I would say rebuild it, using the original as a base and taking the advice of commenters. Maybe you could take the place that's blown out and expand there?
If it's ground water, you're fighting a losing battle, it will flood no matter what you do. If it's surface runoff, a lid will keep it out, but all the surrounding saturated ground will leak inside. You'd need to build a water tight box, but then it might just pop out the ground, floating on the water coming in.
re designing and expanding the hole to include a sump pump and proper drainage to release the water pressure outward/away and not into the hole and thus upward... seen a lot of basements with similar problems and fiberglass pools that "popped out" of the ground...he's got seasonal water table fluctuations which is fairly common ... in canada, you can build wood walled basements in some areas where the soil is mostly sand and they'll last for the life of the house... installing anchors for the basement walls would be a good idea as well ...
@ChocolateSyrupOverdose the water is coming from underneath the hole... water follows the "path of least resistance" even if that direction is up... he needs to build a larger hole with proper drainage around and under the "box" and then connect a drain pipe away from the box for the water to escape through to another area... houses with basements all have this type of drainage system, it's usually a building code requirement and if he still has a water problem then installing a small sub (mersible) pump in a water catch will solve the issue...
Kevin, sink a 10” perforated pipe to below floor level outside of your spider hole on high side and cap the same! This will be for sump pump to be inserted when needed to remove groundwater so as to avoid pressure on outside of walls…. Check this pipe as needed and drop pump in and keep water below spider hole floor.. your welcome
I think the idea and you following through with it was already successful and served it's purpose. Either fill the hole back up and abandon it or use the good, supported half of it for some type of tool or food storage. I think this is R.I.P. spider hole. I know your resolve is unbreakable and you COULD fix it... But I'm not sure if it's worth your time. Onwards to better and brighter projects!
Not only that but the heavy gas build up for something like this makes this feature already extremely dangerous . It needs to be abandon and sealed. especially with him and his brother having kids who might wander into it one day.
@@ItsAllG00d Naturally occurring heavy gasses, such as carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, methane, and carbon dioxide to name a few. Usually already mixed up in the air in smaller PPM. Because they are heavier gases they tend to sink towards the ground, they often will collect into holes and basins with little to no air flow and because they are so heavy they then begin to concentrate in these areas over time increasing the PPM of said gas in that area which in seconds can be absolutely fatal. Thats why these underground shelters are okay for their initial use, but give it a few months a year or sometimes more, with out a proper ventilation and gas removal set up then you got yourself an incredibly dangerous hole. Youll see miners often had to deal with the dangers of this in the old days as well, its not something new just more forgotten. Kevins spider hole shelter is super cool but it lacks the systems to be safe long term. All it takes is seconds if enough heavy gasses accumulated in it. And its even worse because small children or animals are closer to the ground where its even more concentrated in the holes.
It's hard to tell for sure, but I think the only reason the water didn't get even higher than it was is that it drained through the emergency exit. If you want to salvage it, I think it would be best to dig out the entire area, and build it like a cabin and fully waterproof it, and then backfill over it. My personal opinion is that you should take what you've learned, and start a new project that is just called a bunker since you've expanded pretty far from the scope of a spider hole anyway, and maybe see if you have a sport that is slightly higher elevation.
Digging it out from the top would seem to be far easier, then you can add a floor. I think a cement floor that you can sink the corner and side posts into would be beneficial. Hope the battery packs can support a dehumidifier! Then a permanently installed solar powered pump at the bottom. Love this project and I'm really happy you aren't giving up on it.
make a big hole nearby to get the watertable to fill, which will reduce the water table level everywhere else. (this is how Florida was made habitable) also make floors slightly elevated above the ground to allow water to not soak the floor
Your goal for making a authentic spider hole is complete. Depending on cost and engineering, a cement wall to hold back water and provide support might be a good idea.
With drainage to make the water pass around the wall. A reinforced concrete wall is still susceptible to the forces of mud and water if you don't lay agricultural drainage pipe to carry the water away from the back of it
Sadly it seems your cool spider hole is turning into more of a traditional dugout. I don’t know how flat your land is but building the spider hole on a hill might have helped 😂 Keep up the good work!
Kevin if you have clay soil and the winter snow has extrem melt off with flooding rains and more melt off the wood will pull apart like it did the weight of water is adding 8 pounds per gallon and that multiply by thousands of gallons of storm water run off ! The run off storm water seeks the lowest level and if it’s heavy clay mixed slush it swells up making the wood push apart. That’s the problem you never poured the concrete to finished the bottom walls.
