Burying Propane Tank

[kevcheney]

We will soon be starting the building of a new home. In the process of searching for a propane provider, we started wondering about burying the tank in order to hide it. Does anyone know of major problems/concerns with doing so? Any comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Kevin

[s1120]

Our new house has a buryed tank. It sure is nice not to see it. First I would check with your building dept. In some areas, it is agenst code.

[WVBill]

The builder had the above-ground tanks installed when we bought the house - we didn't know about buried tanks at the time. Two years after, we decided to get rid of the unsightly tanks and had the propane company come out and install a buried one. Had to pay them $150 for the burial and- like the above-ground ones, the tank remains theirs but that's OK.

We asked the company about safety concerns and they said there are none - even might be a little safer than above-ground ones exposed to whatever.

Sure is nice to not have those three ugly tanks sitting next to the house. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[fivestring]

"We asked the company about safety concerns and they said there are none - even might be a little safer than above-ground ones exposed to whatever. "

Always safety concerns with propane. Some of the largest explosions have been from propane. Propane will always settle in the lowest areas. The advantage of burying the tank is that you can't stand next to it and smoke.

[Hayseed]

<font color="blue">The advantage of burying the tank is that you can't stand next to it and smoke.</font color>

Huh? [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img] How does not being able to smoke next to a buried tank make that an advantage?

[fivestring]

The big BOOM if there's a leak.

[egon]

Blevy!

That's what the big Boom is called.

Egon

[dummy]

A big consideration is ONLY that propane company will be able to fill that tank (it's theirs afterall). Point I'm trying to make, prices in my area for propane vary from 1.38 to 2.59 per gallon depending on who's delivering it. Ask the propane company about taking their tank back and whose responsible for tank leaks. Removal charges can be considerably more than you expect. How about a nice screen to hide the tank? Vine covered trellis or a cedar hedge?

[WVBill]

Yes, that is a consideration but I've spoken with folks around here who have had buried tanks and switched companies. The company they switched to made arrangements with the old company to transfer title to the the tank at no charge - if the homeowner agreed to a service contract for a certain amount of time (I don't recall the minimum term).

[dummy]

Oops. I meant to add that to the original poster. Not trying to step on your toes. Here though, they will not swap tanks from co. to co. Must be a liability issue. I'm finding out all of the details the hard way. Have a buried tank that we want to relocate, about 250 gallons in the tank. "X" owns the tank and they have to pump out the gas. "X" wants $100.00/hour for truck plus environmental fees. They then haul away gas if you cannot refill within 2 hours. "X" does not credit you with the gas they take back. Now, when the tank is reset, "Y and/or Z" will not refill it because it's not one of their tanks. Leaning towards removing the tank and leaving it on the curb. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] Would it count as recyclable or regular trash? [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]