# The root cellar thread



## NW Rancher (Mar 8, 2008)

Okay guys, Zong, Elk, I know this is on your list this summer. I've started a little digging but am getting ready for a big push in the next couple weeks. Any insight or resources you guys are using for your planning? Care to share any updates on progress? I'm pretty clueless but am planning on just digging a big old hole in the hillside and building a basic cedar pole structure in there, adding ventilation and burying it again. Any how-to links to videos or web pages would be much appreciated.


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## starjj (May 2, 2005)

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C32MqyE26w4]building the root cellar - YouTube[/ame]

Took them 4 years but by gosh it got dug lol

Lots and lots of youtube videos on this subject


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## NewGround (Dec 19, 2010)

~~follows thread with interest~~


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## NW Rancher (Mar 8, 2008)

That's a good one Star, I watched it earlier. I've watched a few now, and have a pretty good handle on it, but still, I'd love to hear from those who have done it or are planning one as well. My thought is I'm going low budget, so no concrete, no pond liner, etc. It's wet here, and my biggest concern is a swampy floor, so I'm hoping to slope it out the door rather than stepping down into it. Hoping to just dig into the hillside, and not build any walls or the like. Shore up the roof, set up some shelving in there, and keep it dirt walls and such. I dunno, seems like the root crops just want cool with medium humidity. That seems fairly easy to do here, but I dunno. I've got my fingers crossed that my friend is going to loan me his excavator for a few weeks. That'll help a lot, and I've got a lot of cedar poles stored around the place already. We'll see.


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## WolfWalksSoftly (Aug 13, 2004)

Whats to keep everything from freezing ?


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## Raven12 (Mar 5, 2011)

Mav works in construction

This is considered a bible: Amazon.com: Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables (0037038007039): Mike Bubel, Nancy Bubel: Books


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## NW Rancher (Mar 8, 2008)

WolfWalksSoftly said:


> Whats to keep everything from freezing ?


That's pretty much the whole point of the root cellar Wolf, it keeps everything from freezing by being a root cellar. How deep you need to dig depends on your climate, but it's rarely much below freezing here so I don't think I'll need much more than 2' of dirt over the roof. Of course deeper is better, the deeper the cellar the more even the temps throughout the seasons.


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

what about putting something like a thick layer of straw or woodchips on the floor? it would help keep the (top layer of) the floor dry, and it would soak up moisture and help keep a steady humidity(not that that is a real problem...)

I've seen people cover a campsite with a big layer of straw(8" or so)? over mud to make it "dry" in the rainy season(September 1st till August 31st haha) you could put down small fir slash then straw on top if the mud is really bad.

I bet contractor grade trash bags would work just as well as pond liner.


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## NW Rancher (Mar 8, 2008)

Raven12 said:


> Mav works in construction
> 
> This is considered a bible: Amazon.com: Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables (0037038007039): Mike Bubel, Nancy Bubel: Books


Mav will probably advise me to dig an underground parking garage and while I'm at it install a bio dome/extreme sports park/underground zip line cavern. That book looks great, thank you.


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## WolfWalksSoftly (Aug 13, 2004)

NW Rancher said:


> That's pretty much the whole point of the root cellar Wolf, it keeps everything from freezing by being a root cellar. How deep you need to dig depends on your climate, but it's rarely much below freezing here so I don't think I'll need much more than 2' of dirt over the roof. Of course deeper is better, the deeper the cellar the more even the temps throughout the seasons.


I understand the concept of having a root cellar, I have one now.
I guess from reading your plans I got it in my head it was going to be 3 sided, how you gonna do the door with the floor sloping? I guess it would work, I've always had concrete cellar's with ventilation pipes and a door.


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## NW Rancher (Mar 8, 2008)

Those are good ideas Celeste. The bags might be just the thing for the waterproof layer for the roof. Thank you.


