Do-it-yourself cellar construction technology. We make a cellar in the country with our own hands step by step: the optimal sequence of work. Basement stairs

Think in advance about how and where you will remove the excavated soil from the room.

This problem can be solved in two ways:

  • The construction of a cellar in the basement is carried out in the process of building a house. It can be immediately concreted, insulated and all work can be carried out in just a few days.
  • When a private house already has walls and a basement, then the only solution is to dig a hole for the cellar with your own hands. This is hard work that will require some physical effort.

It must be taken into account that the construction of the pit should not weaken the soil under the foundation of the house. If you dig a pit too close to the walls of the house, this can lead to a subsidence of the building and its further deformation.

If the building has pile foundation, then holding earthworks and the arrangement of the cellar does not pose any danger, because the entire load from the structure falls on the underlying soil layers, which cannot be reached with a shovel.

Floor in storage

The most common option is a concrete floor. The arrangement of such a surface, of course, will not provide 100% waterproofing of the room, although concrete has a lot of advantages over the ground floor, which are already visible at the construction stage:

After the reinforcing mesh is assembled, concrete can be poured.

  • Anaerobic bacteria can release gases that are potentially dangerous to humans, which will never enter the cellar through the concrete floor.
  • A variety of pests will also not be able to penetrate the storage through a concrete surface, so the arrangement of such a floor is correct solution if this problem bothers you.
  • The concrete floor will not be able to destroy even large rodents.
  • During floods, when dirt floors simply begin to slip from under your feet, the concrete surface will remain in place.

The construction of a concrete floor in a cellar in a private house involves the following steps:

  1. The first step is to dig a pit, determine the size of the cellar and level the bottom of the pit.
  2. Next, you need to make a sand cushion, the thickness of which should not exceed 20 cm. It is compacted with the help of improvised tools and water. The pillow must be firm and even, otherwise the concrete floor will deform in the future.
  3. Then it is recommended to lay a layer of gravel, which also needs to be well compacted and made as even as possible. The arrangement of this layer will ensure high reliability of the surface and the cellar under the house will not be subject to deformation.
  4. Overlapped on a gravel-sand cushion waterproofing material(special polyethylene or roofing material can be used). This is necessary not only as a barrier against ground water, but so that the cement milk after pouring the solution does not go into the lower layers. Due to this approach, concrete is gaining ultimate strength. Of course, this will not give an absolute guarantee against the penetration of moisture into the premises, but at least it will minimize the risks.
  5. A stack of reinforcement is placed on the waterproofing layer. The thickness of the reinforcement bars in this case should be 5 mm or more. Reinforcement of the floor surface ensures the stability of the surface and its durability during operation.
  6. At the end, the floor is poured cement mortar about 10-15 cm thick. It must be understood that the coating will gain working strength only after a few weeks. The first days after completion of work, walking on such a floor is prohibited.

Monolithic walls

The walls of any basement are built, as a rule, from brick or foam concrete blocks. When the construction of the cellar is carried out in an already erected house, certain difficulties may arise with waterproofing and backfilling. However, if you carefully consider the work, they can be done by hand.

Concrete is poured not immediately to the top, but little by little, with the compaction of each layer.

The best solution is to build walls from reinforced concrete. Construction procedure reinforced concrete structure do it yourself the following:

  1. The first step is to install the reinforcing mesh. For these purposes, corrugated reinforcing bars with a cross section of 10-15 mm are usually used. If the rods of this thickness could not be found, you can fasten two small rods together, or use pipe trimmings. To tie a reinforcing network from rods, it is recommended to use wire and special hooks; it is best not to use welding.
  2. Do-it-yourself vertical formwork device involves the use of various improvised materials. Slab, plywood sheets, chipboard are excellent for these purposes. In principle, even large wooden trimmings will do. If there is not enough material for the formwork, then the boards can be gradually rearranged as the walls are erected. In this case, it will be possible to build a wall in a few days.
  3. For pouring, it is recommended to use concrete grade M200 (and more durable). In some cases, it is recommended to add some of the rubble to the solution. The formwork must be poured little by little, in layers of several tens of centimeters. In addition, each layer of concrete must be compacted. The wall must be built up to the floor level.

overlap

If the cellar in a private house is done by hand, then the thermal insulation of the floor seems superfluous to many. This opinion is erroneous, because a stable temperature within +2, +5 degrees must be maintained inside the cellar, which allows the products to remain in their original form for many months.

