# Root Cellar Question!



## photocodo (Mar 29, 2016)

My wife and I recently moved back to my great grandfathers property where we have 5 acres or beautiful, well drained farmland. We put in a 50ftx40ft garden with mostly root veggies. My question is about the old root cellar that my great grandfather had build. It is a rock structure with a concrete floor. Dimensions are 7ftx4ftx7ft tall. But the kicker is that it is above ground. We still need to put a roof back on it as well as a door and proper ventilation but I want to make sure that it will keep the temps cool enough in the summer because it's above ground. I am thinking about insulating the inside even further to help with that. I do know that the walls go aprox 4ft below the ground which my understanding will help bring cool air up from the cooler ground below. But essentially I want to make sure that we don't spend the time and money to fix it up then not have it work properly. We live in Hendersonville NC and are technically in zone 7a. Thanks for any help and I will post a few pictures of the structure!

Photocodo


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

I'm gonna take a guess and say that wasn't a root cellar....it was a can house....one used to store home canned goods, or possibly a meat salting room, using in the late fall to home process pork, or some other use.

A true root cellar would have been well buried, with only the roof and one front face with the door exposed at the very most.

Even a true root cellar in this area is not going to be all that cool in the summer. Right now, today, mine is reading in the mid 50 range, and by July-Aug, it will be low 60's. That is about the best you're going to get here, since that is near ground temperatures here.

If you build a proper RC, the way to do so is, in addition to using the earth as insulation, put a couple of vents in so you can vent off gases from apples, but also so you can pull in colder night air in the fall, cooling your cellar. I use two 6" PVC vents in mine, along with a small duct booster fan (Home Depot). When the night temps start dipping into the 40's and below in the fall, I'll run the fan mounted in one vent pipe..it sucks in outside air thru the other vent (run runs near the floor), gradually cooling the interior down from the mid 50's. I'll continue to do this until I get the cellar into the low-mid 40's.....about as low as I can get it, and not a bad temp for holding stuff.


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## Sourdough (Dec 28, 2011)

It is a smokehouse. I would re-build it as a smokehouse.


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

Sourdough said:


> It is a smokehouse. I would re-build it as a smokehouse.


Without some evidence of a way to build a fire IN it, (I see none), or an external firebox with a flue leading into the building, (again, I see none), I wouldn't think that is the case.


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## Sourdough (Dec 28, 2011)

I feel very sure, It was a smokehouse............Most likely 80'some years ago, the fire got out of control and destroyed all but the masonry walls....https://images.search.yahoo.com/sea...Z0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--?p=Smokehouse&fr=chrf-yff32


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## sammyd (Mar 11, 2007)

I don't think it's a root cellar either. A root cellar should have been buried to take advantage of the near constant cool temps afforded by the earth. Leaving it above ground like that pretty much leaves it open to temperature swings which aren't good for your stuff.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Growing up we had a fruithouse. We kept our canned goods in there and there were bins in the back for potatoes and other things. Harvested after it cools, root crops don't need cold temps, just cooler than on the ground, with humidity. The walls were wood, concrete floor, vent near the bottom up through the roof. It had 2"x8" stud wall filled with sawdust, it was always cool in there. When my Grandmother moved up to the farm she built a leanto on the north side of the shop. The shop had 2"x4" walls flat, stacked like an old grainery. The walls were 2"x6" and insulated. It was always cool in there, squash, potatoes, apples, pears and onions kept good in there too. It doesn't get real cold here and cools off in October. The bins had holes in the bottom and elevated some so the cool air off the floor circulated through the bins.

My root cellar is 2 steps down, front all exposed and sides and back have 4' concrete walls, backfilled 3', the rest is 2"x8" walls with fiberglass insulation with a handmade double thick, insulated door. I can keep potatoes root crops and squash for a full year. I also have a springhouse....James


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## arrocks (Oct 26, 2011)

You might be able to turn it into a root cellar if you bury it. Flatish roof with vent pipes and several feet of soil mounded up around and over it leaving just the door uncovered for access. Raised mound root cellars used to be fairly common in areas where the ground was too rocky to dig deep.

But it would take a big amount of dirt to bury it well enough to control the temps.


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