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THE WEIRS TIMES, Thursday, April 15, 2010

DONOVAN from 13

Daniel J. Cox & Son Builders, Inc.

General Contractor Specializing in

NEW HOMES - ADDITIONS - RENOVATIONS & DESIGN

Littleton, Bethlehem, Bretton Woods, Sugar Hill, Franconia, Whitefield

Whitefield, N.H. 603-616-6344

Trying to Clean Around Clutter?

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Tranquil Spaces • 744-9761

LET’S GET IT DONE!

I did. As a matter of fact, you can build a root cel- lar in your own basement. Simply find the coolest and moistest area in the basement and close it off with some 2x4 framed walls. Make sure you in- clude an opening for a door.

Then insulate the walls

with rigid foam insulation and sheath both sides of the walls with a moisture resistant drywall. Also insulate the root cellar ceiling and sheath it with moisture resistant dry- wall. Make sure to tape and mud all of the drywall seams to create a tight seal in the root cellar. It is important to note

that the outside basement walls associated with the root cellar be at least 2/3rds high backfilled with soil. The backfilled basement walls help to ensure cool temperatures in the root cellar during the warmer months. Next, add some outdoor ventilation to the root cel- lar to ensure it maintains a cool temperature, but not frosty temperature. Include valves on the ven- tilation pipes to close off the root cellar to the out- side elements when the

Wine bottles stored in a Basement Root Cellar.

temperature drops below freezing. One ventilation pipe should be located about a foot off the base- ment / root cellar floor and the other about a

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foot below the root cellar ceiling. Finally install a door

onto your root cellar and build shelving for stor- ing your vegetables and canned food items. Often a crawl space can

also be converted into a functioning root cellar. You can employ much of the same process for building a root cellar in a basement as for build- ing one in a crawl space. Again, make sure the crawl space is vented and that you can open and close the venting depend- ing upon outside air tem- perature conditions.

Mark Donovan is the own-

er and operator of www. HomeAdditionPlus.com, a website focused on provid- ing home improvement and remodeling information to homeowners. He resides in Derry, New Hampshire and can be contacted at mark@ homeadditionplus.com. Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40