If the air in the cellar warms up too much, then the provisions will immediately deteriorate, and almost all of them. Besides, in winter time without a well-insulated ceiling, heat will go into the cellar, thereby increasing heating costs.

It is quite possible to make the ceiling with your own hands from wood, but how to insulate it?

  1. A kind of "shield" of boards is attached to the load-bearing beams from below. Boards can be fixed with self-tapping screws for reliability or with nails. Nails must be driven in in different directions, at an angle, several nails per board. Fastening is still better to do on long self-tapping screws - it will be more reliable.
  2. A vapor barrier film material is fixed on the shield, which is necessary to prevent the heat-insulating layer from getting wet.
  3. The entire space between the beams must be filled with heat-insulating material. In the case of the basement, it is usually used mineral wool or glass wool, which is quite affordable.
  4. On thermal insulation material waterproofing is installed. A rolled insulator that can be overlapped is well suited. All seams are recommended to be glued with construction tape.
  5. A bearing coating is laid on top and everything ends with the installation of the floor. If the entrance to the cellar is from the kitchen or living quarters, then it is necessary to lay the same cover on the lid. flooring that in the whole room.

How to deal with dampness under the house?

After finishing the cellar in the house, and starting its operation, many are faced with the problem of dampness. How to make sure that condensate does not accumulate on the walls of the storage, and moisture does not penetrate into the living space?

You need to understand that water will surely seep into the cellar under the house due to groundwater and perched water. No waterproofing can give a 100% guarantee. In addition, during storage, vegetables will release moisture, which will accumulate in the air.

The best solution in this case seems to be a do-it-yourself effective ventilation device. Ventilation system for the cellar should consist of two pipes. One pipe Fresh air will go in, and on the other - on the contrary, go out. Any pipes can be used: special ventilation pipes or ordinary PVC pipes (which are usually used for sewerage).

If your house has a small cellar, then you can make ventilation with just one pipe, which will be responsible for both air intake and exhaust. When the dimensions of the cellar are significant, it is recommended to install inside the ventilation pipes special devices, which will forcibly pump air out of the storage, preventing it from stagnation, leading to the formation of condensate.

An insect can enter the cellar through ventilation.

The exhaust pipe must be brought to the roof of the house. The lower part of the chimney must be installed under the ceiling of the cellar (in accordance with the laws of physics). The lower part of the supply pipe is installed at a height of 20-30 from, and the upper part can be brought out through any window. The supply pipe must be equipped with a metal filter that will protect the cellar from debris and pests. In turn, a deflector can be installed in the exhaust pipe, which will increase the draft from the cellar in windy weather.

With the help of a high-quality ventilation system, the cellar under the house can be operated without problems for more than a dozen years. It is right to make a storage with your own hands even for a novice builder.


For the preservation of vegetables and preparations on their personal plot it is recommended to build a cellar with your own hands.

Building a cellar with your own hands (step by step)

Preparation. First you need to decide on the place where the construction will be carried out, the material of construction and the size of the structure. In our case, the project of a bulk cellar made of expanded clay concrete was chosen, which well protects the room from moisture and keeps a constant temperature regime in room. For such a structure, the optimal depth of three meters was chosen.



Tip: for the construction of the cellar, it is best to choose elevated places so that there are no problems with flooding the structure with groundwater.

Let's start digging excavation. To make a comfortable descent into the structure, it is necessary to dig a hole in the shape of a rectangle. Next, the floor and walls should be well tamped. After that, the floor is covered with rubble or gravel and poured with a solution of clay. If there is a threat of flooding, then instead of a clay solution, it is better to use concrete, which is poured onto a pre-laid steel mesh.

For building walls may apply various methods which depend on the raw material used. For example, you can build concrete walls. To do this, formwork is installed, longitudinal reinforcement is laid and poured with a concrete mixture. The formwork is removed after a few days. It is much easier to build walls from reinforced concrete or expanded clay concrete blocks. The masonry process can be compared to brickwork. Also at this stage, it is necessary to provide places for a doorway and ventilation.

After the construction of the walls, it is necessary to install overlap. For these purposes, a chipboard formwork is installed. To keep the sheets, they are laid on supports. Reinforcing meshes are laid on top of the formwork and poured with concrete mix.



