a price for me right now, and then I'm gonna send you over a proposal as soon as I get it.

Caller: Okay.

Pete: Uh, and then the only other hitch here, and this is we're waiting for feedback from the DEP, is if whether or not they're gonna require us to put a, a bedrock well in. Okay? Okay. 'Cause you ha-you have bedrock there. So we're trying to avoid that 'cause that's gonna be expensive. We don't wanna do that if we don't have to. Okay. Uh, but you know, you're not gonna be anywhere near with what they were quoting you as far as, you know-

Caller: Okay

Pete: the numbers they were quoting you.

Caller: Okay, 'cause I did speak to him again the other day. He's, he's, he's not a nice man. Um, he's awful. So he deals with the, uh, realtors in this area. So I spoke to my real estate person, and he's one of the people that are recommended for this area. So she said if he doesn't give me my deposit back, which is fifty-seven hundred dollars, he said he did a lot of the paperwork, the forms. Now, if, if, you know, I… if he did, that's fine, but and I will pay for that. Yeah, but

Pete: it's, it's definitely, it's definitely not fifty-seven hundred dollars worth of forms. Like, I could give you a breakdown on what it really should cost for each form that he filled out and all the docu– It's all done online. Like, it's just time. It's not… You know what I mean? Like, it's not fifty-seven hundred dollars worth of forms, I can tell you that. And I could-

Caller: Right

Pete: you know, like I said, I could put you in contact with my LSRP, the LSRP we work with. He wrote the laws for the LSRP, um, project, so program. So, um-

Caller: Right. He, he did give me the breakdown of what all the forms are, and I know it's not the fifty-seven hundred dollars, but he's saying that… And I was so pressured that day that I didn't read all the pages, and he didn't have me read all the pages. He just said, "Sign here and write me a check." So that's what I did, unfortunately. And on there it says non-refundable. So we can try to, you know, the realtor said she'll, she'll call him and tell him that he's going off their list.

Pete: Yeah. No.

Caller: Like,

Pete: um- Exactly. Yeah. I mean, uh, you know, that's, there's, there's laws with that, as I was saying to you before, with how much you c- you can't just keep it. Even if you have that in your contract, it's- Okay … there's certain laws to protect consumers. They can't just put non-refundable deposit and then- Yeah you know, if you were to take him to small claims court, you a hundred percent absolutely would get that money back. Um-

Caller: Yeah, and he really should have done the test when he had it open, correct?

Pete: Exactly. Okay. If there was no signs of contamination, which w- which we didn't find any out there- Okay … this whole thing was so overblown. Like, he should have… First of all, what we would've done if we were your contractor, I would've fought with the townships. I would've even got the state involved because- Mm … I'll give you a perfect example. Yesterday we had a tank in, um, and we pulled it. It was in, um, up where I think it was in Elizabeth, but we pulled it out, had one hole in it, but there was no contamination at all, so you know, we didn't call the state. We got no case number. Oh, good. I talked to the township, and I told the town, I said, "Here's the soil from under the tank." We showed them it's clean, and we got them to pass it because, you know, we-

Caller: Mm.

Pete: You know, but a lot of these contractors, they just like to make projects- Mm … and, like, really, they take advantage of people. It's just not

Caller: okay. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. He just, he was just very nasty and, you know, he said, "Well, I'll try to work with you, but you… I have plenty of work, and I don't need your business." And he was just really rude. Yeah. Really, really nasty. No, that's not, that's not

Pete: okay.

Caller: No, it's not. I was being calm with him 'cause I didn't want to get into a big, you know… Um, I wasn't in a fight with him.

Pete: Of course.

Caller: Yeah.

Pete: You know?

Caller: So, um, all right. So you can just… Yeah, just send that through. That'll be great, and then I can

Pete: try to- Yeah, as soon as, as soon as I get it, I'll, I'll definitely send it over. And then, uh, as soon as I get the update from the state as far as, like, that bedrock well requirement, uh, we're trying to get that so we don't… We're trying to make it so we don't have to do that. I mean, 'cause obviously that's gonna kill- Okay. That's gonna kill your timeline, and it's gonna be expensive,

Caller: so. Yeah.

Pete: Yeah. Um, so we're, we're waiting to hear feedback on that. Okay. Like I said, if this was an oil tank, I would, I would be able to tell you exactly what the process is. Mm. We don't do a ton of gas tanks. We do do them, but, you know, I would say ninety-five percent of our g- our work is oil tanks, so- Right … um, you know, we can do gas tank work. It's just we don't do enough of it to where I know all the ins and outs and, and the loopholes-

Caller: Yeah

Pete: that can help you out, you know?

Caller: Okay. Okay. Well, that, that's good. Okay. So just keep me posted.

Pete: Okay, Deborah. It's good talking to you, and-

Caller: You guys were great. All right. I would recommend you highly.

Pete: I appreciate that, and we will be in touch. As soon as I get that, those numbers from the LSRP, I'll give you a call.

Caller: Okay. All right. Thanks so much.

Pete: Thank you.

Caller: Okay. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

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Tank Talk Episode 004 – Real estate wholesaler has a deal with a previously filled oil tank on the property. Buyer wants to protect himself and seller wont do anything about it!

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Questions answered in this episode…

  1. How much do you charge for a soil investigation with a guarantee? :53 seconds
  2. Should the buyer pull the tank before closing or perform a soil investigation with a GeoProbe? 1:53
  3. How quickly can you perform a soil investigation? 1:59
  4. Can you do the cleanup and get paid at closing? 2:30
  5. How much damage is done to the property during the soil investigation? 2:40

Episode 4 Transcript

Announcer: Welcome to Tank Talk with Pete, a podcast talking all things related to residential oil tanks. You have questions, Pete has answers

Caller: Oh, hey, Pete. Yeah, what's up, man?

Pete: Man, not much, bro. How's it going?

Caller: I'm pretty good. And yourself?

Pete: Yeah, I'm good, man. I'm good. So what's going on? You got a… Is it a wholesale deal or what's, what's the story?

