Утепление Стен Подвала Изнутри В Частном Доме Пенополистиролом Своими Руками: Видео + Фото Как Сделать Правильно

Утепление стен изнутри подвала

Утепление стен подвала изнутри – важное мероприятие по обеспечению оптимальной температуры и влажности устройства. Главным предназначением погреба является хранение продуктов.

Минусовая температура приведет к замерзанию овощей и консервов, а при высокой они могут испортиться, большая влажность способствует гниению урожая. Как изнутри утеплить подвал, существует множество способов, некоторые из них предлагается рассмотреть в этой статье.

Как устроена гидроизоляция и вентиляция подвала

Без правильного устройства вентиляции и гидроизоляции погреба любой утеплитель очень быстро станет непригодным. Для любого фундамента обязательным атрибутом является сооружение отмостки, которая будет защищать погреб, чтобы в него не проникали потоки талого снега или дождя.

Дополнительную защиту вокруг фундамента образует система водоотводных каналов. Помимо этого можно оборудовать дренажную канаву.

В этом случае:

• Выкапывается снаружи дома канава, глубина которой на 30 сантиметров ниже пола в погребе.
• Укладывается геоткань.
• Насыпается щебенка.
• Кладется дренажная труба.
• Сверху все закрывается геотекстилем.
• Засыпается грунтом или песком.
• Тщательно утрамбовывается.

Такие способы используются как дополнительные если присутствуют высокие грунтовые воды. Но существуют ряд мероприятий, которые нужно выполнять в обязательном порядке.

К ним относятся:

• Обработка его стенок изнутри и снаружи гидроизоляционным составом.
• Устройство специальных емкостей — кессонов для погреба, представляющие собой металлические листы или пластик.

Даже правильно выполненные перечисленных работ не обеспечит долгое хранение овощей, они в нем не «дышат». Образование внутри конденсата препятствует поддержанию в нем постоянного оптимального микроклимата.

Самым простым способом устройства вентиляции помещения являются:

• Монтаж двух каналов, позволяющих обеспечить приточно-вытяжную вентиляцию. Для этого используются трубы из ПВХ диаметром от 10 до 50 мм. Перепад температуры воздуха в подвале и поступающего снаружи создают правильное функционирование системы.
• Установка продухов в фундаменте.

Схема устройства вентиляции в погребе

Зачем утеплять подвал

Независимо от назначения в помещении любого здания должно быть тепло и отсутствовала влага. В подвальном помещении чаще всего появляются сырость и большие колебания температур, что приводит к проникновению плохого микроклимата под домом и в жилые помещениях:

Появление таких неприятностей приводит:

• К порче выполненного ремонта.
• К ускоренному разрушению конструкции.
• Ухудшает здоровье проживающих в доме людей.

Как можно утеплить подвал

Утепление погреба изнутри или снаружи позволяет добиться хороших результатов, которые позволят внизу устроить даже жилую комнату.

При этом нужно:

• Утеплить стены подвала изнутри и снаружи.
• Сделать теплым потолок.
• Утеплить пол.

Материал для утепления подвала изнутри

Как утеплить стены подвала изнутри — наиболее важный и серьезный вопрос при выполнении таких работ. От качественно выбранного материала, зависит готовый результат.

Наиболее распространенными вариантами для решения подобных проблем являются:

• Пенопласт. Цена его достаточно приемлемая, но он легко деформируется при очень высокой или низкой температурах.

Как утеплить подвал внутри пенопластом показано на фото

Совет: Из-за недостатков материал можно использовать лишь для потолка.

• Пеноплекс. Это современный теплоизоляционный материал, лишенный недостаков пенопласта.

Выпускается в виде плит, монтируется практически так же как и пенопласт.

При этом необходимо:

1. тщательно выравнивать поверхность для фиксации плиты;
2. стыковые швы между ними создают «мостики» холода.

Прежде, чем утеплить подвал изнутри пеноплексом, нужно определить не нужно ли достигать максимально возможный результат утепления.

Совет: Его можно использовать в сочетании с другим более качественным вариантам: например, утепление стен снаружи выполнять пенополиуретаном, тогда изнутри берется пеноплекс.

• Пенополистирол. Это аналог пеноплекса, который отличается лишь методикой производства. Имеет такие же достоинства и недостатки.
• Пенополиуретан.

Утепление полиуретаном

После нанесения материал очень быстро твердеет, создает прочный наружный слой. Единственным недостатком, который заслуживает внимание, является лишь метод его нанесения: он требует присутствия специальной установки, создающей высокое давление, что нельзя выполнить своими руками, а требует приглашения профильных компаний.

К достоинствам материала относятся:

1. полная защита от влаги, при этом не требуется монтаж дополнительной защиты даже при постоянном контакте с влагой;
2. имеет хорошее качество результата;
3. создает полную герметичность помещения, чему способствует отсутствие стыков и швов;

• при попадании влаги не будет гнить и плесневеть.

Как утеплить погреб пенопластом

Прежде, чем утеплить изнутри подвал пенопластом, учитываются все его недостатки и преимущества. Затем берется пенопласт толщиной 5 сантиметров марки ПСБ – 25. В течении длительного времени он позволяет поддерживать стабильную температуру. Обрешетка для его монтажа не нужна.

Далее технология проведения работ заключается в следующем:

• Листы пенопласта наклеиваются на кирпичную или бетонную поверхность стен с помощью морозостойкого клея.
• Дополнительная фиксация мест стыков производится дюбелями с широкой шляпкой.
• Крепится пароизоляционная пленка, для защиты от образования конденсата.
• Все стыки обрабатываются с помощью приклеивания малярного армированного скотча.

Как утеплить потолок в погребе

Особое внимание нужно обратить при выборе технологии как утеплить подвал изнутри, на утепление его потолка. Это связано с тем, что к образованию конденсата приводит холодный воздух, который попадает во внутрь помещения через трубы.

Если на первом этаже полы деревянные, то потолок утепляется аналогично как и стены. При железобетонном перекрытии понадобится установка фальш-потолка,что чаще используется в гараже.

Инструкция приведения работ:

• С шагом 600 миллиметров, ниже уровня потолка на 150 миллиметров монтируются трубы диаметром 25 миллиметров.
• Делается ограждающая сетка из прутьев арматуры диаметром от 0,8 до 1 сантиметра.
• Конструкция окрашивается водостойкой краской.
• Промежуток между потолком и полученной конструкцией заполняется плотно теплоизоляционным материалом.

Утепление пола в подвале

Утепление пола в подвале

Существует несколько способов утепления пола в подвале:

• Как утеплить подвал изнутри при использовании для пола керамзита. Это наиболее популярный метод, который позволяет хорошо утеплить помещение и стоит недорого.
• Учитывается нагрузка, действующая на пол, что сказыватся на толщине слоя керамзита и величины бетонной стяжки, расположенной на нем сверху.
• Перед этим делается с нахлестом на стены паробарьер, высота которого должна быть не меньше насыпного пола.
• Защиту от просадки обеспечит керамзит размером от 5 до 20 мм двух видов.
• С помощью уровня устанавливаются маячки. Первый недалеко от стены, остальные на расстоянии правила для выравнивания стяжки, строго параллельно между собой.
• После полного застывания состава засыпается керамзит, слоем не меньше 10 сантиметров.

Утеплить пол подвала в гараже можно песком, щебнем и стяжкой. Для этого:

• Пол углубляется на 30 сантиметров.
• Засыпается на 10 см толщиной щебень.
• Укладывается песчаная подушка в 5 см.
• Тщательно все утрамбовывается.
• Заливается горячий битум в качестве гидроизоляции.
• Делается армированная стяжка.

Утепление дверей в подвале

Совет: Нельзя допускать наличие щелей в деревянной двери, что может нарушить циркуляцию воздуха. Если они есть необходимо выполнить из заделку монтажной пеной или герметиком.