In order for the walls not to let moisture through, it is necessary to make a coating waterproofing cellar walls from the inside and outside. For these purposes, bituminous mastic is suitable. On top of the ceiling, a layer of waterproofing made of roofing material is laid on the mastic.


The penultimate stage of building a cellar with your own hands is backfill concrete floor and backfilling of the pit with soil.

Tip: when backfilling the pit and ceiling, make sure that there are no sharp stones in the ground. They can cause damage to the protective waterproofing layer.

Works on improvement storage. At this stage, doors, stairs are installed and electrical work is performed. Shelves are made and installed for storing blanks for the winter, and special places for storing vegetables.

Cellar in the country with their own hands made of bricks. Step-by-step instruction

For country house you can build a cellar with your own hands from bricks. To make such a structure, you can follow the following instructions:

After a suitable place for erection has been selected, you can start digging excavation required size. In our case, the size of the cellar is 2x2 meters.

After the walls and floor are rammed, proceed to the device concrete slab for the floor.

For erection walls brick was used in this project. The masonry was one brick thick.

Tip: during masonry work, you must constantly monitor the evenness of the walls. For this, it is recommended to use a plumb line and a level.

Next, you need to do otolok. For these purposes, wooden logs are installed, pre-treated with an antiseptic solution. Next, the flooring is laid and covered with a layer of sawdust on top. The layer thickness is approximately 25–30 cm.

Above should be built wooden structure in the form of a house with gable roof, in which an opening for ventilation should be provided and an entrance door should be installed.

Around the ground part of the structure was dug groove for water flowing from the roof.

For ventilation two pipes with a diameter of 50 cm were used. One was installed at a distance of 20 cm from the floor. The second - diagonally at a distance of 20 cm from the ceiling.

Do-it-yourself red brick cellar construction

The construction of such a cellar begins with digging excavation 3.5 meters deep. The finished cellar will consist of two rooms, a vestibule and a staircase.

After the foundation pit is dug, it will be necessary to seal the walls, floor and stairs.

After the concrete has hardened, you can start laying walls.

We lay on the finished walls rolled metal, which will be the basis for the overlap.

Under metal carcass formwork is installed and the floor is poured concrete.

After the concrete has hardened, you can start laying ground parts of the cellar made of red brick and roofing.

Construction of a cellar in the country

Before the construction of the cellar, it is necessary to draw up drawings of the future structure, calculate the amount of material needed and sketch out an approximate work plan. It should also be remembered that the cellar must meet the following conditions:

  • it should be cool;
  • the temperature in the storage should not be too low;
  • adequate protection of products against rodents must be provided;
  • in the underground room should be provided autonomous system electricity;
  • the cellar should be well ventilated.

Do-it-yourself step-by-step instructions for repairing an old cellar in a country house

First you need to release underground covering. After that, you can start cleaning the earthen and deciduous layer and dismantling knurler. All work is best done in the direction from the edges to the center.

Device foundation. To do this, prepare the bottom of the pit and install formwork on it. To avoid freezing, it is recommended to make the wall thickness equal to one brick. According to the project, the height of the foundation is 150 mm.

Next, you need to install rebar in three rows. For these purposes, rolled products with a diameter of 16 mm were chosen. Metal strips are welded to each row. Next, the structure is poured with a concrete mixture and left to harden. Formwork can be removed after a few days.

Tip: to prevent grounding problems, it is recommended to weld a figure-eight bar to the reinforcement.

Wall masonry from brick. First you need to lay the zero row on the surface of the hardened concrete foundation. This row is laid with a poke. On top of it in the middle, it is necessary to fix the steel strips on which the embedded parts are welded. In this way, reliable grounding can be ensured. All subsequent rows are made in half a brick. It is recommended to lay steel strips through each row. They will help to give strength to the walls of the basement. There is no need to fasten the strips together.

Tip: when building walls, make sure that between artificial stones there were no gaps and voids through which rodents could enter the room.

When the brickwork reaches a height of one meter, you can proceed to the supply air device ventilation. For these purposes, sewer pipes were selected.

For waterproofing cellar walls, roofing material can be used.

The device of the upper strapping and overlapping. The binding of the upper part with metal elements can be installed after the 21st row is laid out. For these purposes, it is necessary to put on last layer brickwork layer of roofing material and fill it with soil. For strapping, I used an I-beam No. 12, which was sawn in the middle and 2 profiles. A piece of rail is well suited for the role of a beam.