Vietnam is extremely humid and very, very wet during. monsoon season. Their rat tunnels where built not in a square shape going further back but all the tunnels where clay that had been harden most were dug smoothed the edges out going in to a semi triangular shape just with the top being narrow and the floor bottom 3 to 4 feet wide. At times when building after all the side had been smoothed they would light a small fire to harden the clay, or dry, almost as if you put it in a kiln. Added protection. You have to remember so many of these tunnels were built by many at one time and though many years. If you ever built another one do the tunnels in a arch shape make sure the clay is smoothed out. Even once you dig make sure the floors are packed tight and flat. Take in some bisquen put a floor down. The run the thick plastic up the sides of the walls and the shore them up. The one beam against that long wall wasn't enough. The board going up the wall should have been longer and the bracing closer together to reinforce the long wall. Wall panels should have been single pieces of wood if not cut the at a 45 degree angle 5hen they can be placed back together with some force. Maybe think about doing tongue and groove joints. They've worked for years. Vietnamese used joints. Just their tunnels were strong, take bombs landing on them. Some would have cave ins but for the most part they had a music school down in the tunnels and room system. They had schools, cooked down there running their steam from cooking up inside a hollow tree with in the jungle or under a Bush so it all blended into the fog. They had hospitals. Ammo, guns, water supplies. Lots of rice and grain, dried fish. Do some research on the vietnamese tunnel systems. I do know what I'm talking about.
Dig out the blow out section from the surface. Whether you decide to rebuild the wall in the same place, or what I would suggest, is to expand out that living space to allow for more than one person to be able to stay there at any given time. The floor idea is a must. Maybe digging down a little deeper than you have it right now, extending your pillars much deeper and possibly add in even more pillars as added support, and putting a layer of gravel between the dirt and the walls/floor can help with the water going around your dwelling. Maybe, if your budget allows for it, you could consider adding cinder blocks around the outside of the walls, possibly even rebar and concreted to ensure undeniable strength for years to come.
Im really impressed how well u handled that situation. I would feel so angry and sad and really overwhelmed and probly just leave it to rot lol. Ur positive attitude is really motivating and inspiring! I hope I can be more like you one day.
Bring in the backhoe and dig a real drainage system for the spider hole. Add more verticle and horizontal bracing to the walls to resist hydrostatic pressure. As a true survival option, the whole installation needs to be sited upslope from the water table.
One of the other channels I watch usually wraps the entire cabin in a tarp. If you dig down on the outside of each wall and added a waterproof barrier to the walls and ceiling it would help, then maybe a sloped drainage pipe under the floor might be better than having to run a pump? Although it would mean a lot more digging 😂
I think you should start just filling it in to make it safe keep the photos and the memories and the videos. well done my man It was a fun project and I enjoyed watching you doing it but you shouldn't put yourself in danger and that's what you're doing with all that wet Ground.😮
I use to work in the Coal mines we use to have very loud noises that was created by pressure bumps that would be so strong that they would snap large posts into. Sounds like that is what your experienced on a minor level. I would use metal flashing and attach it to you wooden box to keep water from going into the entrance. And definitely, would fix all that from the Top of the ground not inside the underground shelter. If you can install a floor that will prevent that walls from crashing in on ya. Then install a huge sub pump below the floor surface that's what I have in my basement to prevent water intrusion and it works well.
@@sybrenkruijf8570 Vietnamese didn’t have that problem from properties in their soil with high levels of iron and clay when mixed is like a cement binding agent, so the water couldn’t permeate through
That was the wall you had the vent to the top in. Thr rain flowed down that area, filled that wall with moisture and broke through. Your vent was the cause of the water intrusion.
So, a wall caved in. On the bright side... nature just gave you a nudge to build-out an extension. Build a room in the direction of the cave-in. That is the only area affected by the cave-in. Everything else is still good. That would give you more room, would be less digging and would allow you to shore up your framing. Great video. Thank you for sharing.
Nooooo not the spider hole! Glad you showed us that it flooded makes for an interesting video. That is an absurd amount of damage never would have guessed it would blow the walls out
My idea is to start over and take out all the wood and dig the hole bigger from the top down and then put you beams back into the original holes and then place horizontal beams wedged between with tarps all around it and under above it and making sure that no wood is touching to the dirt except for the 4 corner beams. Then with the roof on with a tarp on top of that then back fill all the wall with dirt only touching the tarps and bury the top with dirt. Make sure you floor it also on a tarp. This is the bushcraft that I watch on UA-cam. I hope the best you guys.
Looks like a good place for a cabin over the hole and tarp out 10 feet around the cabin with a sump pump in the hole and air shafts with a solar fan to keep air circulation going.
If your going to dig from the outside to reinstate the collapsed wall, you may as well make it bigger! Like the idea of a wooden floor which will also brace the structure, maybe dig the sump deeper with a false floor and have a solar pump with a float switch to activate it
Only 5 minutes in but my guess is that it is ground water, but ground water that is raised by your excess of rain. Maybe a lost cause but a bilge pump and a heater might save you in in future torrents. Or cut to the chase an install a bilge pump and dehumidifier.
The old adage "just because you can, doesn't mean you should" is circling in my head. This was a fun project. I would consider what usefulness this hole might provide. A translucent lid would provide a nice freeze-proof greenhouse. Just remember to ventilate.
