How to seal a 4' x 4' wood box that holds water?

[pmsmechanic]

Find an old bathtub and use plastic bulkhead fittings similar to what's on an IBC tote.

 

[xrjohndeere]

Redgard is good stuff. The question I have is if the box is designed to keep water out will the hydrostatic pressure cause liners and such to fail? There needs to be a perimeter around the box with rock, fabric, and a drain tile to allow surrounding water to flow away like a drain tile around a foundation.

 

[plowhog]

Thank you all for ideas and replies. A few comments:

Totes- too light duty. Bears attack this box. Redwood 2x8's kept them out until they rotted. Then last year the bears got through. Something lesser won't. This box *must* be sub-grade in dirt, as the elevation of gravity flow in/out pipe locations cannot be changed. I only trust redwood in soil. If I must "armor" a tote using redwood to bear-proof it-- that doesn't seem to save anything.

Redgard- not familiar with it. All I see are references to waterproofing tile or stone. Will it work on wood, and adhere to the exterior of wood without another material on top?

Oatey shower pan liner- last year I tried some patching the floor and walls using Grace ice & water shield. Similar to shower pan liner. I had a difficult time fitting it in corners, also the transition from floor to sides, etc. It's meant for flat surfaces-- not the inside of a box? There is continuous water turbulence in this box. After a while, the Grace shield came loose and was floating around. I had screwed reinforcing strips in the corners and where the floor met the walls, but it still pulled loose. I had to pull it out.

Pond liner / Fiberglass liner applied after assembly-- sounds interesting. The pond liner seems like it could seal the joints where the pipes stick through. But a complete (interior) fiberglass liner with resin for the floor, walls, ceiling, and joints also sounds interesting. Can anyone suggest a source for me to investigate that further? The Youtube videos I looked at all referenced applying fiberglass to plywood. Will fiberglass adhere to the rougher surface redwood?

 

[plowhog]

The question I have is if the box is designed to keep water out will the hydrostatic pressure cause liners and such to fail? There needs to be a perimeter around the box with rock, fabric, and a drain tile to allow surrounding water to flow away like a drain tile around a foundation.

The box is sub-grade. Only the top of the box is at grade level. It has soil below it and on the sides now. I intend to replace that with some amount of gravel below it and on the sides for better drainage. So any hydrostatic pressure pushing out would be neutralized since it is sub-grade and backfilled.

 

[EddieWalker]

Decades ago, show pans where made from fiberglass for a little while. They all failed because in just a few years, the natural movement in a house flexed the fiberglass to the breaking point. It takes a lot of fiberglass to creates something strong like a boat or a corvette. It does not like to flex.

Redgard is a polymer coating. It goes on like paint, but it's not paint. It remains flexible and water proof. Kind of like a rubber coating. There are at least a dozen other products out there similar to Redgard that do the same thing. It is being used on the exterior of the sheathing on homes instead of house wrap. ZIP Siding is probably the most well known product that uses polymer sealers on it to keep out the elements. All the tests that I have read are showing it to be the best way to seal up a house that there is. Cost is still a factor on new construction, but in time, it will become more and more common just like ZIP Siding is showing up all over the place. Lowes even carries it now.

Lowes has a version of Redgard in their tile section. It's blue and it works the same way.

 

[Leejohn]

See there is a jacuzzi mfg. near you and ask if you can get one before they driil the holes. Or one right out of the mold, might even be able to get a 2nd.

 

[jyoutz]

Why not pour a concrete box, then paint it with red guard.

 

[civilian]

What about using a metal horse water tank? Corrosion? Jon

 

[ponytug]

Can you find someone locally with pack animals that could move the concrete up there for you? In my experience, concrete will do much better than redwood submerged in my experience. That frees you up to make an oak, or steel lid, or a redwood lid with a steel cover. The neighboring ranch has concrete spring boxes that are pre-WW II that are still running, though a few have lost their wood covers due to rot.

A dado is a stack of cutting blades and chippers that cut a groove of defined width. So you can make one that generates a 1.5" cut (aka 2") that you could slot a, say, 2x12 into. When you build a redwood (cypress, cedar) water tank, the floor is usually made of tongue and groove that slots around the perimeter into a dado cut into the vertical timbers that are banded (compressed) together.

If it is two by redwood vs bear, I would bet on the bear any day. Redwood is quite brittle compared to other evergreens.

I would caution you that there is a huge difference between the longevity of today's redwood, and the redwood of 100 years ago. Today's redwood will rot out in as soon as ten years. I am told it has to do with the relatively younger age of redwoods being logged today.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Egon]

Wooden tanks:

Use liners for square ones. The round ones should be easy to find.