Originally Posted by
wayne soper
Yes, looks like water. But a word from past experience that that reminded me of was this. Basement wall appearred moist. Big spot. 4 feet in diameter.
Funny how it smelled like Oil and the active tank was just outside. What a mess. Seeped right through the wall.
Oh man, I'd hate to be the inspector who missed that.
The possibility of decommissioned oil heat was very much in my mind at this property, its old enough, but there was no evidence of filler or vent tubes, an oil line at the floor, a cut-off switch at the top of the stairs or an auto-cutoff on the ceiling. And that side of the house is around 6 feet from the next building over, and both are 100+ years old, so if there was a buried tank it would have been on in the front or rear yard, not on that side.
That black mottling did have sort of petroleum-based product sheen to it, though.