Hey Kevin; is this Part 2!? I was wondering when you Dug the Hole, when were ya going to hit Water! I thought maybe you were up high & Dry! IDK!! Bummer Blow Out Man! 😢! TC, NZ.✌❤🙂✝️
The accent is almost never noticeable but every once in a while you make the make the most candian sounds. 😂 reminds me of my 10th grade cooking teacher
One thing that would help ground water , would be a clay blanket on the surface , far surpassing the spider hole . This would stop saturation from rain in that area , making for alot more dirt that can absorb water before the area is saturated by surrounding ground water . Water follows the path of least resistance (whats already wet) in theory this might provide security for extreme rain like this.
need a battery operated sump pump with solar panel. one like a solar pond pump might work as a base then add a battery and a water level switch...add the floor but maintain a french drain like groove around the perimeter that leads to a sump hole. this is just like a concrete basement has to deal with but you built with wood... it may stay wet for years on the other side of the boards and only dry out in the sump during periods of drought or deep winter cold...
SUGGESTION: Once corrected... pull back the forest duff and create a dome of soil above & beyond the entire outline of the underground structure to help divert surface rain away, then replace the duff. The surface roots will penetrate the new soil and claim the new mound as its own, providing permanence to the dome.
Instead of doing a flat wall. Why not try and angle the wall that has blown out into a triangle shape. That way there will be less pressure on one large wall because your smaller walls seemed to of held up good. Great video as always 👍
as other people have said, a bit of a higher ground would help. another thing i would add is maybe more of a hexagon/pentagon/whatevergon shaped room, would prove more stable, anchoring the corner posts a lot better would minimize risk even more
Wow. You've got quite the task ahead of you. BUT! This is also an opportunity. The first thing you're going to need is a dedicated sump hole. This will need to be reinforced with wood to keep the dirt from filling it as the water flows in. So, wood sides, wood bottom. You're going to want it deep enough to sit the sump pump in there, so maybe only a foot or so. As far as the wall that is caved in, there is no saving it as it is... but that's not a bad thing. You're going to need to dig it out from the outside. And since you're already going to be digging it out, expand the room. Build another few wooden walls, make sure they're reinforced at the bottom, middle and top like you did with your new shaft, and build a floor for the whole area. It doesn't have to be wood, but it should be something porous yet hard. Something like stone tiles (like the steps they use for gardens) or river rock or brick or something. Wood will likely rot if left submerged and exposed to moist soil unless it's something like cedar. As you're putting in that floor, you'll need to install some bracing from wall to wall to keep the sides from bowing out again. This bracing can then be covered by your flooring. Ideally, something like steel that won't rust or wear away would be ideal for this. Wood is strong enough to hold back a lot of pressure, but it has to be properly braced. This is recoverable. It's just going to take some more work.
Now it's time to dig with your tractor. Dig in from the side with the front bucket. I know it will do it. I've dug bigger, deeper holes with my brothers' BX25. Build a cabin (log cabin), bigger & easier access once you're through the main tiny door. Put in drain tile & a sump hole. This time, make the exit culvert easier to load yourself onto the cart. Maybe extent the the tracks into the cabin about 7'. Ha ha ha - Make the top bunk bed actually an ejection bed.
I think you’ll need to crib out your entrance like you did in the main room. Also dig the main entrance hole deeper so any water will settle in the entrance “sump”. Really cool tunnel and bunker!
I think salvage what you can out of it. Fill the hole in having worked in civil construction for 20 years without a lot of external excavation and drainage points it will be very hard to contain it in future events.
Just so you know, pumping out the water like you did likely contributed to that wall busting open. The water inside the box helps to equalize the pressure that's acting on the outside of the box. By pumping out water you increase the pressure difference between the inside and outside, and put the walls under more strain. You should have braced first, then pumped.
I think the main mistake with the walls were the short nature of those beams making up the walls. Should have spanned from corner to corner to be more sturdy overall. Another thing that could be useful if terrain allows is a horizontal pipe leading to another area with lower elevation, as to provide some natural drainage without the need for pumps. (but this might not be a viable option.) Having a deeper drainage point, a well of sorts that is "constantly" pumped dry is another method of ensuring that the water table is a bit lower around the hideout. Here deeper is to a degree better, since it can provide a buffer if the pump fails. The water table generally moves slowly. Downside with lowering it too fast/far is that all the trees can die from their roots going dry. So keep that in mind. To be fair, it is very far from an impossible problem to fix. I would change the walls during the dry season to be inherently more stable. Longer horizontal beams. And now with the escape tunnel, it should be easy to bring them in.
one word, Concrete. I know it sucks and is expensive, but it's the only thing water won't destroy. The wall blew out when you drained was because you had heavy wet, loose soil on one side, and the water inside was pressing against it. once the water was gone, the pressure was all on one side and it gave.
make a slight mound over the whole tunnel and chamber system, maybe create another couple of slight mounds nearby to hide it in plain sight. mount a solar panel up in one of the trees a little ways away, bury the line to the hole, hookup little 12v battery and a bilge pump with screens et al. and the discharge disguised with a small pile of rocks or at the base of another tree.