Reinforced concrete device floors 100 mm thick. For these purposes, we install the formwork, lay the reinforcement and fill it all with concrete mix.

After that, you need to install the hatch, make warming overlap and pour the screed. For insulation, you can use foam plastic 5 cm thick. For the screed, crushed stone of the smallest fraction was chosen.

Device electricity supply in the basement.


Holding finishing works. At this stage, it is necessary to make a canopy over the ventilation pipes. The walls inside the room can be whitewashed.

Differences between a cellar and a basement

A basement is a room that is located in a building, below ground level. The basement can be used to store summer equipment, as a workshop, etc. The main purpose of the cellar is food storage. In addition, the cellar can be built as a separate room.

How to make a cellar from the basement

If the building has a basement, then it can be converted into a cellar. To do this, it will be necessary to divide the basement with a wooden partition and install racks for food storage. Also, lighting should be brought into the cellar, fans should be installed and a staircase should be made.

Tip: the stairs to descend to the basement should be comfortable. It should not have steep steps.

In the event that the temperature in the basement during the cold season drops below zero degrees, then it is necessary to perform warming walls. Before installing thermal insulation, it is recommended to treat the surface with an antifungal compound or slaked lime. Walls can be insulated using rolled roofing material, glass isol or ordinary foam. On top of the heat-insulating layer it is necessary to lay plywood or fiberboard sheets.

It may also be necessary to insulate the floor. To do this, you can lay a strong plastic film, on top of which the timber is laid. If this is not enough, then you can fill the floor surface with bitumen. On top of this material, a layer of sawdust 5–6 cm thick and wood flooring are laid.

Foreword

The presence of a well-built cellar in a private house will help to save vegetables and conservation until the next harvest. There are quite a few solutions for arranging such structures, but the cellar under the house is considered the most common.

Cellar or cellar?

Reliably keeping stocks throughout the winter is an important task for gardeners, so arranging a place for potatoes and other vegetables must be done in accordance with all the rules. In order for the potatoes not to sprout, and the lids on the jars not to rust, you will have to not only dig a hole. ventilation, as well as waterproofing and interior decoration must meet certain requirements.

The main point from which all the differences between the cellar and the basement stem is the purpose of each of the structures. The basement is partially heated, so it is used as workshops, storage or other utility rooms, as well as garages, as seen in the photo. The structure, which is located under the house and is called the cellar, performs a different function, being a repository for:

  • vegetables and fruits;
  • jars of jam and pickles;
  • house wine;
  • barrels with sauerkraut, cucumbers or tomatoes.

Inside the cellar, it is necessary to maintain the appropriate temperature; ventilated boxes, shelves and racks are installed here, the successful placement of which is often photographed. The device of the cellar, unlike the basement, requires a smaller area, and its decoration can be quite simple and uncomplicated.

Is it possible to make a cellar in the basement?

If there is a cool basement under the floor of the house and the temperature in it, even in summer time remains relatively low, you can allocate part of it in order to make storage for vegetables. Such an option is quite acceptable. But it’s impossible to complete the basement in the cellar, and even a photo of such “transformations” cannot be found.

To equip a cellar under the house with your own hands in the basement, you need to separate its smaller part with a wooden partition. Inside, you will need to install racks, make separate lighting and ventilation. To keep cool in the cellar, a heat-insulating layer should be installed. It is important that warm air does not enter inside, and the temperature remains at a level slightly more than zero degrees, which is considered to be optimal mode. It is better if the storage has an individual descent and complete autonomy from the main basement. Cellar decoration should include the treatment of walls with one of the compositions:

  • antifungal;
  • slaked lime;
  • copper sulfate.

For thermal insulation, foam or glass isol is chosen. In the numerous photos posted on this site, you can see that the front finish is made from sheets of fiberboard or plywood. So that the earth from the cellar does not fall into the house, a layer of expanded clay, pebbles or straw is laid on its floor.

Advantages of a cellar located under the house

There are a lot of positive points that speak in favor of arranging a vegetable store directly under the house. First of all, there is no need to allocate a separate place for construction, which is especially important for small household plots. IN winter period time is not required to dress in a special way to get a jar of cucumbers or a few potatoes for borscht.