Утепление дверей погреба можно выполнить войлоком или более современными материалами:

• Пенополистиролом.
• Пенопластом.

Вы также можете узнать на нашем сайте о том, как сделать Дверь в подвал своими руками: какая лучше подойдет в том или ином случае.

Приклеиваются листы специальным клеем. Как утеплить погреб изнутри хорошо показывает видео. Качественное утепление подвала изнутри – залог длительного сохранения продуктов.

90000 How to insulate a cellar wall 90001 90002 Q. My poured concrete basement has an 8-inch-thick wall with a 10-inch exposure above ground. Heat loss already is minimized by weatherstripping and plastic sheets. There is, however, considerable heat loss through the cellar walls, especially the upper half. The conventional solution is to install 2-by- 3 or 2-by-4 studding filled with batt insulation. I have also considered and rejected the use of polystyrene panels because of the problems of flammability and toxic fumes.If I were to cover the styrene with plasterboard, I would be right back with the problem and cost of a framework that is adequate to support the weight. I wonder if it is reasonable to install 4-by-8 sheets of Celotex wallboard to cover the upper four feet of the wall. What adhesive should I use if the whole idea is practical? R. I. Mitchell Plymouth, New Hampshire 90003 90002 A. Celotex denotes a wide range of ceiling and wallboard products of varying thickness and insulating values. 90003 90002 You are correct in saying that attaching this sort of material to the upper half of the basement walls would produce some insulating effect.However, the trick lies in locating the most value for one’s purchasing dollar. 90003 90002 Investigate the many similar materials on the market with an eye toward the one with the highest insulating, or R, value. 90003 90002 Use a waterproof mastic cement to apply the board to the inside walls. A double thickness of the wallboard would obviously increase the insulating value. 90003 90002 One insulation contractor says he would use a rigid fiberglass board, two inches thick, and glued to the interior wall surface with a product called Tuff-bond, or equal.Both products are available through a local mechanical insulation supplier. 90003 90002 The R value is greater in the rigid fiberglass than with the Celotex. 90003 90002 My calculations show that you would need less than 400 board measure of 2-by- 4s which, out here in California, would cost less than $ 200 at retail. 90003 90002 If it were my basement I would apply the studs to the walls with glue, install the best R- factor insulation commensurate with 4-inch nominal thickness, and cover the studs with whatever finish material suited by fancy and budget.90003 90002 If possible, install an asphalt-impregnated insulating fiberboard below grade outside and against the perimeter foundation to the frost line. That will thwart much of the cold which otherwise is passing through the upper portion of the wall. 90003 .90000 Root Cellaring — Modern Homesteading 90001 90002 Of all the satisfactions to be had from growing and keeping vegetables and fruits, surely none is sweeter than that of selecting from crates of your own stored produce to feed your family in the dead of winter. It’s February as we write this, and the ground is ringing-hard. Ice glazes the lane, and the trees bend to the howling of the wind. We’ll have fresh vegetables for dinner today, though — not from the store, but from our root cellar. We’ve just brought up a bowl of potatoes, a pocketful of carrots, a head of Chinese cabbage, a few apples and a big beet — the makings of a nourishing stew, a crisp salad and a baked apple dessert.90003 90002 All this — and more — can be yours without boiling jars or filling freezer bags. No slicing, no sweetening, no packaging or processing. That’s the beauty of root cellaring: You can use natural cold to chill and preserve storage vegetables. We still can tomatoes and peaches, and we freeze peas, because these methods seem to be the most effective for those foods, but for most root vegetables, some members of the cabbage family and several fruits — especially apples — you can not beat good old cold storage.90003 90002 Stashing foods in the root cellar is simple once you’ve done the work of enclosing the space. Most people think of the classic root cellar as an underground or hillside cave, but we’ll tell you here about several other practical keeping rooms, as well, along with a bunch of improvised storage options for those of you who prefer to start (or stay) small. 90003 90002 To understand why root cellars work, consider first that vegetables are still alive after they’ve been harvested. They even breathe — not as actively as you and we do, of course, but chemically their respiration is like that of humans: They take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide, water vapor and heat, and they’ll continue to do so until we cook or eat them or until they decay.At low temperatures, vegetables use up less of their storage reserves because the cold slows their respiration. Cold air also helps to counteract the deteriorating effect of the «body heat,» which is a by-product of respiration. (At 32 degrees, 1 pound of broccoli produces 2 Btu of heat a day, according to USDA reports.) Chilling is important for yet another reason: Because cold air absorbs less moisture than warm air, vegetables dry out more slowly, and thus stay in better condition, when they’re kept cold.90003 90002 How cold and damp should your cellar be? Most root vegetables will keep longest at temperatures between 32 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit with 90 to 95 percent humidity. We’ve visited root cellars, though, where the temperature stayed closer to 45 degrees, and the stored food kept well until late winter. So use the ideal figures as something to aim for, but do not worry too much about small variations. As long as the food does not freeze, it will keep better in cold storage than on your kitchen shelf.True, if you can keep the stored crops only moderately cool, they will not last the winter, but extending your garden-vegetable-eating season by as little as two months rates as a real achievement. And if you build a room-size food hideaway, you should be able to keep at least some fruits and vegetables from fall harvest clear through until spring and sometimes longer. We’ve even had a few beets and sweet potatoes remain in usable shape until the following fall — a 90011 year 90012 from when they were dug! 90003 90002 If you have a dirt-floored cellar room in your house, you’ve got a good start for root storage right there; all you need to do is enclose and insulate the space.Or perhaps there’s a north- or east-facing hill on your property where you could dig into the slope and line the space with stone or concrete block. On flat land, you could go straight underground and dig a cavern, insulate and roof it and then top it with a shed. Many midwestern gardeners build mound-topped underground food closets which double as storm shelters. You can even buy a prefabricated fiberglass shelter / storage room, have it delivered to a bulldozed hole and then call the dozer back to pile a soil bank over it — an almost-instant root cellar! 90003 90002 Whether your food-keeping spot is in your house or under a hill, here are some things to keep in mind as you plan how to enclose the space: 90003 90002 Earth is a good insulator because the soil temperature underground stays fairly constant.At a depth of about 12 feet in wet soil, the temperature changes only about 7 degrees throughout the year, remaining close to the average air temperature for that locality. In our state of Pennsylvania, that’s about 52 F. Make the most of the earth’s temperature-moderating influence by placing your cellar on the cooler north side of a building or hill away from the warming power of the sun’s rays. 90003 90002 90011 Cold 90012 is vital to long storage life. Next comes 90011 humidity, 90012 to prevent shriveling of produce from loss of moisture.The third essential is 90011 ventilation. 90012 Include both air-intake and air-exhaust pipes so you’ll be able to chill the cellar by admitting cold night air and by venting warm air (along with ethylene gas given off by some ripening fruits). Good air circulation will help to control condensation of moisture on the vegetables, which is more copious in easily saturated cold air. For the most effective air-flow pattern, the air must move as much as possible. Since warm air rises and cold air sinks, install the cold-air intake near the floor and the exhaust pipe near the ceiling.Put the openings on opposite ends of the cellar so the air must cross the room to get out. And always elevate crates a few inches above the floor so that air can circulate underneath them. 90003 90002 Keep the room dark; light encourages sprouting in potatoes. You might want to wire your cellar for a light bulb, though, so that you can see what you’re getting when you go delving there. Use a porcelain outdoor socket and outdoor wiring. 