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THE WEIRS TIMES, Thursday, April 15, 2010

IMPROVEMENT101 HOME

Mark@HomeAdditionPlus.com

ROOT CELLARS ARE IDEAL COLD STORAGE

by Mark Donovan

Contributing Writer

Years ago I helped my

father dig and build a root cellar. At that time we had a large garden and we needed a place to store winter squash and some of the vegetables that we canned. I also remem- ber us storing homemade root beer and occasionally finding the exploded jar of it in the root cellar. I have to say that our

root cellar was one of the darkest and creepiest places I have ever set foot in. Even though we made every attempt to keep it dry and installed over- head electrical lighting (a single bulb), it was still a dark and moist place, and consequently a breeding ground for some of the largest and ugliest spiders I have ever seen. We lived in Maryland at

the time where the soil was mostly clay. Conse- quently it was easy dig- ging. So easy as a matter of fact that we wound up digging a 10 foot wide, by 12 foot long, by 9 foot deep root cellar, and cap- ping it with a shed that we placed over it. The shed had a trap door that allowed us access to the root cellar.

AREAS FOR WINTER VEGETABLES

mechanism over the ends of the vent pipes to enable us to seal them off during very cold weather and to prevent freezing tempera- tures in the root cellar. Finally, we installed shelving in the root cel- lar. In fact, we wound up lining all of the root cellar walls with shelving from floor to ceiling, and I must say we did a good job of keeping those shelves well stocked.

Often a crawl space can be converted into a functioning root cellar.

Canned items and certain vegetables can be stored in root cellars for extended lengths of time.

After digging the hole for

the root cellar, and before placing the shed over it, we framed and lined the root cellar walls with pres- sure treated 2x4 walls sheathed with marine ply- wood. We also added cross bracing to prevent any threat of cave ins. Finally, we poured a concrete floor to create a clean and level surface. We also included a small well depression in one corner of the root cellar for a sump pump, which we wound up need- ing more times than I can

remember. After building the root

cellar and sliding the shed over it, we installed a cou- ple of 3” diameter PVC pipes in the root cellar

that vented to the outside of the shed to allow the root cellar to breathe. We also included a valve seal

Building a Root Cellar Today

When building a root

cellar today you don’t have to go to the same level that my father and

See DONOVAN on 14

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