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## NW Rancher (Mar 8, 2008)

Oh, yeah, sorry Wolf, I thought you might be thinking it was arctic up here. Yeah, I do intend to roughly frame in the entrance and have a door. I've been doing a bit of cob work lately so figured I'd just put a door frame in there and then do a cob wall for the face, 2' thick or so. It wouldn't have to carry any load as it would be under my pole roof.


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

Welcome to Facebook

Hey, here is a free fence a lot of people up here in the hills are making here in Oregon. You pick stuff up off the ground and jam weave it between "doubled" fence posts. Use anything from sapling stuff to grass. Greeen stuff works best because you can bend it. My sister is in the photo pretending she is a lion, because they make the same fences in Africa. It would make a great front wall, the air could flow and not let things get funky, and as long as you really jam stuff in there it would keep animals out. I mean, mice are going to get in no matter what you do. That's why you have cats!

This fence is about a foot or so thick. Yeah, fence, I mean a fence can easily be a "wall"


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

I do not know too much about root cellars, but I was reading that there are two different root cellars a cold and dry one and a cold and slightly moist one. Different crops need different levels of humidity. 

I was playing around and stored potatoes in a cool but dry unheated room in a basement and the potatoes shriveled up after a few months. I think that happened because the dry air of the room leached out the moisture in the potatoes. 

I was reading that you store some root vegg like carrots in damp sand in the root cellar and this keeps the carrots from shriveling up.


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## NewGround (Dec 19, 2010)

wyld thang said:


> Welcome to Facebook
> 
> Hey, here is a free fence a lot of people up here in the hills are making here in Oregon. You pick stuff up off the ground and jam weave it between "doubled" fence posts. Use anything from sapling stuff to grass. Greeen stuff works best because you can bend it. My sister is in the photo pretending she is a lion, because they make the same fences in Africa. It would make a great front wall, the air could flow and not let things get funky, and as long as you really jam stuff in there it would keep animals out. I mean, mice are going to get in no matter what you do. That's why you have cats!
> 
> This fence is about a foot or so thick. Yeah, fence, I mean a fence can easily be a "wall"


All I got was a dead link, can you post the pic here?


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## Fowler (Jul 8, 2008)

A root cellar can also be used as a storm shelter, or a cheese cave with some modifications, or a fallout shelter...LOL

[youtube]8e5OF-jF56U[/youtube]


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## Fowler (Jul 8, 2008)

Here's my cellar, the door needs work, I'm just waiting for the traveling handymen to make their way down south...LOL


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## WolfWalksSoftly (Aug 13, 2004)

Fowler..that looks like it needs a Headstone or something..lol


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## Tommyice (Dec 5, 2010)

Before I went in there, I'd make myself a necklace of garlic and sharpen some stakes.

What are your plans for it? Cheese cave, refuge from tornadoes, a place to keep your napkin victims?


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## Fowler (Jul 8, 2008)

Tommyice said:


> Before I went in there, I'd make myself a necklace of garlic and sharpen some stakes.
> 
> What are your plans for it? *Cheese cave, refuge from tornadoes, a place to keep your napkin victims?*



All of the above Leslie...LOL I will be testing it on my first napkin victim Saturday when the satellite man shows up. Then I will know if I need to make any modifications.


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## Ramblin Wreck (Jun 10, 2005)

I used a culvert I bought off Craig's List to make my root cellar. A friend did some welding on the back and back to complete it and then I buried it into a hill next to the garage/tractor shed. If you want to aviod the expense/look of metal, I think you could build the inside wall with some stacked stone easily enough and the outside wall could be stacked timbers with a door cut into it. I used gravel for the floor, and I still need to add shelves...and root crops!


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## NW Rancher (Mar 8, 2008)

Those are good ideas RW. How big is that culvert? I've got a section of 3' that would work well for a small one, like a clamp.

Dang Fowler, I was thinking about heading that way, but after seeing your "root cellar" I'm starting to get scared. I had a nightmare about lotion.


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## Ramblin Wreck (Jun 10, 2005)

NW Rancher said:


> Those are good ideas RW. How big is that culvert? I've got a section of 3' that would work well for a small one, like a clamp.