Caller: Yeah, more than likely this is gonna be a wholesale deal. So I already had the buyer lined up. Um, all the paperwork gets done. It's just now this oil tank has given me a headache for the last three weeks.

Pete: Is it active or, or they're not using it anymore?

Caller: It's a decommissioned, uh, tank. It was decommissioned back in two thousand and four.

Pete: Okay.

Caller: But the buyer still wants it removed just to test for contaminations, that he wants that done before he buys the property.

Pete: And the seller probably doesn't wanna do anything, right?

Caller: Yeah, the seller just wants to leave it and he's like, "Yo, y'all buying the property as is. Like, I don't wanna-"

Pete: Yeah, yeah.

Caller: deal with nothing. Like, yo, I'll pay for it." He's like… He's, he's real concerned.

Pete: So we have a solution for that. So we could come in, and I– for six hundred bucks, I could probe around that tank, and if I find clean soil, we sell a six-month guarantee which states as long as your buyer removes that tank with us within six months, God forbid there's any leak or any contamination that we missed or anything, we would clean it up at no additional charge. Um, so the initial test is six hundred. After he closes on the deal, to make sure he closes, so on-only thing out of pocket, six hundred bucks now. Once he closes, then he– it would be fourteen hundred for the guarantee, and you're looking at fifteen hundred roughly for the removal. So like all in, it's like thirty-five hundred bucks roughly, and he's gonna be guaranteed he's not gonna have any, any more expenses than that.

Caller: Okay. Um, I'll see if he's interested in that.

Pete: That's the deal that Johnson just did. Jo– We just did a, a sample for Johnson in Garfield, and we sampled it, it came back clean. He's most likely gonna get the guaranteed. Um, so, you know, the… That's, th-that's a… In my opinion, it's better to do the soil borings than it is to pull that tank, and I'll explain why. I could do soil borings as quickly as next week, you know, three, four busi– uh, four or five business days. A, a, a tank pull is gonna take me four weeks to get permits and get you on the schedule. Right. The other thing, it's cheaper. It's only six hundred as opposed to, like, fifteen hundred to pull that tank on the low end. And, um, also I'll be able… If I find contamination during my investigation, I'm gonna in– it's all included in the six hundred. I'm gonna figure out exactly how much contamination's there by delineating the soils. So I'll be able to come back to you and say, "Yeah, there's contamination here, and here's the fixed number," whether that's ten Gs or twenty Gs or whatever. That's a fixed number, doesn't fluctuate, so you can now work that into the deal. Um, and we can even get- Right. We can even get paid at closing if there's equity in the deal, so we'll work with you guys. You know what I mean?

Caller: Okay. And for that, for that, uh, soil test, like, how much damage is done to the property?

Pete: It's a two-inch hole that we drill alongside the tank, so… And it's a track rig machine, rubber track, so it's very minimal damage. We're not, like, excavating up the ground or anything like that. It's literally a, a b- a borehole. It's two inches in diameter.

Caller: Okay. All right. I like that. Um, when do you think you'll be in? I'm gonna just pay the six hundred myself and still do that, and then send all your information to the buyer. I'm pretty sure, like, he'll…

Pete: Yeah, tell the buyer to… Yeah, yeah. Tell the buyer to call me, man. I'll talk to him, and I'll let him know. L-l-a lot… We do a ton of investor work, and this is the p-program that we literally set up for investors that are in his position because we understand that sellers don't wanna do shit with these tanks. So we literally- Right … came up with this program where it's like, all right, for six hundred bucks you're gonna get all the information you need within a few days, and we're gonna back it up with a guarantee. If I tell you it's clean, you're safe. Like, you're literally safe. Right. We take all the liability off of your hands. You have no worries at all, as long as you pull it within six months. That's the only caveat. You gotta have it out of the ground by us within six months.

Caller: Right. Okay. And do you have, um, anything like you can email me with that? Because it's harder to-

Pete: Absolutely. Um, whose name should I put the contract in? You want me to put it in your name since you're paying for it?

Caller: Yeah, you can put it in my name.

Pete: All right, perfect. I'm gonna get this to you literally, like, right, right when we hang up. I'm gonna send– email it over to you. Um, if you wanna move forward with it, it's all electronic. You just click Approve and just type in your name as a signature, and then I'll call for utility mark-out. So that's a company that marks out the water, gas, sewer. That'll take three days to clear, and on the fourth day, I'll get you on the schedule.

Caller: Okay. Um, I'm gonna just… Well, once you send it to me, I'm gonna send it to the buyer. Once he agrees, I'll send you a text and then pay you the money and sign the paperwork.

Pete: Yeah, like I said, if you want to call, I'm in the office today. If you want to call and ask for me, my name is Pete. I can answer any questions you ask.

Caller: All right, cool. That works.

Pete: All right, man. Thanks a lot.

Caller: All right, I appreciate you.

Pete: All right. Thanks. Bye.

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Soil Testing? What kind of soil testing is right for you?

Soil Testing

Welcome to another informative podcast! Today, we’re delving into the world of soil testing, an essential aspect of ensuring the safety and compliance of your property, especially if you have or have had an underground oil tank. There’s often confusion surrounding soil testing, as there are different types and contexts to consider. Let’s break it down together.

At Simple Tank Services, LLC, we’re committed to providing you with comprehensive solutions for your tank removal and soil remediation needs. When it comes to soil testing, there are four primary types that you should be aware of. Each type serves a specific purpose and helps determine the appropriate course of action.

**1. Existing Tank Soil Testing:**
If you have an active or inactive underground oil tank still in place or was previously filled, and you’re concerned about leaks or discharges, soil testing around the existing tank is crucial. Our skilled team performs soil testing by probing around the exterior of the tank, usually about 7 feet below the surface. This process involves taking three borings around each side of the tank, and these samples are then sent to a certified lab for analysis. If contamination is discovered during this process, we will delineate the contamination to determine a fixed price for soil remediation.

