Building our Root Cellar
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- Today is the first day of building our root cellar which we will be able to use as an off-grid refrigerator when we have it all built and set up. This is going to be one fun build. I have been thinking about building one of these for years now
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Great video!
Looking Good. Don't you need pressure treated for the bottom plates on concrete?
our concrete slab has insulation under it so there isn't any moisture coming through the concrete
Hi.... AL keep sharing your video and keep it up thank you for sharing your video homestead 👨👩👧👸👕👓🐩🐔🐓🐥🐈🌱🏡🎥👍👍👍
Looks great. The only detail of not using a pressure treated/ rot resistance bottom plate might be problem down the road.
Darn yt forgot to send me a notification, had to go looking for your new one!
Spoke too soon it just came at 12:30, smh
Wow! It's going to be awesome!
I think it would be neat if you could find a walk in cooler door for the root cellar. I'm a little late to the party. Trying to get caught up on your channel. :)
I think you will like the door that we are going to build for the root cellar! Thanks for joining the party
I enjoy your videos. It looks like you could use some weather stripping around your basement door. I see daylight. Best Wishes
Great job, although do you not need to install a vapour barrier (6mil poly) between your concrete floor and your sill plate? Our local code (Canada, Ontario) requires a barrier to prevent rot.
We have a vapor barrier under the concrete floor
Nice looking build! Consider using a pressure treated sill and a piece of foam sill insulation beneath your walls.
My house was built in the early 80's, and the original owner built a storage closet in the basement. Now, perhaps 30 years later the sills are dry rotted and I had to tear them all out. We never get water or leaks in our basement - it's just the little bit of moisture coming up through the slab constantly
Did you always in the plan to put the root cellar in that spot when you built the house? I figured you must have since you seem really good at planning ahead. We don't have a basement but would love to have a root cellar we are looking at making one outside.
I have always wanted a root cellar. I would have preferred it in the corner. But the foundation was already here when we bought the property and that is where the well pump is.
I'm here to learn.
Finally no bacon and pig videos !
Is that mold i see in the back corner or is it stained from previous water damage? You mentioned the basement was there when you built the house- was the original burned out?
Well, I wasn't you expecting to do that. Going to be a cool storage room, but I'm not sure if you can keep it cool enough in the summer. Looking good though.
great job Al. I sure enjoy your videos. Still got some pic's for you and the family.
Pictures?
I wood love to see an update on the root cellar, how well it has worked after all of this time. Loved watching you build this.
I love construction!!
Beware the creative mind. LOL. Looking great... as usual.
thanks for the entertainment. keep up the good work.
WOW! This is going to be awesome!! I hope your brain finishes turning before you finish building!!
Nice job! Did the same thing many years ago, worked out great.
Nice work
It would also be a nice pantry put some shelves on. Larry
Looking good. Great oppurtunity for storing food!
nice job thumb's up
I have only actually seen one "root cellar" before this. It had a dirt floor with a wood edge to walk around on. They had stacks of potatoes and onions sitting on the dirt. I hope the heat from your nice wood stove doesn't overpower your root cellar. Love your teaching videos. Please keep it up.
Getting colder there. Saw the flaps go down. Looking awesome
Nice video helps me out cause I need to build a cooler
I have a question: are you concerned about the excess heat that the pump and the chest freezer would cause and having less space to expel it? I hope that makes sense.
I'm glad you made a video on this. I'm thinking I might just build one, once I get a house of course.
Great job, Al! Keep up the good work!
Just one minor issue / FYI: Root cellars work because they maintain 90% humidity, which is far higher than outdoor air, which means that although yours will work, it will not work nearly as well as an in-ground cellar.
Looks great. Thanks for sharing :)
Love your videos. I knew the town looked familiar I have family that lives in Littleton NH. Great little town and beautiful country up there.
