RBM (remove this) wrote:
It sounds like that is an oil line. If there is only one line, the tank
would be located nearby. If the line is heading in the direction of an
outside wall, I'd look on the outside of the house, where the line is
heading. Dig about a foot or two away from the foundation and you may find
it. Sometimes an opening was cut in the top of the tank and they were filled
with sand, dirt, etc
"doggedyfight" wrote in message
...
My 150 year old house is now heated by gas. In fact, gas service has
been in the house for probably more than 100 years since there are
pipes in the walls from old gas lighting.

Looking around the basement the other day, I noticed a small stub of a
flexible 3/8" OD copper pipe peeking up from the concrete floor (it is
in the area where I believe the old boiler was from long before we
bought the house).

The inside of the pipe smelled of oil/grease and when I stuck a stiff
wire down the pipe it seemed to run at least 2 feet horizontally just
below the
cement surface. Pulling back the wire, it was covered with an
oily/greasy residue.

Does this signal that there was oil heat at some time or worse, the
presence of an old underground oil tank beneath the basement?
If not, what else could this small diameter pipe have been used for?


We have no other evidence of there ever being oil heat or oil tanks in
our house.

The tank could equally well have been in the basement. Look for
evidence of patched-up holes in the basement walls where the old fill
and vent pipes used to go through. In the best case you'll find the
other end of the 3/8 line.

Chip C
Toronto