On Fri, 27 May 2005 04:05:43 GMT, doggedyfight
wrote:

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.

sounds like you have an oil tank buried on your property! If you go
straight to the nearest outside wall of the house from the point where
you see the copper tubing , there is probably a tank buried beside the
house. You can make a probe out of a piece of wire about five feet
long , put a wooden handle on one end of the rod and push the wire
into the ground at least three feet deep in the area where you suspect
a tank is buried...you may hit a solid metal object as you repeatedly
plunge the metal probe into the ground...

Most likely it is not buried under your basement floor but rather
beside the house outdoors where the oil delivery man could easily pull
his hose from his truck to fill the tank with fuel oil.

Regards,
Bill