90003 90002 Close all spaces as tightly as you can to keep mice out.This means screening all vent pipes and windows and making sure the door fits tightly. 90003 90002 Do not plan to keep any jars of canned goods in your main vegetable storage area. If it’s as damp there as it should be to keep the produce in good shape, the jar lids will rust, and then the seals will break. Canned goods need a cool, 90011 dry 90012 spot. 90003 90002 What size should your keeping room be? Many of the cellars we visited in researching our book, 90011 Root Cellaring, 90012 were 8-by-10 feet or larger, but few of them were filled to capacity.90003 90002 (After all, a 5-by-8 foot space can hold 30 bushels of produce.) If you intend to keep vegetables such as celery in buckets of soil, an 8-by-8 cellar will probably supply enough space. 90003 90042 90002 Shelving multiplies the useful space in your cellar. Use only rot-resistant woods; the best are locust, cedar and cypress.1-inch oak planks or 2-inch Douglas fir planks should last long enough to be worth installing, but do not use pine at all unless it’s free and you do not mind replacing it.Shelves should be slatted for good air circulation and should have cleats at intervals along their back edges to keep them 1 or 2 inches away from the wall. We would not recommend using pressure-treated or creosoted wood in any room that will be used to store food. There’s no sense growing food carefully without poisons and then storing it where it might absorb chemical fumes. 90003 90002 Once you’ve «borrowed» cold — from the earth in fall and from outside air in winter — you’ll want to keep the chill in.To do this, insulate any surface of the storage space that is likely to be unduly warmed (the ceiling, interior walls and door of a basement room) or chilled (the door and ceiling of an underground root cellar). Exterior walls surrounded by earth need no insulation. For walls that do, choose one of the rigid foam insulation boards rather than fiberglass, which gets soaked by condensation. Old-time gardeners used dry leaves, sawdust, wood shavings, straw and even cinders to insulate their produce hideaways.90003 90002 Do not concrete the floor of your cold-keeper. The constant cooling and humidifying influence of a dirt floor is one of the secrets of good vegetable storage. If you’re enclosing a basement room that already has a cement floor, use it for a few seasons to check it out. If the pantry stays too dry, spread an inch of gravel on the floor. Then you can dampen the gravel to increase air moisture. 90003 90049 Building a Root Cellar Outside 90050 90002 Whatever you use to enclose your cellar, your first step after choosing a site will be to dig a hole or hire a backhoe to scoop out a space, either directly underground or set into a hill.Next, install a drainpipe in your cellar floor. Then make forms to support a poured-concrete foundation on which the walls will be built. The foundation should be twice as wide as the walls will be thick (16 inches for standard 8-by-16 concrete blocks). If you want to mix your own concrete, here’s a recipe for a good strong mixture: 1 part cement, 2 ¼ parts sand, 3 parts gravel and just enough water to make it spreadable. If you have premix delivered, be sure to order enough for the job. Running out of concrete in mid-pour is, as our country neighbor says, 90011 embarrassing! 90012 90003 90002 Now, after marking corners carefully with stakes and crossed string, begin to lay block on the footers, starting at the corners and gradually filling in the sides.A good mortar mix to cement the blocks or stones together is 1 part cement, 1 part lime and 4 parts sand, mixed with enough water to make the «mud» plastic. Stack the walls 6 ½ to 8 feet high. Then build a form to support a roof of poured concrete: a piece of ¾-inch plywood supported by joists set on beams which rest on 4-by-4 posts. (The joists can be 2-by-4s set 16 inches apart or 2-by-6s 24 inches apart. The beams should be made from 2-by-6s. And you should set the 4-by-4 posts no farther than 4 feet apart in all directions.) Top the plywood with a sheet of 6-mil plastic and make a form of 2-by-6 lumber to run around the exposed perimeter of the board to contain the thickness of the ceiling concrete. Embed 5/8-inch steel rebar in an 18-to-24-inch grid in the bottom half of the 6-inch concrete roof. If you construct your walls of poured concrete rather than of blocks, be sure to brace the forms within the room firmly. If they collapse, you may be stuck with a buried free-form «sculpture» and no space! 90003 90002 Your intake and exhaust pipes should be set in place through holes in the form boards before the ceiling or walls are poured.Extend the outlet pipe several inches above ground level for more complete air exhaust. Leaving it level with the roof would allow a blanket of stale air to remain at ceiling level in the cellar. Some folks who operate root cellars in the Far North have told us that instead of using the standard 4-inch cold-air pipe, they’ve put in two smaller ones so that one could be capped during spells of frigid weather. (An alternative would be to make a doughnut-shaped «hole-reducer» plug.) It’s a good idea to put a chimney cap on the exhaust pipe to block entering cold air that could act as a lid to keep warm air from moving up and out of the pipe.Wrapping the aboveground pipe with some sort of weatherproof insulating material also helps to increase air circulation, because rising air does not get chilled and sink so readily when the pipe is kept relatively warm. 90003 90002 To carry off excess rainwater, run a perforated 4-inch drainpipe around the outer walls of the cellar at floor level, over a 3-inch base of gravel. And to drain groundwater that might freeze, expand and crack the walls, lay a second perforated pipe at a point 2 to 3 feet below the soil’s surface (about halfway through backfilling).After you’ve finished backfilling around the cellar, fasten a 2-inch rigid foam insulation board on the outside surface of the roof, using construction cement. Top that with a sheet of 6-mil poly, shovel on 2 to 4 feet of earth, and scatter some grass seed on the roof to help prevent the soil from washing away. (On one farm we visited, the family cow was tied on the root cellar roof each summer to keep the grass clipped.) Build, buy or scrounge a good solid door, make some shelves, gather some crates, and then go and dig your vegetables! 90003 90049 Building a Basement Root Cellar 90050 90002 A basement root cellar might not be quite as cold and damp as an excavated cellar — especially in fall and spring — but it’s still a plenty good keeping-space, and it has the advantage of being easy to build.A few rainy weekends spent sawing and hammering will earn you a cold-storage room that’ll keep your garden produce over the winter for years to come. 90003 90002 An old farmhouse we once lived in had a dirt-floored basement that made a great root cellar. The space stayed cold because we heated the house with a wood-burning box stove on the first floor. In another house, this time with central heating, we found we could store root vegetables in a large, unheated basement closet. If your house has a separate cellar room on the northeast (coldest) or the northwest (next best) side, all you need to do is insulate the door, the ceiling and the 90011 inside 90012 walls.Leave the exterior walls uninsulated so the deep-ground cold can seep in. 90003 90002 In a heated basement that is not divided, you could partition off a room on the cold northeast corner. Start by nailing 2-by-4 sills to the floor around the perimeter of the room-to-be. (On a concrete floor, predrill the holes in both wood and concrete, run a bead of construction glue around the bottom edges of the 2-by-4s, and fasten the sills to the floor with lag bolts.) Then toenail 2-by -4 studs to the plate on 16-inch centers.Begins to look like something now, does not it? Next, nail a 2-by-4 header to the tops of the studs, and staple a 6-mil poly vapor barrier to the inner surface of the studs. Top this with panels of Styrofoam or urethane sandwiched between the poly and an inner wall of somewhat moistureproof material such as Aspenite, Formica or fiberglass. You can also use scrap pieces of aluminum press plates, which are available at little cost from local newspaper publishers. If you’re short of space, you could fit the insulation boards 90011 between 90012 the studs.In that case, put the vapor barrier on the outside surface of the studs (it should always be on the warm side of the insulation). The outer walls that face the basement may be made of any material you like to look at; they will not be affected by the pantry’s dampness. Finally, install vent pipes, insulate the door and ceiling, make some shelves, and plan a cellar-warming party. If your root room has a window, shade and screen it, but keep it accessible so you can open it at night to cool the space when necessary.If, when you start to use the room, you find that a single window does not provide enough ventilation, you can run a cold-air intake pipe from outside down to floor level and across the room. (You want that air to 90011 move!) 90012 90003 90049 Decentralized Storage 90050 90002 If you can muster the time, space and materials to build a step-in root cellar, you’ll probably be glad you did. Suppose, though, that you’re living in a rented house, or have only a limited amount of surplus produce from your garden, or need all your cash for land payments.What can you do then with that extra row of carrots, the half-bushel of potatoes or the baskets of beets or apples you’d like to save for winter munching? Cheer up — you still have plenty of options beyond the whole-hog, full-scale root cellar. 