It's a big 10' culvert that is 10' long. Originally it was 20 foot long, but the guy agreed to sell me the two ends he'd already started building and 1/2 the culvert. Probably should have bought the whole thing, but it would have been a huge hole to dig that would have intruded into a pasture fence. I think I paid him about $300 for the culvert/ends and the friend who welded it all together for me (plus he fixed the ugly cut the guy had made when he split the thing) charged about $200 or so.


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## NW Rancher (Mar 8, 2008)

Wow, you got a deal and a half on that. There's been a guy here on the local CL that's been listing one about that size for a few years now. He's been asking $10k. Of course he hasn't sold it, but still.


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## NewGround (Dec 19, 2010)

NW Rancher said:


> Wow, you got a deal and a half on that. There's been a guy here on the local CL that's been listing one about that size for a few years now. He's been asking $10k. Of course he hasn't sold it, but still.


Holy Cow, for $10k I could make a complete concrete bunker... Guess that guy will be renewing that ad for a good while...


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## WolfWalksSoftly (Aug 13, 2004)

Or just buy an old school bus, gut it, and run it into the side of a hill or burry it.


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## Ramblin Wreck (Jun 10, 2005)

I've seen buses buried into hillsides, and they hold up for a few years, about as long as a narrow concrete block wall would I guess. I think pouring reinforced concrete walls/tops would be the best construction, but I think the culvert will outlast me. I've seen emergency shelters made of corrugated metal with hatches being offered around here for around $5K, including installation. The ads say they will hold six people I think.


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## littlejoe (Jan 17, 2007)

I believe I'd be trying to figure a way to make it accessible from inside the house. The ranch I came here from, the 'dobe house butted agaisnt a hillside, with the kitchen being there. There was a concrete walled and roofed cellar built deeper into the hill. You opened a door from the kitchen directly into the cellar. Two roof height windows. The first winter there we had no fridge, just a freezer. I would sometimes open a window at night and close it in the day to keep it cool. It worked plenty good to keep things as cool as a fridge. Finally bought a fridge in mid march.

My casa now, also has a cellar. It shows signs that it was probably here before the house was. The house apparently was built in addition to the cellar. Concrete walled with a wooden roof, which is uninsulated. Still it never freezes but can be pretty darn cool midwinter, and warm midsummer. There is an outside entrance, and one from the back porch.








It serves as my leather shop in the winter... You can see a woodstove in the corner. There's also a reloadiing bench, one freezer, and the pressure tanks for the water system. Many things to change some day, but I like it and the location of it.


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## littlejoe (Jan 17, 2007)

and the entrance from the porch.


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

NewGround said:


> All I got was a dead link, can you post the pic here?


sorry the link doesn't work, I tried it when I posted and it worked. I'll have to wait till the weekend when I'm at a place with big load internet. Low bandwidth up here in the mountains...I'll post the pic then :0)


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## Tommyice (Dec 5, 2010)

littlejoe said:


> I believe I'd be trying to figure a way to make it accessible from inside the house. The ranch I came here from, the 'dobe house butted agaisnt a hillside, with the kitchen being there. There was a concrete walled and roofed cellar built deeper into the hill. You opened a door from the kitchen directly into the cellar. Two roof height windows. The first winter there we had no fridge, just a freezer. I would sometimes open a window at night and close it in the day to keep it cool. It worked plenty good to keep things as cool as a fridge. Finally bought a fridge in mid march.
> 
> My casa now, also has a cellar. It shows signs that it was probably here before the house was. The house apparently was built in addition to the cellar. Concrete walled with a wooden roof, which is uninsulated. Still it never freezes but can be pretty darn cool midwinter, and warm midsummer. There is an outside entrance, and one from the back porch.
> 
> ...


:hijacked: Just for a quick moment.....LJ is that a treadle machine?

OK back to the regularly scheduled Root Cellar program already in progress


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## littlejoe (Jan 17, 2007)

There are two treadle machines in the pic, Tommy. The smaller is a singer 10-35 if my memory is correct. It's a good light duty machine for chap leather. I think they were origionally brought out for the tailor trade. The larger one on the left is a Landis #1. Bout as foolproof and simple of a single needle stitcher there is. It stitches through an inch of skirting...or right through your thumb!


