Decommissioning &Tank Removal Contractors InBishop Auckland & The North East

Underground and above-ground petrol and diesel tanks on forecourts, garages and depots, along with the associated pipework, dispensers and interceptors that go with a forecourt decommissioning. Factory and industrial storage tanks for fuel, oil, chemicals and process liquids, ranging from single vessels to a full tank farm.

Redundant process equipment including boilers, silos, ovens, conveyors, pressure vessels and pipe runs left behind when a production line or process is retired. Domestic and commercial heating oil tanks, and legacy septic tanks or cesspits found during land remediation work, which follow the same emptying and testing discipline scaled to the size of the vessel.

Every job starts with isolation of the supply and identification of what the tank or vessel actually held, since the cleaning and gas-freeing method differs between fuel, oil, chemical and process residues. Emptying and cleaning is carried out before any atmospheric testing, and testing is repeated as needed until the vessel is confirmed gas-free; this is the point that has to be right before hot work is permitted.

Cutting and dismantling uses appropriate plant for the vessel size, from hand tools and cold-cutting on smaller domestic tanks through to mechanical plant and supervised hot works on larger industrial vessels, with a fire marshal on site for any hot works. Underground tanks are excavated using tracked plant once confirmed empty and safe, and the surrounding ground is checked for signs of historic leakage before backfill.

Forecourt decommissioning, covering tank removal, pipework, dispensers and interceptors ahead of a site redevelopment or closure. Factory and process plant decommissioning, where a production line, boiler house or tank farm is stripped out as a unit rather than piece by piece.

Single tank removal, where one redundant vessel, a heating oil tank, a septic tank, an isolated storage vessel, is dealt with on its own. Decommissioning combined with demolition and remediation, where the tank removal is one stage of a wider site clearance and the ground beneath it is assessed and remediated in the same contract.

Commercial and industrial decommissioning, particularly on forecourts and process plants, usually involves environmental permitting considerations, historic contamination records and a principal contractor's own permit-to-work system that our RAMS and documentation are prepared to fit into. Equipment is often larger, and pipework runs can extend well beyond the immediate tank area, so the survey has to map the full extent of the system before pricing.

Domestic tank removal, a redundant heating oil tank, a disused septic tank, is smaller in scale and generally arranged directly with the homeowner, but the same emptying, cleaning and testing sequence is followed regardless of size. Where a domestic tank shows signs of leakage, the ground beneath it is checked before backfilling.

We are based at 9 The Mill, Ramshaw, Bishop Auckland, keeping most of County Durham within a short mobilisation and Darlington, Teesside, Middlesbrough, Newcastle and Sunderland comfortably in range for site visits and ongoing works. Contract works are taken nationwide.

Our permanent team of eight scales to around twenty with trusted subcontractors, giving us the capacity to resource a multi-tank forecourt or a full process plant decommissioning without pulling cover from smaller jobs already committed.