I have a large oblong plastic dustin on my allotment which I use for storing water. It has developed a leak in the last year, which is about one foot up from the bottom, just a little crack along the side, about 1" long. If I don't fill the dustbin with water I can't find it. But if I do, the dustbin expands and I can see the water coming out.
Is it possible to repair it, given that I would have to do it when empty, and then the crack won't leak. But if I fill it with water, then the crack will show, but it will expand so the glue or epoxy or whatever won't cover the leak. I guess I need to fill it and then repair from the outside, but how?
I don't think any fixing of the leak would be permanent. Instead, I'd put a large, really heavy-duty bin liner in the bin (maybe two, one inside the other).
Plastic welding is rarely sucessful. For it's intended use I'd thoroughly clean the inside where the leak is, and stick a patch on using flexible roofing gunge or some other not fully setting adhesive. This way the water pressure pushes the patch firmly to the hole yet the assembly is able to accomodate the inevitable movement. I bet the creak is at the level the water was when it froze in the winter.
It is most probably made from polyethylene, which does not glue and does not weld well. There are three possible options I can think of that will provide a permanent fix:
1) Line the bin with a waterproof material. As you say 'large' that may need to be heavy gauge (400g or thicker) polyethylene sheet or similar. An offcut of damp proof membrane or pond lining material would be ideal. The liner will need to be protected from sunlight, but you probably already have a lid to stop the growth of algae.
2) Sheath the entire outside with glass reinforced resin. This is effectively making a new tank, with the original as a liner. It is not likely to be an economic option unless you already buy GRP in bulk.
3) Replace it. This is likely to be the most satisfactory long term answer. These people have a wide range of sizes, although, if you want one of the smaller sizes, your local builder's merchant is likely to be cheaper.
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other option would be to wander around a local industrial estate and see if anyone is throwing out old 210 litre barrels. Even a steel barrel is likely to give a few years' use before it rusts away, particularly if it is plastic lined.
On 2011-02-25, Nightjar > don't fill the dustbin with water I can't find it. But if I do, the dustbin
I have mended two water butts by emptying & drying them out, then taping over the crack (inside) with gaffer tape and painting that with bitumen mastic (use what you've got, right?). The repairs have lasted some years so far.
Inside surely? If the tank it is bulges out the repair will "blow". If the repair is inside the water will force the repair into the crack and keep it in place.
Attempting to repair a crack that is wet may also be very difficult, especially if their is a stream of water keeping it wet.
Fill the tank with water and push a thin piece of plastic (a cut up slither from a drinks bottle) into the crack. Empty the tank, find the plastic you pushed through the crack and repair from the inside.
In my experience if a plastic tub has started to crack then the plastic is probably brittle to exposure to UV (sunlight).
If the tank expands and opens the crack when filled, isn't this likely to make the crack expand along its length with continued filling and emptying, even if the existing leak is sealed?
Perhaps some kind of sandwich would be better in the long term, with plates inside and out, plus a suitable sealant, screwed through the tank to both seal and clamp it into position so that the two sides of the crack can't move any more?
Obviously, whatever the internal plate is made of would have to withstand continuous immersion ...
Same problem here: rain butt split across the weld in the bottom.
I did try gaffer tape, with a line of "silicone sealing" along the crack itself underneath it. Dunno what kind of "silicone" this was, but it dissolved in the water! And the tape then floated to the top.
So I had to actually buy something: I bought some special waterproof tape, which is the gungiest stuff you can imagine (EvoStick Weatherproofing tape: £5.50 for the roll). Even this hasn't sealed the crack properly -- it's seeping unfortunately.
On both attempts, I scrubbed out the butt (headfirst into the butt horizontally -- I'm a slim jim), and dried it through with a hairdryer
-- so foreign bodies hasn't been the problem, just water pressure I guess.
Dead easy - mostly because aesthetics and even perfect sealing aren't of the utmost need.
Find your crack. Mark it with a chinagraph (works underwater). Drain, dry. If the crack is a crack (i.e. it might be spreading, it's not just a one-off impact spiking, then stop-drill the ends of the crack to prevent it spreading further. Use a 2mm drill, maybe bigger if the crack is skewed.
Stick a metal patch on the inside - bit of scrap aluminium, about
1/16" thick. Make it too big, at least 1/2" or even 1" excess. Check that is sits flat on the inside of the plastic bin, giving it any curvature needed.
Drill the metal patch for 3mm pop rivets in a ring around the edge of the patch. 3/4" spacing should do. Workshop and pillar drill is easiest.
Seal underneath this with a layer of rubbery gasket material - thin rubbery sheet, soft plastics, or just a generous coating of a liquid sealer - bituminous roof coating works fine, as does car underseal, but thin bitumen paint doesn't. I would use a thick coating, then let it air-dry before applying. If you're working wet in a hurry, use that roof repair mastic that can be applied wet.
If you can get inside the bin, hold the patch up and start drilling rivets. Do two or three, rivet it in place, then drill the rest. Use large headed rivets from the outside, making sure that the patch is held well against the plastic before riveting. This is likely a two person job, as a good fit here is crucial. You might wedge it with a stick, but just hoping usually fails. If you can't get big head rivets, use small ones with washers under. If the bin gets flexed or moved around, and it's a big crack, then consider using two sandwich plates, one from each side.
I am surprised. My experiences with moulded polyethylene is that if it spilts, that is a sign of a general detrioration and, if you repair it, it will fail somewhere else later.
I'd mark, drain and dry, as previously suggested, and then *melt* a repair, with a soldering gun if available, otherwise a soldering iron with a bodged/disposable bit. If you have any simlar material to that the dustbin is made of, then you can add that to the joint as you go.
Probably worth doing this on both the outside and the inside.
Whether/how long this will last will depend on the size of the crack, how the dutbin is supported, and so on. If it gets a lot of flexing, maybe not too long. I had a hole in our water butt which I mended succesfully like this.
That's more or less what I was thinking. If the remainder of the tank is sound only a mechanical repair stands a chance of surviving for long. I would drill either end of the crack first to stop it spreading then bolt a metal plate to either side using several small nuts and bolts/machine screws with some kind of gasket under the plate inside the tank.
I did like the idea of marking the crack by sticking something through it when it was open and leaking.
Thanks so much to all of your for your interesting and useful comments. I especially liked the one about keeping the crack open with a sliver of plastic and then repairing it, also the clever hint about drilling a hole at each end of the crack, which I'll try, to keep further cracking at bay.
Some of your suggestions were good but unfortunately I have a limited number of resources at my disposal, e.g. no pop rivets or bitumen mastic.
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