Root Cellaring

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Your intake and exhaust pipes should be set in place through holes in the form boards berore the ceiling or walls are poured. Extend the outlet pipe several inches above ground level for more complete air exhaust. Leaving it level with the roof would allow a blanket of stale air to remain at ceiling level in the cellar. Some folks who operate root cellars in the Far North have told us that instead of using the standard 4" cold-air pipe, they've put in two smaller ones so that one could be capped during spells of frigid weather. (An alternative would be to make a doughnut-shaped "hole-reducer" plug.) It's a good idea to put a chimney cap on the exhaust pipe to block entering cold air that could act as a lid to keep warm air from moving up and out of the pipe. Wrapping the aboveground pipe with some sort of weatherproof insulating material also helps to increase air circulation, because rising air doesn't get chilled and sink so readily when the pipe is kept relatively warm.

To carry off excess rainwater, run a perforated 4" drainpipe around the outer walls of the cellar at floor level, over a 3" base of gravel. And to drain groundwater that might freeze, expand, and crack the walls, lay a second perforated pipe at a point 2' to 3' below the soil's surface (about halfway through backfilling). After you've finished backfilling around the cellar, fasten a 2" rigid foam insulation board on the outside surface of the roof, using construction cement. Top that with a sheet of 6-mil poly, shovel on 2' to 4' of earth, and scatter some grass seed on the roof to help prevent the soil from washing away. (On one farm we visited, the family cow was tied on the root cellar roof each summer to keep the grass clipped.) Build, buy, or scrounge a good solid door, make some shelves, gather some crates, and then go and dig your vegetables!

Building a Basement Root Cellar

A basement root cellar might not be quite as cold and damp as an excavated cellar—especially in fall and spring—but it's still a plenty good keeping-space, and it has the advantage of being easy to build. A few rainy weekends spent sawing and hammering will earn you a cold-storage room that'll keep your garden produce over the winter for years to come.

An old farmhouse we once lived in had a dirt-floored basement that made a great root cellar. The space stayed cold because we heated the house with a wood-burning box stove on the first floor. In another house, this time with central heating, we found we could store root vegetables in a large, unheated basement closet. If your house has a separate cellar room on the northeast (coldest) or the northwest (next best) side, all you need to do is insulate the door, the ceiling, and the inside walls. Leave the exterior walls uninsulated so the deep-ground cold can seep in.

In a heated basement that is not divided, you could partition off a room on the cold northeast corner. Start by nailing 2 X 4 sills to the floor around the perimeter of the room-to-be. (On a concrete floor, predrill the holes in both wood and concrete, run a bead of construction glue around the bottom edges of the 2 X 4s, and fasten the sills to the floor with lag bolts.) Then toenail 2 X 4 studs to the plate on 16" centers. Begins to look like something now, doesn't it? Next, nail a 2 X 4 header to the tops of the studs, and staple a 6-mil poly vapor barrier to the inner surface of the studs. Top this with panels of Styrofoam or urethane sandwiched between the poly and an inner wall of somewhat moistureproof material such as Aspenite, Formica, or fiberglass. You can also use scrap pieces of aluminum press plates, which are available at little cost from local newspaper publishers. If you're short of space, you could fit the insulation boards between the studs. In that case, put the vapor barrier on the outside surface of the studs (it should always be on the warm side of the insulation). The outer walls that face the basement may be made of any material you like to look at; they won't be affected by the pantry's dampness. Finally, install vent pipes, insulate the door and ceiling, make some shelves, and plan a cellar-warming party. If your root room has a window, shade and screen it, but keep it accessible so you can open it at night to cool the space when necessary. If, when you start to use the room, you find that a single window doesn't provide enough ventilation, you can run a cold-air intake pipe from outside down to floor level and across the room. (You want that air to move!)

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