Conrady Consultant Services  is a nationwide professional  water storage tank and pipeline inspection company specializing in ROV inspection, ROV water tank inspection, ROV pipeline inspection, other ROV tank inspection, underwater tank inspection, and drained tank inspection.  We do both drained inspection and underwater inspection of all types and sizes of storage tanks except for petroleum and chemical products.  We inspect inground, groundlevel, and elevated tanks constructed out of poured in place reinforced concrete, prestressed concrete, welded steel, riveted steel, bolted steel, glass lined bolted steel, fiberglass, and hydropneumatic tanks.

Please Compare Our Company Qualifications & Services To Our Competitors

Are you required to choose your tank inspection company solely on whichever company gave you the lowest price, or are you actually going to compare the qualifications, education, and experience of the inspectors?

if you want  someone to inspect your tank that actually knows what they are doing, and what to look for,  state in your request for quote (rfq) or request for proposal (rfp) or sealed bid request that you will select your inspection company on the lowest qualified bid and that you reserve the right to select an inspection company based on their qualifications and may not select the company that provides you with the lowest price and request that information be provided with the submitted quote such as the resumes of the inspectors that will do their inspection , a previous client list, and info about the company and service they provide.

this way you will not have to be stuck with an inspection company whose quote was a few hundred dollars less than a much more qualified company who will actually inspect your tank instead of a company that provides you with a video and a few photos who is clueless about whether or not your tank actually needs recoating or repairs, or a commercial diving company that will attempt to sell you completely unnecessary and very expensive silt removal, or a tank manufacturer/painting contractor who will attempt to sell you a completely unnecessary recoat because they showed you a few photos of corrosion and coating failure!   

Unlike the “dive maintenance technician” commercial diver, recreational diver, ROV operator, or NACE technician, we have the education, experience, qualifications, and knowledge to accurately inspect your tank, know what recoats or repairs should be done, consult with you about the recommended repairs or recoats.  Since you would never consider hiring any of these companies for a drained inspection, why would you consider hiring them for an underwater inspection?

Unlike almost all of our competitors, we actually do meet the AWWA Standard D101-53 “Inspecting And Repairing Steel Water Tanks, Standpipes, Reservoirs, and Elevated Tanks, For Water Storage”, which is included in AWWA Manual 24, which requires that the person doing tank inspections be employed by an engineering firm whose principles have at least 5 years in tank inspection experience, or be an independent engineer (P.E.) whose practice has included substantial or major attention to steel construction, or be an employee of a state agency that is empowered to render inspection services.  YOU MIGHT WANT TO INCLUDE THIS REQUIREMENT IN YOUR RFQ.

Our Qualifications:

Since 1978 we have been involved with the design, construction, installation, operation, maintenance and inspection of water storage tanks.  Various steel and concrete tank manufacturers have brought us to their tank installations at various stages of construction so that we would see first hand their construction methods and were instructed by these manufacturers what problems to watch for and what conditions were actually problems and what were not problems.  We have been to many paint manufacturer facilities to learn how their paint products were manufactured, how they are applied, and what problems we might encounter during our inspections such as application problems and methods to correct these problems, reasons for premature failure, amine blushing problems, reasons for adhesion loss problems, determination as to whether or not the tank should be recoated or repaired, determination as to whether or not a tank exterior can be overcoated, and also the determination as to the existence of lead primer material and the possibility of encapsulation of this material or if it must be completely removed.

We have been to many steel tanks as they have been recoated.  We were at some tanks at the invitation of the painting contractor to watch their work so we were comfortable recommending them to others.  We have been hired several times by engineers and tank owners as critical phase inspectors, even on some tanks which had a full time inspector, to inspect the contractor's work, perform wet sponge holiday testing and MEK rub tests, and ensure that the contractor was meeting the requirements of the specification.  We have been hired several times to do final acceptance inspections of tanks that were just painted and were ready to be filled with water and placed into service, even on some tanks that were full time inspected by another company, to ensure that the full time inspector did not miss problems and that the contractor's work met the specification requirements.  We have been hired many, many times to do warranty inspections on tanks that were newly constructed, or were recoated and/or repaired and were nearing the end of their warranty period to ensure that the contractor's workmanship was adequate and that no recoating or repairs were necessary and that the owner or engineer could completely accept the tank and release the contractor's bond.

Our engineer is on the AWWA D104 Committee for cathodic protection systems.  We have been involved in the installation, testing, and repair of these systems since sometime in the late 1980's.

