"DoFer" Root Cellar

[Alan]

Anybody here every dug their own simple root cellar structure?


I've been in desperate need of a root cellar since I started the business a few years back, I finally decided to be a glutton for punishment and begin work on one (by hand) while still working on rebuilding the family tobacco barn.

For those who don't have a high risk of severe weather it would probably be adequate to dig a cache and place a rubber barrel or trash can in the hole in order to store food, perhaps even creating several caches and hidding them in plain sight if things should ever get "that bad".

For us in the ohio valley however, tornadoes are a fairly common occurence and as such having a place to stash not just feed and seed but family is paramount.

I decided to dig a rectangular hole in the ground, five-six feet in depth 16 feet long and 6 feet wide. Around the perimeter and inside the hole I will dig another one to two feet and place a perimeter drain which will remove water from around the inside walls of the cellar. The hole will be lined with two layers of green house plastic to protect from moisture and flooding and will be framed out using heavy duty concrete shipping pallets, nailed together accross the top and bottom with 2 x 4 studs and reinforced at the corners with cedar posts atop of this will set two old and beat up full size pickup truck toppers braced down the middle with cedar posts and 2 x 4 studs, the plastic will then be wrapped overtop of the truck toppers and the whole deal minus the steps down into the cellar on the northside of the hill will be filled in with the northside built out using creek rock.

[kb]

Hi you might check out this link re: root cellars, goodluck!!

waltonfeed.com/blog/showCategory/category_id/74

[mnjrutherford]

I've been thinking about this for several months now. Our house is a basic rectangular, double wide, manufactured mobile home. The center front features a small, inset porch. My thought would be to dig the root cellar in front and slightly to the left of the front of the porch. About 22' square. Then, extent the porch about 2' beyond the cellar to the right and front, then, all the way to the far left corner of the house and possibly wrap a bit around the left side of the house. Then, put in a 24' above ground swimming pool on the far left of the cellar. The porch would be covered, but not enclosed. There would be a "hidden" stair down to the cellar. With the pool being covered, it would not need the huge chemical input to keep it clean that an uncovered pool would need. Therefore, it could be maintained as a source of "emergency" water. I would want the pump and perhaps a heater to run on solar. Keeping it heated would mean that a goodly portion of the porch could be used as a sort of greenhouse as well.

[mjc]

I've got access to a fair number of concrete blocks...so I'm planning on building something like this....



The top half of the pic shows the existing cellar wall and profile of the ground. The root cellar is the red box. When finished, there will be about 3' of soil on top. It will be constructed from concrete block on a footing. The roof will probably be beams cut from black locust and sheathed with metal...the metal will be heavily coated with roofing tar before backfilling. It will have a gravel floor and the door will probably be oak planks (most likely cut on site).

The other option, since I need to replace the front porch, is to build something similar to what Jo was describing. But I'm leaning towards the first...

I'm not sure if I will get around to starting it this year or not...but it will happen sometime over the next couple of years (if I can score some backhoe time, it will happen sooner rather than later...).

[grunt]

Make very sure of good drainage around the perimeter, and that it will drain well away.

[mnjrutherford]

Nice looking design there. We have a natural drainage formation from our porch area, but one side would have to be graded slightly to make absolutely certain that it would go off in the right direction. I'm wondering how much it would cost to rent a backhoe for the length of time necessary to dig an adequate hole. I'll have to check that out. I think we know someone around here that has a backhoe and does just that kind of work.

[Walk]

We hand dug a 4-1'2 deep cellar hole about 5'x9' under our porch last spring. I did most of the digging and my husband wheelbarrowed the dirt away (used as fill in all sorts of spots). It only took a few days to accomplish, doing a little at a time. It's got patio block pavers for a floor and the walls and top are 2x6 T&G ACQ treated decking. There is a hatch door in the top (the porch floor). The sides have 2" of foam all around, and the top has 4" of foam and 3 layers of Reflectex (mylar bubble wrap). It's been working great all winter.