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WHAT DO WE MAKE OUR TANKS OUT OF?

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Our Permasystems water tanks are thoughtfully built from a combination of simple materials - cement, sand and steel mesh - that's it! With a wall thickness of less than half an inch we use a minimal amount of material to create the strongest product using a long tested process.

The building of our tanks is modeled off that of Martin Iorns and Lou Watson who invented and patented this building process in the 1960s called laminated ferrocement - the use of a mold to accurately reproduce super strong and long-lasting boats. And their boats are still in great condition today! We took their idea a step further to make water tanks and integrate a modular system for off-site manufacturing of the tank sections.

Once the tank sections are made we deliver and install the entire tank quickly and efficiently. Because the tanks are made in 2 foot tall sections we don't need any heavy equipment to install them, we just roll them off our truck and to the installation site.

We want you to have a water storage tank that you love and never need to worry about it deteriorating, melting or leaching harmful chemicals into your water source.

We also design and build products such as garden beds, planters, natural pool filters, ponds, sheds and even homes.



HOW DO WE MAKE OUR PRODUCTS?

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We take steel mesh and encapsulate it in a thin layer of cement and sand, we do this a few times, hence the name lamination. This marriage of cement and steel allows the tank to posses the extremely strong compressive strength of cement while maintaining the flexibility (tensile strength) of steel mesh. We do all this by hand in San Diego County.

PUBLICATIONS

This article, published in 2019 at the 5th National Convention on Innovations in Ferrocement, details our process in constructing ferrocement water tanks.

OTHER EXAMPLES OF FERROCEMENT USE

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One of the most famous examples of ferrocement is the Sydney Opera House. Although the entire structure is not built from ferrocement, they made panels out of ferrocement that fit together to form the roof.









Ferrocement has been used to make boats for many decades. Here are two examples of the variety ferrocement can produce.  
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