Advice on inspecting a steel storage tank
What the standards actually require, what an inspection finds, and what the findings cost to act on. Three new articles a week.
Latest · September 11, 2026 · 6 min
Underground oil tank inspection: what it involves, and why we do not do it
Most people typing this query have a buried residential tank and a property transaction. That is environmental work under state rules, and honest help starts with saying so.
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September 9, 2026 · 7 min
Tank inspection: an honest map of who inspects what
The generic search lands on one page, but the work belongs to half a dozen trades. Here is the whole territory, including the large parts of it that are not ours.
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September 7, 2026 · 7 min
Oil tank inspection: one search, three very different jobs
The largest servable query in this category covers a terminal tank, a basement heating tank and a buried tank in a backyard. Only one of the three is our work, and knowing which you have saves everyone a week.
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August 21, 2026 · 6 min
Aboveground storage tank inspection checklist: what the operator walk covers, and what it cannot
A checklist detects change. It does not establish condition. Knowing which of those two jobs you are doing on a given morning is what makes the walk worth the time.
Read it→August 19, 2026 · 6 min
Underground storage tank inspection checklist: what belongs on it, and who should give it to you
The most expensive click we have measured in this category sits on this query. That price says what the checklist is really for: proving to an auditor that the walkthroughs happened.
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August 17, 2026 · 7 min
Aboveground storage tank inspection requirements: where they actually come from
There is no single list. The requirements on a specific tank are assembled from four sources, they stack rather than replace one another, and two of them are in your own filing cabinet.
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August 13, 2026 · 6 min
STI SP001: which category your tank falls into, and why it decides everything
Shop-fabricated tanks are not inspected under API 653. The category assigned to them decides what is required, and the category depends on things you can check yourself.
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August 10, 2026 · 6 min
Aboveground tank inspection: what triggers each level of examination
Nothing about a tank makes an inspection urgent except evidence. Here is the evidence that moves a tank up the list, in the order it usually appears.
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August 8, 2026 · 5 min
API 653 certification: what the number on the report means
The certificate does one specific thing, and it is not a guarantee of quality. Knowing what it covers tells you what still needs checking.
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August 6, 2026 · 6 min
Inspecting a water storage tank: what differs from a fuel tank
Same steel, same corrosion, different consequences. What changes is the coating, the sanitary requirement and who has to be told.
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August 3, 2026 · 6 min
Underground versus aboveground tank inspection: two different rulebooks
This is the most searched inspection question in the category, and the answer for most people is that they are looking for a different discipline entirely.
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August 1, 2026 · 7 min
What happens during an API 653 inspection, hour by hour
The examination itself is a small part of the day. Most of an inspection is access, cleaning, measurement and the report that has to survive a regulator reading it.
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July 30, 2026 · 8 min
What API 653 actually requires, in the order it requires it
Three kinds of examination on three different clocks, and the clocks are not all fixed. Understanding which one you are due for is most of the work.
Read it→An inspection scoped against your tank
Four questions, then a call with the drawings open. Diameter and history belong in that call, not in a form.
Steel Tank Inspection carries out API 653 and STI SP001 inspections on welded steel storage tanks: external and internal examinations, ultrasonic thickness readings, bottom evaluation, and the report the standard requires.