Put in top and bottom braces across the main structural beam and then put gravel and sand then subfloor use the newly imploded wall opening and convert that to a full size door with steps leading to the surface. Think “exterior basement doors” lol I’d watch the hell out if that video!!
If you put concrete and reinforced steel rebars between your wooden ceiling and walls and the dirt/sand/clay/gravel/whatever behind them, then you won't get any more water in there than in a basement. Some basements have a slanted concrete floor under the floorboards with a bilge pump down there to keep it dry in the rainy/defrost seasons.
You may need some deadman posts to sturdy the wall before continuing with any kind of fix. Also, you may need to correct any water flow from rain to direct it away from this whole structure.
Wait for it to dry out a little, and then....EXPAND!!! Make the room bigger :) Concrete the outer wall, wood on the inside...then put a sump pump and have it pump out of the emergency exit! Let me know if you want help, I might be available by the time things dry out :)
Spider hole is fun but is it worth dying over? Rebuilding in the same spot doesn't make sense. The time spent repairing would be better used building spider hole version 2.0
Probably pretty close to the shelf (limestone or granite) underground. Drill through that if possible and drain the water below the natural shelf. Geo survey of that area would show the approximate depth of the shelf.
Kevin, unless you have a way to continually drain the water out it may be best to salvage the items stored down there, and abandon this project until dry weather returns. The caved in wall may become a candidate for another exit. Your life and Don’s are too valuable to risk with the possibility of being trapped inside. A cubic foot of water is about 60 pounds; remember this when calculating the weight on the walls and their footings. The mold will be deadly unless you have a way to dry everything out. Perhaps you could convert this into a mushroom farm. For your own safety as well as Don and other visitors I suggest that you secure the entrances shut and focus on finishing other projects. PLEASE STAY SAFE OUT THERE.
Engineer here - shape needs more vertices - think round not square (or at least hexagonal) - build into side of hill or mountain - you need higher ground
you need to get some kind of french drain going, maybe drained under the emergency tunnel, preferably draining to a point lower than the bottom of the spider hole to avoid using power
You need some 6x6 beams on the floor to support your walls then put flooring on top. You should have added at least one beam in center before pumping out water it was keeping it from blowing out once you removed the water there was to much pressure on walls and no lower support so it blew out or in in your case. Need lots of bracing and a permanent sump pump that will run when water level comes up solar powered battery backup system. Guess you’ve got more digging to do now maybe add a new room into it ware wall came apart? Good luck!
I am absolutely not an engineer, but I was a designer. I’m also fascinated by history. I know that in Tudor and medieval England, homes were built of wattle: manure, mud, and straw. What if you worked from the outside in, instead of inside out? Make the outside soul less dense first. The wattle mix is lightweight, but firms up with water. Do some research. You probably have tons of pine needles (straw substitute), and you must live near farms. Do a test on a small pit. Just thinking.
Maybe line the wall facing the dirt with tarp as well as digging the floor out a little deeper, putting gravel on it and building a wood floor. Create a low spot under all that and drop a sump in that has a floater valve (kind of like what you have in the toilet) that is designed to turn the switch on when it gets to a certain level in that low spot. The water will flow behind the tarp and into the gravel floor and going to the low spot.
my thoughts in tackling this one would be to cover the top of the structure to try and stop more water coming in. Rase the floor to a level the is higher than the water table as best you can. the floor will be able to brace the supporting beams, dig out the blown wall from top side. Install a permanent pump with float switch, battery backup/solar panels. I not sure about this but maybe making the floor as poores as possible to to alow water to rain might be a good idea. none of these things in this order. I have really enjoyed watching you build this structure and I know you will get it sorted.
I would say your best bet is to add a thick layer of gravel under your floor that would at least run to a drain pipe out your "escape" tunnel. Otherwise the sump pump would do the job as long as the pump and electrical system doesn't break down.
soon as you went in and saw the wall blown out, it looked to me as if that was an invitation to expand the spider hole living quarters. lemons into lemonade.
concrete floor poured once the weather is dryer would be the best option, ideally with a plastic lining to keep the concrete separated from the ground itself
Watching this video, I'm so curious how the Vietnamese dealt with their rain and having all kinds of underground tunnels and bunker rooms. Plus they had soooo much more rain each year. How did they deal with that problem and it would have been a major problem.
@@duwomaiishgabrielle9498 Bamboo would only be a temp measure as it does rot and breakdown with steamy heat and watery conditions. Plus termites etc are more active in tropical climates. I live in tropical north QLD, Australia and cannot use timber or bamboo for any outdoor construction unless it is heavily treated with carcinogenic crap to deter termites - even then they still seem to beat that sometimes.
