Making A Wooden Water Tank

Others will say they look like friendly little people with cone hats. They can be so ugly to others that they build brick walls to hide them. In making, installing and fixing the ubiquitous brown tanks with their cone shaped tops these two men run business that have been really competitive at what they do.

It is shocking for both men that in an age of computers, skyscrapers and synthetics, most New Yorkers get their water via a wooden barrel on the roof. For this gentlemen who run the company with his 32 year old brother and their mother said that when he tells people the tanks are wood, they don’t believe it. Chances are people say that those tanks look like they are made out of steel or Plexiglas.

Some water tanks are made of steel, like those atop the Empire State Building. Actually even US steel maker’s Manhattan headquarters gets water from wooden tanks. The normal question is how long do the tanks last. Too long actually says a gentleman that they just replaced a tank that his father had put up in 1926.

These days you can find wooden water tanks in Chicago, Philadelphia and elsewhere, but only in New York, with its great density of tall apartment buildings, are they fixtures on the landscape. To be honest you can’t have a skyline without the tanks. In case you want water to be available all the time, the pumps must run constantly.

The truth is Rooftop tanks are more efficient. At the same time, electrical pumps kick in only when the water in the barrel drops below a certain level. It has to be observed that by law buildings that are 80 feet or taller must have the tanks, for firefighting reasons. While firefighters are on their way, Water from the tank is often used to keep flames from reaching passages out of a burning building.

This type of tank has two hookups, the one for drinking water, located at mid-tank, and the one for firefighting, located at the bottom of the tank. A tank is made of redwood or cedar staves cut to size in the factory, assembled on the roof and encircled by galvanized iron hoops.

Knowing that the hoops are pressing in and the water pressing out, it makes it watertight. Actually an average tank holds 10,000 gallons, stands 12 feet high and is mounted on a steel structure 20 feet high.

In that height, tanks can work on a windy day dangerous and often impossible. With these tanks are made at a factory in Philadelphia, about two hours from its offices on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Compared to the two companies there is one that is responsible for all the city’s water tanks.

Most of the time people wonder whether this company is related to their competitor. Though they might have different opinions, both agree that their products are aesthetically pleasing. Yet, the yuppie that lives on the Upper East Side, who just bought his apartment, says he doesn’t want to see a water tank when he looks outside.

More information on the topic of water tanks is located at rainwater tanks.Gain a deeper understanding on water tanks for sale and the broader subject of water tanks.

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