Long Term Effect of Heating Oil on PVC Drain Pipe?

I'm installing some 3" PVC drain pipe to redirect a downspout away from the house. The hope is to reduce the moisture under my basement, where my lathe & mill are (metalworking content!).

The pipe runs along the foundation, and goes directly under the filler connection for our heating oil tank. The mulch around the filler is stained, so I have to assume they will occasionally spill some oil on the pipe. Is this likely to cause long term damage to the pipe? If so, I can rig some sort of sleeve to protect the pipe in that area. I was originally thinking of polyethylene sheet, but that may degrade over time due to UV, so I'll probably have to come up with something a bit more substantial.

Comments, ideas?

Thanks!

Doug White

Reply to
Doug White
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[to reduce moisture under basement]

...

Google on pvc chemical resistance. Although

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"no data" for "Oils, diesel", it does show PVC ok vs. "Oils, mineral" at room temp but not high temp.
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shows PVC as "excellent" vs. "Fuel Oil" at room temp.

If you are using thin-wall pipe like Schedule 20 I think mechanical damage and brittleness due to UV and heat will be more of a long term concern than the oil. See comments in

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painting it, etc. Pretty non-technical - eg, here's a comment from there: "I was going to use copper and when I went to home depot and priced copper vs. pvc the pvc was cheaper." - but may have some useful ideas. Also consider PVC fence posts
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instead of pipe.

-jiw

Reply to
James Waldby

I'm using schedule 40, so it's pretty rugged. Thanks for the links. It looks like I'll probably be OK for the occasional splash. The volatiles will evaporate fairly quickly outdoors, and the pipe is in the shade most of the day, so elevated temps shoudln't be a big problem. Most of the oil deliveries are in winter anyway.

Doug White

Reply to
Doug White

Most 3" and 4" yard drain lines I know of are ABS or Styrene, not PVC, but I really think the OP is worrying about the wrong problem here. The fuel delivery driver is supposed to carry around a

5-gallon bucket to catch any spills, and clean them up if needed. If you can see fuel saturated into the dirt, that's the real problem.

Bury the drain line where it crosses the path of the window. Most perimeter drains are buried down 6" or so at the high end, and follow the natural slope at about 1/8" per foot fall to the drainage point.

But when you reach the area around your oil tank filler connection, you need to clean it up. Myself, knowing it's only fuel oil, I'd figure out a way to remediate it myself - start a charcoal fire, and roast a pan with a few pounds of fuel filled dirt at a time till the fuel gasifies and burns off, then change the dirt and do it again.

Or if you don't want the challenge, do it "the right way" - shovel that dirt into a clean plastic 5-gallon buckets (or into 55-gallon open-lid drums if you have that much) properly labeled as "Hazardous Waste" and let your heating oil supplier know they are to pick it up that soil and dispose of it.

They spilled it, they can pay for the remediation - "Unless you'd like to have this discussion with (pick the right term for your area - the local EPA, or the City building inspector)..." Sometimes a bit of properly applied pressure works wonders. ;-)

As for a permanent fix, I would pour a small slab where the fuel fill connection is, and make (or buy) a square heavy-gauge catch pan (Ob. Metalworking Content) ;-P with 6" sides that can catch 5 to 10 gallons of "oops" spills. Weld a 3/4" NPT stub on one corner and place a ball valve - to drain rainwater or snowmelt out of the pan in good times, or to drain the spilled oil into a bucket if the driver screws up and makes a mess again (this time in the pan instead of in the dirt).

If you want fancy, have a sheetmetal "splash shield" made for the wall behind the filler connection, with rolled edges and a little Z fold at the bottom to go over the lip of the catch pan - so you can tilt and lift out the catch pan if it needs a coat of paint. Caulk around the pipe after it's up.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

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