Water tanks, water towers or water standpipes are an easy matter to work on as far as the rigging is concerned, but not as much money is to be made as on smokestacks, church steeples and flagpoles. Nevertheless, they are worth soliciting.
Take, for instance, a water tank. A water tank consists of only the tank itself sitting on a flat roof or ground. Water tanks vary in size.
We will say a tank twelve (12) feet in diameter, fifteen (15) feet in height, with very little rust scales. This tank can be painted in about three hours and requires no more than three and one-half gallons of oil paint. I have received as high as Sixty ($60.00) Dollars for a few hours’ work on tanks of this kind.
Painting Water Tank
Standpipes are more on the order of smokestacks. Some have brick foundations running up a third of the way and again others have brick half of the way up and the other half steel, while you find some that are all steel from the bottom to the top.
All standpipes have ladders going to the top, therefore it is an easy matter to rig such standpipes with a set of falls and work in a boatswain chair.
For an example we will take a standpipe that is made of steel and that is one hundred and twenty-five (125) feet in height, twelve (12) feet in diameter. A standpipe of this kind would require about eighteen (18) gallons of oil paint. It would take one man working in a boatswain chair about three and one-half (3½) days. It is always safe to ask about $250.00 for a job of this nature.
Painting Standpipe