CoatingsPro Magazine - January 2022
Tank’s Beauty Beheld
Ben Dubose 2021-12-28 22:08:46
Artistic Tools Help Preserve Dallas Water Tank
Built in 1914 in the Deep Ellum neighborhood of Dallas, Texas, the Continental Gin Building includes a cone-top water tower that has since become a community landmark. After more than 100 years of existence, the 140-foot-tall (42.7 m) tower — which holds up to 100,000 gallons (378,541 L) of water while in service — understandably needed some restoration, and property owner Westdale Real Estate Investment and Management was ready to greenlight the job.
Based in the neighboring state of Arkansas, TankSpek, Corp. was formed in 2016 and began talking with Westdale in late 2017 about the Deep Ellum tank, which had a job up for bid. TankSpek’s founders and presidents are Nathan Gray and James Brookshire, who have more than 50 years of combined experience in tank evaluation, inspection, repair, and refurbishment. Thus, even if the company name isn’t familiar, they clearly bring a significant pedigree.
Initially, TankSpek wasn’t selected as this job’s coatings contractor. But cost concerns related to the first proposal and the unique challenges of working in a sensitive urban area led to Westdale calling an audible in 2019, and TankSpek seized the opportunity.
“Right away, we were interested in the restoration portion of this project because it was an outlier,” Gray said. “It was apparent almost immediately that due to complications, such as project location, access limitations, and traffic circumstances, that the project would bring challenges beyond what we might typically experience. Because TankSpek is a young company and parameters have not been decidedly set for our wheelhouse, certain logistical challenges have a unique appeal in helping us establish where TankSpek is headed as a company.”
Texas Two-Step
Beyond costs, another key reason for the client choosing to switch contractors involved application strategy. The initial contractor wanted a spray application for the restoration phase, which concerned Westdale given Deep Ellum’s close proximity to downtown Dallas.
“In Deep Ellum, which is basically downtown Dallas, I told them I wouldn’t even consider spraying anything,” Gray said. “There’s no footprint around the tower to put up a curtain. They loved that we were willing to brush and roll, and that these [coating] materials could be brushed and rolled. The guys at Westdale want to be good neighbors. He told us, ‘We can’t have that liability of putting overspray all over our neighbors’ buildings and cars. We really want to take care of the people that we’re working with here in our community, and it sounds like you guys are the guys to do that.’”
As part of that pitch, Gray reached out to Paul Powers, a sales and service representative at Induron Protective Coatings. Powers recommended a multi-layer epoxy-acrylic coating system with a polysiloxane topcoat since it could overcome some of the traditional challenges of brush-and-roll applications.
“With [coating] products that have lesser solids, they have to be sprayed in order to build up enough mils to provide protection and coverage,” Gray explained. “Polysiloxane has such a high solids content that when you roll it on, you can roll it on surprisingly thin, and the high solids in that material will cover.”
TankSpek and Induron had worked together on previous projects, and that trust proved to be critical on relatively short notice. “The folks at Induron tend to demonstrate product knowledge that is at the level of actual hands-on application,” Gray said. On this project, Induron recommended Indurlux 7600 as the finish coat because of its virtually unlimited color range and ultraviolet (UV) protection.
What neither TankSpek nor Induron knew originally was that Westdale was also planning a second decorative phase of the project. After the initial restoration round, the client’s plan was to work with Goldman Global Arts to incorporate street art onto the tower’s top, specifically, a mural titled “Cultivate Harmony” from well-known artist Shepard Fairey.
To do this, Fairey’s team requested 8 to 10 colors in aerosol form. “A member of the artists’ team notified us that they typically apply their work with rattle cans,” Gray said. At that point, Gray again consulted with Powers, who identified New Jersey-based MyPerfectColor as a vendor who could package Induron’s paints into aerosol form.
“When we discovered that Induron could use series 7600 to match the artist’s color palette, this became another key that allowed the project to move fluidly,” Gray said. “Using another product would have likely created a timing dilemma due to recoat windows when applying another material over a polysiloxane. Plus, the polysiloxane looks great! With the way the colors are laid down, you can just about see this water tower from the moon!”
