Tank Warranty Voided

[ZMiller]

The installer did not follow the tank manufacturer’s instructions to bury tanks in pea gravel or crushed rock. Instead, the installer just dug a hole, plopped the tanks into the hole, then covered them with “native soil” containing rocks, boulders, chunks of asphalt, rusted pipes, and other debris. The first tank was set atop a boulder with a nine-inch diameter as well as atop pockets of air.

The tanks were double-walled, steel with a fiberglass sheath. A few years after installation, testing revealed that the fiberglass sheath on one tank was no longer intact. The tank was excavated and the fiberglass sheath was found to be cracked from the tank sitting on a nine-inch boulder.

[tankgenie]

Manufacturers in our industry spend a great amount of time and attention writing installation & maintenance manuals for their tanks & equipment. Its always a good idea to read them. Usually, its a contractor who gets a job and isn't really in our industry that skips this step.... Certainly not any of us here on this forum! But thanks for the reminders Z!

[smellslikegas]

Come on Z, you just don't understand how much "pea gravel or crushed rock" cost.

[CherokeeUST]

I've seen one site use sand for backfill. Thankfully, (Knock on wood) we've never had one in native soil with huge rocks.

[ZMiller]

I did have a South San Francisco city inspector ask me once if I had compacted the pea gravel before final grade. I was speechless with inspectors at that point.

[CherokeeUST]

Have you dealt with the inspectors that make you fill a dispenser sump with rocks?

[ZMiller]

I have seen a contractor(s) fill those silly AMOCO/BP piping, fill and man-way containment sumps with gravel and then pave or concrete over them.
A few drill permanent holes in bottom of containment sumps to let the water out.
I have even seen testers pretend to test lines, leak detectors and tanks.

[hardworking]

I did have a South San Francisco city inspector ask me once if I had compacted the pea gravel before final grade. I was speechless with inspectors at that point.

You can't compact pea gravel, but ... you can consolodate it. If you have a chance, take a 5 gallon bucket, use the backhoe to dump pea gravel in it. Take a board and level the top like you were screeding concrete. Then go around the bucket tapping it.

When I did this with #8 stone (back in the 90's in VA), we wound up with about a 1 to 1.5" settling. So, while the inspector used a poor choice of words, he has a point.

[Techie]

Have you dealt with the inspectors that make you fill a dispenser sump with rocks?

Every dispenser pan in NYC has to be filled with pea gravel 1" above the piping on any non-metallic pipe installation. Its a code requirement, and has to be approved as part of our final functionality testing.