90003 90002 Begin by prowling around your house for likely closets and cubbyholes. An unheated porch is great for keeping onions and sweet potatoes until early winter. A spare bedroom or cold attic makes a fine winter-squash dormitory. Perhaps there is a space under your porch where produce could be cold-stored until subfreezing weather sets in.A north-side closet on an exterior wall could extend your apple-eating season by a month or two. One man we visited even built a drawer under each basement step to hold a small amount of potatoes or onions. 90003 90002 Sheds and garages are good places to store root and bulb vegetables in late fall. We keep our onions in our cool log garage until nights turn really cold in December and then bring them indoors to an unheated spare room where at least some of them keep until spring. In areas with moderate climates, baskets of apples buffered by hay bales on all sides will often keep until Christmas in a garage.And if you must save a late-ripening melon for your Thanksgiving fruit cup, stash it in a bin of oats in the barn — an old trick that still works. 90003 90002 Country folks who had open-topped wells would often hang buckets of apples above the water level in the cavity, suspended from 2-by-4’s set across the top edges of the pit. 90003 90002 The simplest of all cold-storage schemes is to leave some root vegetables right in the row. An insulating layer of leaf-filled bags or of hay bales settled on top of the row will extend the digging season.Raised-bed gardeners have the advantage here because their well-drained garden soil stays diggable longer. Even after the ground freezes too hard to dig, your winter blanket will help preserve such roots as carrots, salsify, parsnips and Hamburg rooted parsley until early spring. If you can plant your overwintering root crops in an intensively planted bed instead of in single rows, you’ll find that they are easier to protect (and find!). Mice like these cozy set-ups too, so you might want to spread a sheet of hardware cloth over the crop before piling on the hay.Dig these root crops as early in spring as you can, because the quality of the food is best before new green tops start to sprout. If you’ve ever eaten freshly dug parsnips in March, after a winter’s worth of freezes has changed much of their starch to sugar, you know that’s what 90011 sweet is! 90012 90003 90002 An hour or so of digging will earn you another outdoor vegetable-storage space — the 90011 garden trench. 90012 This is especially useful for celery, and also for cabbages, which do not take kindly to being piled in a heap, and which tend to «perfume» the house with their distinctive aroma when kept indoors.Dig a trench about 2 feet deep and wide enough to allow room for the produce. Save the fine soil in a separate pile. Then dig up your celery, Chinese cabbage and cabbage, and immediately replant them in the trench, using the fine soil to cover the roots. You could also place heads of cabbage on a 3-inch layer of straw in the bottom of the trench, keeping the roots upright but not backfilling the hollow with dirt. In either case, cover the trench with a board and then pile an 18-inch layer of organic insulation over this roof.Your effort will be rewarded when you dash out on a frosty day to grab a quick head of cabbage for a hearty early-winter soup. 90003 90002 Another time-tested, on-the-spot food-keeper is the 90011 clamp 90012, which is an earth-covered mound of vegetables. For centuries, people who had no choice 90011 but 90012 to be self-reliant have fed their families on apples and root vegetables kept in carefully constructed clamps. When Mike was a boy, his family relied on clamps full of potatoes to sustain them through the harsh flatland winters in Poland.Select a dry, well-drained spot for your clamp, and prepare the ground by first raking off leaves and spent plants and then digging a shallow, circular pit 8 to 12 inches deep. Next, shovel out a narrow drainage channel around the perimeter of the hole, line the pit with a 3-inch layer of hay, straw or leaves, and build a cone-shaped pile of ‘produce up to 2 or 3 feet high. Because a clamp must be emptied once it’s opened in midwinter, you might want to make several small clamps and put a mixture of several kinds of vegetables — carrots, turnips, rutabagas, potatoes, beets — in each.Apples should be kept in a separate clamp — not mixed with the vegetables. To ventilate the mound, stack the vegetables around a central air shaft — either a perforated pipe or a bundle of straw — and let the end of this air conductor stick up several inches above the pile. Now tuck the vegetables in under a 6-to-12-inch layer of hay or straw, covered by a 4-inch coat of dirt firmed down well as you apply it. Do not cover the vent pipe. Finally, dig a second drainage trench around the now-covered pile.The clamp may not come with a warranty, but you will not need a loan to get as many of the mounds as you need, and they will not add any numbers to your electric meter, either. 90003 90002 The earth’s insulating mass can help you to preserve garden food in other small-scale ways. You can bury barrels, 18-to-24-inch-wide clay drain tiles or clean trash cans in the ground, and fill them with food. Dig a hole wide enough to accept the can (tile, barrel or whatever) and about 10 inches deeper than the height of the container.Toss 3 inches of gravel into the hole, settle the food-safe in the space, and then pack alternating layers of root vegetables and straw into the cavity. Stuff more straw into the top 5 inches of the buried pantry, add a board held down with a stone and then another 12-inch-thick wad of straw or hay topped by a second, larger, board. 90003 90002 Some folks even bury dead refrigerators or freezers as instant mini-root cellars. The already-insulated, mouseproof boxes make fine food-keepers, but just be sure to remove the lock for safety, and — while you have your tools out — drill a hole for a screened 1-to-2-inch vent pipe to help circulate air.When we used a defunct fridge to store apples, we parked it above ground next to a concrete-block wall, covered it with a large rubber mat so rain would not seep in and surrounded it on all exposed sides with hay bales. The apples stayed in good shape until January. 90003 90002 Sometimes it takes a few seasons of experimenting with different vegetable varieties, various storage methods and several packing materials before you come up with an arrangement that suits your situation. Keep records so you’ll be able to track down what you did that worked best.One of the reasons we’re so fond of root cellars is that, as we see it, they represent a true folk craft — an often-ingenious response to a particular set of local conditions. 90003 90049 Stocking the Cellar 90050 90002 Many of the most reliable winter-keeping vegetables are biennials — plants that flower and set seed during their second growing season — so they’re naturally programmed for long storage. When we try to keep beets, cabbage and turnips, for example, to eat over the cold months, we’re not breaking rules of nature, but rather cooperating with what you might call the vegetables ‘intentions — to live to see another spring so they can reproduce.90003 90002 In addition to the sturdy root and cole vegetables that are obvious candidates for root cellaring, you can also store celery, leeks, brussels sprouts, pepper, grapes, escarole and citrus fruits in your cold room for shorter periods ranging from two to eight weeks depending on the type of vegetables and the conditions. Onions, garlic, squash, pumpkins, sweet potatoes and green tomatoes will last until spring if you keep them dry and cool. The place for 90011 these 90012 good foods is in an unheated bedroom or a cool closet rather than in the kind of damp, cold place where apples and root vegetables keep best.90003 90002 For whatever produce you stash in your keeping room, there are several rules of thumb that will help keep the food sound and healthy till you’re ready to eat it. 90003 90115 90116 Treat all winter-keeping vegetables gently at all stages of harvest, preparation and storage. Bruised produce spoils sooner. 90117 90116 Store only your best fruits and vegetables. Cut, bruised or diseased vegetables not only spoil more quickly but also tend to encourage spoilage in neighboring foods.90117 90116 Pick foods at maturity — neither underdeveloped nor tough and overripe. 