T BAILEY LLC repairs, maintains, and modifies steel storage tanks already in service. Since 1991, we have handled industrial tank repair for operators who need an asset back in production on a fixed schedule.
Our crews work where the tank stands, often on sites with poor soil, difficult foundations, or hours from the nearest supplier. When a repair calls for new steel, we cut and roll the plate at our Anacortes, Washington shop and deliver it ready to install.
Tank Repair and Maintenance Services We Provide
Our tank repair services cover vertical and horizontal tanks, aboveground storage tank repair on API and UL-listed units, potable and municipal water tanks built to AWWA D100, petroleum and fuel storage, and chemical and wastewater tanks. Shop-built or field-assembled, the tank repairs it needs now govern the work.
When an asset reaches the end of its life, we build the replacement through our field-erected tanks and vertical storage tanks lines. The sections below cover the categories accounting for most of our storage tank repair work.
Inspection-Driven Repair Planning
Before we scope a repair, we ask that an independent inspection firm examine the tank. Depending on type and service, that crew may include API 653, AWWA D100, and NACE Level II or III inspectors, plus ASNT Level II technicians taking ultrasonic thickness readings.
That report is what we plan from. It establishes where metal loss has occurred, how much section remains, and which repairs are code-required, so your approved scope is built on measured wall thickness and documented findings. Frameworks such as the EPA’s tank inspection, repair, and maintenance requirements are built around documented inspection driving documented repair. Planning storage tank repair and maintenance this way keeps your scope defensible under regulatory review.
Corrosion Repair and Tank Floor Restoration
Corrosion concentrates in two zones that fail differently, the vapor space over the stored product and the tank floor. In the vapor space, older tanks often have roof plate seams and overlapping plate laps that were never seal welded. Because seal welds are not required for structural strength, omitting them was standard practice, but the laps trap moisture and bleed rust into the interior. We seal weld them.
At the tank floor, underside corrosion and electrolysis attack the plate from the bottom up, and the loss is often invisible until an ultrasonic survey finds it. Depending on remaining thickness, our crews fill through-holes with weld, install bottom patch plates, or replace the floor in full. Where a lining has failed, we prepare and recoat during the same shutdown, returning the steel to service already protected.
Seismic Upgrades and Bringing Tanks Up to Code
Seismic provisions in AWWA D100 and API 653 have tightened, and many tanks compliant when built no longer meet them. On those assets, aboveground storage tank repair addresses how the tank is anchored, stiffened, and supported.
- Anchorage. Adding or modifying hold-down bolts and anchor chairs so the shell stays fixed under seismic load.
- Shell stiffeners. Stiffening rings that control buckling in the lower courses, where overturning forces concentrate.
- Foundation work. Rebuilding ringwall and slab foundations compromised by settlement or inadequate design.
- Flexible joints. Replacing connections at the foundation interface so shell movement does not transfer into rigid pipe.
- Elevated tanks. Reworking legs, bracing, and connections for current lateral force requirements.
Our field crews handle this through the same steel construction operation that erects new tanks, so foundation, shell, and structural scope stay with one crew. Municipal owners planning tank maintenance within a capital project can also review our notes on water reservoir projects.
