How To Build The Simplest Cellar

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Save the harvest

It often happens that the crop is grown, harvested, and there is nowhere to store it. Sometimes summer residents leave vegetables and preparations in place - in non-insulated basements of garden houses. Or stacked on the balconies of city apartments. But this is not very convenient and troublesome, and it is not always possible to preserve the harvest.

To avoid all these troubles will help the simplest cellar, which is quite within the power of everyone to build …

It is clear that the most reliable way is to arrange a cellar on a dry, elevated place. The floor level should be at least 50 centimeters above groundwater. This can be easily verified by measuring the water level in a nearby well after heavy rains or in spring after floods.

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The simplest in design and execution is a partially recessed cellar, which is shown in the figure. Under it, you need to dig a pit according to the size of the intended cellar and carefully clean the walls and base. It is better to do this manually - and the quality of work is higher, and the groundwater detected in a timely manner can be immediately isolated.

This is usually done with reinforced concrete mortar with a ratio of cement and sand of 1: 1.5, and to make it set faster, add 10% (by volume) of liquid glass. Pour a layer of coarse (preferably river) sand or fine crushed stone 8-10 centimeters thick on the leveled and tamped bottom of the pit, and on top of it with a layer of 2-3 centimeters lay carefully mashed, without foreign inclusions, oily clay. Such a clay lock will reliably protect your cellar from leaks.

Cellar layout: 1. Ventilation pipe. 2 Clay grease. 3. Clay mixed with straw. 4. Roll up from logs or slabs. 5. A layer of cement-sand mortar. 6. Covering with heated bitumen mastic. 7. Clay castle. 8. The wall of the cellar is made of stone. 9. Cement mortar. 10. Roll waterproofing material. 11. Oily clay. 12. Coarse sand or fine gravel. 13. Bulk soil with sowing of grass. 14. Continental (natural) soil. 15. Shelving. 16. Fence (spotted) with potatoes.

On the dried and hardened clay, lay successively two layers of isoplast, uniflex, roofing felt or other waterproofing materials on bitumen mastic or using its more modern analogues. Choose a waterproofing roll material with a margin in length so that its ends can be wrapped on the walls when laying. When the flooring is dry, you can proceed with its final finishing: lay a layer of cement mortar 10-15 centimeters thick on the waterproofing (one part of 400 grade cement for three parts of sand), and sprinkle on top with a layer of dry cement about 1-2 millimeters thick. When it is saturated with moisture, smooth the surface with a steel plate - a trowel.

The walls of the cellar can be made of stone or well-fired bricks, and then plastered with cement mortar (composition 1: 3). After the concrete has hardened, it is advisable to paste over the walls with two or three layers of rolled waterproofing materials, then build a clay castle. Hammer in the wooden formwork, erected along the walls, with carefully crushed clay (layer thickness 25-30 centimeters). When the clay has hardened, remove the formwork, and plaster the walls with cement mortar (in a ratio of 1: 2) and whitewash with fresh lime.

The overlap of the cellar is a roll of logs, thick boards or slabs, covered with two layers of rolled waterproofing materials and coated in the old fashioned way - with clay grease (clay with the addition of straw chaff or forest moss). The thicker the lubricant layer, the more reliable the waterproofing of the ceiling. It remains only to pour the earth on top. This will protect the cellar from overheating in summer and hypothermia in winter.

The cellar is ventilated through a ventilation pipe with a cross section of approximately 200x200 millimeters, which is hammered together from carefully fitted boards. The pipe is located under the ceiling. For storing vegetables, you can build a fence, and for blanks - racks.

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Note to the summer resident

For better preservation of vegetables in the room where they are stored, it is necessary to maintain at a given level not only the temperature, but also the humidity of the air. Indeed, in dampness, bacteria and fungi that cause rotting multiply intensively.

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The easiest way to deal with dampness is chemical. Pour calcium chloride powder into empty cans and place in the corners of the cellar or basement. Calcium chloride will vigorously absorb moisture from the air, which will collect at the bottom. Do not throw away the resulting solution, it can be restored by evaporating the water over a fire.

Instead of calcium chloride, you can also use quicklime. But after a single use, it must be replaced with a fresh one.

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Many vegetables, such as potatoes, cannot be refrigerated below a certain temperature. Otherwise, they quickly lose their taste and deteriorate. How can you avoid this? It is very simple - to create the most unfavorable conditions for the life of bacteria. This can be done without resorting to cooling, but by placing the vegetables in a gas environment. The easiest way to do this is to use carbon dioxide.

It can be used both in cellars and basements. Place a 500-gram piece of solid carbon dioxide on the floor. Evaporating, carbon dioxide, due to its high specific gravity, will displace air from the storage. And vegetables will not be afraid of bacteria or fungi.

True, in this case one must also be careful - after all, carbon dioxide can be poisoned. Take a lighted candle with you before going down to the cellar for vegetables. Keep it at chest level. If it goes out, then there is little oxygen in the room, and before bending over to vegetables and jars, you should draw as much air as possible into your lungs.