Meadows villa, 20 years on — the water tanks are original. Beyond cleaning, do the tanks themselves wear out, and when do you reline or replace one?

Good question, and yes — on a villa of that age the tank is no longer just a cleaning job. GRP (fibreglass) and plastic tanks, and all their fittings, do age, and past a point cleaning stops being enough.

What ages on an old tank: - The interior surface. A tank that's gone rough, chalky or crazed inside won't come properly clean — the roughness harbours biofilm and sediment, so it re-fouls fast after every clean. That's the big one. - The lid and seals. A warped, cracked or ill-fitting lid lets in light (algae), dust, insects and lizards — a top cause of contamination on old tanks. Perished lid/inlet seals do the same. - Fittings. Old metal fittings, the ball/float valve and connections corrode and can leak or shed rust into the water. - Underground tanks especially can develop cracks or ground-water ingress over the decades — a contamination and water-loss issue.

Clean vs reline vs replace: - Proper clean leaves it sound and smooth → keep cleaning on schedule. - Interior rough/crazed and re-fouls quickly, or the lid/seals are shot → reline (a food-grade liner) or replace. On a 20-year-old tank, replacing with a modern sealed, insulated tank is often the sensible call — and pair it with sorting the lid, valve and pipework at the same time. - Any crack, ingress or a persistent smell/taste after cleaning → replace, don't keep patching.

The point is to assess the tank's condition, not just clean it on repeat — an old rough tank quietly undoes every clean and is a genuine water-quality issue (warm stored water + a rough tank is how you get biofilm and, at worst, Legionella risk). For a Meadows villa of this vintage it's worth having the tanks assessed — clean, reline or replace — rather than booking the same clean every year on a tank that's past it. (The how-often-to-clean thread covers the routine side; this is about the tank itself.)