We were hired to go 130 miles down into mainland Mexico to determine and analyze why there were major problems with a new bolted steel tank installation.

We were hired to inspect a steel standpipe which was empty waiting for a final inspection after a recoat which had a stick of dynamite exploded in it to determine if any damage occurred to the tank and if it was safe to fill this tank and place it back into service.  They said that they could hear the "BOOM" throughout the entire valley.

We have provided expert witness testimony for legal disputes about water tanks.

We have prepared recoat specifications and provided assistance to our clients throughout the bidding process, contractor selection, and recoat process.

Since we specialize only in tank inspections, and are not involved in other water, sewer, and road projects, and have 25+ years experience in this field, other engineering firms are comfortable and confident in our expertise and frequently use us as a consultant.  We constantly modify our reports to make sure that they meet the expectations of our engineer clients.  Because of this, we have very good relationships with the engineering firms who subcontract their tank inspections to us, refer us to their clients, or do joint inspections with us.

Our Competitors:

Every commercial diver and ROV operator in the entire world is now an "expert" water storage tank inspector.  Although they may have "inspected" hundreds of tanks, and are experienced divers or ROV operators and can dive into, or operate an ROV in, your water storage tank and take excellent photos or video, absolutely nothing in the commercial diving classes, or ROV operator training, or NACE certification, gives them the training and experience needed to inspect tanks.  Almost any person with normal intelligence and in average physical condition can spend a few weeks in a commercial diving training facility and become a commercial diver.   Almost any person with normal intelligence can learn to operate an ROV with a few days of training.  Almost any person with normal intelligence who is interested and has a few thousand dollars can become NACE certified technician by attending a few classes and passing a test.  None of this training or certification includes the education or experience in tank design, tank construction, steel corrosion, concrete deterioration, leak detection and determination, protective coating deterioration and failure, or the different types of coatings and their installation problems.   Why does being able to take video or photos inside a tank make them qualified to inspect tanks?

Several commercial diving tank inspection companies have such a huge turnover of their diving inspectors that most of their divers are newly hired commercial diver school graduates that may have never even been inside a tank prior to your inspection and they do such a poor job that the client won’t hire them again.  It is always amazing to us that when we ask who inspected their tank last they say something like “some firm out west somewhere” or “some firm in New England somewhere” instead of remembering their name.  Made a real impression didn’t they?

If the commercial divers or ROV operators can only take video and photos, and do not have the education and experience to determine if what they are seeing are only minor coating failure, or minor coating adhesion loss problems, or minor corrosion,  are you really going to risk $200,000.00 to $400,000.00 or more on their recommendation for a recoat or repair that wasn't even necessary, or even worse, risk serious and costly deterioration or tank failure, if they miss major problems or think that problems are not major because of their inexperience or lack of knowledge?

IF EITHER OF THESE HAPPENS, WAS IT WORTH THE FEW HUNDRED DOLLARS YOU SAVED WHEN YOU HIRED THE LOWEST PRICE TANK INSPECTOR?

Contractors

Several tank manufacturers who also repair and recoat tanks offer ROV inspections.  Their quotes for ROV inspections are almost less than all other inspection companies and a lot of times you can get a free inspection from them.  Why is this?  If you have them inspect your tank, you can be assured that, immediately their inspection, they will show you photos of corroded steel or deteriorated concrete and give you a work order for $200,000.00 or more for an  "emergency" recoat or repairs that you should sign immediately so that they can "get a crew to your tank site as soon as possible to save your tank before it bursts open or falls down" .

It is always amazing to us that utilities or companies will fall for this without getting a second opinion.

Since we do not do repairs or recoats ourselves, and do not receive compensation or fees from any company for our recommendations, and do not receive a monetary percentage of the recoat, repair, or tank replacement as compensation, there is no reason for our recommendations not to be completely honest and unbiased.

Engineering Firms?????

BE AWARE THAT several commercial and recreational diving companies, several ROV inspection companies, and several drained inspection companies have “Engineering” in their company name, claim to be an engineering firm, and heavily advertise that they are an engineering firm, but do not actually have a “Registered Professional Engineer (P.E.)” on their staff and are actually not an engineering firm!   Request enough information from that firm or individual to be certain that they actually are an engineering firm that meets these requirements, or if they are just a NACE technician that went into the tank inspection business, or just a certified commercial diving company, or just a ROV firm with technicians that do not meet these requirements.  Ask them if they actually have a P.E. on their staff that is employed full time with their company.  Some companies promise to provide you with an engineer at your site and then this does not happen!