RE: Pallet water tower brainstorm. Seeking advice
Hi! As yo said this is going to weight 2500 pounds, so I recommend you to use arround 20$ to buy 20 concrete blocks. Clean the paviment and make 4 piles of 5 blocks, using cement between the grownd paviment and the 1st block, and between the blocks of each pile. You may also consider to apply 1 point of cement on top of each pile, between the 5th block and the deposit. If your roof limits the high the deposit can be, then 5 blocks may be too tall or maybe not. This is something to check before aplying the cement. Using wood pallets may hold it but it's less safe. As time passes some parts of the wood can deteriorate, and the structure can become unstable. When holding the full 2500 pounds of weight a weak point in the wood structure can be all it needs to destroy the wood structure and end with the deposit on the floor. Not to mention is dangerous, because if it breaks when somebody is arround there is enough weight to kill a person. Precisely for this reason I would consider not to put bikes, yard toys or anything else under there. Approach to it only when necessary and touch the structure as less as possible.
I'll follow you, and in case you have more agricultural or technical questions I may be able to answer you.
You know, I said I couldn't do any other materials, but looking at the material price at the home improvement store down the street, I could do this job with concrete for $25 after tax! I think this is the route I'll take. I've already got a bag of concrete to use.
I'll save up the cash and use the pallets to make a climbing fort for the kids.
Glad to hear. Just one consideration, I said that it may be good to add cement also between the top block and the deposit, to improve the security of the structure. But consider that doing so will fix the deposit, therefore you may not be able to remove it and that could be inconvinient if for example you want to take the empty deposit to clean it. For this reason it may be better to secure as much as possible the 4 piles of concrete blocks with cement, but not adding cement between the top blocks and the deposit. Consider that doing so will make hard to remove the block piles if one day you don't want the deposit anymore, but adding the cement at the grownd paviment and between the blocks do both things at the same time, improves the stability of the structure but at the same time makes it more difficult to remove. In any case consider not adding cement between the top blocks and the deposit for cleaning purposes. If you live in a place with mosquitoes they will come to the deposit to breed in there. Consider to glue some mosquito net between the pipe and the tank inlet nozzle, to try prevent the entry of mosquitoes. Not tape, since the tape will prevent the air outlet, and the air needs to leave the tank to let the water flow in correctly.
I was thinking to use some wood pieces to secure the tank to the top of the pillars. That way it's not cemented on, and is still secure. I think a stiff wind could move the tank if it were empty, and I'd like for it not to get blown over.
I'll definitely be putting a mesh screen over the inlet, as mosquitos are a big problem here. It'll also serve the purpose of keeping out leaves. We have a lot of trees on property, and I'd like for my water tank to not be full of leaves.