The weather is harsh here, and it really tears apart things that are outside for extended periods. This results in lots of maintenance work, such as thing week’s project of reconstructing the platform that our water tower sits on.

Brad noticed a couple weeks ago that the wood planks that sit on the metal frame and hold up the tank were looking pretty bad.

So we started by investigating possible materials to use. I at first thought plastic beams like the ones used for decking, but apparently they aren’t structurally suitable. We then thought about steel plating, but it is very expensive and there were concerns about rust. In the end, we just decided to stay with wood, but to use treated lumber and to coat it first with roofing sealer. (The 2×6’s that were used previously were raw, untreated wood.)

After we got the boards and got them painted, Brad figured out a process to replace the boards without removing the tank. Basically, it involved first emptying the tank as much as possible. Then he tilted the tank a bit, slid out each old board, and slid in new ones. It was lots of trips up and down two levels of ladders.

At first, I wasn’t sure this really needed to be done, but once we started on it, I could see how bad the old wood really was. It was probably just a matter of time before the whole thing collapsed, and what a mess that would have been.

And here’s the final result:

PS If you’re wondering if all this moving of the tank affected any of the plumbing, it did. Small crack in a pipe meant we had to turn off all the water, drain the tank and fix it. It’s always something!