Water tank stands – choose wisely!

Water tank stands are a significant investment, whether they are made from steel, timber or brick.  It is very important to choose water tank stands that are properly designed to support the considerable weight that full water tanks exert on the structure.

There are many people in South Africa that purport to be experts at building steel tank stands but be very careful of accepting a tank stand made up in the backyard of a diy/handyman type.  For sure, there are some handyman types that build adequately strong and well-designed steel tank stands but can they offer a guarantee that the structure is built according to structural engineering standards?  The pictures below depict a steel tank stand (for a 5000 litre vertical water tank) that was built by a typical ‘I can do everything’ mechanic/handyman.  The second picture shows where one of the main corner posts is beginning to buckle/bend.  The tank stand platform in the example below is also sagging under the weight of the 5000 litre tank – not a good sign!

This DIY tank stand’s platform is sagging under the weight of a 5000 litre tank (5 tonnes of downward pressure)

Main structural support beam is starting to bend outwards – a sure sign that the stand will not withstand extreme environmental conditions

The lack of cross-struts on the above tank stand could result in movement of the structure during high winds. Movement of water tank stands should be minimized as it will eventually result in metal fatigue and cracking of the concrete foundation support pillars.

Another thing to check is to make sure the installer secures the tank stand in a concrete support base.  We have come across tank stands that have merely had their corner posts buried in soil – a recipe for disaster during floods or high winds.

With the above in mind, we recommend water tank stand (and silo stands) made by JoJo Tanks.  JoJo steel tank stands are designed and built by a registered, professional structural engineer and you can be sure the JoJo tank stands are rated to cope with the tank sizes they are made for (available in heights ranging from 1.5m to 9m for both 5000 litre vertical tanks and 10000 litre vertical tanks).  JoJo tank stands are supplied in kit form for easy transport and are ready to bolt together.  Installation guidelines are also available with the purchase of every JoJo tank stand.

Click on the links below to view the wide range of JoJo Tanks products available in South Africa, including tank stands, water tanks, rainwater tanks, chemical tanks, underground tanks, silo tanks, septic tanks and other high quality JoJo Tanks products.