Ferro Cement Tanks for Water Storage: Design, Tools, Materials, and Construction
Art Ludwig
A do-it-yourself guide to designing, building, and maintaining ferro cement water tanks and cisterns. Includes 100 pages of water storage design information, 24 pages of detailed building instructions for several styles of ferro cement water tanks.
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Author: Art Ludwig, published by Oasis Design. 2005. 8.5x11, 125 pages, 43 figures, 128 photos. ISBN 0-9643433-6-3. $19.95
Reviews
Not another stuffy engineering manual—a very good book that anyone can
read. It is especially suited for operators of small water systems. On the average
water system, this book will pay for itself a hundred times over in errors avoided
and maintenance savings.
—Zane Satterfield, P.E., National Drinking Water Clearinghouse
Practical design solutions, comprehensive illustrations, and plenty of photos—a
thorough treatment of a topic that's vital to our survival.
—Claire Anderson, Home Power Magazine, Mother Earth News
All sorts of alternatives to your standard plastic water tank, accessible by
anyone from homeowner to builder to civil engineer.
—Amy Wynn, Builders Booksource
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| How to make ferrocement tanks | Table of contents | Figures
| References | Index
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| Ferro cement water tank shaped like an urn |
How to Make Ferro Cement Tanks
Ferro cement tanks consist of an armature (framework) of steel reinforcing, which is then covered with a sand-cement plaster. They offer complete flexibility in shape. They have a long life, are cost-competitive when contractor-built, and are owner-buildable in both industrialized and non-industrialized countries.
This section describes how to build ferro cement tanks with various techniques, to a variety of standards and sizes from 250-30,000 gal (1-115 m3). With the aid of an engineer you could adapt the plans up to a 100,000 gal (380 m3) tank. For more on the advantages and characteristics of ferro cement tanks, see Tank Materials/ Ferro Cement p. 41.
The existing literature on ferro cement tanks is sparse, and each document is narrowly focused: one particular size of one design, or a variety of designs but all for the context of non-industrialized nations. The heavy-duty ferro cement construction technique described here—which is suitable for large tanks—has not been described in the literature before to my knowledge.
This appendix—practically a book in itself—is unique in that it describes the full range of ferro cement techniques in one place, and reconciles some enormously disparate opinions and techniques into a coherent formulary.
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| Heavy-duty ferro cement tank (section) |
From procedures for ultra-light-duty tanks that use the absolute minimum of material, to tanks built successfully by native women with no construction experience, to detailed procedures for building large tanks to last a lifetime—you can glean the best approach for your context.
In the do-it-yourself, innovative spirit of ferro cement, this appendix gives you not only recipes but numerous variations and ideas for promising innovations, so that you can follow a recipe or concoct your own to suit:
- Plans for Jumbo Thai Jar, an 800 gal (3 m3) light-duty cistern, which can be adapted to make containers of this shape from 250-800 gal (1-3 m3).
- Description of ultra light-duty ferro cement for cisterns up to 3000 gal (11 m3) in size in the non-industrialized world.
- Plans for light-duty ferro cement 10,000 gal (38 m3) cistern, adaptable for inexpensive, non-industrialized nation-style cisterns from 500-10,000 gal (1.9-38 m3).
- Construction photos of medium-duty, urn-shaped, ferro cement cistern of 3500 gal (13 m3), which can be used in conjunction with the heavy-duty ferro cement construction plan to guide the construction of medium-duty construction cisterns from 500-15,000 gal (1.9-57 m3). These also illustrate how ferro cement can be used to make creative shapes and details.
- Detailed plans for heavy-duty ferro cement construction of a 30,000 gal
(110 m3) cistern, which can be adapted to tanks from 3000-30,000
gal (11-110 m3) capacity, and with the aid of an engineer, tanks
up to 100,000 gal (380 m3).
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Water Storage-book | Reviews
| How to make ferrocement tanks | Table of contents | Figures
| References | Index
Sample Figures & Photos
Ferrocement water tank shaped like a boulder
Common features of water tanks
Drain Construction Detail
^ Top ^ Water Storage-book | Reviews
| How to make ferrocement tanks | Table of contents | Figures
| References | Index