Paintintg Oil Tank

[Martin Carroll]

Any recommendations for painting the Oil tank. It sits on a small brick wall behind the garage and is just beginning to show a few signs of rust.

cheers

Martin

[The Natural Philosopher]

I justr wirebrushed mine, and slapped on a coat of jenolite, and sprayed it with a red car primer.

Mostly the lack of oxygen in the water at the bottom, and the lack of water in the oil at the top, stops them rusting INSIDE.

Ultimately we cut it up with an angle grnder and skipped it but that was a few years later..

[Simon Avery]

Hello Martin

Bitumastic emulsion.

[Andy Dingley]

I've never seen one.

As it happens, I've looked. I've collected a large number of these things, as part of a passive solar project (this is also how I know that bitumen-based paints can be a problem when you locate the tanks in a greenhouse)

If water condensate settles out in an oil tank, it's under a layer of oil in a saturated solution with iron salts. There's minimal oxygen in there, and it's in its own little brew of DIY Fernox. Despite being given most of these tanks on the basis of them "having rusted out", then carefully ultrasounding the bases and preparing to weld the things secure again, I didn't find _one_ of these things with significant corrosion from the inside.

Where I did see damage was where water was trapped _outside_ the tank, where a cuboid tank was rested directly on a brick pier. This is just bad installation practice, and the sort of thing you should check when painting.

IMHO, domestic oil tanks just aren't in any hurry to rust out from the inside. Counter-examples welcome.

[John]

In the REAL world a metal tank which is corroding through starts to give signs long before serious leakage occurs. Over a pretty lengthy period you will notice a smell of fuel around the tank then a damp patch will show around the leak, followed over a month or several by an odd drip from the locality of the corrosion and this will slowly progress. When the damp patch appears its time to arrange to run it down and get a new one installed. Metal tanks do have advantages over plastic ones such as vandals can't readily damage them, they can be sited on two simple plinth walls as support and can be painted to suit your desires. Plastic don't rot or rust but can and do split on their seams if under stress, need a full flat base and vandals can pierce them or light fires under them with spectacular results.

In answer to the OP its a good idea if possible to run the tank down to nearly empty so it can be moved, shift away from the wall, wire brush the seams and corroded spots and paint with decent primer and a couple of coats of gloss (Buckingham Green is the reccomended colour but its your tank). This assumes that the tank hasn't been allowed to get so bad that wire brushing will destroy it of course)

[David]

In article , John writes

My in-laws tank corroded at the back which they couldn't get to (bad siting but out of the way) subsequently they lost 3/4 of a tank. I suspect many metal tanks are only maintained on the bits you can see

They don't all need a full flat base John, some of them have support ribs that can be supported on plinth walls I haven't heard of them being vandalised, it can't be all that common??

I must admit having maintained a metal tank for a few years it was a joy to get a plastic one

[John]

You need to be completely oblivious to things to miss advanced corrosion such as that. Didn't their oil delivery driver comment upon it to them? Our lot would always tell a customer if things were getting iffy when I worked for the local Shell agent. Everyone with an out of the way tank "SHOULD" go and take a look every now and again for peace of mind at least.

It does happen although not that often I agree. I have been to a steel oil tank which little oiks built a bonfire under one bank holiday. Being steel it boiled the contents driving vapour out of the vent on top which ignited in a jet of flame, at which point oiks ran away. This continued until the fire burnt out then the tank slowly cooled until it stopped boiling and the vapour flame died out. All that was neccessary was to wire brush the steel and repaint it. Hardly the same treatment as a polythene tank would have needed!

Regarding your comment about poly tanks not all needing flat bases - I am aware of one manufacturers products which are as you describe but they are generally harder to source and not all that popular. I did once come across a plastic tank (standard type) which a builder had placed on two plinth walls. It looked odd as I approached it and I found that the bottom had slowly stretched under the weight of fuel until it had ballooned down to touch the ground. All we could do was replace it before it burst. The annoying thing for the householder was the label giving instructions for support was still attached to the old tank at that time

In the right environment they are fine but I have seen cracking right through of the plastic with leakage resulting, also failure of the metal to plastic seal at the outlet. Just enjoy what you have but do be aware of the potential for failure. A decent metal tank given a couple of coats of paint BEFORE installing especially underneath and kept clear of being covered with foliage will last between ten and twenty years with a modicum of care at about a third of the cost

-- Please note antispam measures - do not hit reply Horse sense is what horses have that makes them not bet on people - W.C. Fields

Regards, John

[The Natural Philosopher]

Mmm. I hve a two wall support...and five lintels just laid across it.

Perfect.