**2. Grab Samples:**
When we remove your underground oil tank, any signs of a discharge such as holes, stained soils, or an odor warrant a grab sample. This entails collecting one sample from the bottom of the excavation. The sample is sent to the lab for a preliminary assessment of contamination levels. This assessment informs the options available for closing your case, which could include proving that contamination is below cleanup standards or undertaking a remediation process.

**3. Post Excavation Soil Samples, NJDEP Close Out:**
After a soil remediation, which involves removing contaminated soil and replacing it with certified clean fill, post excavation soil samples are taken. These samples include sidewall samples and a sample from the bottom of the excavation. Additionally, a sample may be taken from the pipeline connected to the oil tank. This step ensures that the site has been successfully remediated and meets safety standards.

**4. Sampling for NJDEP Close Out:**
We can perform a soil investigation with oversight from our subsurface evaluator to close out your open NJDEP case number. Five to six sample will be required to be extracted from the previous tank grave. All samples must be below the NJDEP cleanup criteria in order to complete a report requesting a No Further Action letter from NJDEP.

When considering soil testing, factors such as the tank’s status, any existing grab sample results, and the scope of remediation play a role in determining the most appropriate type of soil testing for your situation. At Simple Tank Services, we prioritize providing you with accurate and actionable information, guiding you through the testing process and beyond.

Got questions about soil testing or need guidance on which type of testing is right for you? Reach out to us! Our team, led by Teddy, is ready to assist you in ensuring the health and compliance of your property. Contact us at 732-965-8265 for expert insights and reliable solutions.

Stay tuned for more engaging podcasts and valuable insights from Simple Tank Services, LLC!

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Tank Talk Episode 003 – We Just Found A Tank! Do I Have To Wait Before I Can List The House For Sale?

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In This Episode, Pete Saves A Potential Client $250 By Doing A “Virtual” Oil Tank Sweep While On The Phone. She Was Inquiring About Her Sister’s Home Where A Potential Oil Tank Was Discovered During An Appraisal.

Questions Answered in this episode.

1. We just found a tank, can I still put my house on the market or should I wait until it’s out? 1:28
2. How much will this oil tank removal cost me? 2:30
3. If there is a leak, do you handle all the paperwork with the state? 6:25

Episode 3 Transcript

Announcer: Welcome to Tank Talk with Pete, a podcast talking all things related to residential oil tanks. You have questions, Pete has answers

Caller: Pete, my name is Benita. Um, I, um, I have a house in Perth Amboy. Uh, my sister passed away this summer, and I was just gonna put her home on the market. However, when I had it appraised, they suspect there's a oil tank in the ground in front of the house.

Pete: Okay. Um,

Caller: so-

Pete: So- … it's not currently being used, so, um, I'm assuming you have a, a gas now currently?

Caller: No. No. They put a new oil tank in her basement, I'm gonna say within, I don't know, five, 10 years ago.

Pete: Okay.

Caller: So there's a new one in the basement, but, uh, my sister had Alzheimer's disease, so sh- I don't know what happened, but there's a spout out there, and they said it looks like this is an old oil spout and possible, pos- there's possibly a tank in there that must be removed before I sell the house. Yeah. So, um-

Pete: Do you have the house on the market right now?

Caller: No, I was gonna put it on this weekend.

Pete: Okay. So here's the thing- So

Caller: now it's off the market.

Pete: You

Caller: can- You know, it's, no, it's

Pete: not

Caller: on the market.

Pete: Yeah, we can definitely, we can definitely help you out with this, and, uh, and let me just l-let you know, don't hold up the, the sale just yet because the, the process to do this, let's say hypothetically you put the house on the market today, even, you know, it's gonna take that person, even if you got a buyer today, it would take them 60 days to close. So what you could do is you could put in the MLS, uh, which is multiple listing service, have your realtor just post in there that there is a tank and we, we are, it's, we are being, it is being, in the process of being removed. As long as people know that, uh, it should not deter them- Oh … from looking at the house. Yes, you need a permit.

Caller: Okay.

Pete: We need an inspection from the township. So all that stuff will be done by us. Um, the only thing we

Caller: need

Pete: you to do- Okay … is sign a contract and then just pay us at the end of the job. That's all we ask.

Caller: And is it, what would, like, what's the estimate– I know you can't give me a, a flat fee 'cause you haven't even examined anything. W- is, what's the estimated fee for the sweep?

Pete: So w- tell me, uh, what's the address of the property? I'm gonna take a look at the, the access real quick.

Caller: Perth Amboy.

Pete: Okay, perfect. So it looks like it's, uh, a white or a gray Cape Cod

Caller: Yes

Pete: Okay. Yep, and I see– I can see that there is an oil tank. I can actually see it on Google. It looks like it's, if you're looking at the front of the house to the left, is that where the spout is? Yes. Yep. I can

Caller: get- Yes

Pete: I can actually get a clear shot of the fill pipe. So that, that's definitely one hundred percent-

Caller: Get the heck out of here.

Pete: Yes. A hundred percent. You have a f– you– there's a, there's a vent pipe to the left in the corner I could see, and then I can see that fill pipe there. So for sure that's an oil tank. Um, it's very easy access.

Caller: Get out of here. You're blowing my mind.

Pete: See, everybody's watching. We gotta be careful right now. Uh, this is Google- Ooh … uh, Google Earth. So they, you know, they have these photos that you could, you know, you could look up an address. It's not live, but you know, at some point they took a picture of the house for sure.

Caller: Oh my God. I'm, I'm, I'm old, so I don't know the computer. Oh my.

Pete: Yes.

Caller: That- That's funny

Pete: um, I can, I can definitely see for sure. I don't even need to come out and sweep it. I could tell you right now a hundred percent certain that you have an underground tank there. Like I said, it's easy access- Ooh … so for us to remove it, I could give you a quote. Um, I could email or if you like, put it in the regular mail, whatever you prefer. But I could get you a quote out right away, that's not a problem. Perfect.

Caller: But like what am I looking at? Am I looking at, uh, ten thousand dollars? Forty thousand dollars? What am– where's, where am I looking?

