And stopped when we were about an inch above the tank connector at the bottom. Then, we left it standing there while we went off to do other things in the house…
We came back for lunch .. and found .. Nothing !!
No Leaks !!
Yippeee!
So after lunch, we continued filling the tank, after moving the tank onto a layer PU foam matting because when it is full, it will be weighing 500kg, a half a ton !! And we wanted to make sure that the tank is not over-stressed on our bumpy garage floor so we put one of our exercise mats underneath to absorb any irregularities.
..
We put in another foot of water in the tank .. and .. we got pin-prick leaks on the flat sides, not on an edge, but in random places on the flat sides !!
OOOO Boy!
It is very disappointing and it just shows you that making a water tank is an exercise in following a method. And, the part of the method we seemed to have skipped, was to put on a so-called “gel” coat first thing, straight on to the mould and allow it to harden to a gel like substance before continuing with the rest of the layers of matting and resin etc.
So, we are going to have to give our cold water tank a coat of gel resin and then a final top coat, from inside the tank itself. We ordered the necessary containers of resin and brushes and rollers etc.
Plus also some activated charcoal filters for our breathing masks because there is going to be a high concentration of solvent inside the tank, as we paint the inside surface. We will have the fan blowing fresh air in as well.
We emptied the tank of the water and stuck the heater inside, to start drying out the whole thing, including driving out any trapped moisture within the strands in the walls, where the leaks were.
It got to be bone dry because the resin does not like any moisture at all.
That concludes our second water tank!! Our next one is our Hot Water tank so we had better do it right next time!!