Access and Safety
Naturally, working at heights brought unique challenges for accessing the Deep Ellum water tank, which Gray estimates at approximately 9,000 sq. ft. (836.1 m2) of steel surface area. Those challenges became even more pronounced for the artist’s portion of the job, since artists are less familiar than coatings crews when it comes to certain safety protocols.
“The news that Shepard Fairey was being brought on site was where, logistically, our planning became almost surgical in our approach both to safety and general process,” said Gray, whose plan involved daily jobsite safety briefings. “They had done some water tower projects, but not water tower projects that were 140 feet up in the air. They hadn’t worked off of this type of scaffolding that was attached directly to the tank. I could write chapters on how far safety was taken on this project, and this was noted by almost every individual who participated. Seriously, even Goldman Global Arts’ owners felt comfortable enough with our safety protocol to ride our equipment to the top of the tower!”
Members of the coatings crew, which typically had two to five workers each day depending on the task, utilized standard personal protective equipment (PPE) including steel-toed boots, hard hats, and harnesses with double-lanyard systems. A suspended scaffolding system consisting of a Sky Climber basket was attached via cable to the tower’s top, with a zip-line pulley attached to an adjacent cable. To access the system, crew members used 12-mm (0.5 inch) safety ropes supplied by Petzl and attached those to the bracketry, with rope grabs purchased from GME Supply.
“Throughout most of this project, we had a crew of people positioned over 100 feet [30.5 m] in the air, painting upside down and sideways, and without any means to fully protect paint from going wherever the wind took it,” Gray said.
Meanwhile, the artist’s team took extra steps such as using an AZTEK pulley system from Rock Exotica. Priority One Safe-T, LLC was contracted to provide a safety rescue team, which connected the 5:1 rescue pulley system to the artists’ harnesses.
“That [AZTEK] system was connected from a bracket welded onto the tower’s sidewall to the harnesses of the artists to assist in their climbing out of the Sky Climber basket, over the upper balcony handrail, and onto the balcony floor,” Gray explained. “This allowed them the added safety of a secure tie-off point in the event that they lost footing while climbing over the handrail, and it also reduced their individual body weight during the brief climbing process. Once the team members were positioned onto the balcony floor, they would connect to safety lines before being disconnected from the Rock Exotica system.”
TankSpek involved its safety team in every aspect of rigging, including the specific gaping measurements of plank boards used as scaffolding. “Rigging on an older tower is very tricky,” Gray said. “Because of where the tower sat, you couldn’t get a crane in. You couldn’t get a boom in. A lot of conventional equipment that would have normally been considered to provide access just wasn’t a possibility because you couldn’t get that equipment into this parking space.”
![“That [AZTEK] system was connected from a bracket welded onto the tower’s sidewall to the harnesses of the artists to assist in their climbing…,” TankSpek’s Nathan Gray explained. Photo Courtesy Of Goldman Global Arts And Tankspek](http://cdn.coverstand.com/61415/733020/article_assets/10-2637258378-61cbf54ef09bc.jpg)
“We enjoyed studying the archives of old-school access methods, brainstorming a new access method, and reinventing the wheel,” Gray concluded. “When that level of management goes into a project and hundreds of ideas are vetted for feasibility, you find yourself sleeping very little because you’re checking every detail. When the folks involved say that your team made it look easy, well, that should tell you that you have a good team in place. I like to think that’s absolutely true!”
Prep and Paint
With access, safety, and material plans in place, the first step of executing the application phase involved power washing and hand tooling the entire steel surface area to get rid of any old paint that was poorly adhered. Using TankSpek equipment, all areas were power washed at 4,200 psi (289.6 bar) to achieve the NACE WJ-4/SSPC-SP WJ-4 (Society for Protective Coatings Surface Preparation) standard for a light cleaning of metals.
“Without any available space for a curtain footprint, there was no way to contain the tank, which left us having to deal with remaining rust,” said Gray, who noted that a subcontractor was used for some of the prep and painting work. When a subcontractor is at the site, TankSpek’s employees take on roles as project managers and facilitators.