Pete: So here's the thing. Let me explain the process because the, the, the process that the contractor that you hire is the most important question that you need to ask. And, and the cost, it can range, and that's the thing, depending on the contractor- Oh … you hire because if they don't follow the same process- Oh, okay … it may wind up costing you a lot more than it should. So here's the process. We will get a permit from the township of Perth Amboy. Once they approve it, I'm gonna schedule with the township inspector and our schedule the same day. So we're gonna come out, we're gonna dig down to the top of it, cut it open, clean it, pull it out of the ground. At that point, the town inspector is gonna do a visual inspection. As long as that visual inspection passes and there's no signs that there was ever a discharge into the ground, then he's gonna pass everything. We're gonna fill the hole up to grade, take the tank off the property. You're looking at all in about fourteen hundred dollars. So it's very reasonable if there's no leak. Now, if there is any- Yeah … sign of a leak, that's where it becomes very expensive. Um, but again- Oh no … most contractors, they, they start recommending the most expensive job, which is soil remediation. That is– that could cost anywhere from eight to fifteen thousand on average. But we-

Caller: Ooh.

Pete: It, it gets very expensive. Okay. But here, here's the thing. We, we don't always recommend that because it's not always required. So we give you options depending-

Caller: Oh

Pete: on what we find. Um, if it's, if it's a very minor leak, I could sample it and you're looking at roughly forty-five hundred dollars, uh, to take care of that. So- It's a lot better. So you have to make sure you're getting options, and we provide options once the tank's out. But hopefully it passes inspection-

Caller: Okay

Pete: you know, and you're good.

Caller: No, thank you because I ha- like, I have no idea what this would cost. Um-

Pete: Okay. If it passes, like I said, you should be, you should be looking roughly around fourteen hundred dollars all in and you should be finished. That's best case scenario. Um, and then we'll go from there. We'll cross the bridge. If, God forbid, it does leak, then we could go over a lot of

Caller: options

Pete: that you have, you know?

Caller: Yes. And if, if there is a leak, do you do the paperwork with the state?

Pete: Yes. We handle everything from start to

Caller: finish. You handle all of that. All

Pete: you

Caller: need to do is-

Pete: And

Caller: then my, then the real estate agent calls to find… Okay.

Pete: Yeah. All you need to do is sign up, um, uh, sign… If, if it does leak, we'll need you to r- sign off on the final report. That's all you need to do, and then we'll submit it to the state, and then they'll send you what's called the no further action letter, and we handle all of that for you. As far as timelines, to give you an idea, uh, you know, just to get the tank out, you're looking about two to three weeks roughly. And then if there's a leak-

Caller: Beautiful

Pete: typically it could take anywhere from forty-five to sixty days to get you, uh, what's called the no further action letter. But we have a program, and you'll need that to close. You can't close without that. So we have a program, I could get it to you as quickly as ten business days. We're the only company in New Jersey that does it that fast.

Caller: Okay.

Pete: How did you find out about us?

Caller: Well, to tell you the truth, I was referred to a couple places and, um- If I don't like the way somebody answers the phone or I find they're unprofessional, but, you know, or I can't understand them, or they're not answering my questions, I just hang up. So that happened a couple times. So we– my girlf- my real estate agent found you on, on her, on the internet.

Pete: Okay. Great.

Caller: And she says, "They're in Plainfield, they probably cover you." And she says, "Give them a call." And from the first individual I spoke to, Tiffany, right off the bat, I liked the fact that this phone call's being recorded. She was professional. She was cordial. You answered all of my questions in a split second.

Pete: That's what we're here to do. So- This is, this is all we do is residential oil tank removals, uh, cleanups if necessary, and this is our specialty. We don't do like mold cleanup or anything else. This is– we only do oil tanks, so we're very specialized and, um, you know, we- Okay

Caller: and,

Pete: and ninety percent of our clients are in real estate transactions just like you are. So we're very used to working, uh, under time crunches- Mm-hmm … and working with realtors and buyers and sellers and everything.

Caller: Terrific. Yes. So that's, um… So because, because of the interaction I have had with you, I am interested.

Pete: Both numbers. I have everything I need. And if you have any questions in the meantime, um, about timelines or, or the process or anything like that, you feel free to call, ask for me. My name is Pete or Tiffany can help you as well, my assistant.

Caller: Pete, you have been so helpful. Thank you so, so much.

Pete: Yes. Thank you for the call. And like I said, any other questions, feel free to give us a call back.

Caller: Terrific. Thanks a lot.

Pete: Thank you.

Caller: And my husband's name is Todd, in case he has any questions.

Pete: Absolutely. He could call any, any time and just tell him to reference the address, and I'll know. I'll remember you for sure.

Caller: Thank you.

Pete: All right. Thank you.

Caller: Okay, Pete. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

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Tank Talk Episode 002 – My Oil Tank Leaked And I Am Not Happy With The Contractor Who Removed It! What Are My Options?

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In this episode, Pete talks with a potential real estate investor client who was referred by the City of Newark. She had her tank removed by another contractor and was not happy with how it was handled.

These are the questions answered!

1. Can you help with soil remediation?
2. Will you be able to tell if groundwater is impacted with your investigation?
3. How much of a deposit do you need for the soil investigation to determine a fixed price?
4. How fast can you schedule the investigation?
5.What happens after I sign the e-contract?

Episode 2 Transcript

Announcer: Welcome to Tank Talk with Pete, a podcast talking all things related to residential oil tanks. You have questions, Pete has answers

Caller: My name is Helen, and I had an oil tank removed at Newark, um, on the Newark property. And there, um, there are some issues, and I need oil remediation. Is that something that you might be able to help with?

Pete: Absolutely. We'll definitely help you out with that. Tell me, um, did they take any samples when they removed the tank

Caller: or no? They did. They, they did, they did. I actually have a copy of the full report. Um, and, um, it came back pretty high. Uh, it came back at eleven thousand.

Pete: Okay.

