Hi,
I'm putting in two 2,000 liter water tanks (side by side with a filter between them).
Does anyone have any ideas on how to build a strong enough base for this?

Thank You 

 

What's your substrate (ground) underneath?

 

We are on Bangkok clay, our two x 2000L tanks are on a 2m x 4m x 200mm thick hand-mixed concrete base which has a bunch (sorry I don't remember how many) of 1m long hexagonal piles which were hand dug / driven.

 

 

There are several options and your choice is determined by its position and/or the ground condition.

 

The cheapest and easiest option is simply to stone up a hardcore base. It maybe you have really good ground, or it maybe sited on a former driveway area. 3 or 4 inch of crushed or even road stone can do the job

However this method has disadvantages. with a weight of 4 tonnes on it there is lkely to be some amount of compaction that may need some topping up attention in the future especially if the fines can be washed away with rain.

 

Your standard method would be a reinforced concrete slab. Crossys 4x2m slab seems ideal if those tanks are about 1m diameter.

For that weight you need to be looking at a minimum of 150mm thick concrete. You can shutter it all around with a masonry wall on it own footing if you prefer.  Build the wall and just infill with the stone and concrete and A142 mesh (200x200)

 

Another option would be to buy 3 or 4 precast concrete floor planks or paving slabs; prepare a stone and sand base, very cheap and create what is in effect a small patio. you can top up over the concrete planks with a concrete mix of course to bond the planks together.

 

And then there is steel. make a frame and deck it out with shera planks. Another easy option that doesnt involve the mess of concrete though the steel deck may need to be supported on concrete strip footings or pre cast stub post bases.

 

just a few ideas there.

One thing to remember about the stainless steel tanks  is that they come with a stainless steel stand.  Unlike the water pump, washing machine or refrigerator stands which distribute the load  fairly evenly across the area under the unit, the tanks come with a stand that has four legs and the load is distributed to the area directly under the feet of the leg, about 6-8 square  centimeters.

I was needing some welding practise so i built one then another so they are side by side.  Dug down  and concreted for footings.