Posted: 12/10/2013 8:38:47 AM EDT
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We just had a double wide manufactured home put on our property this fall. The house is on a foundation w/ 3 foot crawl space. Next summer we plan to build a back porch and deck. The porch would be enclosed and approximately 12 or 14 long buy about 8 feet wide. An open deck would extend along the house from there. We were just going to build the porch on post/pier, but I got to thinking about building a root cellar underneath instead. The cellar would be about as deep as the foundation and it would be built out of concrete cinder block. The access would be from inside the porch, and it would be used to store the extra food, water, dry supplies etc. One question I had is if we should make the floor all concrete, part concrete, or dirt. We have gravelly hard soil, which does not drain well when we do get moisture due to the hard pan, so I am leaning to fully enclosed. There would be no water access under there, as that comes under the foundation at a different location. Power to the porch would be run off of an upgrade to our current power. 100 amps would continue to feed the house, and we would upgrade to 200 amps. The other 100 amp leg would be used to power the porch, and extensive external power on the outside of the porch, and along all the dog and animal pens, as well as external power supply near our shed on the back of the property. This would be so I could have power directly at the shed when working on projects, and power for running the animal water heater buckets in the winter while running as few extension cords as possible.
I was also planning to calulate the amount of water that would be under the porch, and make sure everything is elevated off of the floor with enough space to ensure as limited damage as possible should anything go wrong with the water storage. I guess the description went a bit longer than I thought it would but that is my plan and major project for next summer. Any input? Thanks, Marcial |
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I'm sure the weather conditions between NV and IN are quite different, so take this w/ a grain of salt. We built ours out of concrete on all 6 sides. When it got cold outside but still warm inside, it would literally rain in there. We insulated it since, and problem solved. I think underground, humidity and condensation are always considerations. |
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Drainage is a good thing, and anything underground WILL flood in my experience. Are you going to have a sump pump? If so, filling the bottom with some tile, then gravel, then concrete floor is ideal. You can get away with no tile, just a sump hole dug out. Raise your sump so it doesn't suck gravel and sand. Are you going for actual root cellar or just "cool" underground storage? Makes a difference. Roots tend to like about 50* and VERY high humidity. Although I guess it depends on the veggies you get down there! |
| I guess root cellar is a bad term. The idea is cool storage in the summer and relatively warm storage in the winter. Mainly just keeping the bulk goods out of sight and out of mind. Anything food stored under there would be canned or jarred. Basically just go down there once every two weeks or a month to stock up on supplies in the house, and keep everything rotating through. Also, some water jug storage. |
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Given the description of your soil and water I really don't think that something you (or anyone) builds on site will stand up the the water and you'll have problems with excessive moisture.
That said and I don't know what your budget is, but I recommend some type of plastic underground storage container. I've seen the ones at Tractor Supply up close and if they're buried high enough so you can enlarge the opening they would work. |