At high level groundwater, it is not necessary to lay a separate drainage system, which will require additional material investments. Yes, and the pit will need to do only one. It should be noted, however, that with a high level of water in the ground, a cellar located under the house is not recommended, since it will be too damp in it, and during the snowmelt period, water will most likely appear in the vegetable store. Although good waterproofing and underground drainage can improve the situation.

The device of the cellar during the construction of the house

Responsible owners are concerned about how to build a cellar located under the floor of the house correctly so that later there are no problems, and his photo could be shown to friends. There can be only one answer here - it is necessary to thoroughly approach all stages of construction, from earthworks to the installation of shelving. This structure must be erected at the stage of laying the foundation, since it will be difficult and impractical to subsequently disassemble the floor and dig a deep and wide hole under it. During the construction process you will need:

  • dig a pit;
  • build walls;
  • perform waterproofing, and if necessary - thermal insulation;
  • mount the ceiling and hatch;
  • make cellar ventilation under the house;
  • fill the floor with sand or pour concrete;
  • finish the internal surfaces;
  • install drawers and shelves;
  • build a ladder.

So that during a flood or a strong, prolonged downpour, a “surprise” in the form of seeped water does not accidentally appear in the cellar, before digging the pit, you will need to find out at what level the groundwater lies. You can look into the nearest wells, and in their absence, drill a well at least 2.5 meters deep and wait a couple of days to see if water appears in it or not.

The depth of the cellar is determined depending on the GWL (groundwater level), taking into account the requirements for its minimum depth of 1.8 meters. For less depth:

  • it will be inconvenient to stay and move in the storage;
  • the air temperature will rise 7-8 degrees higher, which will affect the safety of vegetables.

The ideal option is the distance from the groundwater horizon during the flood period to the cellar floor - at least a meter. At lower values, enhanced waterproofing of the walls and floor of the building or the construction of a separate semi-underground cellar will be required. Photos of such buildings can be seen here. The optimal depth of the cellar under the house is considered to be 1.9–2.25 meters.

Storage area for vegetables should be at least five square meters. The dimensions of the pit are determined taking into account the thickness of the walls (25–30 cm) and the sinuses intended for applying waterproofing and devices from the outside clay castle. Cellar walls are made from:

  • monolithic reinforced concrete;
  • red brick;
  • cinder blocks;
  • logs.

After installing a sand cushion (up to 20 cm high), laying a layer of crushed stone (10 cm thick) and a reinforcing mesh made of wire rod (0.6 cm in diameter), the floor in the cellar is poured with concrete. At the same time, the slope of the base should be maintained towards the technical pit intended for collecting condensate or in case of groundwater.

Then they produce a device for heat, steam and waterproofing of the ceiling and the hatch. This will avoid the appearance of excessive condensation on the ceiling, the penetration of cool air and a specific smell into the house. A simple cellar finish involves wall cladding with wood materials, such as slab or lining. Look at the photo how it looks in reality. To avoid the appearance of mold and rotting processes, they are treated with compounds containing an antiseptic.

An interesting fact is that cellar decoration can be expensive and exclusive. For example, the photo of wine cellars shows that they are lined with natural expensive materials and decorated with exclusive elements. Armchairs, tasting and chess tables, audio systems are installed inside. And all this, if desired, can be done directly and under your home.

Waterproofing

If water enters the cellar, you do not have the slightest chance to save the grown crop. But water will not be able to get inside the storage if its walls and floor are properly insulated, and all cracks and seams are hermetically sealed.

Roofing felt glued to hot bitumen is traditionally used as waterproofing. From the inside, walls and floors can also be treated with penetrating waterproofing mastics and coating mixtures with good adhesion. Special additives are added to modern waterproofing compounds and masonry mortars that increase moisture resistance and help create a durable layer that prevents breakthroughs or punctures. When choosing waterproofing, it is recommended to give preference to coating materials.

In the case of a close occurrence of groundwater from the surface of the earth, it is necessary to carry out a high-quality drainage system that will remove moisture not only from the cellar, but from the whole house.

Ventilation

The device itself better waterproofing will not save the home vegetable store from the presence of increased moisture in the absence of ventilation. The resulting condensate has a negative effect on vegetables and fruits in boxes, nets and containers. To get rid of it, you need a properly executed supply and exhaust ventilation cellar, the installation of which should be given special attention. Signs that ventilation is inadequate include:

  • stale, heavy air;
  • the appearance of mold and fungus;
  • feeling of dankness and dampness.