90117 90116 Harvest during a dry spell if time permits. 90117 90116 Leave vegetables in the garden as long as possible, but keep an eye on the weather and rescue them before black frost hits. Beets, for example, can stay out well past the first light frosts but should be dug before night temperatures dip to around 24 F unless their exposed shoulders are well protected by mulch. Low temperatures in fall encourage vegetables to store more sugars and starches than water, making them better keepers.90117 90116 Choose varieties of vegetables that are well adapted to storage: Long Season beets, Penn State Ballhead cabbage and Kennebec potatoes, for instance. 90117 90116 After digging them, chill root vegetables as promptly as possible. Do not leave them out in the sun. 90117 90130 90002 To prepare root vegetables for winter storage, simply trim off the green tops, leaving a 1-inch stub (if left on, the top growth will decay and encourage the deterioration of adjacent roots).Take care not to cut the root flesh, and do not cut off root tips, either; any skin break invites spoilage. Having done all this digging, selecting and trimming, you’ll be glad to hear that you need not wash vegetables before packing them away; in fact, it’s better 90011 not 90012 to clean them. Just gently brush off any large clumps of soil that may cling to them. 90003 90002 Some root-cellar owners simply pile their apples and root vegetables in crates or baskets. Others prefer to pack the produce in leaves, hay, sawdust or moss to help prevent drying, especially if using a basement room, which might not be as damp as an outdoor cellar.When we kept turnips, rutabagas, carrots and beets in a cold, dirt-floored cellar in the old house on our farm, we always packed them in dry leaves or sawdust. Sand can also be used for winter vegetable bedding, but it is not as easy to wash off as sawdust. 90003 90002 Certain vegetables must be 90011 cured 90012 in order to keep well. After clipping off their tops — leaving a 1-inch stub — expose garlic and onions to the sun for a week after digging them, and then spread them loosely in shallow boxes or hang them in net bags or old panty hose.Cure pumpkins and squash (except acorn squash) in the sun for two weeks after picking them so they’ll develop a hard rind. Always leave stems on. And keep freshly harvested sweet potatoes in a warm, damp place — aim for 80 to 85 F and 90 percent humidity — to toughen their skins and encourage healing of small scratches. I cure my sweets in crates near the wood cookstove, with a damp newspaper spread over each crate. Then, after seven to 10 days of curing, I wrap the potatoes individually in newspaper, sort them for size, pack them in cartons and keep them in a cool room.Curing white potatoes is not 90011 essential 90012 as it is with sweets, but it’s a good idea to spread the spuds out in a sheltered spot — about 60 to 75 F — for a two-week skin-toughening program before piling them into crates in the root cellar. Keep them in the shade, though; sun will turn them green 90011 (and 90012 toxic). 90003 90002 Some leafy vegetables can be replanted in buckets of sand, soil or moss in the root cellar. I’ve had good luck with Chinese cabbage, escarole and leeks.Celery is a good candidate for this treatment too. Chinese cabbage has kept for us until February — the crunchy fresh inner leaves hidden behind an outer layer of wilted, paper-dry wrapper leaves. 90003 90049 The Year-Round Harvest 90050 90002 For us, root cellaring is more than a winter convenience. It’s a way to keep carefully grown, unsprayed food on our menu all year long. It’s a time-saver in summer because we have less need now to can and freeze so much of our garden’s bounty. We do not need to buy so many jars and lids, either, or to run the stove so long in August.But best of all, it makes us feel good — prepared, provided for and well nourished — when we can go «shopping» in the cellar and return with a basket of fresh food, the fruit of our efforts at gardening and putting-by. 90003 90002 Whether you use a stony-cold cave, a basement pantry, or a buried box, we wish you joy in the growing, satisfaction in the keeping and health in the eating. 90003 90049 Maintenance 90050 90002 A root cellar is not one of those «set-it- and-forget-it» devices. To keep it running well, you’ll need to do a certain amount of tinkering.In fall and spring, for example, you’ll want the vents or window to be wide open at night in order to cool the space. You might even install a small fan to blow cold air in. At the same time, because cold air is drier than warm air, the newly cool room might need additional moisture, perhaps in the form of water sprinkled on a gravel floor. During the coldest days of winter, monitor the temperature of the cellar to be sure it stays above freezing. Keep the thermometer on the lowest shelf while outdoor temperatures are frigid, so you’ll know how Iow the mercury goes.(And in mild weather, keep it higher or where the bulk of your produce is stored, so you’ll know how warm the cellar gets.) Some folks keep a 40-watt light bulb burning in the cellar during nights of subzero cold to warm the air just a bit. 90003 90002 To keep track of humidity in the cellar, you might want to mount a hygrometer — a moisture indicator — along with your thermometer. Although not an essential piece of equipment, this inexpensive instrument can help you fine-tune the operation of your storage room.Most hardware stores carry hygrometers. If the room is too damp, increase air circulation to admit dry, cool air and vent damp air. To add humidity, moisten the floor gravel and set shallow pans of water in several spots in the room. Droplets of condensation on the ceiling do not necessarily indicate excess humidity. Moisture precipitates sooner from cold air, which is more quickly saturated than warm air. If heavy condensation drips too much on the vegetables, you can spread a sheet of plastic over them so they do not get wet.90003 90002 Check over your hibernating vegetables once a week (except those buried underground!), And cull any that are deteriorating. And to discourage the molds and other decay-promoting organisms that like to live in damp earthy places, sweep and air out your root cellar each summer. Put crates and baskets in the sun for several days, and pitch out any shriveled produce you find lurking in the corners. 90003 90049 Storage Conditions for Different Fruits and Vegetables 90050 90002 90164 Cold and Very Damp 90165 90003 90002 90011 (32-40 F and 90-95 percent relative humidity) 90012 90003 90171 90116 Beets 90117 90116 Carrots 90117 90116 Celeriac 90117 90116 Celery 90117 90116 Chinese cabbage 90117 90116 Hamburg rooted parsley 90117 90116 Horseradish 90117 90116 Jerusalem artichokes 90117 90116 Kohlrabi 90117 90116 Leeks 90117 90116 Parsnips 90117 90116 Rutabagas 90042 Salsify 90117 90116 Scorzonera 90117 90116 Turnips 90117 90116 Winter radishes 90117 90203 90002 90164 Cold and Damp 90165 90003 90002 90011 (32-40 F and 80-90 percent humidity) 90012 90003 90171 90116 Apples 90117 90116 Cabbage 90117 90116 Cauliflower (short-term) 90117 90116 Endive, Escarole 90117 90116 Grapefruit 90117 90116 Grapes 90117 90116 Oranges 90117 90116 Pears 90117 90116 Potatoes 90117 90116 Quince 90117 90203 90002 90164 Cool and Damp 90165 90003 90002 90011 (40-50 F and 85-90 percent humidity) 90042 All short-term: 1-4 weeks 90012 90003 90171 90116 Cantaloupe 90117 90116 Cucumbers 90117 90116 Eggplant 90117 90116 Sweet peppers 90117 90116 Tomatoes, ripe 90117 90116 Watermelon 90117 90203 90002 90164 Cool and Dry 90165 90003 90002 90011 (35-40 F and 60-70 percent humidity) 90012 90003 90171 90116 Garlic 90117 90116 Green soybeans in the pod (short-term) 90117 90116 Onions 90117 90203 90002 90164 Moderately Warm and Dry 90165 90003 90002 (50-60 F and 60-70 percent humidity) 90003 90171 90116 Green tomatoes (may be kept up to 70 F) 90117 90116 Hot peppers, dried 90117 90116 Pumpkins 90117 90116 Sweet potatoes 90117 90116 Winter squash 90117 90203 90002 The Bubels ‘book, Root Cellaring: The Simple No-Processing Way to Store Fruits and Vegetables, is available at MOTHER EARTH NEWS shopping.90003 .90000 The Fundamentals of Root Cellaring 90001 90002 Root cellars are as useful today as ever. In fact, root cellars in all forms are very up-to-date, what with the costs of food and its processing getting higher every year. As we see it, root cellars are right up there with wood heat, bicycles and backyard gardens as a simple, low-technology way of living well — independently. 90003 90002 The term «root cellars,» as used here, includes the whole range of ingenious vegetable-saving techniques, from hillside caves to garden trenches.The traditional root cellar is an underground storage space for vegetables and fruits. Where space and lay of the land permit, these cellars are dug into a hill and then lined with brick, stone or concrete block. Dirt-floored or insulated basement rooms — less picturesque but probably more numerous — are also traditional. 