Do-it-yourself cellar in the country (56 photos): materials, stages

A cellar in the country will allow you to store food products for a long time and with high quality

A cellar in the country with your own hands is a good opportunity to provide long-term and high-quality storage of products. And since, if the cellar is built correctly, it stably maintains the same temperature all year round, it is simply indispensable for storing not only preserves and pickles, but also vegetables and fruits. A cellar in the country is an absolutely necessary thing for those who have a vegetable garden or orchard in the country..

Cellar – a building necessary at a summer cottage and in any private estate

Magnificent cellar in the form of a fairy house

Cellar in the country: main types

Despite the structural features of the construction, the cellars can be divided into three types (diagrams of the device of the cellars, depending on the type, are shown in Fig. 1):

Rice. 1. Diagram of the device of the main types of cellars.

• ground-based – suit in case of a very high (0.5 m) groundwater level. It can be just an insulated wooden box, a wall cellar (attached to the main wall, in fact – another room, only with earth embankment, the diagram is shown in Fig. 2) or a brick storehouse with an embankment (Fig. 3)

Rice. 2. Scheme of the wall cellar

Rice. 3. Ground cellar with embankment.

• a semi-buried cellar – arranged in places where the groundwater level is located within 1.5-2 m from the earth’s surface. A diagram of a semi-buried cellar is shown in Fig. 4.

Rice. 4. Scheme of a semi-buried cellar

• For its construction, it will be necessary to dig a pit 0.8-1m deep. The base is erected from brick or concrete, raising the walls to a height of 2-2.2 m. The overlap is made of wood, concrete or slate. The entire structure is sprinkled with soil from above. The entrance to such a cellar is arranged at ground level, with a vestibule, stairs and a second, necessarily insulated, door. In principle, all construction operations, including waterproofing, ventilation and insulation, are similar to those carried out during the construction of a buried basement..

A beautiful cellar in the country, lined with natural stone

A cellar is a small cold room for storing vegetables and fruits, preparations and wines, meat and dried products

• a recessed cellar is the most common type, it can be either separate (having its own cellar, Fig. 5), or located under the house, summer kitchen or garage. Therefore, we will consider in detail below how to build a cellar with your own hands in the country..

Rice. 5. Scheme of a separate cellar with a cellar.

Do-it-yourself cellar in the country step by step: tips and tricks

For the construction of a semi-buried, and especially a buried cellar, it is very important to accurately determine the place of construction, or more precisely, to determine the level of occurrence of groundwater. To do this, you can use the help of professionals (expensive, but reliable), or you can try the folk method, which gives a fairly accurate result. This requires a glass jar, a piece of wool, and a fresh egg. In the place where you planned to build the cellar, put a piece of wool on the ground, on top of it – an egg and cover them with a glass cover on top. Leave this “construction” overnight, and evaluate the results in the morning:

• wool and an egg in the dew – the groundwater level is insignificant, here you will have to limit yourself to a ground cellar

Cellar in a fairytale style

The cellar may well become one of the decorations of your site.

• there is dew on the wool, and the egg is dry – the groundwater is deep enough for the construction of a semi-buried cellar
• dry egg and wool – an excellent place for building a buried cellar.

Cellar located under the veranda

Advice! The construction of the cellar is best carried out in the summer, when the groundwater level is at its lowest..

The best time to build a cellar is during the summer.

If the construction of a cellar is planned in the house (more precisely, under the house), then it is better to place it under non-residential (unheated) premises, ideally under the veranda (the temperature in it is lower than in the rest of the house, it is easier to arrange ventilation, and in winter the veranda will protect against frost). If the layout of the house allows you to equip the cellar only in the heated part of the building, additional thermal insulation of the floor will be required (for example, lay 5 cm thick foam on the floor) and good ventilation, otherwise it is impossible to ensure the optimal storage of food..

If the cellar is located under a heated room, then you need to take care of its thermal insulation

Cellar interior in the style of oriental fairy tales

After that, you can proceed to the practical part of the construction..

Digging a pit

Do-it-yourself construction of a cellar in the country begins with marking the pit, while adding from 0.5 to 1 m to the planned dimensions – this will make it easier to waterproof the cellar. First, the top fertile soil layer is removed – it can be further used to create flower beds, terraces, alpine slides, etc. After that, they dig directly the foundation pit (Fig. 6).

Before building a cellar, you need to choose the right place

The cellar is practically the same refrigerator, but with slightly different dimensions, and also without the constant costs of repairs and electricity

Advice! So that the earth does not crumble down and the soil stays stronger, the walls of the pit are made not vertical, but slightly with a slope, while the steepness of the slope is chosen depending on the type of soil (the harder it is, the smaller the slope).

Rice. 6. Digging a pit

To make sure that water does not seep through the walls somewhere, the pit is allowed to stand for some time. The places where water appeared are covered up with so-called “clay tampons” – they dig out a ditch (depth up to 50 cm) and trample it with crumpled oily clay, while tamping it strongly.

