Heavy water tank

I've got a 1000 litre water tank for the garden. It's a plastic tank bit more than a metre in each dimension with a metal frame all around. It's sitting on a brick at each corner. It's started to tilt as the bricks at

2 of the corners are sinking into the ground which is heavy clay. The full tank weighs about a ton so that's 250Kg at each corner.

What should I do? Do I have to build proper foundations for it or would it be OK to sit it on 4 paving stones instead of 4 bricks to help spread the load? Is there somewhere on the web that gives recommended maximum loading for different soil types?

Reply to
Kit Jackson
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It needs a flat platform so the whole base is continuously supported. Remove all the topsoil. Get a pile of aggregate in and construct a platform tamping down well. You cam economise by putting rubble in the bottom of the hole if you have any. Finish off with a couple of inches of sand. Put the tank in place and slide it around a bit so the sand conforms to the base of the tank.

Reply to
harry

Yes water is bloody heavy stuff, and really unless a tank is made deliberately to sustain the weight only at the corners, it will eventually crack as it moves.

Good job its only water! Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Think I might use lintels for the edges

Reply to
Stuart Noble

I have 4 x 200 litre water butts resting on four 600 x 600 mm paving stones - so a bit less weight (800kg) than yours, but they are fine on those. I'm also on clay. You can do as Harry suggests, but to me it's overkill.

The problem with the 4 bricks you have is not so much the 250 kg at each corner, but the surface area it is spread over. A brick has a surface area of 200 sq cm, so you have 1.25 kg per sq cm. That's a fair amount over a period of time if you remember that as clay dries out and gets wet again it moves as it subsides and heaves. Now consider your 1000kg spread over a sq metre - that's only 0.1kg per sq cm. If you use 600 x

600mm paving stones, it's even less.

I would just level the ground - rake and close walk to compress as though you are preparing it for a lawn, then lay four paving stones in a square.

Reply to
Jeff Layman

Donate it to Sellafield :-)

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Reply to
Scott

4 paving stones
Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Being a mean sod, can I ask why you would bother with the paving slabs? Why not level and tamp the clay and put the water tank on top?

Reply to
GB

Is that a tank containing a large mass of H2O, or a tank containing D2O? :)

(D is Deuterium: Hydrogen with a neutron as well as a proton and electron)

Reply to
NY

I've never seen it, but, apparently, near Birmingham, there is a set of pillars that were supposed to support a swimming pool, but the architect failed to allow for the weight of the water. And there's a university library somewhere that failed to account fully for the weight of the books. (I don't suppose they bother with physical books in universities any more.)

Reply to
Max Demian

If its in a metal frame then suggests it is designed to be supported just on the frame , I've seen them used as bowsers for temporary water supplies moved round on a trailer and then offloaded. As suggested using paving slabs to spread the load may solve the problem - depends on why you are concerned by it sinking a bit ?

Reply to
Robert

Untrue.

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Reply to
Huge

There's an echo on this group :-)

Reply to
Scott

Good point. Providing the tank is more-or-less flat, they aren't really necessary.

In my case I was using water butts with the tap almost at the bottom. It wasn't possible to get a watering can under the tap at that height, so I actually used a paving stone base, three bricks at each corner to get height, and another paving stone above for the water butt to rest on. Only then was the tap was high enough. The paving stones and bricks were "freebies" left in the garden by the previous owner.

Reply to
Jeff Layman

Dammit. I was going to do a heavy water gag too.

Reply to
Graham.

I was to but I decided it was just to water some heavy plant that you see crossing signs for.

Reply to
dennis

Ah, yes - Triffids!

Reply to
Terry Casey

I've fixed about 2ft of hose to the water butt tap. That gets over the height of the waTering can problem.

Reply to
charles

I read it that way too, initially ;-)

The film of the WWII Norway heavy water plant was on the TV a few weeks ago.

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Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

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Reply to
Bob Eager

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