Caller: Um, so I, I know that's high. Um, they only took one sample. Um, so the tank is actually intact, and I don't know if it makes a difference, but the tank was intact. Um, but there was, you know, there was a leak right underneath it, however it got there.

Pete: Okay. Um, so- And where is it, where is it located on the property, front, back, side?

Caller: It was in front of the house.

Pete: Front. Okay. Um, what is the address

Caller: so I can look it up? Mm-hmm. There's like a little lawn area. Sure.

Pete: In Newark?

Caller: Yes.

Pete: Okay, perfect. Yep. Okay, so I see it's pretty easy access right there in the front.

Caller: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's easy. There's some bushes surrounding it, but it's not, not a big deal.

Pete: Okay, and tell me what's going on with the house. Are you, are you, uh, selling it? Did you just buy it? What's the situation? I

Caller: am not. I bought it. I bought it. Uh, we did a soil sample test. We knew there was a tank in there. Um, soil sample test came back clean, which makes sense because the leak is right underneath. We converted from oil to gas, so we have all the plumbing in place. Um, you know, we have all, all that done. So our last step was to get, um, to get rid of the actual oil tank. Now, the company that we used, um, to be honest with you, I wasn't very happy with how the whole thing happened. Um, they were late, um, for the– So the-they, they coordinated with the inspector. They were late to get the job started. We missed an inspector. The oil tank was left for over a week on the property. We had insurance estimator come out, and that became an issue. So the fact that, you know, everything got delayed, and we were never even notified of this, um, in the meantime, uh, you know, it just, it just propelled other issues. So, um, you know, uh, you guys were actually, um, recommended by someone in the building department in Newark, so I figured maybe I can have another company do the actual remediation.

Pete: No, absolutely. I mean, listen, it's always good to get a second opinion. Um, a lot of people don't

Caller: realize that- Yeah

Pete: you actually, you, you're able to do that. They think they're stuck with the contractor they hired to remove the tank.

Caller: Yeah.

Pete: So, uh- Yeah … it's good that you're doing your due diligence. Um, but be- you know, because you have that sample result at eleven thousand, so that tells us one thing. The thing it tells us that you do have soil that's over the cleanup standards. But what it doesn't tell us, it doesn't tell us exactly how much soil is out there.

Caller: Right.

Pete: Okay. In order to know how much soil is out there, we would need to know how deep it is, how far in each direction it went.

Caller: Right.

Pete: Um, and then we'd be able to provide you with a fixed number. So we, we operate different- Sure … than most people in the industry. Um, most companies will give you what's called an open-ended contract. So they guesstimate, let's say, twenty tons or thirty tons of soil. Um- Right … but that's just a guess. A guess. Nobody knows exactly. So you know that your invoice, even though that's your estimate, your invoice could be less or more, and most of the times it's more-

Caller: Yeah

Pete: unfortunately.

Caller: It's more, yeah.

Pete: Yeah. So, uh, and, and people aren't really aware of how that works. So we have another option. So we can do an open-ended contract as well. We can send that to you right away. That's pretty easy. The other option we o- we offer is what's called a fixed price remediation. Okay. The initial, um, investigation, we have to come out with our equipment and drill down. We have a geo-probe machine that drills around, and then I would be able to come back- Okay … to you with some information and tell you, "Okay, here's the exact amount of tonnage that has to come out, and here's your fixed number."

Caller: Okay.

Pete: Even if I'm wrong- Okay … during my investigation, if I quote you, let's say ten thousand dollars, and it costs me fifteen-

Caller: Yeah

Pete: you only pay us ten thousand dollars. Right.

Caller: Okay.

Pete: Um, so we take on all the- Okay … all the liability and risk there.

Caller: Okay. Will you be able to tell, um, with the probe if there's, um, like a water contamination or, um, you know, something that's, like if, if it went underneath another property, um, would that be something that your probe would it be able to tell? Because I know that's, you know, a big-

Pete: A concern. Yeah.

Caller: kind of. Yeah.

Pete: So yeah. So the, the data points that we look for are actually, we, we would come out. We would– the first one we would do is we would drill a hole right next to the house, 'cause we wanna see if that contamination is close or under the structure, 'cause that, that's a big concern. Got it. So that would be the first one. The second one we would do would be at a property line, whether that's the closest neighboring property line or the street, whichever is closest. Yeah. We would do a probe there to determine if it's going off site. Um- Okay. -we would also probe down to de-try to determine if groundwater is impacted. Now we don't take any groundwater samples, but we can tell- Mm-hmm. -by the, you know, saturation of the soil, if it's wet, if it's dry. Mm-hmm. At what level that's at. Mm-hmm. If it's at ten feet or twelve

Pete: feet.

Pete: Mm-hmm. We, we figure all that stuff out, and then we're able to come back to you and say, "Here's our findings and here's our price." And usually how our fixed price- Okay. -remediation works, it doesn't include groundwater. It, it puts groundwater as a, as a line item. So, um, because you can never tell- Mm-hmm. -if groundwater's impacted really a hundred percent until you actually excavate. And once you do that- Mm-hmm. -then you'll see, okay, there is groundwater, then it will be required to, um, test and all that stuff. Mm-hmm.

Caller: Mm-hmm. So

Pete: we always put it as a line item. Um- Okay. And even with our contract, our groundwater price is, is a fixed number as well. So even if we-

Caller: Okay.

Pete: quote you one number and then we find contaminated groundwater, we're gonna clean it up at no additional cost. All that stuff is included.

Caller: Okay. Okay.

Pete: Uh, which is very unique- Okay. Okay. -uh, in the industry again.

Caller: Very good. Okay. So, uh, I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name.

Pete: My first name is Pete.

Caller: Pete. Uh, s-um, I'm Helen. So Pete, to do this initial, um, probe test, uh, I'm guessing there's some sort of a deposit that has to be put down.

Pete: So the way it works is we charge-

Caller: How does that work?

Pete: We charge, um… It's a three hundred dollar deposit. So it's a six hundred dollar investigation. We charge three hundred- Okay. -for deposit and then three hundred, uh, the day we do the investigation. Now, if you hire us-

Caller: Okay.

