What Happened
During the winter the homeowner had not checked their boiler for some time, which is quite normal. They had been away on holiday and upon their return found a leak from their boiler in Lisburn when the began to notice oily smelly below their kitchen sink.
When the boiler house was checked the concrete floor was wet with oil.
The client contacted Gaea Oil Spill Experts via our website that night and we advised that they should immediately shut the oil supply off at the tank and we talked them through the procedure.
Thankfully we have a staff member nearby and we were there in around twenty minutes. to fix the leak and install a vapour extraction Unit (VEU) to manage the smells.
A survey was scheduled for the following morning when their was sufficient light.
Investigation
One of Gaea’s Scientists visited the family the next morning and after collecting all of the relevant information began to carry out a soil vapour survey.
what we found
Gaea found that the concrete below the boiler house and surrounding paths had become saturated with kerosene. The underlying fill materials were found to be impacted by excavating trial pits down to the foundations at 0.7m depth.
The kerosene was found to have migrated along the rear foundations by five metres.
It wasn’t possible to check the condition of the block work as oil water was lying against it during the survey.
Remedial works
- The boiler was disconnected, relocated elsewhere on site and reconnected for the duration of the works. This meant that the family only lost heating for a few hours whilst we moved the boiler.
- The boiler house was demolished and disposed of.
- The impacted sections of concrete pathway were broken our with an electric kango hammer and the rubble disposed of.
- The underlying contaminated fill material was removed and disposed of. The plastic drainage and sewer pipework was replaced.
- A further investigation of the block work revealed it to be only moderately impacted, so we recommended to insurers that this be dealt with by way of treatment. Two days of intensive treatment were undertaken and the result was that the VO’s in the masonry returned to normal levels, avoiding any replacement works.
Validation
Five soil samples were collected from the sides and base of the excavation. These were then sent to an independent and suitably accredited laboratory for analysis.
One air quality sample was taken from the kitchen of the property and was sent for analysis for sVOC, TIC, TPH CWG, BTEX & Naphthalene analysis.
The samples allowed Gaea to prove scientifically that the oil spill clean up had been successful,
Reinstatement
- Once we had successfully validated the property the process of reinstatement began:
- The excavation was backfilled and compacted. Particular attention was made to the support of all the pipework.
- Shuttering was put in place for the new concrete pathways and these were poured and left with a rubbed finish to match the existing.
- A new brick boiler house was built and a roof created using a concrete flagstone.
- The boiler was reinstated in the new boiler house.
- The property was thoroughly cleaned down and left spotless for the customer.
Turn around - savings
- Emergency response – 20 mins
- Scientist on site for investigation – the following morning.
- Report issued within 36 hours.
- Job commenced within 10 days.
- Work completed in 8 days.