True but if you look where a lot of there spider holes were built you find that there well above the water table and in much more undulating ground. And probably a lot less clay based soil allowing the water to drain better.
They have alluvium soil with high levels of clay and iron, and that mixture would produce cement like bonding properties when it dried. So they would build during the monsoon season and not during dry seasons when the upper layers were moist.
Option 1; Remove all items of value and fill with dirt/none sense but mark the area in case it collapses (depending on how well you filled it). Option 2; Remove all dirt from the side (from outside above), rebuild the wall but more reinforced, and build a drainage system.
Historic rains probably played a part, but this seems more extreme. Likely overstarution from the rain didn’t have enough time to sink through. Filled what space there was.
I would rebuild the wall further in from the collapsed part that way you don't have to shovel out so much dirt. It'll be a little smaller when finished but oh well. Then after the walls finished back fill the rest of the collapsed portion so water will not sit behind the wall.
I would have used a pond liner and cynder blocks to surround the wooden room and floated the floor after I cemented it and angled it at a slope to a sump pump that has a float that goes on when a certain amount of water seeps in. Also would have used a entrance that was like the emergency exit just a little larger, maybe like those large cement tubes you see at construction sites sometimes. Could have prebuilt the whole room with a steel frame around it or something. Idk but it could and should have been more thought out in the beginning with the what ifs center stage.
Definitely a sump pump with a float sensor solar powered as you suggested Kev. Then depending how far you want to take it as mentioned expand the room possibly with concrete reinforcing ?
A really interesting bunch of comments... I would be concerned with a major failure with someone in it... but I have an old house built in the 40's that has a basement that they put a sump pit in one corner... I have extra sump pump on hand to replace a failed one... the basement has a driveway that slopes down to a garage door... (Bad design) ... my basement would flood up to about a foot deep... before in had a drain in the sump pit corner to a ditch that was used to drop the ground water level of an area of glacial outwash... I came home from work to a basement flood and had to deal with it... I explored outside and decided to cap the 4 inch drain pipe and put a sump pump in the sump pit... by drilling a hole through the concrete wall of the foundation near the top above ground level... old concrete can be very hard, diamond hole saw and a star drill to knock out the centers until I had a hole big enough to put PVC water pipe the size of sump hose to get sump water outside where I could hook it with hose and more PVC pipe outside to get sump water away from the foundation... and interesting feature of the basement of the old house is a concrete lined well in the basement with a casement stack for the walls of the well , high enough so it doesn't overflow the lip of the well... most of the time the water level is below the floor level. But from small cracks in the floor when ground water is higher in trickles into the basement through the cracks as well as flowing from storms down the driveway, under the door into the sump ditch around the floor along one wall... the system worked okay for years without a sump pump... but the drainage ditch outside has been getting higher through the lack of maintenance... old farm land drainage system getting developed and going through several properties and being ignored by the the town that would have taken over surface water run off... (a whole different rabbit hole) I moved everything that couldn't take a few inches of water up on 8 inch concrete building blocks... a chest freezer and the oil furnace pretty much written off as useless... burned off most of oil in the furnace system before deciding not to fix it again... a sump pump failure would kill the burn chamber... if I were to have the buried oil tank removed... a heat pump system hooked into the forced air ducts, raised above maximum water level might be a good modification... but the oil system is pointless... anyway there are advantages to the basement, but the floor will remain bare concrete that gets seasonally floor washing... a kind of limited use... it does cool the house in summer and allows easy access to water, wiring, sewer and so on under the house proper without dealing with crawl spaces... There are reasons to keep dealing with the design faults built into the house... one thing to be wary of is developing a sink hole out of sight under floors or behind walls... that is a major reason I have a down hill flowing PVC pipe draining to the drainage ditch via the cement block bridge I built to access a corner of the estate.
More to my point is even thou back filling up spider hole and just carbon sequestering the supports after removing whatever might still be useful in other projects might be the choice I would prefer... I can see YouTubing videos could create an ongoing evolution of projects for videos that might encourage people puzzling different fixes for issues... messing around underground can be dangerous... you might look into mine saftey and the history of underground projects... spidey hole might some day be a stop on a local subway sandwich shop/station when global warming makes everyone move to Canada and your forest becomes a big city... just be very careful.
looks like you have natures start on a third entrance/exit. You could dig it lower than the floor of your spider hole so it would become the "drain" location and house a sump pump.
Dig out floor a few inches, lay down some plastic and then rebar and pour concrete. After that dig down the outer wall and do the same. Leave a few ventilation shafts using pvc pipes. You get the drift 😅 make a concrete spider hole...
*Japanese Spider Hole Playlist:* ua-cam.com/play/PLwj3sDjjGtJqbGwt3fD5AghrGvPM9EUbE.html
It looks like a good opportunity to expand the size of it part of the diggings done just add another room from where the wall collapsed.
Perhaps you should’ve built it by excavating the site first and then just build the roof over it.
