Heating oil leak in apartments

Our team were contacted to go to a 4th-floor residential apartment to investigate the impact caused by a loss of heating oil. Unusually, the apartment was heated by an individual oil-fired boiler unit located within the kitchen, which appeared to have leaked.

The tenants had noted kerosene oil on the kitchen floor adjacent to the boiler unit and very strong oil odours within the whole apartment, which forced them to leave the property.

Investigations determined that a component within the boiler had failed, causing the loss of approximately 90 litres of kerosene onto the apartment floor.

Following this discovery, we completed intrusive investigations which involved sampling of all materials within the impacted areas, including coring into the structural floor of the apartment.

Our suspicions were confirmed, and the oil had spread from the boiler, throughout the apartment above, and below the laminate flooring. Oil had been absorbed into the kitchen units, stud partition walls, internal and external blockwork walls, and the concrete floor.

Given the extreme constraints on site, we devised a bespoke scope of works to safely remove as much of the impacted materials as possible. This included removal of all internal stud partitioning, blockwork replacement, and grinding of the high-density concrete floor within the apartment.

Further remedial techniques were then completed to prevent the residual contamination from negatively impacting upon the building materials or occupants.

We successfully managed the project to ensure that all risks posed to the apartment tenants were substantially reduced, followed by treatment of the contamination.

Validation air sampling proved that vapour levels within the apartment had been reduced and no longer posed a risk to occupants.

This project was undertaken with minimum disruption to other residents within the apartment block.