“Without sandblasting, we weren’t exactly turning up white metal,” Gray said. “We had to remove any oxidation or loose coatings because there were still some pre-existing coatings, primarily on the shell of the tank. There was almost no coatings left on the legs, but even on those, there was surface rust.”
With the surface prepared, the next step was applying Induron’s E-Bond 100 epoxy penetrating sealer at 1–2 mils (25.4–50.8 microns) dry film thickness (DFT) to the tower’s lattice legs and to any bare metal areas of the bowl, side wall, and roof. “We used the epoxy sealer to do its magic and penetrate, neutralize, seal, and whatever other voodoo that material does to handle residual rust on a marginally prepared surface,” Gray said.
For an intermediate layer, they brushed and rolled Induron’s Induramastic 85 epoxy coating at an average of 6 mils (152.4 microns) DFT. Each coating layer was allowed to cure overnight. “I really believe that these two coats were the backbone that essentially created a durable barricade against corrosion and the elements,” Gray said.
Finally, crew members applied two layers of the Indurlux 7600 acrylic polysiloxane at a combined 3–5 mils (76.2–127.0 microns) DFT in a white top layer for the tower’s legs and in blue and yellow for the side walls of the top structure. The high-gloss topcoat created an even sheen that Gray believes will hold up “for years.”
Ultimately, the relationship between contractor and manufacturer made for a smooth application. “TankSpek’s field teams can reach out to Induron’s coating reps with real-world questions, like which roller nap works best for specific circumstances, and get answers that make their day move more quickly,” Gray said. “There are times when CIP [Coating Inspector Program] level knowledge is paramount, but providing CIP reps that can talk paint like they’ve actually applied it is something that elevates Induron as a very useful resource.”
Up top, the two-tone backdrop of blue and yellow was applied immediately prior to the arrival of the artist team, and the properties of the polysiloxane proved critical. “If Indurlux 7600 could not have been tinted to an infinite color range, the artist would have had to apply a different product over the white backdrop,” Gray explained. “The color matching was everything!” According to Gray, the artist said having that blue-and-yellow backdrop saved a lot of aerosol spray cans and time, as opposed to having that put on by his crew.
As planned, MyPerfectColor did its part in delivering hundreds of Indurlux 7600 “rattle cans” to the jobsite, and the artist’s team used those over a four-day period to install Fairey’s artwork. The mural features a large eye circled with the words “EYES OPEN, MINDS OPEN,” along with other text reading “cultivate harmony” and a design featuring a peace sign.
“I actually have one of those used cans on display in my office,” Gray said.
Project on Ice
Though the Deep Ellum tank project was years in the making, all work was completed over a staggered period of approximately four months from January 2021 through May 2021. It could have been much shorter than that, but February’s historic winter storm that caused widespread power outages across Texas disrupted operations for several weeks.
“That was the first time that I’ve had to move a crew in the middle of the winter from Texas to Nebraska, looking for better weather,” Gray recalled. “Typically, in the winter, you want to move your crew from Nebraska down to Texas, but that was a one-off.”
For the artist’s portion, there was one sequence where the Sky Climber motor sensed some limited cable areas where individual wires had frayed, and a replacement cable wasn’t available until the next day. In such a situation, the Sky Climber will “lock up” as a built-in safety protocol, Gray said. As such, this required Fairey’s team to come down from the scaffolding, and since they weren’t familiar with using the tank’s attached ladder, they utilized Petzl equipment and ropes to descend in a somewhat similar manner to a “rescue” operation.
“When the team got down, I had my concerns about what they might say, and [asking] why they had to do this,” Gray said. “But they loved it. They said it just added experience, and it was a great time. They said they felt safe, and that they were in good hands. They work fast, they work diligently, and they seemed fearless.”
Within weeks, Gray received a phone call from the son of Westdale’s owner, who praised TankSpek’s work and passed along a message that a Goldman Global Arts representative had remembered Gray by name while crediting him for all the work and behind-the-scenes planning.