Modern Self Reliance. Hey kevin what is the link to the laser cnc machine that you have
Why you left your TV in there is beyond me
I would say rebuild it, using the original as a base and taking the advice of commenters. Maybe you could take the place that's blown out and expand there?
If it's ground water, you're fighting a losing battle, it will flood no matter what you do. If it's surface runoff, a lid will keep it out, but all the surrounding saturated ground will leak inside.
You'd need to build a water tight box, but then it might just pop out the ground, floating on the water coming in.
In which case just need to get below displacement. Lead lined box!
re designing and expanding the hole to include a sump pump and proper drainage to release the water pressure outward/away and not into the hole and thus upward... seen a lot of basements with similar problems and fiberglass pools that "popped out" of the ground...he's got seasonal water table fluctuations which is fairly common ... in canada, you can build wood walled basements in some areas where the soil is mostly sand and they'll last for the life of the house... installing anchors for the basement walls would be a good idea as well ...
@ChocolateSyrupOverdose the water is coming from underneath the hole... water follows the "path of least resistance" even if that direction is up... he needs to build a larger hole with proper drainage around and under the "box" and then connect a drain pipe away from the box for the water to escape through to another area... houses with basements all have this type of drainage system, it's usually a building code requirement and if he still has a water problem then installing a small sub (mersible) pump in a water catch will solve the issue...
Never would have thought about the buoyancy. Smart.
@@superman9772 So wet in the UK that its fairly rare for us to build cellars....
I wouldn’t go in later without breathing protection, it’ll be a mold hole. Be careful. Salvage wood and head to higher ground?💛
Agreed. I was thinking mould, PLUS bacteria, PLUS who knows what else in that foamy murky mud and water.
i think he went in soon after the rainfall that led to the flooding, mold takes a while to grow and start fruiting, i think he will be fine.
@@tuseroni6085mold can form within 72hrs my friend
Kevin, sink a 10” perforated pipe to below floor level outside of your spider hole on high side and cap the same! This will be for sump pump to be inserted when needed to remove groundwater so as to avoid pressure on outside of walls…. Check this pipe as needed and drop pump in and keep water below spider hole floor.. your welcome
I hope he sees this comment🎉
And/or a tarp barrier, especially on top
I think the idea and you following through with it was already successful and served it's purpose. Either fill the hole back up and abandon it or use the good, supported half of it for some type of tool or food storage. I think this is R.I.P. spider hole. I know your resolve is unbreakable and you COULD fix it... But I'm not sure if it's worth your time.
Onwards to better and brighter projects!
Not only that but the heavy gas build up for something like this makes this feature already extremely dangerous . It needs to be abandon and sealed. especially with him and his brother having kids who might wander into it one day.
@@Penguinishy what sort of gas?
@@ItsAllG00d Naturally occurring heavy gasses, such as carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, methane, and carbon dioxide to name a few. Usually already mixed up in the air in smaller PPM. Because they are heavier gases they tend to sink towards the ground, they often will collect into holes and basins with little to no air flow and because they are so heavy they then begin to concentrate in these areas over time increasing the PPM of said gas in that area which in seconds can be absolutely fatal. Thats why these underground shelters are okay for their initial use, but give it a few months a year or sometimes more, with out a proper ventilation and gas removal set up then you got yourself an incredibly dangerous hole. Youll see miners often had to deal with the dangers of this in the old days as well, its not something new just more forgotten. Kevins spider hole shelter is super cool but it lacks the systems to be safe long term. All it takes is seconds if enough heavy gasses accumulated in it. And its even worse because small children or animals are closer to the ground where its even more concentrated in the holes.
@@ItsAllG00d Radon for one.
@@jjudy5869 Doesn't that depend on your geographical location?
Finaly you added the underground secret pool. Was about time.
It's hard to tell for sure, but I think the only reason the water didn't get even higher than it was is that it drained through the emergency exit. If you want to salvage it, I think it would be best to dig out the entire area, and build it like a cabin and fully waterproof it, and then backfill over it. My personal opinion is that you should take what you've learned, and start a new project that is just called a bunker since you've expanded pretty far from the scope of a spider hole anyway, and maybe see if you have a sport that is slightly higher elevation.
Digging it out from the top would seem to be far easier, then you can add a floor. I think a cement floor that you can sink the corner and side posts into would be beneficial. Hope the battery packs can support a dehumidifier! Then a permanently installed solar powered pump at the bottom. Love this project and I'm really happy you aren't giving up on it.
where's the fun in that, then he's just making a basement.
make a big hole nearby to get the watertable to fill, which will reduce the water table level everywhere else.
(this is how Florida was made habitable)
also make floors slightly elevated above the ground to allow water to not soak the floor
Your goal for making a authentic spider hole is complete. Depending on cost and engineering, a cement wall to hold back water and provide support might be a good idea.
A REBAR REINFORCED, water-resistant concrete wall might be necessary.