You are really amazing. It's incredible how much energy you got. That root cellar is going to be awesome. My self, I'm uploading one video a day during this Christmas month and that is a major project for me. Greetings from Andreas on Off Grid Sweden
good morning to you Al !! fantastic first day of building your root cellar !!
you keep me inspired.
great idea. One thing I noticed was you didn't put plastic behind the studs that are up against the cement wall, nonono. That will cause moisture and rot the stud or mold. I thought you new better Andy.
did i miss the vlog on the finishd outdoor kitchen? If so can I get a link> I really was looking forward to deeing it done. Thanks Donna
No it will go out in a few days! :)
Never, ever put untreated lumber, directly on concrete. Concrete is a sponge for moisture, and moisture and untreated lumber, are not friends.
I was thinking the same thing. I would have at least used the PT as the bottom plate with PT nails. I do wonder why the 2x6 instead of 2x4...possibly because of making it a better insulation from the main basement?
@@noreen_ann1438 just add still plate gasket to the bottom plate,
Outside kitchen done and on to the root cellar, way to go Al. Can't wait to see what you come up with!
I really like these kind of videos. Thanks Al
Looking great so far!!
that nail gun won't shoot upward ????
If you can keep the temp as close as possible to 50 degrees it could be a nice place to age home made cheese or keep wine. Lots of possibilities. I look forward to the next videos.
Good morning Al. So, I don't call that a messy basement, I consider it a well designed and organized Man Cave! Very Cool idea!
Now we need to finish our food cave! :)
Looking good so far I can't wait to see the finished product
Looking great. Can't wait to see the finished look
so wish i had basement so i could build this but mine had to be filled in cause i livw 1/3 mile from missouri river and a 1/3 mile from Gasconade river so too much seep water
I am sorry to hear that.
If you have room on your land put the root cellar on a raised bed, in case of flooding insulate it well double walls with air gap between walls, mound dirt over it if need be. Many ways to go, you dont need to be under ground. Good Luck.
"Yukon Cornelius strikes again! Waahoo!"
Looking forward to seeing how you might do cold air inlet. We our basement space we want to turn into a root cellar. The basic version would be simply insulating everything above ground. Would love to have some system to let in cool air at the right time however. The problem down here is many winter days are too high a temperature so we would have to have a cut off system to only let in cold air.
That is going to be the fun part figuring out the thermostatic control fan. Lol Does your basement have a good northeast corner? How about a dirt floor?
It runs the whole west end of the house. It is sunk in the earth so every wall backs up to ground. Pretty cool already. Floor concrete, wall are stone. It is quite damp, probably not good for the house (though it has lasted almost 100 years) but I guess good for a root cellar. I have thought about making this a dry storage place and making a moist storage area apart from the house.
ART and BRI I bet that would make a good root cellar. I am surprised your house doesn't already have one. Is there a smoker in the property
It really is a root cellar. I mean it was used for storing food, mostly canned. It just needs a lot of cleanup and insulation above, new shelving. There is an old smokehouse. Measures about 7' x 9.' Don't know if it makes sense to use such a large structure for what we would be smoking, but it would be fun to use it.
Art, you need to put in a ground pipe system. By putting a pipe in the ground will allow you to bring in cold air all year. Install your pipe in a loop system with a fan on the end. A simple design and works great even in summer. As far as moisture problem you can use a dehumidifier to dry up the air without heating it.
I hope that wood is treated cause any wood that touches concrete will absorb moisture coming up through the concrete and cause it to rot.
Al: While your at the framing stage I would consider wood ducts for air handling. You could with 2x4's run a chase down the wall from the window opening bottom to 4" from the floor. The cold air chase should be full window width this will help in summer to remove heat as the cool air will lose some heat to the concrete wall. Apply cheap foam board insulation to the room side of the cold air chase to keep it cool.The warm air exhaust duct should be twice cross sectional area of the cold air duct. The inlet as high as possible at the inside wall ( above the door). It could also be the location of a cheap on the slowest speed; exhaust fan, thermo statically controlled to maintain a positive air flow if required. But natural convection should work if you build a vertical duct/chimney on the outside for draft. I would use wire screen material on the exterior openings for insect and rodent control. Removable panels or flap doors could be used on the exterior openings for seasonal adjustments.Our root cellar when I was a kid was under ground so we only needed ducting for air movement and humidity control. There was a couple of hundred feet of old creek estuary gravel under it so there was no seepage. the old guy Bert
great ideas. Your root cellar growing up sounds like one neat place!