“He said, ‘This was something that seemed impossible to us, and you made it happen.’ He said, ‘I couldn’t appreciate you more.’ That was huge. For a little company like us, that was a big phone call,” Gray explained.
Ultimately, it was a collaborative approach and diligent communication between the contractor, coating manufacturer, client, artist, and beyond that sparked success in North Texas. “The whole project was full of creative people bringing ideas to the table to make something happen that would’ve been largely written off as impossible,” Gray concluded.
JOB AT A GLANCE
PROJECT:
Restore a historic water tower with an artist’s decorative top layer
COATINGS CONTRACTOR:
TankSpek, Corp.
Berryville, AR
(800) 624-1023
FB: TankSpekCorp-1467041196653235
www.tankspek.com
SIZE OF CONTRACTOR:
4 full-time employees
SIZE OF CREW:
2–5 crew members
PRIME CLIENT:
Westdale Real Estate Investment and Management
Dallas, TX
(214) 515-7000
@WestdaleTweets
www.westdale.com
SUBSTRATE:
Steel
CONDITION OF SUBSTRATE:
Aged with rust and loose coatings
SIZE OF JOB:
9,000 sq. ft.
DURATION:
4 months, off and on
UNUSUAL FACTORS/CHALLENGES:
» TankSpek was not initially made aware of the project’s full scope.
» Traditional equipment, such as cranes or boom lifts, was not feasible at this jobsite due to a lack of ground space.
» TankSpek brought in a third-party safety rescue team (Priority One Safe-T) to review all installations and connect the rescue pulley system to artists’ harnesses.
» Due to overspray concerns, TankSpek used brushes and rollers.
» Induron worked with MyPerfectColor to aerosolize the topcoat for the artist.
» Due to a historic winter storm in Texas in February 2021, crews had to demobilize and leave the jobsite for weeks.
MATERIALS/PROCESSES:
» Power washed steel surface areas at 4,200 psi to achieve the NACE WJ-4/SSPC-SP WJ-4 standard for light cleaning
» Applied Induron’s E-Bond 100 epoxy penetrating sealer at 1–2 mils DFT to tower’s lattice legs and to any bare metal areas of the bowl, side wall, and roof
» Applied Induron’s Induramastic 85 epoxy coating at an average of 6 mils DFT
» Applied two layers of Induron’s Indurlux 7600 acrylic polysiloxane finish coat at combined 3–5 mils DFT
» Supported the use of aerosol paint cans of Inderlux 7600 in 8–10 colors to draw artist’s rendering on top structure
SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS:
» Utilized standard PPE, including steel-toed boots, hard hats, and harnesses
» Had a Sky Climber basket attached for suspended scaffolding via cable to the tower’s top, with zip-line pulley attached to adjacent cable
» Used 12-mm safety ropes supplied by Petzl and attached those to bracketry with rope grabs for access
» Supplied artists with AZTEK pulley system from Rock Exotica
VENDOR TEAM
GME Supply
Safety equipment distributor
Columbia, MO
(800) 940-6762
@gmesupply
www.gmesupply.com
Goldman Global Arts
Artist
Miami, FL
(786) 615-4233
IG: goldmanglobalarts
www.goldmanglobalarts.com
Induron Protective Coatings
Coatings manufacturer
Birmingham, AL
(800) 324-9584
@induron
www.induron.com
MyPerfectColor
Coatings services
Springfield, NJ
(973) 863-2639
@MyPerfectColor
www.myperfectcolor.com
Petzl USA
Safety equipment manufacturer
West Valley City, UT
(801) 926-1500
FB: Petzl
www.petzl.com
Priority One Safe-T, LLC
Safety services
Joplin, MO
(417) 553-5209
LI: priority-one-safe-t
www.priority1safe-t.com
Rock Exotica LLC
Safety equipment manufacturer
Clearfield, UT
(844) 651-2422
FB: Rock-Exotica-147747201953857
www.rockexotica.com
Sky Climber, LLC
Equipment manufacturer
Delaware, OH
(800) 255-4629
@SkyClimberLLC
www.skyclimber.com
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