Basement of the cellar

To obtain the base, the bottom of the pit is leveled and tamped, after which a sand and gravel cushion is made and the first layer of concrete 5-10 cm thick is poured. Roofing material is placed on top of the first layer in 2-3 layers or melted bitumen is poured (waterproofing layer, Fig. 7) , after which they are again concreted, pouring a layer 10-15 cm thick. If walls of brick are erected (the thickness of half a brick is a brick), then this foundation will be enough as a foundation. If the walls are laid out from concrete blocks or some of the walls of the cellar will be continued as load-bearing walls of the house, then a separate foundation will be required.

Rice. 7. Waterproofing of the foundation pit

Walling

For the construction of the walls of the cellar, you can use different materials. Most often, bricks, concrete blocks are used for this (Fig. 8, most often they are used to build load-bearing walls of a house on them), quarry, cinder block (Fig. 9). Another option is pouring monolithic concrete walls, in this case the walls can form a single whole with the base, for which the reinforcement for the walls is initially fixed in it (Fig. 10), then the formwork is installed and the solution is poured (Fig. 11).

Rice. 8. Cellar walls made of concrete blocks

Fig. 9. Cinder block cellar walls

Rice. 10. Installation of reinforcement for a monolithic concrete wall

Fig. 11. Installation of formwork for pouring the walls of the cellar

Floor installation

The choice of material for the overlap is largely determined by what loads it has to withstand during further operation. It can be manufactured:

• wood – beams or logs on which boards or beams are laid on top. Since there is always high humidity in the cellar, all wooden elements must be treated with an antiseptic

When building a cellar, all wooden elements must be treated with an antiseptic

Cellar in the country, decorated with climbing plants

• metal beams on which concrete slabs can be laid. In this case, it is especially necessary to process and seal the seams (plate joints)
• monolithic concrete floor – poured in the same way as monolithic walls

Everyone can build a cellar with their own hands in the country.

Ladder

The simplest, but very inconvenient option is a ladder, welded from pipes or knocked down from wood. It is advisable to provide a stationary staircase made of iron, concrete or metal in the project, it is both more convenient and safer to use it:

• the minimum width is 30-40 cm, but about 50-60 cm is better, it will be convenient to climb along it

A beautiful cellar will delight your guests for a long time

• if it is planned to lower heavy, bulky cargoes into the cellar, which must be carried together, then the width of the stairs should be at least 80 cm

• the maximum permissible slope is 75 degrees, but such a staircase will be within the power of a young and energetic person. To make the ladder comfortable, but at the same time not take up much space, a slope of 45 degrees will be optimal – it is quite easy to climb it (the span is not very long) even with a load in your hands
• step height – 15 – 20 cm, width – 25-30 cm

You can purchase a ready-made cellar in the form of a capsule, which you just have to hide in the ground

Basement wall waterproofing

To ensure watertightness, concrete and brick walls are additionally plastered with cement mortar. After the final drying of the plaster layer, bituminous mastic is applied from the outside of the wall, on which roofing material is glued (Fig. 11), after which the soil is backfilled.

To ensure the watertightness of your building, it is necessary to waterproof the walls.

Advice! To improve waterproofing, instead of backfilling with soil, you can make a clay castle. To do this, clay is mixed with water and coarse sand to form a plastic mass resembling plasticine. The resulting mass is placed in a pit between the walls and the ground, tamping very tightly.

Rice. 11. Waterproofing the walls of the cellar using bitumen mastic and roll materials

Ventilation device

Properly organized natural ventilation will avoid excessive humidity and dampness, maintaining an optimal temperature and humidity regime in the cellar. To do this, two pipes are installed in the cellar (metal, ceramic, asbestos-cement, plank, etc.):

• exhaust – installed at the top, almost under the very ceiling, while it must be insulated

The cellar must have a vintillation system

Cellar in the country with a pebble path

• supply air – located at a height of 50-60 cm from the floor

To ensure maximum air exchange, the pipes should be located as far apart as possible. The cross-section of the pipe is selected in accordance with the dimensions of the cellar, for example, for normal ventilation of the cellar with an area of ​​8 m2 and a height of 2 m, a pipe with a cross-section of 12X12 cm is required.The main signs of impaired ventilation: the appearance of condensation on the ceiling, dampness, signs of mold, musty, unpleasant air … Figure 12 shows a diagram of the organization of ventilation for a separate cellar.

Rice. 12. Ventilation device for the cellar with a cellar

Fig. 13 shows a diagram of the organization of ventilation for the cellar in the basement of the house..

Rice. 13. Ventilation device in the cellar under the house

It is worth noting that it is necessary to install a grate on the supply pipe, which will prevent rodents from entering the cellar..

Advice! If natural ventilation is not enough, boxes with substances that actively absorb moisture (quicklime, salt) can be installed to combat excess moisture.

The cellar should not have excess moisture

A cellar located under the kitchen floor is a very convenient construction

Features of operation

It is not recommended to store kerosene, paint and other substances with a pungent smell in the cellar – the products absorb the pungent smell well, which is difficult to get rid of. In the summer, before laying food, the cellar must be well dried and ventilated in order to get rid of cold and heavy air..

It is not recommended to store substances with a pungent odor in the cellar.

How to make a cellar in the country with your own hands – features of construction and advice from professionals, see the video: