Living in a Silo

Enlarge Image Image Gallery This silo was converted into a cozy home for only $6,500 and a winter of work. GLENN WORTHINGTON

One October evening in 1978, my brother and I — inspired by the bright chill that had already begun to flavor the air — were discussing the fact that a one-level house often loses much of its heat through the roof. It would surely, we thought, be more energy-efficient, and thus economical, to warm an abode in which the rooms were stacked on top of one another, letting the heat work its way up through the living space.

As the night wore on, my sibling told me that he'd once considered building just such a house — and doing so in an abandoned silo — because, with the basic structure already in place, the cost of remodeling would be far less than would building from the ground up (and up, and up )! Later, I shared his idea with Helen, my wife, and (as I'd hoped) she became so excited about the concept that we were soon setting off in search of an unused fodder-holder.

We made a full sweep of the country roads around our home in Pittsburg, Kansas, but most of the silos we saw were made of ugly gray concrete block wrapped with metal bands. Persistence paid off, though: We finally found the perfect structure, built of glazed and glistening red-clay tile, perched on the crest of a hill like a lookout. There was a grain-chute opening on its south side, which, we felt sure, could be adapted to accommodate a few sun-catching windows. Full of enthusiasm, we went to explore the inside of the 14-foot-diameter cylinder, and looked up to see … blue sky. Obviously, one of our first jobs would be to put on a roof.

Within two weeks we'd located the silo's owner, and — because [1] he wasn't using that land and [2] we'd be putting our own money into the renovation — he offered us a free, and renewable, five-year lease. By that time, though, it was already early November, and winter was all too close.

A Step-by-Step Conversion

I began work by making an excavation to house a septic tank and drainage lines. While I was at it, I also dug a ditch from the silo to a (happily) nearby wind pump and well and put in a waterline. Then, since we wanted easy access to our future home, we chose a spot on the silo's west side and cut out a front door opening, using a specially made concrete saw.

Our next project, the roof, was a real challenge. In order to assure safe working conditions, I first built a platform that sat on top of the structure. It took me an hour of scooting around the rim — 40 feet up, in sleeting weather — to mark the edges so that my big scaffold wouldn't overlap the points where the rafters would later sit. Then, one by one, Helen tied the planks to a rope, and I hauled them up.

Once the platform was assembled, I constructed an eight-sided, tipi-shaped wooden frame and spent a number of consecutive weekends sheeting, tar-papering and shingling seven of the roof's eight sides. I covered the last section (where we planned to build a balcony the following spring) with plastic.

At that point we realized that we were about to be involved in a race to pour concrete in the base of the silo before freezing weather came to stay, but first it was necessary to dig out three feet of soft earth — and when you're working in a 14-foot-diameter hole, that's a lot of dirt to move by hand. Fortunately, however, we got the job finished in time (barely!).