How To Keep Water Tanks Clean

Many might express how they look like friendly little people with cone hats. Most people though will find it so ugly that they build brick walls to hide them. Competing with each other for nearly a centering, these two men have businesses that concentrate on making, installing and fixing the ubiquitous brown tanks with their cone shaped tops.

Most of the time both of them cannot fathom the idea that in an age of computers, skyscrapers and synthetics, most New Yorkers get their water via a wooden barrel on the roof. It was stated by one gentleman who runs the company with his 32 year old brother and their mother that when he tells people the tanks are wood, they don't believe it. Many people will say that those tanks look like they are made out of steel or Plexiglas.

Some water tanks are made of steel, like those atop the Empire State Building. Even a US steel maker's Manhattan headquarters gets water from wooden tanks.

It has been a question about how long tanks actually last. A gentleman shares that it lasts too long that they just replaced a tank that his father had put up in 1926.

The popularity of wooden tanks have spread in Chicago, Philadelphia and elsewhere, but only in New York, with its great density of tall apartment buildings, are they fixtures on the landscape. Truth is you can't have a skyline without the tanks. For water to always be running, be sure the pumps must run constantly.

The truth is Rooftop tanks are more efficient. It is smart to keep in mind that electrical pumps kick in only when the water in the barrel drops below a certain level.

One thing you have to consider is that by law, buildings that are 80 feet or taller must have the tanks, for firefighting reasons. Waiting for the firefighters to arrive, Water from the tank is often used to keep flames from reaching passages out of a burning building.

Each tank has two hookups, the one for drinking water, located at mid-tank, and the one for firefighting, located at the bottom of the tank. These tanks are made from redwood or cedar staves cut to size in the factory, assembled on the roof and encircled by galvanized iron hoops.

Here the hoops are pressing in and the water pressing out and it makes it watertight. Most of the time an average tank holds 10,000 gallons, stands 12 feet high and is mounted on a steel structure 20 feet high.

With that the height allows for tanks to work on a windy day dangerous and often impossible. These kinds of tanks are made at a factory in Philadelphia, about two hours from its offices on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Here, there is one company that handles nearly all the city's water tanks.

One thing that comes up often is whether this company is related to their competitor. Even the owners will say their have different beginnings but both agree that their products are aesthetically pleasing. But the yuppie that lives on the Upper East Side, who just bought his apartment, he doesn't want to see a water tank when he looks outside.