90003 90002 What can root cellaring do for you? Simply this: make it possible for you to enjoy fresh endive in December; tender, savory Chinese cabbage in January; juicy apples in February; crisp carrots in March; and sturdy, unsprayed potatoes in April — all without boiling a jar, blanching a vegetable or filling a freezer bag.A root cellar can save you time, money and supplies. How? For starters, our gas and electric bills were lower because I was not heating 2-gallon kettles of water for canning, I was stuffing less into the freezer, and I did not need to buy new jar lids or freezer bags. 90003 90002 Storage vegetables need not be limited to those old standbys: carrots, potatoes and turnips. With a really well-planned root cellar program, fresh tomatoes, tender dandelion shoots, nuts, pears, sweet potatoes and even cantaloupes can be preserved.Even if you must buy some produce, you’ll find prices of storage vegetables are usually lowest in the fall. If squash is 25 cents a pound at a roadside stand in October, you can be sure it will cost much more than that at the market in January. 90003 90002 More important, it is good to be able to provide for yourself, to be prepared for the winter through your own skill and forethought with your own home-grown produce. If you like to choose your food with care and live simply and self-reliantly, perhaps root cellaring is for you.90003 90002 There are three basic conditions a root cellar should provide. The closer you come to matching these ideal conditions in your vegetable-storage area, the better your vegetables will keep. 90003 90002 90015 Root Cellar Humidity: 90016 High humidity is essential to effective root cellar storage. Most root crops and leafy vegetables keep best in humidity of 90 to 95 percent. Providing plenty of moisture helps prevent these foods from shriveling. 90003 90002 You can achieve the necessary humidity level in a root cellar three ways.First, install a dirt floor, which will retain more natural moisture than one made of concrete or stone. We recommend spreading gravel on packed earth. This helps keep feet dry when the ground gets really damp. Should the storage area need more moisture, you can supply it by sprinkling the gravel with water, which — because of the large surface area — will evaporate readily and fill the air with moisture. 90003 90002 Bringing us to the second way of keeping humidity high: Add some water either by sprinkling the floor, spreading damp (but not dripping wet) burlap bags over the produce or placing pans of water on the root cellar floor.Such measures are often necessary in the fall, when you’re first storing produce. Basement root cellars are much more likely than dug-in root cellars to need added humidity. In very moist areas, root vegetables can be kept uncovered in bins, and they’ll stay smooth and firm. But if your humidity reading falls short of the ideal, you may get better results with a third option: Pack the vegetables — especially carrots, beets and parsnips — in damp sawdust, sand or moss; this cuts down surface evaporation.90003 90002 It’s important to remember that cool air absorbs less moisture than warm air. You get a pretty unstable situation in a place that’s both cold and very damp. A slight drop in temperature can cause air that, at 34 degrees Fahrenheit, say, has room for a bit more moisture, to suddenly become fully saturated at 32 degrees. When this happens, you’ve reached the dew point, and the excess water that the air can no longer hold begins to condense on wall, ceiling and even vegetable surfaces.When produce becomes wet, it’s more likely to spoil — even at low temperatures. To be safe, buy a hygrometer (a humidity measuring device) at the hardware store. 90003 90002 90015 Root Cellar 90016 90015 Ventilation: 90016 Basically, air must be admitted then monitored and circulated through a root cellar. Admitting air to the cellar (as described below) helps keep the area at the desired low temperature. Equally important, adjusting air intake helps to reduce excessive humidity, thus preventing undesirable condensation.Air — set in motion effectively — removes both vegetable odors and ethylene gas given off by stored fruits, which might otherwise produce off-flavors in other foods. 90003 90002 To understand how air can circulate through a root cellar, remember that warm air rises and cool air falls. In a large or tightly enclosed cellar, you’ll need both an air intake and an outlet. The intake should be low, and the outlet should be high; ideally, the two should be on opposite sides of the room to best circulate the air.Cool air will enter through the low intake, and warm air will be re leased through the outlet. In a small storage area, or in one with many cracks where air can enter (such as an old stone foundation), a single outlet placed high to exhaust warm air may be sufficient. Always elevate crates a few inches so that air can circulate underneath them. 90003 90002 90015 Root Cellar Temperature: 90016 Your most important consideration. A good root cellar can both borrow cold and keep cold. You borrow cold by digging into the ground, where the temperature well below frost level remains a fairly constant 52 F or so.This works because the deep-down earth temperature is slow to be affected by ultra-cold surface temperature, so your underground vegetables will have an extra margin of protection. You can borrow cold by letting the night air into the cellar either with a window or a closable exhaust pipe. 90003 90002 If you can maintain temperatures between 32 and 40 F, you have an excellent storage place. A temperature range of 40 to 50 degrees will still permit shorter-term storage of root vegetables and apples, and will keep onions and some of the short-lived storage vegetables like peppers, tomatoes and eggplant in good shape for a month or so.90003 90038 90002 In an indoor root cellar, the area close to the ceiling will be a few degrees warmer than space near the floor, so you’ll have at least a small difference in conditions that you can take advantage of by placing vegetables according to their different storage requirements. 90003 90002 A thermometer is essential for a well-run root cellar. One with minimum / maximum readings will give you a good picture of the kind of temperature variations you’re working with.90003 90043 The Root Cellar For You 90044 90002 The kind of root cellar you build or adapt will depend on the floor plan of your house, the lay of your land and the temperatures and snow cover in your area. 90003 90002 If you have an old house with an unheated, dirt-floor basement room, you’re all set. With slight modification, or in some cases none at all, you’ll have an ideal vegetable-storage cellar. In a house with a heated basement, it’s possible to partition off an unheated corner for vegetable storage.90003 90002 If you prefer an outdoor root cellar, you can either dig into a hill or go straight underground and top the cellar entrance with a bulkhead door, patio or porch. Most outdoor root cellars are dug into a north-facing hill or are underground on the north (coolest) side of the house. You’ll find exceptions to this rule in some of the northern states and Canada, where temperatures plummet well below zero in winter and stay there. Some of the old-time outdoor root cellars in these areas are built on southern exposures for easier winter access.Once winter sets in, it’s plenty cold there even though these cellars get more sunlight than it seems they should. 90003 90002 If you live in an area where winter temperatures are often below zero degrees Fahrenheit and snow cover is heavy, you may prefer climbing into an under-porch storage pit to shoveling through drifts to get to a hill-cave root cellar. Many underground root cellars (such as the one detailed below) are built with an anteroom or double doors that form an airlock, which helps keep warm summer air out of the cellar and also prevents undo chilling of the produce in severe winter weather.90003 90002 If your winters are mild, with average temperatures well over 30 F, you will not be able to achieve the most desirable low temperature in your cellar for keeping root vegetables. Those vegetables probably will keep very well in the garden row, and the warm-keepers like squash, onions and sweets should do fine in a cool corner of your house. 90003 90002 Many people opt for a 8-by-10 foot space or larger — but few can fill them to capacity (a 5-by-8 foot space can hold 30 bushels of produce).If you plan on keeping buckets of soil to store vegetables such as celery, a 8-by-8 foot space should suffice. We recommend using multiple shelves to maximize space. Use only rot-resistant woods, and slat for good air circulation. Shelves should also have 1 to 2-inch cleat at the back to keep edges away from the wall. 90003 90002 With a really well-planned root cellar, fresh tomatoes, tender dandelion shoots, nuts, pears and cantaloupes can all be preserves. 