How to repair fiberglass water tank

[Monomial]

I purchased 3 3000 liter fiberglass water tanks for my house. (9 cu. meters all together).

The idiots who moved them banged them all up, and now that I am actually trying to use them I find that all 3 of them are leaking due to cracks. Some of the cracks are big and others are small. One of the cracks I know was created when they smashed the tank into a piece of angle iron and punctured it, so the cracked area is about the size of my fist. (I actually saw them do this one, and while I was steaming mad I thought it was the only one.)

The guys who did this are long gone, and I am going to need to repair these myself. I understand the basics of fiberglass construction, but I have no idea where to get the materials. Specifically bid cloth, epoxy, filler, and some sort of sandwich material to make a plug for the large hole.

I am located in the Rangsit area of northern Bangkok. Does anyone have any idea where I can buy these nearby? I assume the epoxy at least can not be ordered online and shipped via EMS.

Has anyone ever done this before? Any advice is appreciated.

[Crossy]

Are you sure the tanks are epoxy? If they are polyester resin you'll have trouble making epoxy adhere reliably.

How about talking to the tank manufacturer, maybe a boat builder / repair yard.

[Daffy D]

As "crossy" says have a word with the tank manufacturer.

My 2000lt blue tank developed a crack at the point of the outlet pipe.

Though the tank was several months old they came and repaired the crack and just to be on the safe side redid the other outlet and inlet points on the tank at the same time.

All for free.

[Pib]

Another thing to be concerned about is if the fiberglass tanks had any type of other inside coating(s) such as maybe an anti-bacteria coating/layer usually with some "silver XYZ" name associated with it that coating/layer. Recommend you contact the tank manufacturer...even if no longer under warranty (which would not apply in your case due to the owner inflicted damage) the manufacturer would still repair them at a price which probably wouldn't be too bad. Auto repair shops usually carry some auto body repair materials like fiberglass repair materials even though most vehicles now days have either metal or fiber body parts...and as already mentioned, boats stores/shops should have fiberglass repair stuff. And I've seen fiberglass repair materials at Thai hardware stores like Thai Watsadu and Global.

[melvinmelvin]

Are you sure the tanks are epoxy? If they are polyester resin you'll have trouble making epoxy adhere reliably.

How about talking to the tank manufacturer, maybe a boat builder / repair yard.

If the manufacturer woun't assist in repairs I would, as Crossy did, suggest a GRP boat bilder or boat repair shop.

NBC, Nonthaburi Boat Club, has an OK repair shop for GRP work.

Its situated in Bang Si Muang, on the west bank of Chao Praya, right across the river from Tha Naam Non, which is the end-stop for the Chao Praya Express boat service.

This ain't too far away from your place in Pathum.

On Koh Kred (Nonthaburi), closer to Pathum, there is a boat yard named U Jit. They also do some GRP work.

Further away, Pattaya, you will find plenty of shops doing GRP work and I assume it would be easy to buy the materials there.

Actually, I would think that it is possible to by the stuff online.

What would you need? The cloth/mats and then the awful stuff (hardener+???) to smear on the mats.

It ain't too hard to do such repairs on simple constructions like a cylindric tank. Might try yourself.

[derekwyoung]

Hi World Chemicals sells resin and hardener,and has branches in many towns in thailand, I don't think they sell glass or carbon matting, so do a google search, If you don't have any luck I can give u a english company that has many types and grades also provides some instruction on how to repair, If you only want a small amount I may be able to help u out for repairing the less damaged tanks . Derek

[JAS21]

If you can get to the inside there are several tapes that you could use