Ventilation is mounted from two pipe sections, which are located in opposite corners of the cellar. One of them, exhaust, is installed under the ceiling, and the other, supply, half a meter from the floor. Both pipes should go outside at the same level, but it is allowed that the top of the supply pipe is lower.

For device forced ventilation an electric fan is installed in the exhaust pipe. Additionally, quicklime helps to remove unnecessary moisture, a bucket with which is placed in one of the corners of the building.

The cellar under the house is very convenient to use and pleases its owners in the winter season. In the numerous photos posted on the Internet, you can see beautiful examples of such a room. But for its proper functioning, a number of requirements must be met, including a reliable waterproofing and ventilation device. With the right approach, it's not too much difficult task, so you should not just place vegetables underground, it would be wiser to dig a full-fledged cellar.

How important and necessary a good cellar in the house is for those who grow vegetables with their own hands and keep a strategic supply of jam and pickles, there is no need to tell. The most rational and most convenient solution would be to build a cellar under the house at the stage of construction of the building, but it does not always work out as planned. More often a private house is bought ready-made, and the question of how to make a cellar has to be decided after many weeks or months, when it is already too late to remodel the built house.

What is the difference between a cellar built under the house and a yard option

A small difference in the location of the cellar provides tangible benefits:

  • A significant space in the yard is saved, which is always lacking in a private house;
  • It becomes much more convenient to use the cellar, it is enough to open the hatch, get and put on the table exactly what you need, and not drag mountains of conservation and kilograms of vegetables into the kitchen;
  • There is no need to go out into the yard in winter and cool the storage room.

Important! All the advantages of a cellar under the house become obvious and evident if the storage is installed in accordance with the basic requirements for the arrangement of house glaciers.

Otherwise, the cellar under the house will create more problems than advantages, among which the smell of spoiled vegetables and sagging floors can be considered the most harmless. It would be superfluous to want to put an exorbitantly large or deep cellar, or try to adapt part of the basement for storage.

The main ways to put a cellar in a built house

  1. Collapsible structures of underground tanks based on high-strength fiberglass panels, which are lined with the built foundation pit under the house;
  2. In a similar way, you can put a modular version of the cellar based on a fiberglass or polypropylene caisson;
  3. The easiest way is to put storage under an already built house with the help of adjustable formwork, steel reinforcement and concrete casting;
  4. The most difficult thing is to build a cellar under the house with your own hands in the old grandfather way - laying out a box under a house built from natural stone, brick or clinker blocks.

For your information! The most durable and beautiful way it is generally accepted to consider the latter option, it is he who is gaining wild popularity today, a large number of owners of large and respectable houses decide to put a wine or cheese cellar under an already built house because of its unique qualities.

How to equip a cellar in a built house

Any of these options will have to start with the hardest and dirtiest part of the construction - digging a hole or foundation pit. To begin with, you will need to perform a thorough exploration and study of the state of the underground. If the box and the foundation of the built house allow, then you can try to arrange the pit in such a way that the entrance to the cellar is in the kitchen or hallway, but not in the living rooms or the hall.

Where to put the entrance to the built cellar

In such cases, a compromise often has to be made. The main underground storage room will be placed under the largest room of the house, for example, under the hall or dining room, and the entrance will be built as a separate "trailer" from the side of the auxiliary room.

Why such difficulties? Everything is very simple:

  1. Any cellar is dampness and odors that must be removed from the room with the help of additionally built ventilation;
  2. The entrance to the underground storage, located away from the living rooms, will eliminate the need to interfere with the family every time you need to take or put something there;
  3. In addition, it is simply necessary to place the entrance to the side due to the fact that building a cellar under the house will take a lot of time, which is associated with the transfer of a large amount of building materials and dirt.

Important! This approach to building a cellar under a built house is convenient, but only if there are no main walls on a strip foundation between the kitchen and the hall.

Otherwise, it will be necessary to put a “window” in concrete and strengthen the ceiling with massive channels. This is quite hard work, requiring a good knowledge of structural mechanics in a built house, before deciding on such alterations, consult with specialists.