90003 90043 An Excavated Root Cellar 90044 90002 As we mentioned before, there are many options when it comes to root cellaring.But unless you’re lucky enough to have an existing usable structure or live in a warm climate where a garden row is a good choice, you’ll want to consider an excavated root cellar. 90003 90002 Dug-in root cellars work well because they are insulated by the earth surrounding them. The soil is a poor conductor of heat, so the temperature of the ground 6 feet under is cool and fairly constant. The natural moisture of the earth helps keep humidity high. Since soil is heavy, an underground root cellar should be strongly built.In addition, because frozen, wet soil can expand and rupture walls, it’s important to provide drainage around the cellar to stop waterlogged soil from freezing and caving in the walls of your cellar. The dug-in root cellar root shown in the Image Gallery is divided into two parts for several reasons: The small anteroom helps insulate the inner chamber from extreme heat and cold and also provides a choice of conditions, allowing your vegetable storing system to be fine -tuned. 90003 90002 Let’s assume that you’re lucky enough to have a north-facing hill, and you intend to make a dug-in root cellar in the slope of the hill.You’re ready to begin, but how? 90003 90002 90015 Step One: 90016 As you’ve surely guessed, your first step is to dig a hole in the hill. You’ll need to remove enough soil to make space for the volume of the cellar you plan to build. It’s no help to dig a hole much larger than you really need, for all that space will have to be backfilled. Dig deeply enough so that the footer will be below the depth of the average frost penetration in your area. Most of the cellar will be protected by soil. Dig down an extra 2 to 3 feet around the door where the foundation will be most exposed to the cold.Fill with gravel up to the base of the footer. 90003 90002 90015 Step Two: 90016 Lay drain pipe from the floor drains in the cellar out to daylight. The floor inside the root cellar should be a bit higher than the level of soil outside the door so that water drains off. 90003 90002 90015 Step Three: 90016 Pour the concrete footer. After the ground in the cellar site is leveled, make forms from 2-by-8 lumber. The footer should be 16 inches wide for a concrete block wall and 8 inches wide for a poured concrete wall 4 inches thick (in other words, twice as wide as the wall will be).Technically, of course, the footer will be only 7 ¼ inches deep, since that is the actual dimension of a piece of 8-inch lumber these days. Put several reinforcing rods in the concrete poured over the dug-out spot at the door. Let the footer cure for three to seven days before proceeding with the walls. 90003 90002 90015 Step Four. 90016 Start laying concrete blocks. 90003 90002 Since you’ve sensibly planned the dimensions of your cellar in multiples of 8 inches (half the length of a standard concrete block allowing for mortar joints), you should have no trouble here.Leave a gap for a standard door. For vent pipes in side walls, either leave a gap between blocks or chip one block. Your cellar should be from 6 ½ to 8 inches deep. 90003 90002 90015 Step Five. 90016 Make forms to support the poured concrete roof. The roof should be reinforced with crossed and tied reinforcing bars as shown in the diagram. The bars should be embedded in the bottom half of the poured concrete roof. If they’re too close to the surface, they do not do much to strengthen the roof.The pour is made directly on plastic-covered ¾-inch plywood, which is supported by joists resting on beams, which are held up by 4-by-4 posts. You’ll also need a form running around the roof perimeter to hold the concrete ceiling until it dries and hardens. Make this form out of 2-by-6 lumber and attach supports at the corners and at least every 4 feet along the sides. Without these supports, the weight of the concrete is likely to bulge the forms and then drip through the gap. Why cover the plywood with plastic? So that water from the concrete mix does not seep through and drain off, weakening the concrete.A flat roof is easiest to build; just remember to insert the exhaust and intake pipes in the ceiling form board before you pour the concrete for the roof. 90003 90002 90015 Step Six. 90016 Start to backfill around the cellar. Tamp the soil lightly but firmly as you go. When the level of backfilled soil is still 2 to 3 feet below the projected soil surface height on the slope, insert a perforated 4-inch drainpipe running across the entire back of the cellar, bending around both corners and ending at daylight.The pipe should rest on a 3-inch gravel bed and have a length of heavy roofing paper or 6-mil plastic sheeting tucked partly over the top (but not around it) to prevent silt from clogging it. The pipe should slope 1 inch across 8 feet starting from center back down both sides. 90003 90002 The purpose of this drainpipe is not to keep water out of the cellar, but to prevent pressure on the rear wall of the root cellar from expansion due to frozen wet soil. 90003 90002 Backfill with gravel above the pipe.If filling in manually, you can place a board behind the pipe and gradually fill in soil behind the board, pulling the board out every few inches. 90003 90002 90015 Step Seven. 90016 Finish backfilling around the cellar sides. Later, you may need to fill in with more soil as the disturbed ground settles. 90003 90002 90015 Step Eight. 90016 Using construction cement, attach rigid 2-inch sheets of urethane or Styrofoam to the exterior surface of the root cellar roof. 90003 90002 90015 Step Nine.90016 Spread a sheet of 6-mil polythylene over the insulation. 90003 90002 90015 Step Ten. 90016 Cover the root cellar with 2 to 4 feet of earth. Plant grass on the roof to hold the soil so it does not run off when it rains. 90003 90002 90015 Step Eleven. 90016 Spread gravel on the root cellar floor (optional). 90003 90002 90015 Step Twelve. 90016 Make shelves. Be sure to leave that 2-inch gap between the shelf and the wall to allow for air circulation. Brace the shelves with scrap wood as shown.Better not to make the shelves too deep, 16 inches should be plenty. 90003 90002 90015 Step Thirteen. 90016 Insulate a standard door with 2-by-2 lumber nailed all around the edge on the inside. Fit 2-inch Styrofoam inside this frame. Cover the Styrofoam with Aspenite or similar paneling. If you can maintain between 32 and 40 F, you have an excellent storage place. 90003 90002 In our own experiments with storing live winter vegetables, we discovered a pleasure akin to the contentment of dressing by the warm fire on a cold morning.90003 90043 Other Keys to Root Cellar Success 90044 90002 Now that you know how to construct your root cellar, a few hints on how to make the most of it: 90003 90002 90015 Accessibility: 90016 The more convenient your root cellar is, the more useful it will be to you. A root cellar that is close to the house, easy to clean, well lit (a bare light bulb is fine) and handy is the most satisfying. 90003 90002 90015 Canned goods: 90016 Do not keep jars of canned goods in your main vegetable-storage area.The level of dampness you need for your root crops will rust the lids. 90003 90002 90015 Cooperative Root Cellaring: 90016 As we discussed earlier, a space of 8-by-8 feet should be plenty for the average family. But consider setting up a cooperative root cellar, with maintenance tasks shared by several families. Building the cellar could be a joint effort, too. Or one owner could accept produce and charge a small rent or accept barters. 90003 90002 90015 Darkness: 90016 An electric light is a big help when you go to plunder your store, but between times, the root cellar should be dark.Light deteriorates some storage vegetables. If you ventilate a basement room by raising an outside window, be sure to shade it. 90003 90002 90015 Pests: 90016 Close all spaces as tightly as you can to keep the mice out. This means screening all vent pipes and windows and making sure the door fits tightly. 90003 90002 90015 Storage: 90016 The debate is crates vs. half-bushel baskets. Half-bushel baskets are light in weight and easy to handle. Crates utilize space more efficiently and they can be stacked.You decide. 90003 90002 In our own experiments with storing live winter vegetables, we discovered a pleasure akin to the contentment of dressing by the warm fire on a cold morning — the pleasure of delving into one’s own store for food to put on the winter table. As we shiver our way back to the warm kitchen with parsnips in our pockets, a handful of potatoes and a bag of carrots, we feel very good because we’ve managed to grow it and to keep it. We wish each of you the same kind of satisfaction.90003 90002 90158 Material in this article appears in Mike and Nancy Bubel’s new edition of 90159 90158 Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables 90159 90158. The book is available from 90159 90158 MOTHER EARTH NEWS Shopping 90159 90158, and contains detailed plans for all types of root cellars, plus a number of wonderful insights and tips. 90159 90003 .90000 Building a root cellar and ice house, pointers appreciated (wofati and earth berm forum at permies) 90001 TO: Gilbert Fritz 90002 FROM: Eric Koperek = [email protected] 90002 SUBJECT: Root Cellars & Ice Houses 90002 DATE: PM 6:16 Monday 29 August 2016 90002 TEXT: 90006 (1) Do NOT connect ice house to root cellar. Your ice will melt. Root cellar and ice house MUST be entirely separate structures. 