Pete: we'll credit you six hundred towards the next phase of the job.

Caller: That goes towards the, the, the actual job,

Pete: right? Exactly. It gets put as like a deposit. Okay. So if I quote you ten thousand dollars again, and then these quotes are range, they range all the way from, you know, four thousand to I've had some up over six figures. So they, they're all over the place depending on what we find, obviously. Oh

Caller: my God.

Pete: That's not typical though. Don't… Yeah. That's like one percent

Caller: of the jobs. At that point, you're just covering it up and reselling that house.

Pete: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's very, very aty- That is not the norm, so I don't wanna scare you. And typically these things are, they range, when you have to take out soil, which you have to in your situation, you're looking probably anywhere between eight to fifteen thousand typically. That's like an average cleanup cost, just so you are aware. That's like eighty-five- Yeah -percent of the jobs we do, and then a small percentage- Okay. -are above that, uh, you know, twenty to thirty thousand, and then a real small percentage go above that.

Caller: Okay. So no chance of being below eight?

Pete: Uh, no, not if you have to take out soil. That's the thing. Now, if that sample- Yeah -was at, let's say, twenty-five hundred parts per million, then I'd say you have a shot of maybe us closing this thing out- Yeah -with, uh, just sampling the excavation. Yeah. But since you already have a lab result showing that's over, you have no choice but to take that soil out. Um, the-

Caller: Okay.

Pete: thing is we don't know if that's ten tons or a hundred tons. We don't know how much soil is there until we do this investigation.

Caller: Right. Right. Right. Okay.

Pete: Now, are you, are you guys, are you investors or is this a primary residence?

Caller: No, it's an investment property.

Pete: Investment, okay. So also just so you know- Mm-hmm -to moving forward, if you buy any other property, the… just like you had that tank tested, soil sampled, we do that same service. Yep. We charge six hundred for it, and if we find clean soil like you had in your situation, we offer a six-month guarantee on that. So hypothetically, you buy the property, you hire us to pull it just like you did. If this situation occurs where there's contamination under the tank, we clean it up at no additional charge. So this cleanup would be free for you.

Caller: Wow.

Pete: Um, we do charge a fee- Oh -for that guarantee. Um, and, and, and you… it's optional, but just moving forward, know that we do offer- Yeah -that service, you know.

Caller: Okay. Yeah. Can we rewind back the clock?

Pete: Yeah. So yeah, we, we are, we are very investor-friendly. We do a ton of investor work, so we, um, well, I was- Yeah. I have a huge network of people that I work with that are investors and, um, you know- Yeah -we have a lot of programs that are unique. Like I said, fixed price remediations, guarantees on our soil samples, tank searches with guarantees. Yeah. So very unique stuff. I'll send you a link to our- Okay -YouTube channel too, so you could check out some of the

Caller: stuff. That is excellent. Wow, YouTube. Nice.

Pete: Yeah. We just

Caller: did a job

Pete: in

Caller: Newark. All right. Yes,

Pete: please do. Um, that was literally in Newark, in the sidewalk. Same scenario as yours. They had another company sample it. Yeah. It was clean. We pulled it. Yeah. It was dirty. So this happens a lot.

Caller: Yeah.

Pete: So you gotta be careful when you're testing these tanks. You wanna make sure you get a guarantee.

Caller: Now, now I know. Live and learn. Um, yeah, it's, uh, yeah, it's, uh- Yeah. Yeah. No, I know. Um, you know, I, I mean, we knew there's… What was that?

Pete: Hopefully it's nothing crazy and it's just a basic cleanup.

Caller: Yeah.

Pete: You know, even though it is gonna be expensive, it's not cheap, you know, you know.

Caller: Right.

Pete: No. But hopefully it's nothing major, you know, and most likely it's not. Right. Right. The majority of these jobs we clean up, we're in and out one day and they're, and they're, they fall within that average range. Yeah.

Caller: Okay. Um, Pete, I– so I, I'll speak to my partner to see what, what she says. But if we were to go forward, um, when would you be able to schedule the… Like, do you have availability? So I, I'm just thinking Monday I have to be there anyway because I have three inspectors coming to inspect plumbing, electrical and building. Okay. Um, do you have availability on Monday?

Pete: Just if there was- So let me ask you this. When, when did the tank get removed? Was that like real recent or was it like in the last thirty days? When did it get removed?

Caller: Uh, so the, uh, the tank was removed not last Friday. So last Friday was the fourteenth– it was the seventh.

Pete: The seventh, okay. The seventh. So

Caller: the

Pete: reason I ask is I wanna see if that, uh, the mark outs are still current, um, because I will have to call my own mark outs. But as long as I know that it was somewhat recent, I feel comfortable because there's probably-

Caller: Yeah.

Pete: Yeah … some utilities that are close by, right? You probably have, uh, maybe gas or water, uh, underground.

Caller: Sure, sure,

Pete: sure,

Caller: sure. Yeah. So we have

Pete: to call that. Yeah, I could probably… Let's see, Monday. I can get you on the schedule for Monday, um, if you were to make a decision today, um, 'cause I have to call mark outs- Okay and it takes three business days to clear. Um, but I could squeeze you in for Monday. Otherwise, you're probably looking at towards the end of the week if it's not Monday.

Caller: Please. That would be awesome.

Pete: All right.

Caller: All right, Pete. Yep. All right, Helen. And, and once we sign, will you… Like, how does, how does that work? Do you call me back

Pete: with the

Caller: confirmation

Pete: or like-

Caller: Yeah, yeah. So once you, yeah,

Pete: once you sign, you'll get a second email that'll come. It's not automatic, it's done manually. But we'll send you once… We'll c- Okay. Everything comes very quick in the email. Then we'll respond with an email for the deposit, um, and then right away- Okay we're gonna set your file up. We'll call the mark outs in, and then I'll have Tiffany, my assistant, just confirm that you're good for Monday. But as long as you do this within like, you know, next couple of hours, a hundred percent I'm gonna put you on for Monday.