Hi Al I just stumbled on this Video ' Bill Edwards on Root Cellars ' you and Gina might want to watch together. Bill is in the northern half of British Columbia a similar climatic region to you. There is a lot of good information in this 2 hour talk on root cellars and food storage from a man who has lived it. Bert
root cellar should be below ground level the shelves like my grandfather had for 90 years the shelf's were simply carved from the the red clay dirt -
Tell me the truth Al!! I’m seein NO snow and I know we got about 8 inches down here in Barrington!! This is going to be a fun project!!
There is a 2 day gap in our videos we got 2 inches
Okay....THAT’S the shirt I want!! Love the color! You have GOT to be a carpenter by trade cause you are making that look easy! And you have all the tools and terminology...yep, my cop senses tell me....carpenter!! So a question. Why no vapor barrier or plastic on the floor? Just curious.
That is an older shirt. I will have to see about adding more colors for the new shirts depending on how they sell
Cool Cellar! This will really come in handy.
Al,. Where I'm from a root cellar belongs outside in the ground. Hence the name (root) cellar. Your building a room addition in a basement. Not trying to bash your work but a true ,or modern home steader should build it in the ground outside.
Looking great already Al! Thumbs up!! :)
Your "brain has been turning"? I THOUGHT I smelled smoke! ;^) Seriously, I am in awe of your improvisational construction skills. What about lighting, once it's closed in? Will add a ceiling?
Are you going to add the hanging hooks now
Yes we will be hanging some meats in the cave
That's $100k in wood right there. haha.
Al, my husband always told me that when he was marking out his "map" it was his storyboard. It tells the story of the project. Are you buying that idea because I'm not sure I was for certain he was telling me the truth. I will say if anyone in the future of our retirement cottage ever deconstructs...they will have a lot of reading at their disposal. :) I must say that I really do miss our root cellar but here on the river with a postage stamp yard there just isn't one in my future. I do have a lot of room for my canning and I do have a pantry but potatoes are now in a homemade crate (Jack made) inside an outside wall coat closet. It's just the 2 of us now so it works for me. Living and working your property doesn't require a membership at the local gym, so that is a savings but some days the exercise can be exhausting...at least for us at this stage of life so build, build, build now while you are young so later years are easier. We so enjoy sitting back and watching you do all the heavy lifting as you build your homestead from your dreams to reality. Such entertainment is priceless. Animals and building...oh, a little one to watch grow up is about as much entertainment as Jack and I need so carry on and we'll keep tuning in.
I am looking forward to the older days when I can enjoy the fruits of my labor later in life. Right now our potatoes start growing eye pretty fast in our pantry. It gets to warm in the house. I bet living on a river is nice
Great build Al,think about LED lighting to save energy, as well when in use very little heat will be given off inside the root celler-Jerry
All of the lights and bulbs in the house are led. They save a ton on electric and like you said the barley put off any heat
Awesome! Cant wait to see what it will look like in the end :)
Framing you mean ..
Adding a 'hanging' hook system would be nice, rough sawn lumber root bins and shelving, maybe even walls and ceiling in rough pine, would help keep cost down, maybe you have enough in the 'Lumnah Lumber Yard'. lol Nice tight T&G plywood on the outside walls. Small fan and venting system through the basement window enclosure into the RC for fresh air circulation chilling against the heated basement side, and will provide passive fresh air circulation in the Summer months. I would go so far as to put a thermostat in series with your fan unit to keep it from becoming a 'freezer room' in the winter. I know that you don't need to be told this, but tightly insulate walls and ceiling, varmint and bug proof all outside openings. 'Boss of the Swamp' and 'Doug and Stacy' have some really good & recent vlogs on insulating systems. God Bless
P.S.I agree with 'Little White Dory' that isn't a hoarders cellar....it's a 'Modern Steader Cellar'!