With drainage to make the water pass around the wall. A reinforced concrete wall is still susceptible to the forces of mud and water if you don't lay agricultural drainage pipe to carry the water away from the back of it
How about some kind of drainage system outside of the surrounding walls?
Water drain into the ground always, i think you have to take in consideration what type of ground you have thats an important factor, maybe im wrong.
Or just scrap the whole idea and move on.
Sadly it seems your cool spider hole is turning into more of a traditional dugout. I don’t know how flat your land is but building the spider hole on a hill might have helped 😂
Keep up the good work!
Kevin if you have clay soil and the winter snow has extrem melt off with flooding rains and more melt off the wood will pull apart like it did the weight of water is adding 8 pounds per gallon and that multiply by thousands of gallons of storm water run off ! The run off storm water seeks the lowest level and if it’s heavy clay mixed slush it swells up making the wood push apart. That’s the problem you never poured the concrete to finished the bottom walls.
Vietnam is extremely humid and very, very wet during. monsoon season. Their rat tunnels where built not in a square shape going further back but all the tunnels where clay that had been harden most were dug smoothed the edges out going in to a semi triangular shape just with the top being narrow and the floor bottom 3 to 4 feet wide. At times when building after all the side had been smoothed they would light a small fire to harden the clay, or dry, almost as if you put it in a kiln. Added protection. You have to remember so many of these tunnels were built by many at one time and though many years. If you ever built another one do the tunnels in a arch shape make sure the clay is smoothed out. Even once you dig make sure the floors are packed tight and flat. Take in some bisquen put a floor down. The run the thick plastic up the sides of the walls and the shore them up. The one beam against that long wall wasn't enough. The board going up the wall should have been longer and the bracing closer together to reinforce the long wall. Wall panels should have been single pieces of wood if not cut the at a 45 degree angle 5hen they can be placed back together with some force. Maybe think about doing tongue and groove joints. They've worked for years. Vietnamese used joints. Just their tunnels were strong, take bombs landing on them. Some would have cave ins but for the most part they had a music school down in the tunnels and room system. They had schools, cooked down there running their steam from cooking up inside a hollow tree with in the jungle or under a Bush so it all blended into the fog. They had hospitals. Ammo, guns, water supplies. Lots of rice and grain, dried fish. Do some research on the vietnamese tunnel systems. I do know what I'm talking about.
Dig out the blow out section from the surface. Whether you decide to rebuild the wall in the same place, or what I would suggest, is to expand out that living space to allow for more than one person to be able to stay there at any given time.
The floor idea is a must. Maybe digging down a little deeper than you have it right now, extending your pillars much deeper and possibly add in even more pillars as added support, and putting a layer of gravel between the dirt and the walls/floor can help with the water going around your dwelling. Maybe, if your budget allows for it, you could consider adding cinder blocks around the outside of the walls, possibly even rebar and concreted to ensure undeniable strength for years to come.
Im really impressed how well u handled that situation. I would feel so angry and sad and really overwhelmed and probly just leave it to rot lol. Ur positive attitude is really motivating and inspiring! I hope I can be more like you one day.
Bring in the backhoe and dig a real drainage system for the spider hole. Add more verticle and horizontal bracing to the walls to resist hydrostatic pressure. As a true survival option, the whole installation needs to be sited upslope from the water table.
One of the other channels I watch usually wraps the entire cabin in a tarp. If you dig down on the outside of each wall and added a waterproof barrier to the walls and ceiling it would help, then maybe a sloped drainage pipe under the floor might be better than having to run a pump? Although it would mean a lot more digging 😂
Which channel is that?
I think you should start just filling it in to make it safe keep the photos and the memories and the videos. well done my man It was a fun project and I enjoyed watching you doing it but you shouldn't put yourself in danger and that's what you're doing with all that wet Ground.😮
Boring
Laaaaaaame
I'm not an engineer or a carpenter so i don't have a solution on that. So glad to hear Kevin that you will improve and continue that project.
I use to work in the Coal mines we use to have very loud noises that was created by pressure bumps that would be so strong that they would snap large posts into. Sounds like that is what your experienced on a minor level. I would use metal flashing and attach it to you wooden box to keep water from going into the entrance. And definitely, would fix all that from the Top of the ground not inside the underground shelter. If you can install a floor that will prevent that walls from crashing in on ya. Then install a huge sub pump below the floor surface that's what I have in my basement to prevent water intrusion and it works well.
I’m so sorry to see all that hard work go down the drain. I have faith in you that you will fix it up even better than before. Thanks for sharing 😊
"Going down the drain" XD
@@Spunney FR!
Now he knows how the Vietnamese felt
@@sybrenkruijf8570 good point
@@sybrenkruijf8570 Vietnamese didn’t have that problem from properties in their soil with high levels of iron and clay when mixed is like a cement binding agent, so the water couldn’t permeate through
@13:54 that is the sound of a spider hole collapsing on you RUN LEAVE GET OUT !!!