90007 90006 (2) To take full advantage of natural earth cooling build root cellar and ice house 15 feet below grade.In your climate ambient temperature of a root cellar 15 feet underground will fall between 50 and 55 degrees Fahrenheit year-round. 90007 90006 (3) The best modern insulation for root cellars and ice houses is 90011 styrofoam 90012. Install styrofoam 1 foot = 12 inches thick under floors, around walls and over ceilings. Overlap styrofoam sheets so there are no cracks or gaps for outside air to penetrate. 90007 90006 (4) It is often easier to build root cellars and ice houses ABOVE GROUND.Use cavity wall construction = outer and inner walls separated by a wide space for insulation (styrofoam, perlite, volcanic pumice, vermiculite, rock wool, cork, corrugated cardboard, and rice hulls are good thermal insulators). For example: Outer and inner walls of concrete block with a 12-inch wide cavity filled with styrofoam or perlite. Use a 2 to 3 foot wide cavity for volcanic pumice or rice hulls. Build a concrete pad foundation with not less than 8 inches of styrofoam insulation underneath concrete.90007 90006 (5) When I was a boy = long before you were born, ice houses were built from poles and wicker with 3 feet of straw insulation. The most efficient ice houses are ROUND because this exposes the least possible surface area to warm air or sunshine. Erect outer and inner walls of wicker 3 feet apart. Fill cavity with fresh dry straw (or rice hulls). Dig a deep hole for your ice house or root cellar foundation = 3 to 5 feet deep then fill with cobblestones = round river rocks. Do NOT use crushed rock.Place dry laid brick or flagstones over cobblestone foundation. Traditional ice houses and root cellars MUST have excellent aeration and drainage under the floor. You want lots of air under the foundation to drain away water and prevent frost heaving. Cobblestone foundations make for nice cold floors which is what you want. 90007 90006 (6) All root cellars and ice houses should have double doors. Insulate doors with at least 6 inches of natural cork or styrofoam, or 8 inches of lightweight balsa wood (in the tropics).90007 90006 (90021 All above ground ice houses and root cellars should have wrap-around porches not less than 8 feet wide to shield walls from sunlight. 90007 90006 (9) For best results, build all above ground ice houses and root cellars with DOUBLE ROOFS = inner weather-proof roof and an outer sun roof (which could be as flimsy as wicker or nylon tenting). Space outer sun roof not less than 3 feet above weather-proof inner roof. Sole purpose of sun roof is to keep sunlight off inner roof to prevent building from overheating.Wide distance between sun roof and inner roof is ESSENTIAL for fast ventilation = you do not want hot air around inner roof. 90007 90006 (10) Plant shade trees or fast growing vines (Virginia creeper will survive in your climate) to shade walls and roofs of above ground root cellars and ice houses. Shade from trees or vines will drop building temperatures 20 degrees Fahrenheit during hot summer months. 90007 90006 (11) In traditional ice houses (made from wicker & straw) 1 to 2 inch spaces are left around each ice block.These spaces are filled with fresh, dry sawdust which is firmly rammed = tamped = compressed. Ice blocks should be square NOT rectangular to minimize surface area. Big blocks are best = 2 x 2 x 2 feet for traditional ice houses to minimize melting. For modern ice houses insulated with 12 inches of styrofoam ice blocks can be smaller = 1 x 1 x 1 foot or other convenient size. Sawdust is not needed in styrofoam insulated ice houses. 90007 90006 (12) You do not need a pond to make ice. It is far more convenient (and much safer) to build wood forms lined with construction plastic.Fill with water and let freeze just like a giant ice cube tray. You can even use gallon plastic milk bottles (although these are harder to stack and not as space efficient). 90007 90006 (13) Traditional ice houses built of wicker and straw lose 25% of their ice each year. Modern ice houses (insulated with 12 inches of styrofoam) lose less than 10% ice yearly even if doors are opened daily. 90007 90006 (14) Use scrap I-beams to support roofs for underground ice houses and root cellars.Alternatively, you can use really thick tree trunks (like making a log bunker). In your area, you will probably have to buy telephone poles. Steel web trusses are another possibility = cheaper than I-beams. 4-inch diameter gas pipe will also work if your span is not excessive. Used gas pipe is cheap. Sometimes you can also find used railroad line = steel rails like miniature I-beams. 90007 90006 (15) It is not hard to build domes or barrel vaults for underground structures. It just takes more time and money to erect wood centering to support masonry or concrete.Alternatively, you can build a dome or barrel vault on top of the ground. Bend a metal tube to make a pattern. Pile sand with a front end loader then sculpt as necessary so sand form complies with tubular pattern. Compress sand mold by watering gently. Lay vault or dome over sand centering. When vault or dome is complete = dry and cured, dig out sand. 90007 90006 (16) Have all root cellar or ice house plans reviewed by a licensed civil engineer to comply with local building codes. Unapproved structures can void your insurance coverage.90007 90006 (17) I have built many ice houses in Canada. We use logs and styrofoam insulation or logs and wood shavings or sawdust insulation. Termites are not a problem because winters are too cold. In your climate, corrugated cardboard or other organic insulation should be treated with borax powder to protect from termite damage. 90007 90006 (18) Above ground ice houses and root cellars require VAST AMOUNTS of insulation. Start looking for the cheapest sources of supply in your area.If you can find a local source of pumice this might be the least expensive option in your climate. Otherwise, save your pennies and buy styrofoam. 90007 90006 (19) I recommend that you consider other technological options. Chest freezers and chest refrigerators do not use much energy (especially if their condenser coils are mounted in shade on the north side of a building or are installed in a flume or pond for efficient water cooling). You can buy gas powered refrigerators and freezers that run on a pilot light.These options are cheaper than building an ice house. If you have running water on your farm, consider building a spring house (water cooling is far more efficient than air cooled refrigerator). 90007 90006 (20) I have seen root cellars in Canada made from corrugated steel sheets = Quonset Huts. There are 2 ways to do this: Cut and Fill (bury the quonset hut underground) or cover the quonset hut with hay bales or peat moss bales (insulation) then plastic sheeting followed by netting or sod to keep everything from blowing away.CAUTION: Peat moss holds 10 times its weight in water. Keep water well away from peat or your insulation (and your root cellar roof) may fail = use lots of heavy duty plastic sheeting or 90011 pond liner 90012 well sealed. 90007 90006 (21) All of my commercial root cellars are built from concrete block and styrofoam insulation. If you have a commercial orchard or similar operation then you need to read about 90011 controlled atmosphere storage 90012. This technology has advanced considerably in recent decades and so building standards have changed.For example, apples are now stored with nitrogen gas to prevent oxidation and spoilage. Obviously, this requires air-tight construction which might be beyond your capabilities or intent. 90007 90006 (22) If you have a pond, stream, or lake on your property (or a deep well) consider a water-to-water or water-to-air heat pump for cooling your root cellar (or heating or air conditioning your greenhouse or home). Water-to-water heat pumps use 1 / 6th the electricity of conventional heating and cooling systems.90007 90006 (23) There are Amish vendors who build both ice houses and old-fashioned ice boxes. Amish ice houses use styrofoam insulation. You should read about this and think carefully before building. The average farm family does not need a large ice house. You can keep as much ice as needful = a full year’s supply in a small structure about the size of a garden shed (provided you have good insulation). Plan carefully as there is no sense paying for excess capacity = ice you will never use.For example, a commercial ice house approximately 12 x 20 feet is more than sufficient to support a Canadian fishery (where lake grown whitefish is iced for transport by float planes to distant transport terminals). 90007 90006 ERIC KOPEREK = [email protected] 90007 90006 end comment 90007 90006 90007.