Please help me build a root cellar

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I have Mike & Nancy Bubel's book "Root Cellaring" but it does not have detailed plans. My local extension service found me a website that had some info from their earlier book, but, again I need more instructions. I'll have to dig mine staight into the ground, I know nothing about excavating, shoring up, building entryway ,etc. I need help from the ground up (please forgive the pun).

-- Bob Manizza (kabob@snet.net), June 30, 1999

Answers

i know of folks who have used sepric tanks ( new of course ) just bury them into the gound. make an entrance way and your there,, you coualso use shipping container such as used on sipe and tractor trailers...lots of ideas

Doc

-- Doc (thisisdoc@aol.com), July 01, 1999.


a friend had an old truck, a bread van, that the engine had died. He pulled out all greasy parts like engine, transmission, etc. And simply buried the van leaving the rear doors exposed. You need to look around your homestead and see what materials you have available; is your land flat...if so drainage becomes a big problem. Rather than build something, look around for something to bury. Around here we have lots of large round plastic water tanks that are fairly cheap. They have a manhole in the top and are watertight. Another more labor intensive way is to build a round concrete structure using slip-forms...See Ken Kern's books for details. Check your library, I'm sure they are out of print by now, but all his books are first rate for us homesteaders. Give me more details and I can better help. I am a building contractor here in Calif.

-- Nick Medin (nikoda@pdqnet.com), July 01, 1999.

i am also trying to build a root cellar. i have started to dig the hole and what i will us for the wall, floor and roof will be pallets. pallets are cheap and or free. i get plastic lids that from work and will attach them to the pallets to keep the dirt from coming between the slats and also to keep moisture from the wood to reduce rot.

i'm not sure how long this will last but i would guess a couple of years.

-- Darin Lee Snodgrass (snod@texramp.net), August 15, 1999.


Hi. We built one from timbers that we had cut from our trees. This is too involved to get into here but I took pictures and wrote an a article about it for BackHome magazine. It is in their Sept/Oct 98 issue. You can get a back issue from them for about $4 or $5 I think. Their phone is 800-992-2546 or P.O. Box 70 Hendersonville, NC 28793 The cellar has worked fine for us and we have some really cold winters here in NW Montana. They haven't rotted or leaked and food keeps well in it. Good luck

-- Marci (ajourend@libby.org), August 20, 1999.

Bob, we are in the middle of building a root cellar and found most all the info we needed in the book you mention. Hole can be dug many ways, backhoe, front loader, shovel and wheelbarrow (the old fashioned way), built it 10'x14' with a 14'x6' ante-chamber and walls of concrete blocks on poured footings.

Most important consider your drainage. We used a sloping drain pipe to take any water that accumulates to exit an embankment. We used 4" sewer pvc pipe around perimeter of footings covered with gravel that will connect to that sloping drain pipe. Flooring inside is gravel.

Roof will be pressure treated lumber topped by plywood and builder's felt, buried one foot below grade with proper venting, (see book for venting details). Door, roofing and shelving all pressure treated lumber and keep shelves about a foot from walls to allow air circulation, again this is in the Root Cellaring book.

Best wishes on yours, hope ours gets done before the snow flies.

-- K Bungard (tbungard@iomet.com), August 31, 1999.



Hi! We're also building one this summer in Nevada. The hole was dug with a shovel and wheelbarrow (and buckets on a rope when it got too deep and the entry ramp too steep). 8' x 8' hole, 11' deep. Poured concrete footings, 18" deep by 36" wide & left a center hole 2' x 2' in the center that will be filled with gravel. Concrete block, 8' high with rebar every other center will be filled with concrete. The steps are lots of fun. We're digging the side footings back about three feet at a time, and laying block walls. The steps are concrete, mixed as we need it. We're then making forms for two to three steps at a time. The lower step is at least two "runs" back, with the form for the second step suspended where the lower step's "rise" stops. Confused yet? Then we repeat the process a little higher up the ramp. We'll leave a little lip at the top for the doors to rest on, and to prevent any runoff. We left an area, between the steps and the cellar footing, that will be filled with gravel for additional drainage. Between the walls and the dirt outside will also be filled with gravel, but we didn't leave much extra space. Of course, in our part of Nevada, average annual precipitation is 7". Haven't gotten to the roof yet, but it will be poured concrete, I think. Stocking Up, I can't recall the author, has some diagrams in it's storing food section for root cellars, as well.

-- Jean Bondiett (j_bondiett@hotmail.com), September 03, 1999.

Bob,

I had a friend who buried a small school bus body. I don't recall the brand, but it was made of aluminum on the parts that would be exposed to the soil. He laid a sheet of 6 mil polyethylene over it to further protect it from moisture. His was on a hillside so he didn't have to worry about ground water so much. It worked fine for him, and his out of pocket money was very low since the bus he bought was with a blown engine. He removed the body completely and sold the frame, and all running gear to a scrap yard.

Gerald

-- Gerald R. Cox (grcox@internetwork.net), September 18, 1999.


There is a issue of countryside that deals with this . (late 97 or early 98) It talks about useing a washing machine shell. Just make sure if you use anthing your goi to bury and live in a snowy area you mark it and mulck good so your door won't freeze shut . You can also get a book called Putting Food BY byJanet Greene, Ruth Hertzber and Beatrice Vaughan . it lists several ways.

-- Becky Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), September 27, 1999.

Countryside vol 81 no. 4 (july/aug issue 1997) page 73 Our local dump has plenty of used appliances . Hope this helps

-- Becky Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), September 27, 1999.

the article about psp construction in the latest Countryside is probably the cheapest new construction you can do - burying something big enough invites problems over time from caving in - the ideas about covering the structure with plastic is good - it could be expanded with the idea that there could be two layers of plastic one adjacent to the structure and one held a few inches up with back fill that could be shaped to send any water that makes it that far very far from the structure.

-- kirby johnson (kirby@selco.lib.mn.us), October 28, 1999.


re burying a plastic tank,consider anchoring it-if you get high water it's possible the structure will be floated to the surface of the ground.It's happened with septic tanks.Also with drain pile/tile,put a rodent guard on the end[....otherwise you may get rodents either living in the pipe or coming into the cellar.My single major concern with digging a subterranean structure is cave-ins[perhaps I'm too alarmed??].I have yet to find a detailed text on shoring techniques for the hand digging of root cellars,well pits,or tunnels.Having done construction site inspections,the data has indicated where 3 foot tranches have killed people[at >2700lbs/yd^3 a "lttle earth" can be lethal].Allegedly there some military texts on tunneling,but I haven't located them.

-- Karl Bechler (kbechler@frontiernet.net), November 27, 1999.

Re burying a plastic tank,consider anchoring it-if you get high water it's possible the structure will be floated to the surface of the ground.It's happened with septic tanks.Also with drain pile/tile,put a rodent guard on the end[....otherwise you may get rodents either living in the pipe or coming into the cellar.My single major concern with digging a subterranean structure is cave-ins[perhaps I'm too alarmed??].I have yet to find a detailed text on shoring techniques for the hand digging of root cellars,well pits,or tunnels.Having done construction site inspections,the data has indicated where 3 foot tranches have killed people[at >2700lbs/yd^3 a "lttle earth" can be lethal].Allegedly there some military texts on tunneling,but I haven't located them.Don't do the digging by [solely]yourself and have a viable escape exit in the hole.

-- Karl Bechler (kbechler@frontiernet.net), November 27, 1999.

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