Caller: Sure. Sure. Perfect.

Pete: All right?

Caller: All right. All right.

Pete: Sounds

Caller: good, Pete. All

Pete: right, Helen. It was nice talking to you. Thanks so much. And I'm gonna text you-

Caller: You too … from

Pete: my number just in case you have ever questions, you could s- you could text or call me

Caller: there anytime

Pete: as well.

Caller: Oh, awesome. Oh, perfect. Excellent. All right. I love it. Thank you. All

Pete: right. Thanks, Helen.

Caller: All

Pete: right.

Caller: All right. Talk to you soon. Bye.

Pete: Bye.

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Tank Talk Episode 001 – Removal or Protection Plan. What’s the best option to sell a house with an underground oil tank?

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These are the questions answered in this podcast.

1. Do you remove oil tanks? Do you have an approximate price?
2. I had the soil tested already, do you have to test it again for Simple Guard?
3. Can I remove the tank and sell the house with no heating source, let the buyers deal with it?
4. How much do you charge to investigate the soils around my oil tank?
5. How much is Simple Guard per month?
6. Does Simple Guard transfer to new homeowner? 7. Is there a deductible for Simple Guard if there is a claim?
8. How much to install a new above ground oil tank?

Transcript Below!

Speaker 1:
Hello?

Pete:
Yes.

Speaker 1:
Hi. I’m sorry. I work for the council of Teaneck, not that it has anything to do with what I’m about to ask you. But somebody just called in about a permit and that transferred from down. I noticed your number. A question I have for you is do you remove oil tanks?

Pete:
Yes, 100%. That’s what we do.

Speaker 1:
Okay. Do you have like approximate prices? Obviously I know depends on the size, but what else would be factored into that?

Pete:
It’s really the location of the tank. So is it is an underground or above ground, the tank?

Speaker 1:
Underground.

Pete:
Where’s it located on the property? Is it front, back, sides?

Speaker 1:
The back, between a garage, which is separated from the house, and the back of the house.

Pete:
Okay. What does the address? I’m going to try and look it up on Google, real quick.

Speaker 1:
Seventh Street.

Pete:
And that’s in Teaneck?

Speaker 1:
Yeah.

Pete:
Okay, perfect. I’m looking at the house right now. It looks like brick on the bottom and white on top?

Speaker 1:
Yes. Aluminum siding.

Pete:
Yep. So you go down the driveway on the left. It’s in the driveway or it’s in the back of the house?

Speaker 1:
It’s in the back of the house. If you go up that driveway, toward the garage.

Pete:
Yep.

Speaker 1:
It’s between the garage and the end of the house. In that area.

Pete:
Okay. And was that tank ever filled in place? Or does it have oil in it?

Speaker 1:
It has oil in it. It is still being used right now.

Pete:
And what’s the reason for removing it?

Speaker 1:
I’m trying to sell the house.

Pete:
Okay. I have another option for you, that you may want to consider. It’d be a little bit more cost effective.

Speaker 1:
Okay.

Pete:
We could come in there and we could probe around that tank, and if I could prove that the soil is clean, we can offer you an extended warranty that would cover you up to $150,000 in potential cleanup costs. What we’re finding is that, buyers are really loving this. It’s basically like an insurance product. It’s $59 a month and it’s transferable to the new owner.

Speaker 1:
Okay. To be honest with you, I did have the soil tested and the tank tested, back in November and it did come up clean.

Pete:
Okay.

Speaker 1:
But you know, a lot of people, I understand would rather not have the tank underground.

Pete:
Yeah.

Speaker 1:
And I’m just trying to find out how much it would be to remove it.

Pete:
So the tank pull itself is about 1600 bucks, in the backyard, that’s what you’d be looking at roughly. But then you’ve got to figure, are you going to convert to gas? Are you going to put a new one above the ground? What are you going to do for a heating source?

Speaker 1:
I was going to leave it up to the new owners.

Pete:
Yeah. The problem is you’re not going to be able to sell the property like that without a heating source, because they won’t be able to get a mortgage without a heating source.

Speaker 1:
I got you. Okay.

Pete:
Do you know what I mean? So now you’re looking at, you could be spending close to four or five grand on the low end, between a new tank, pulling that tank. So it gets very costly, that’s why I was saying, we charge 600 to come out to sample it. We would have to do our own investigation. And once I prove that it’s clean, it’s basically 59 bucks a month. That’s very reasonable. And like I said, most buyers are okay with that because it’s basically covering them up to $150,000 in potential losses.

Speaker 1:
Okay.

Pete:
But you’d have to come in and do your own survey?

Speaker 1:
I would, yeah. We have to use our own equipment. We charge 600 for that service, and then within four or five days, I could come out and do it, and then I could then offer you the program.

Pete:
Okay. And that would be $59 a month? And then the new owners could have to be transferred and they could remove it?

Speaker 1:
Yeah, exactly. If they want to remove it, they can remove it. If there are any claims … Once they remove it, they hire us to remove it. If we remove it and find that there’s the leak, then they’re covered what that plan, up to 150 grand.

Speaker 1:
There’s a small deductible. If there’s a claim, it’s a $1,500 deductible and then they be covered up to 150 grand, so it’s a very extensive coverage. It’s the best type of warranty on the market right now. There are no loopholes where we don’t cover our clients. We’ve been doing these extended warranties for years. If you check us out online, you’ll see our reviews. We have over 212 Google reviews, with a 4.8 rating.

Speaker 1:
So, if you’re interested in that, I think that’s your most cost effective option. Or if you want us to pull it, we can pull it too. Like I said, you’re looking at 1600 and then roughly 2,500 to put a new tank in, if you wanted to put a new tank in.

Pete:
I got you. Okay. Well, thank you. Let me think about it. I just want to make sure, your number is (732) 965-8035?

Speaker 1:
Yes. That’s our direct line. Yep.

Pete:
Okay.

Speaker 1:
And your name is?

