I have been wanting to build a root cellar and I'm thinking about starting into it this summer. I was hoping maybe some of you have built your own or know someone who has. Was kinda hoping maybe someone had some plans or even some good ideas. I really wanting in mostly for food/canned goods storage, as there normally isn't much of a threat of tornadoes here in WV. It doesn't have to be anything gigantic. Juts wondering what might be some good framing-flooring-roofing ideas! Thanks!
Root Cellar Building plans or experience
- Thread starter Safarmwv
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Don87
Elite Member
Try here for some info: Root Cellars
Although that is for storing vegetables and such. For canned food storage you need a dry area, or the lids on the jars will rust.
Another site: http://www.tribwatch.com/rootcell.htm
I have shelving set up in my basement for my home canned fruits, vegetables and meats.
Although that is for storing vegetables and such. For canned food storage you need a dry area, or the lids on the jars will rust.
Another site: http://www.tribwatch.com/rootcell.htm
I have shelving set up in my basement for my home canned fruits, vegetables and meats.
most root cellars I see have poured concrete walls and ceiling with a dirt floor.
I have one as part of my basement (house came this way) with just the normal joist from the floor above for a ceiling. It doesn't stay cool like the others. Some of the concrete also gets direct southern sunlight. If I wanted to use it as intended, it would take a whole mess of insulation and a much better door.
Dad built a small one for camp. It is basically a hole in the ground with lots of insulation above. I guess its more like a geothermal fridge than a root cellar. He also likes double doors for root cellars for better insulation value and no air leaks. Come to think of it, the 100+ yo one on the old farm was set-up for a double door too (the exterior door, a couple of feet then a whole nother wall and door). I imagine that is where he got it from.
The basics of a root cellar are to use cool of the earth to keep your food cooler in the summer and keep it from freezing in the winter. To keep it from heating up and cooling off, you need lots of insulation to make it work right. The dirt floor helps with that and help because some root vegetables do better stored in contact with the ground.
I have one as part of my basement (house came this way) with just the normal joist from the floor above for a ceiling. It doesn't stay cool like the others. Some of the concrete also gets direct southern sunlight. If I wanted to use it as intended, it would take a whole mess of insulation and a much better door.
Dad built a small one for camp. It is basically a hole in the ground with lots of insulation above. I guess its more like a geothermal fridge than a root cellar. He also likes double doors for root cellars for better insulation value and no air leaks. Come to think of it, the 100+ yo one on the old farm was set-up for a double door too (the exterior door, a couple of feet then a whole nother wall and door). I imagine that is where he got it from.
The basics of a root cellar are to use cool of the earth to keep your food cooler in the summer and keep it from freezing in the winter. To keep it from heating up and cooling off, you need lots of insulation to make it work right. The dirt floor helps with that and help because some root vegetables do better stored in contact with the ground.
smiley
Gold Member
FWIW;
If you haven't already done so, check out the Bomb shelter /tornado shelter thread in this forum. Some good ideas there and the simplest is to bury a tank or container.
I mentioned in that thread about building a block inground shelter when we had a mobile home in Fla. The photos below show why we no longer needed that shelter. We built the whole house inground. The reason I mention this is that we used a unique (for houses) construction technique and that is that we used bridge decking for the roof. Bridge decking is nothing more that real heavy duty Galvanized roofing that is laid on bridges, roofs etc and concrete poured on top of it. The advantage of it is that it has it's own structural strength. We put steel I beams 4 ft on center and if I remember correctly at that spacing, would carry about 250 lbs. per sq ft.. about double our planned load. We DID NOT pour concrete on top but simply coated the roof with a roof coating, laid a double layer of 4 mil plastic, 4" of insulation board and covered it with a foot of dirt. As far as we know, this house built in 1984-85 was the first time it had ever been done this way and it's still there as good as the day built.
Now after that explanation, I'll get to the point. A friend from Alabama had visited and helped on the house, then went back to Alabama and built a storm shelter/root cellar using the decking for not only the roof but walls as well. He dug into a small bank, framed it with PT lumber, and put the decking on the outside of the walls and roof then used the excavated material to finish mounding it up. It was only about 4 ft wide and maybe 8-10 ft long but with proper design could be done larger. The decking at that time was only about double the price of steel roofing.
It wouldn't work well in a real wet area, but a cheap easy way to consider and one person can do it alone.
