10.25.2018 - Propane gas tank day!

The gas tank people were supposed to come at 9:00 this morning.  We were just finishing up breakfast and we saw them pull up the driveway at about 8:00.  But they just pulled up, turn around and left.  However, it was enough that Jim just got a glimpse of the big tank on the back of a smaller truck.  It's obviously very important that the tank be supported and not get any dings and from what we saw, it didn't appear that it was carried properly.  So Jim was already coming up with Plan B.

Thankfully, when they showed back up at 9:00, Jim could see that the tank was supported by a cradle attached to the truck.

They backed up to the hole...

While they were getting things ready, Jim put out the conduit he had picked up at Lowe's last night to encase the gas line over to the house connection.

 Starting to boom it off the truck...

Yikes...that is one big tank!

Down in the hole...Jim hopped down to help get it in the right position.

 

Jim wanted to make sure the tank sat level - and it did, thanks to all Jim's careful work getting the hole ready. 
 

This guy (who was a dead ringer for Uncle Si from Duck Dynasty!) was connecting up the anode bags.  The big problem with tanks is corrosion caused by an electrochemical reaction between the tank and the soil - these anode bags help to prevent that corrosion, along with the special coating on the tank.  The guy told us that tanks can last a lifetime but you may need to replace the anode bags in 12-15 years (which would require digging up the area).  Thoughts for another day!

There are two anode bags - one on each side on opposite ends.  Let's hope they work!

Putting the regulator connection on...

 
Time for the connections to the line coming out of the house.  They put a T-connection on and connected to our current tanks so that we can continue to use up the gas we have first.

Then the unrolled the copper gas line...

...and put it through the conduit and into the trench.

They could only use conduit up to the bend towards the house.  Jim had bought this cool bendable plastic conduit once and it came in perfect for this application!

The gas line is all safe in conduit and is now connected to the house!

Now connecting the other end to the tank...

 

Pressure testing...all was good!

 So time to button it up with this cap...

All done!  Well...the gas company's work is done.

 The rest of the work is up to Jim now!  This is what he faced when he got in the Bobcat after the gas company left - a giant hole with a tank in it and a huge pile of dirt.

Time to start filling it in.  Of course, we had to be very careful about getting rocks out.  Jim first dumped a bucket in the dirt pile and I pulled out any rocks we missed when we dug the hole.  Then Jim carefully dumped a load at the side of the hole.

We had to remove any rocks that came anywhere near the tank... 

Jim also had to be cognizant of the outside pressure of the dirt on the tank - he wanted it to be equal.  So after he got the nose of one side covered, he switched to the other side.

We tried a few different methods  - like pulling down the dirt around the tank...

But it worked best for Jim to shovel dirt around the tank carefully and then we picked out the rocks.

Tank's getting covered!

 

I'm down in the hole picking out rocks...



Once Jim had the dirt halfway up the tank and to the level of our trench, he wanted to put a bed of sand around the wire...

 

All safe now!

Then he put sand around the connection area to the house.  In the remote chance that anything would ever have to be dug up, the extra sand will help!

 

This area is all safe now too...

Continuing to fill in the hole carefully...

 The tank is all buried now!

The next part of the job is all the grading...

And filling in the trench...

Doing some fine tuning around the cap...

End-of-the-day...looks amazing! Jim has the driveway area cut back in place and everything is filled in and graded!

You would think when you dig that giant hole and replace it with a giant tank, that you would have lots of dirt left.  This is all we have left over!  Of course, we also probably took out 5 bucketsful of rocks!

A long day but we are SO thrilled that this project is all done.  They brought the tank with about 50 gallons of propane in it; they will come tomorrow to fill it up. 

As if all that wasn't enough, Jim got a call from one of the people we called about an estimate to have our tree cut down and he came about 1:00.  He got extra points for driving an orange truck plus he was Australian and spoke with an accent.  But he got the job because he was hundreds of dollars cheaper than our other two estimates and he is going to use a crane to cut it down, which Jim feels is the best and safest way to go.  We won't have it done for a couple weeks, but we're on the schedule now.

So good news all around!

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