Restoring Concrete Water Tanks: Protecting Critical Infrastructure

Concrete water tanks are the heart of our entire society: industry, domestic use and distribution, storm water management – the list goes on. They are, in every sense, critical infrastructure.

Water tanks hold, channel, and treat millions of litres of water every day – but like all assets, they deteriorate over time. Concrete suffers cracks, spalling, reinforcement corrosion, joint failures and surface degradation, all of which can compromise structural integrity and put essential services at risk.

Left untreated, small defects quickly become major problems that threaten both performance and safety.

As concrete ages, it also becomes porous, allowing water ingress, chemical attack, and reinforcement corrosion to accelerate. This porosity weakens waterproofing and shortens the service life of tanks. At Structural Repairs, we specialise in porous concrete repair and waterproofing concrete tanks using specialist resin injection systems that reinstate watertightness and restore durability. Once repairs are complete, we re-scan and carry out porosity testing to confirm that the structure is fully sealed and waterproofed for long-term service.

How We Recover Failing Concrete Water Tanks

• Scanning & Diagnostics – Non-destructive scanning identifies hidden weaknesses, delamination, voids, porosity, and reinforcement corrosion before they escalate.
• Injection & Resin Repairs – Our specialist resins for concrete repair seal cracks, porosity, and leaks, reinstating watertightness and structural integrity.
• Reinforcement & Strengthening – Advanced strengthening systems such as carbon fibre reinforcement, sprayed overlays, and structural jackets future-proof tanks against further deterioration.
• Verification & Testing – Follow-up scanning and porosity testing of concrete verify that waterproofing is effective and the structure is secure.

Cost-Effective Benefits

By repairing rather than replacing, we help asset owners achieve significant environmental and financial savings:

• Reduced Costs – Rehabilitation is typically a fraction of the cost of replacement.
• Longer Service Life – Repairs and reinforcements can extend asset life by decades, protecting investment and public safety.
• Reduced Disruption – building tanks is a disruptive task. After installation tanks are often built into, or encircled by, the surrounding infrastructure. Replacing a tank in-situ is often a major task – either craning in or building moulds on site and pouring concrete direct. By contrast, by repairing the existing structure, disruption is minimised – often with now productivity is lost at all.

Repairing Concrete Water Tanks – A Clear Sustainability Benefit

Repairing concrete water tanks offers clear environmental benefits, particularly in the face of climate change and growing concerns over resource efficiency. By maintaining and restoring existing tanks rather than replacing them, communities can secure reliable water storage without the heavy environmental cost and disruption of new construction.

Water – Resource Management in a Changing Climate

Well-maintained tanks reduce leakage and water loss, ensuring that valuable supplies are preserved and used more efficiently – an increasingly urgent need as rainfall patterns shift and droughts become more common across many regions.

Concrete & Carbon Emmissions

As the role for carbon dioxide as an agent of climate change becomes unarguable, the benefits are especially striking. Producing new concrete is extremely energy intensive and is responsible for an enormous 8% of global CO₂ emissions.

Each tonne of cement manufactured releases nearly an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide. By repairing rather than demolishing and rebuilding, the need for fresh concrete is drastically reduced. This avoids the embodied carbon that would otherwise be locked into new materials, offering enormous savings in emissions while also extending the service life of the original structure.

In Short

Repair maximises the value of existing resources, supports better water management under changing climate conditions, and helps meet ambitious carbon reduction goals. It is a practical, cost-effective and environmentally responsible approach.

Cheaper Than New – Stronger Than New

Structural repairs to concrete water tanks can in many cases result in a tank that is stronger and more resilient than when it was first built. Advances in repair materials and techniques mean that weaknesses such as cracks, spalling, or reinforcement corrosion can be addressed with products specifically engineered to outperform the original concrete.

Modern repair mortars, resins and coatings often have higher compressive strength, improved flexibility, and greater resistance to chemical attack. This not only restores the structural integrity of the water tank but frequently enhances it, ensuring the repaired structure is better suited to withstand future stresses.

In addition, repairs allow targeted strengthening in precisely the areas where the original construction has been shown to be vulnerable. Rather than relying on older standards of design and material performance, remedial works bring the structure in line with current best practice. Protective coatings and corrosion inhibitors can extend the life of embedded reinforcement, while crack-bridging systems can help accommodate movement that previously might have led to damage. As a result, a carefully repaired tank is not just restored to service, but often emerges with improved durability and resilience compared to a newly built equivalent.

Specialists in Critical Water Infrastructure

Our expertise goes far beyond tanks. Structural Repairs is trusted to recover and strengthen weirs, dams, reservoirs, channels, and treatment works across the UK. With decades of hands-on experience, we understand the urgency and precision required when working with critical assets.

We also offer a comprehensive, bespoke engineering solution through our in-house design team. When others say a repair can’t be done, we find a way — and the more challenging the project, the more we thrive.

Why It Matters

Water infrastructure is too important to fail. By intervening early with concrete tank scanning, repair, waterproofing, and reinforcement, we can protect continuity of service, safeguard communities, and ensure our water networks remain resilient for generations.

If you’re in the water industry and are facing challenges with your concrete tanks, porous concrete structures, or other critical assets, Structural Repairs is here to help.

Contact us today to discuss scanning, resin injection, waterproofing and reinforcement options for your critical infrastructure.