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## Ramblin Wreck (Jun 10, 2005)

Nice looking setup Littlejoe. Alex, who once posted on some of the other forums and is from British Columbia I think, cut an access hatch into his cabin floor and excavated a great root cellar. There were once some pics of it, but they may have been archived by now. But you are right, easy access is a nice feature.


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

dude get the root cellar book..its a must have.you wont believe the homesteading info in it.


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

NW Rancher said:


> Okay guys, Zong, Elk, I know this is on your list this summer. I've started a little digging but am getting ready for a big push in the next couple weeks. Any insight or resources you guys are using for your planning? Care to share any updates on progress? I'm pretty clueless but am planning on just digging a big old hole in the hillside and building a basic cedar pole structure in there, adding ventilation and burying it again. Any how-to links to videos or web pages would be much appreciated.


look up our own paul wheaton he has a few things from sepp holzer and he builds cellar like you are describing.

http://www.youtube.com/user/paulwheaton12?feature=results_main


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

looky here rancher

[youtube]9ZjAzrus5B0&feature=plcp[/youtube]


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

[youtube]o1R2baLyDSI&feature=related[/youtube]


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

[youtube]Jk8c_TAgmu8&feature=related[/youtube]


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## NW Rancher (Mar 8, 2008)

Thanks Elk, great videos. Paul came by a couple weeks ago to see the stoves and other projects, I totally forgot to run the root cellar idea by him. I'm getting the book for sure. 

I spent all day on the machine today working on drainage around the house, tomorrow this time there should be a cellar hole.


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

dang i would like to meet paul and you for that matter....yall got to be so far away and gas has to be 3.50 a gallon...dang it all.


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## NW Rancher (Mar 8, 2008)

I'd love to meet you too Elk, someday. Only $3.50? It's over $4 here.


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

elkhound said:


> dang i would like to meet paul and you for that matter....yall got to be so far away and gas has to be 3.50 a gallon...dang it all.


I'll bring pie!


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## Raven12 (Mar 5, 2011)

elkhound said:


> look up our own paul wheaton he has a few things from sepp holzer and he builds cellar like you are describing.
> 
> paulwheaton12 - YouTube



By the way, his website rocks. I wish I would have found it sooner.


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## NW Rancher (Mar 8, 2008)




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## Raven12 (Mar 5, 2011)

Nice Bat Cave. Are you sure there is no water slide included?


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## Riverdale (Jan 20, 2008)

I don't drop in this forum very often (maybe the singletree, and I'm married  ).

My situation, I have a full 8' basement (the foundation and house shell are fieldstone). The basement floor is dirt. In the northwest corner, it is dark and I could easily put a couple of root cellar areas in (to keep apples from potatoes, and the like).

I live in zone 5a (right smack dab in the middle of the mitten) and we have some cold days (maybe a dozen where it drops to 0F) but also it does get rather humid during the summer.

I know to keep root veggies in clean sand, and either wrap fruit (apples and pears) in straw or paper, and using wooden crates.

One site I read talked about using 3" pvc to supply air and remove warmer air from the closet. There was talk about some sort of valves. Could I use Â¼ turn valves for this?

Any input would be greatly appreciated!


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## cindilu (Jan 27, 2008)

wyld thang said:


> I'll bring pie!


Wyld can bring pie, I will bring the beer.


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## shanzone2001 (Dec 3, 2009)

cindilu said:


> Wyld can bring pie, I will bring the beer.


You silly, silly girls!!! :bowtie:

Only you can turn building a root cellar into a party!!! I will just sit back and watch the men work and get all sweaty...:whistlin:


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## cindilu (Jan 27, 2008)

I was thinking about getting sweaty as well, where there is beer sweat is involved. LOL.


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## cindilu (Jan 27, 2008)

Okay, okay, I can be good, I will help pound nails or help did or something...


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