Contractor cut through oil supply pipe!

Hi,

OK, so the long and short of it is that the contractor who has been working on our drains has managed to cut through our oil supply pipe with their disc cutter. Accidents happen, and I don't want to berate their mistake too much since they have done a great job on the drains. I'm surprised they managed to do this, since the oil supply pipe was chased into the tarmac drive and then concreted around - so it's visible where it runs.

However, I am very disappointed that they weren't upfront about their error. Basically, I noticed last night when removing the covers they had left over their new concrete whilst curing - that there was a smell of oil. I ran some water over the area and it beaded, confirming there had been a 'leak'.

I phoned the contractor straight away and asked if they had a problem with the oil pipe - he admitted they had, that one of the workers had cut through it with his disc cutter, isolated the supply at the tank, went to buy a fitting to join the pipe, and then concreted it all over. He says it should be fine now.

However, I'm a bit concerned going forward that this could be an issue. I said they should have admitted their error, had it repaired and then at least left the repair visible for some days or weeks to check it was sound, before concreting over. He's sending someone out today to have a look as I think I've worried him enough that he wants to get it checked.

SO - my question - what would be the correct procedure for repairing a pipe in this scenario?

The repair needs to stand the test of time. We'll be getting a new boiler within the next two years, I think - and we'll be relocating it to the other side of the house, at which point a new pipe will be run anyway. But I don't want any leaks in the meantime!

Thanks for any advice,

The optomist view would say that it maybe residual oil as the initial cutting would have soaked the area. The only way to be sure is to test the pipe from the tank to boiler under pressure .

Pete

Thanks Pete!

Yes, I'm hopeful that the smell has come from the initial cut! It's a shame they concreted over as I can't inspect visually.

Thanks for the suggestion re: pressure test - I think I might suggest to them that I get an oil engineer to do this (at their expense) as a resolve to having some reassurance as to the quality of the repair.

I might also dig the repair up tomorrow and have a look at what they've done.

Andy.

Hi Andy

The suggestion to pressure test the repair is the correct one, if you do have a leak and knowingly let it continue and your local environment agency find out you are looking at a serious fine, I dealt with one a while back where the fine was £70,000

Thanks Ian. Certainly no plans on letting a leak continue (if there is one) - aside from a fine, oil is to bl00dy expensive to let it soak into the ground!

I'd really want to expose the coupling, (at least temporarily) just to check it once in a while......a continuous pipe run is much better!
John

All underground joints must be accessible for inspection. OFTEC recommendations, therefore building regs!!!!!
Also, if the joint has been concreted over, is it protected to protect it from degradation by the lime in the concrete.
Insist it is repaired/replaced in accordance with regs.[/b]

It looks like they were content to keep fingers crossed and hope you did not notice. This is worse than simply doing a poor job in my book...
I think everyone will appreciate your intention to consider the quality of the work otherwise going well, but I would be inclined to 'max' every aspect of the consequences in order to protect your interests as they appear content only to protect themselves. Even if they thought they did the right thing- in terms of the repair (which looks doubtful given others input above) they should have informed you.

Stories like this make me even more of a nightmare customer than I am now

It strikes me that the OP should be partly culpable for not indicating in the first instance to the contractor the location of the pipe - he clearly knew of its routing.

As drainage contractors they probably are not conversant with oil pipe regulations. The joint either needs to be accessible, or the underground run needs to be replaced with a continuous pipe.
If the joint fails the loss of oil is your least concern for cost. Environmental charges for cleaning up contamination wont be met by your insurance if a non compliant installation has failed. A customer of mine had to find almost £10,000 following a split oil tank.

I know someone with an old steel tank that rusted through and deposited a thousand litres or so of kero into the soil.

It never caused any problem at all. (that he was aware of!)

JulianP said:

I know someone with an old steel tank that rusted through and deposited a thousand litres or so of kero into the soil.

It never caused any problem at all. (that he was aware of!)

Click to expand...

can assure you that if the Environmental agency became aware it would have caused problems

ianmcd said:

can assure you that if the Environmental agency became aware it would have caused problems

Click to expand...

It strikes me that those bunch of idiots would be far better employed dredging some rivers rather than acting the 'little man' and creating storms in teacups!

Thanks for all the replies! Very useful. The contractor came out whilst I was at work on Friday. They have dug the fresh concrete from around the new joint to expose it. The joint looks sound, and is certainly dry. I will speak to them again tomorrow about fitting some sort of access cover so the joint is always accessible. Any recommendations for a cover? The pipe is only an inch beneath the ground surface.

In terms of notifying them about the location of the pipe, it didn't occur to me that this would be necessary since a) it's clear 'something' runs in this area since where it runs is chased into a tarmac drive and then filled round with concrete and b) for this particular part of the job they were replacing a gulley, outside the kitchen. From this gulley, the direction the drainage pipes run in is the opposite direction to where the oil pipe is...hence it didn't occur to me they would go near it.

The usual item for this is a piece of drain pipe with a horseshoe cut out of the bottom to let the pipe pass through with a cap on top.
If it is necessary to bear a load, then a stop tap cover is better.