The City of Dayton in Ohio, USA awarded a maintenance project of two very large (two million gallons)
multi-leg elevated water tanks to a local painting contractor.

The contractor used a different type of abrasive blasting product for each tank and discovered one delivered a better performance than the other, and at a lower cost. He saved 22% on the total project cost. Here are the project details:

The tanks are supported by a large central riser column, and 12 legs around the circumference. These tanks are completely contained with tarps that can be raised or lowered in high wind conditions.

Access to the tanks are via swing stages and catwalk platforms that are suspended between the columns. The 15-year-old tanks have a total surface area of 6,782 m2 (73,000 sqft2) with a 25 to 30mm intact coating. The Internal surface area of a tank is 2,601 sqm2 (28,000 sqft2) while the external surface is 4,181 sqm2 (45,000 sqft2).

Abrasive blasting on the first tank was performed using coal slag with the following results: 

For the second tank had a much thicker coating than the first, BlastOne International (a GMA distributor partner) recommended a combination of GMA Toughblast™ garnet and two high-production MegaBlaster with each equipped with a 1,600cfm compressor.

The foreman was amazed by the excellent visibility after the blasting session using GMA ToughBlast™.

“My working day is shorter as I don’t have to stop and wait for the dust settle to see what we are doing!

“And there is basically nothing to clean up!” Besides the project cost savings, he was able to move the equipment on a week ahead of schedule to start the next project!