If you nevertheless decided to remake and intend to equip a small bomb shelter in the built house, then immediately aim at concrete works with a double margin of safety. It is quite difficult to calculate exactly how much the installed basement will weaken the foundation in the built house, so all supports and walls must be placed with a maximum margin of safety.

We put a concrete cellar box under the built house

Before starting work, you will need to remove the floors in the place where it is supposed to put the entrance to the cellar. It is necessary to remove at least boards to a width of at least a meter, to strengthen the logs cross bar so that in the absence of floorboards, the rest of the floor does not fall apart under the weight of building materials.

It will be necessary to dig the entrance to the cellar only in vertical position like building a well. The easiest way is to put the entrance square or rectangular shape, 60x70 cm in size. Every half a meter of deepening, the walls must be reinforced by stuffing boards on a slab or beam installed at the corners of the pit. When digging, you have to constantly keep your eyes open so as not to run into an aquifer, sewer pipe, electric cable or any other serious obstruction.

Having gone deep to the calculated level of the floor of the future storage, it is necessary to put a pit, by the presence of water in which it will be possible to judge the future of the cellar under the built house - to build further or to fill in the excavated pit. Bury in the pit metal container with holes in the walls and put drainage pump. So that in the future the cellar does not bother with dampness, during construction, you can use the tips outlined in the video:

Important! When working at depth, it is imperative to install safe lighting and a forced supply and exhaust ventilation system.

As the pit is excavated, the floor, walls, and ceiling must be reinforced with an unedged board. In order to prevent subsidence, weakening and subsidence of the main foundation of the built house, the walls of the cellar should not come closer to the concrete base than 120-150 cm.

Next we do the setup drainage pipes and backfilling from gravel, lay out a geotextile sheet, backfill with a layer of sand. The whole “pie” is thoroughly rammed and leveled along the horizon. Then we lay out the reinforcement and fill the floor with a concrete mixture, the thicker the better.

After two weeks, you can start laying out the walls. It is best to put walls made of ready-made concrete blocks, 20x20x40 cm in size, filled with granite screenings. Such a cellar can easily withstand any pressure or swelling of the walls; it is quite difficult to work with blocks. Alternatively, the walls can be cast into the supplied formwork. This method is more laborious, it will be necessary to put a layer of waterproofing, a frame of reinforcement and internal struts that keep the constructed formwork from bending inward. The sequence of work on the arrangement of walls and floors is shown in the video:

The ceiling of the cellar is usually made in unison with the walls. For rooms built at great depths, ceiling reinforce with reinforced concrete screed on the laid beams. For shallow cellars, the beam ceiling is insulated with foam plastic, a double waterproofing film is laid and sewn up with plastic panel cladding.

For vaults built of brick or clinker block, the most successful solution is to lay out the ceiling vault of the cellar from a brick or stone wedge.

The work on laying out the arch requires an individual selection and layout of the material, so rarely does any owner risk putting up a brick arch with his own hands. Usually, a ceiling vault is ordered if the basement or cellar is made for a specific use - storing wine, growing mushrooms or ripening cheeses.

Small cellar option in the kitchen or dining room

You may not need a massive concrete box, and you can get by with a small plastic caisson for storing supplies. If a concrete room can be built in a month, then a plastic caisson can be delivered in just a few days. And in such a storage, you can keep a supply of conservation and vegetables for several weeks, store the bulk of the supplies in a cellar or basement built on a free surface in the yard or under the garage.

Conclusion

Any experiments with arranging a cellar in an already built and inhabited house can only be carried out on the condition that the soil on which the storage is supposed to be placed has a sufficient margin of bearing capacity. In addition, when deciding how to build a cellar, it must be taken into account that the constructed concrete box should not block underground springs and aquifers. Otherwise, even with heavy-duty waterproofing, there will be constant dampness in the house, which cannot be removed by ventilation.

In order for the cellar to always remain dry and the temperature in it to be stable, its construction should be carried out in compliance with certain rules and requirements. The work ahead is quite voluminous, but in the future it will pay off with interest.

The cellar can be located both away from other buildings, and located under the house, garage, bathhouse or barn. The storage located under the building allows you to save space on the site, and it will be much more convenient to use it in winter.

If it is decided to build it in an open area, then you should choose a higher place - there will be constant dampness in the storage located in the lowland. It is desirable that a separate cellar is located in the shade. In this case, in the summer it will warm up less.

In order to avoid the collapse of buildings, in no case should a separate cellar be located closer than half a meter from their walls.