I am looking forward to finishing the build! My first priority is having a safe place to hang the meat! A thermostatically controlled fan would be nice
Watching many framing project’s on UA-cam I have noticed that in the US and Canada there is a tendency
To use 6x2 rather than the 4x2 we would use here in the UK, is there a reason for this such timber being cheeper
And more plentiful ?
I
Oof not anymore. 2x4s are $9 now.
Double door. One opening inside the other outside.
Looking good Al !!! You sure have great skills. Wish I could work along side of you to learn and help. :)
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Coming along, nicely. Sure wished I lived closer so I could stop by and show you some tricks of the trade, that would save you a lot of time. For example, since your plates are standing on edge for nailing, you can stand them on edge for layout. That way you could lay out all 4 plates at once, still see your layout marks to place studs, instead of covering them up on the faces. You could use a 6" speed square and layout all four plates. There's no need to use a tape to measure off both sides of the stud. Layout to the left side, X to the right. When you come back to strike your lines with the speed square, just inside of the rail is a ruler marked in 1/4" increments, strike the left side, set the rule at 1 1/2" strike the right side. That's why it's called a speed square, it's full of useful marks that speed up layout.
Your miter saw stand also has some neat features to speed up work. The board supports on each side can slide in and out towards the miter saw. They also have adjustable stops that raise and lower. When you have to do a lot of repeat cuts, measure one board, line the mark up with the saw blade, move a support in and a stop up until it touched the end of the side your cutting off. Now you can just put up the next board, slide it to touch the stop, make your cut and go. A lot less time measuring and marking.
Awesome. I can't wait till the roots start growing!!! 😆
Ha ha !!!
Al, when I read root cellar I thought you meant a real root cellar. You basically are building a storage room in your basement.
You have me thinking about my grandmothers old farmhouse. They had a dirt floor cellar with stone walls. Always nice and cool down there even on the hottest of days. Possibly because of a large rainwater cistern in the cellar which was the source of water for the kitchen. No hot water. Cold water only brought up from the cistern by a hand pump. Basically the cellar itself was a root cellar with a house built over it. Also, no central heating . The only heat source for the house was a huge wood stove in the kitchen. Basically only one room of the house was directly heated and that was the kitchen. But, people, at least farm people lived differently in those days. They did not have a living room. They had a parlor which was only used when company came over. Otherwise the kitchen WAS the living room. The upstairs bedrooms were heated with an open register in the floor. With the result that the bedrooms were always pretty cool as the air circulation was by convection. By morning you never wasted any time in getting dressed on a winter morning. To this day I still prefer sleeping in a cold bedroom. A warm bed of course but with a very cool face.
During haying season other farmers would come to help with the haying. The kitchen table could be expanded into a huge oval shape and as I recall could seat about fifteen men. Three or four wives would also be there to help with the cooking. My grandmother as the chief cook/director and that table would groan under the weight of the food. In later years after my grandfather had passed away, my grandmother lived in a more modern house with an electric stove. I can still hear her complaining about that electric stove and missing her old woodstove.
Great video, are you a builder by trade ? Thanx from Northwest PA.
Yes and no!
Hey Al nice job! I've been a sub for a long time love the videos. My family is in the process of designing a small house to build on our 30 acres in the mountains of NC. We hope to incorporate a walkout basement with root cellar. I know you built your house. Did you buy plans or did you design it? In all your videos I've watch, you talk about going to work, what do you do? I assume you are a carpenter or in the building trades?
Right now I am doing carpentry work. I design our house. We had a basement already on the property so I design what we have to fit the existing basement. It was fun thinking and retweaking the design
I can't really call that a 'Root Cellar', since a traditional Root Cellar uses the Earth to keep the Temperature 'Stable'. Essentially you are just creating a (unfinished) Storage Room without AC or Heating in your basement.