Pete:
My name is Pete.

Speaker 1:
Pete? Okay. Thank you.

Pete:
All right. You’re welcome. Thanks.

Posted on by admin

Tank TV Episode 22 – 64 Ton Soil Remediation Montclair, NJ

In this Tank TV case study, Simple Tank Services completes a large soil remediation in Montclair, New Jersey, after a severely leaking underground oil tank impacted the surrounding soil.

Project Overview

  • Location: Montclair, New Jersey
  • Services: Soil remediation, field screening, contaminated-soil disposal, post-excavation sampling, and clean backfill
  • Approximate Soil Removed: 64 tons
  • Episode Focus: 64-Ton Soil Remediation
  • Contractor: Simple Tank Services

What Happened on This Project

The crew separated clean fill from petroleum-impacted soil, excavated the contaminated material, and coordinated off-site disposal. A subsurface evaluator guided the excavation and sampling process while the crew used field screening, including a PID meter and visual/odor observations, to help determine when cleaner soil had been reached.

After approximately 64 tons of impacted soil were removed, the excavation was restored with certified clean fill. Post-excavation samples and the remedial documentation were then used to support the next steps toward environmental closure for the property.

Why This Matters for New Jersey Homeowners

Large soil remediation projects move more efficiently when excavation, trucking, disposal, sampling, and backfill are coordinated as one operation. The actual cleanup scope should always be based on site conditions and sampling rather than a preset tonnage.

Related Simple Tank Services

Need Soil Remediation in Montclair or Essex County?

Call Simple Tank Services at 732-965-8265. We handle oil tank soil remediation, testing, excavation, disposal, and backfill throughout New Jersey.

Watch more real New Jersey projects on Tank TV to see how Simple Tank Services handles oil tank and environmental work in the field.

Posted on by admin

Tank TV Episode 21 – Oil Tank Removal Bridge Building Part I

In this Tank TV case study, Simple Tank Services tackles a difficult-access underground oil tank removal where the possibility of a leak and soil contamination had to be evaluated carefully.

Project Overview

  • Location: New Jersey
  • Services: Tight-access oil tank removal, soil sampling, and contamination evaluation
  • Episode Focus: Oil Tank Removal Bridge Building – Part I
  • Contractor: Simple Tank Services

What Happened on This Project

The crew had to maneuver equipment through a narrow access area and temporarily modify a fence post to reach the backyard excavation. Once the tank area was exposed, the next concern was whether a release had affected the surrounding soil.

Soil samples were collected and submitted for laboratory analysis. While awaiting the results, the potentially impacted areas were protected so the site could be managed safely and the next step could be based on actual data rather than assumptions.

Why This Matters for New Jersey Homeowners

When a tank appears to have leaked, sampling helps determine whether remediation is actually required and how large the cleanup scope may need to be. That information is especially important when a real-estate transaction or construction schedule depends on getting a clear answer quickly.

Related Simple Tank Services

Need Help With a Difficult Oil Tank Removal or Soil Testing?

Call Simple Tank Services at 732-965-8265. We handle underground oil tank removal, soil testing, and remediation throughout New Jersey.

Watch more real New Jersey projects on Tank TV to see how Simple Tank Services handles oil tank and environmental work in the field.

Posted on by admin

Tank TV Episode 20 – Tight Access Oil Tank Removal Bayonne Part II

In this Tank TV case study, Simple Tank Services returns to Bayonne, New Jersey, to complete the backfilling after a difficult-access 550-gallon underground oil tank removal.

Project Overview

  • Location: Bayonne, New Jersey
  • Tank: 550-gallon underground heating oil tank
  • Services: Tight-access oil tank removal and backfill
  • Episode Focus: Tight Access Oil Tank Removal – Part II
  • Contractor: Simple Tank Services

What Happened on This Project

After the tank removal, the crew returned to restore the excavation. Because the work area sat along a retaining wall with limited access, conventional backfilling would have required significantly more hand labor.

The crew used equipment to transfer material from the truck and place it over the retaining wall into the excavation, reducing manual handling and allowing the site to be restored more efficiently.

Why This Matters for New Jersey Homeowners

Backfilling can be just as challenging as the tank removal itself when a property has retaining walls, narrow side yards, stairs, or limited equipment access. Planning the restoration method in advance helps control cost and minimize disturbance to the property.

Related Simple Tank Services

Need a Tight-Access Oil Tank Removed in Bayonne or North Jersey?

Call Simple Tank Services at 732-965-8265. We handle difficult-access underground oil tank removals and restoration throughout New Jersey.

Watch more real New Jersey projects on Tank TV to see how Simple Tank Services handles oil tank and environmental work in the field.

Posted on by admin

Tank TV Episode 19 – Tight Access Oil Tank Removal

In this Tank TV case study, Simple Tank Services removes an underground oil tank from a tight-access location beside a retaining wall and between two homes.

Project Overview

  • Location: New Jersey
  • Services: Tight-access underground oil tank removal, utility verification, excavation, and backfill
  • Episode Focus: Tight Access Oil Tank Removal
  • Contractor: Simple Tank Services

What Happened on This Project

Access to the tank required temporary modification of a railing so the excavator could reach the work area. The crew located the tank, confirmed nearby gas, water, and sewer lines, disconnected the oil lines, and carefully excavated around a previously foam-filled tank.

The tank was successfully removed without damaging the surrounding property. Visual inspection did not indicate a discharge to the soil, and the crew returned to complete the backfill because of the tight site conditions.

Why This Matters for New Jersey Homeowners

Difficult-access tank removals require more planning than an open-yard excavation. Utilities, structures, retaining walls, landscaping, and neighboring properties can all affect how the work is performed and what equipment can safely be used.

Related Simple Tank Services

Have an Oil Tank in a Tight or Difficult Location?

Call Simple Tank Services at 732-965-8265. We handle difficult-access underground oil tank removals throughout New Jersey.

Watch more real New Jersey projects on Tank TV to see how Simple Tank Services handles oil tank and environmental work in the field.