Advantages Of

Concrete tanks have many advantages over those built of other material. Concrete will neither rust nor rot and can easily be kept clean. Of course the prime essential of a tank, trough or any receptacle that is to hold liquids is that it shall be watertight. A 1:2:3 concrete mixture should be used. Generally speaking, in thin sections the pebbles or particles of broken stone should not be larger than 1/2 or 3/4 inch.

Some Important Principles

After having selected clean, well graded materials and mixed them in correct proportions, enough water must be added to the combined materials to make a concrete of quaky or jelly-like consistency. This mixture must be thoroughly spaded when placed in the forms so as to produce a dense, watertight mass with a smooth surface. It must especially be well spaded next to the form faces.

Forms and other details for building a concrete watering trough. Small troughs like this can readily be cast upside down in the same manner as small concrete flower boxes are made.

Methods Of Placing Concrete

Small troughs or tanks can be readily cast or molded upside down just as are some of the small flower boxes illustrated elsewhere in this book. When building concrete tanks or troughs it is best to carry on the work from start to finish without stopping, so there will be no construction seams to cause leakage.

Forms, And Concreting Details

Forms for rectangular troughs or tanks are easier to make than for round ones, therefore the rectangular shapes are preferred by most people who do their own concrete work. Forms are shown for such a tank, a portion being cut away to illustrate them rilled with concrete. The inside face of the tank walls is sloped to make the walls thinner at the top than at the bottom. This helps to relieve pressure from ice if water in the tank freezes. The illustration shows a method of construction that allows stopping work when the top of the floor level is reached. To prepare for resuming work later, a groove is formed in the floor by pressing a piece of beveled wood into the concrete all around the floor on a line corresponding to the center of the side and end walls. When concreting is resumed the beveled strip is removed, the concrete brushed and scrubbed clean and painted with a cement and water paint mixed about as thick as cream. Concrete is then placed before this paint can commence to harden.

In tanks or troughs of this kind, provisions are usually made for water inlet and outlet pipes. Great care should be taken when setting such pipes to make certain that the concrete is thoroughly in contact with the pipe fittings, thus preventing leakage.