Types of cellars

The decisive factor in choosing the type of cellar is ground water level . If the aquifer runs too close, spring floods will flood your food stocks every year. And no drainage system will not save - the more you pump out water, the faster the channels will erode, and every year there will be more and more of it in the cellar.

So that during floods it is not flooded, it should be located 0.5 m above this level. To determine how close the groundwater is to the surface, you can use:

  • garden drill: 2.5 m long or more;
  • spoon drill: they drill wells under water, but you can also use it for such a measurement.

After drilling, the well should stand still for at least a day. Next, the water level is measured using a long rod lowered into the well. Depending on the result obtained, they decide which type of cellar can be built on the site:

  • underground: a standard cellar located in a dry area, most often deepens by 2.5-3 m;
  • semi-submerged; less demanding on the soil, its average depth is 1 m;
  • bulk: built on swampy soils where the groundwater level is very high;
  • a cellar on a slope, a kind of bulk, is used quite rarely.

To protect against frost heaving of the soil and keep warm in storage cellar depth must necessarily be 0.5 m below the level of its freezing.


Cellar construction in stages

The cellar should be built only in summer - at this time, groundwater sinks to the greatest depth. So that the open cellar is not flooded with water, work is carried out only in dry weather. If it still rains, the pit is temporarily covered with polyethylene.

Pit preparation

Floor construction


It is undesirable to fill the floors in the cellar with concrete. The soil located below the freezing depth will be the main (and in the case of a cellar taken outside the buildings) and the only source of heat in winter and cold in summer.

clay castle

Our ancestors have long used compacted greasy clay for waterproofing foundations and basements. Of course, it will not save from the rise of groundwater, but clay can completely protect against capillary moisture, which constantly penetrates through the thickness of the soil. Such protection is called clay castle .

To create it, clay is laid in layers:

  • on the bottom, the height of the castle is 0.4 m;
  • wall thickness 0.25-0.3 m.

In order for the clay to become plastic, it is pre-soaked and left for a while to soak. The ideal option would be to harvest it in the fall. During the winter in the open air, it will pick up enough moisture, and it will be easy to work with it.

It should not crumble, but it should not flow out of the fingers either. Lay the clay with the help of adjustable formwork in small layers. You can start working with a new layer if it has dried to the consistency of plasticine.

The quality of clay will be much higher if 20% lime is added to it.

wall decoration

The walls can be made of brick, concrete, buta or asbestos cement sheets. Thickness concrete wall should be 5 cm, buta - 25 cm. To protect against capillary moisture, they are coated before finishing bituminous mastic, hot bitumen or paste over roll materials(roofing felt, roofing material, etc.).

A vertical formwork is prepared for pouring concrete. To create a waterproof film, the wall can additionally be plastered with a cement-sand mortar - ironed. The ratio of sand and cement in this case is 1:1. To prevent cracking, lime is added to the solution (about 1/10 of the cement).

Be sure to insulate the hatch or door leading to the cellar. They should fit as tightly as possible and not have gaps. They are made two-layer and edged with timber or metal corner with filling with any heat-insulating material (for example, polystyrene foam or expanded polystyrene).

Ventilation

Since most vegetables should be stored in dry, ventilated areas, the cellar must be equipped with natural ventilation. To do this, perform the following work:

  • exhaust and supply pipes are installed in the cellar:

Pros and cons of freestanding cellars

Separate buildings have significant disadvantages:

  1. Such storage facilities should be equipped with a ground part - an entrance and a roof, which significantly increases the cost of their construction.
  2. Inconvenience of use in winter: the passage to them will need to be cleared of snow. Plus, in severe frosts, in order not to catch a cold, it is often undesirable to open them.

But there are also positive aspects of having a cellar located outside the house. The temperature in the underground under the heated building is always much higher than in the cellar. Therefore, vegetables and fruits are stored in it only until the end of winter - by spring, potatoes, carrots and other vegetables begin to sprout, and fruits begin to flake. In a separate cellar, they are perfectly stored until the end of summer. Plus, if there is an underground in the house, rodents start up faster in it. If stocks are stored in a free-standing storage, the likelihood of them coming into the house is reduced.

If the land plot is small, and there is no place on it to build a free-standing cellar, you can use the advice of the author of this video and make a mini-cellar with your own hands:

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