Orange tub good or bad?

Hello dear home builders,

we asked our provider to optionally include a white tank in the offer. Now we have received the offer and it includes an orange tank. My question is what exactly is the difference to the white tank and whether the orange tank is recommended? Does anyone have experience with this? I have also read that steel fiber concrete is used in the orange tank? Is that always the case and what are the advantages or disadvantages?

Thanks for your help.
Best regards, Thomas

White tank is a technical description, Orange tank is a brand name with which a white tank of a manufacturer is realized.

we asked our provider to optionally include a white tank in the offer. Now we have received the offer and it now includes an orange tank. My question is what exactly is the difference compared to the white tank

The "white tank" is a commonly used generic term, while the "orange tank" is a trademark of a single provider. "Inside" is ordinary WU concrete, "on top" is a brand name. Many roads lead to Rome; in the end, it depends on fulfilled measurable quality criteria. Each provider has their own ingredient mixture to achieve this goal of the WU concrete wall – here, a provider simply had the trade name of their recipe protected. The boundary between competition and public deception is, as always, fluid; the viscosity of this fluid boundary must be taken from the data sheet ;-) I do not know the special recipe; it does not have to be better or worse – but the provider apparently wants to make you believe here that you are getting something exclusive that no one else can do.

Hi,

everything that a white tank has to fulfill is regulated in the WU guideline. In my opinion, fiber-reinforced concrete is not regulated there and in my view still not a generally accepted rule of technology. Personally, I would not want to take this risk.

A structure does not become watertight (only) through its concrete but rather through the management of cracks. This is now more or less well regulated for "normally" reinforced components. With fibers, some problems still arise:
- is the fiber properly oriented in the component
- are the fibers sufficiently distributed in the component cross-section
- does the supplier even have the right fibers?
- is the construction method normatively regulated as a WU component at all?

If a defect in the construction now shows up (e.g., accumulation of fibers and thus areas with lower fiber content), the cracks cannot be reliably bridged here, and separation cracks can form -> separation cracks lead to water penetration.

You should urgently ask yourself the question: "How do I use my cellar?"
If it is only used to a minor extent anyway, a single crack that is subsequently injected might be acceptable.

But to summarize – I would (still) keep my hands off it. In the construction industry (e.g., we in multi-storey residential construction who build many WU underground garages every year) they do not use it at all. Why should it suddenly be good for a single-family house where "laypeople" are the clients? Shouldn't the industry first establish this so that confidence in the construction grows?

Best regards, Jann

With fibers, there are still some problems:
- is the fiber properly aligned in the component
- are the fibers sufficiently distributed in the component cross-section
- does the supplier even have the right fibers?
- is the construction method for a watertight concrete (WU) component even normatively regulated?

The idea of adding fiber nests to gravel nests is indeed not very reassuring.

But to summarize - I would (still) keep my hands off it. In the construction industry (e.g., we in multi-storey residential construction who build many watertight underground garages every year) they absolutely do not use it at all. So why should it suddenly be good for a single-family house where "laypeople" are the clients? Shouldn't the industry establish this first so that trust in the construction can grow?

Well, while the major processor prefers concrete brewed according to the purity law, the lay customer hopes for the healing effect of globules as additives ;-)
If I understand correctly, the supplier here does not have a patent on a brilliant improvement, but rather a trademark protection on the idea of being allowed to call a (only possibly equivalent) watertight concrete "orange".