Oh man! That kinda sucks Kev! But - now you get to improve it and you’ve learned some things! You will sort it out no problem 👍👍
this may be one of those times it is just best to bury you mistakes and move on and count it to experience !!
That was the wall you had the vent to the top in. Thr rain flowed down that area, filled that wall with moisture and broke through. Your vent was the cause of the water intrusion.
I'm pretty sure you are correct.
So, a wall caved in. On the bright side... nature just gave you a nudge to build-out an extension. Build a room in the direction of the cave-in. That is the only area affected by the cave-in. Everything else is still good. That would give you more room, would be less digging and would allow you to shore up your framing.
Great video. Thank you for sharing.
Wow a lot of rain at once. Can't wait to see how you fix it. I know you can rebuild her. Have a great day.
Nooooo not the spider hole! Glad you showed us that it flooded makes for an interesting video. That is an absurd amount of damage never would have guessed it would blow the walls out
I don't know how I missed this video. Im sad it flooded. I thought the spider hole was epic. I really hope you can fix it
Dig an expansion through the broken wall, with a ceiling then put all the dirt on top.
My idea is to start over and take out all the wood and dig the hole bigger from the top down and then put you beams back into the original holes and then place horizontal beams wedged between with tarps all around it and under above it and making sure that no wood is touching to the dirt except for the 4 corner beams. Then with the roof on with a tarp on top of that then back fill all the wall with dirt only touching the tarps and bury the top with dirt. Make sure you floor it also on a tarp. This is the bushcraft that I watch on UA-cam. I hope the best you guys.
@ModernSelf-Reliance ua-cam.com/video/yvVxAfeYEAY/v-deo.html This is what I meant.
Looks like a good place for a cabin over the hole and tarp out 10 feet around the cabin with a sump pump in the hole and air shafts with a solar fan to keep air circulation going.
If your going to dig from the outside to reinstate the collapsed wall, you may as well make it bigger! Like the idea of a wooden floor which will also brace the structure, maybe dig the sump deeper with a false floor and have a solar pump with a float switch to activate it
Hello from Minnesota USA! Great episode.
Only 5 minutes in but my guess is that it is ground water, but ground water that is raised by your excess of rain. Maybe a lost cause but a bilge pump and a heater might save you in in future torrents. Or cut to the chase an install a bilge pump and dehumidifier.
The old adage "just because you can, doesn't mean you should" is circling in my head. This was a fun project. I would consider what usefulness this hole might provide. A translucent lid would provide a nice freeze-proof greenhouse. Just remember to ventilate.
Hey Kevin; is this Part 2!? I was wondering when you Dug the Hole, when were ya going to hit Water! I thought maybe you were up high & Dry! IDK!! Bummer Blow Out Man! 😢! TC, NZ.✌❤🙂✝️
The accent is almost never noticeable but every once in a while you make the make the most candian sounds. 😂 reminds me of my 10th grade cooking teacher
"not for people who are claustrophobic" i feel like that could be the tag line for this whole series.
One thing that would help ground water , would be a clay blanket on the surface , far surpassing the spider hole . This would stop saturation from rain in that area , making for alot more dirt that can absorb water before the area is saturated by surrounding ground water . Water follows the path of least resistance (whats already wet) in theory this might provide security for extreme rain like this.
need a battery operated sump pump with solar panel. one like a solar pond pump might work as a base then add a battery and a water level switch...add the floor but maintain a french drain like groove around the perimeter that leads to a sump hole. this is just like a concrete basement has to deal with but you built with wood... it may stay wet for years on the other side of the boards and only dry out in the sump during periods of drought or deep winter cold...
Oh man, that's a bummer. That spider hole is such a cool project.
SUGGESTION: Once corrected... pull back the forest duff and create a dome of soil above & beyond the entire outline of the underground structure to help divert surface rain away, then replace the duff. The surface roots will penetrate the new soil and claim the new mound as its own, providing permanence to the dome.
This is good thinking. Anytime you can get nature to do some of the work for you, it's a big win
Brilliant idea
Instead of doing a flat wall. Why not try and angle the wall that has blown out into a triangle shape. That way there will be less pressure on one large wall because your smaller walls seemed to of held up good. Great video as always 👍
1st: you rock and I love your videos
2nd: I AM claustrophobic and cannot hang with this video! Good luck!
This video made me very nervous for you! Soon enough all of us will be spending plenty of time underground.
Guess we know what that cracking sound was! Damn glad you weren't in there when it blew out. Stay safe man!
It's entirely compromised... I can tell Kevin is no engineer. Danger Kevin Danger 😂😂😂
as other people have said, a bit of a higher ground would help.
another thing i would add is maybe more of a hexagon/pentagon/whatevergon shaped room, would prove more stable, anchoring the corner posts a lot better would minimize risk even more
Wow. You've got quite the task ahead of you. BUT! This is also an opportunity. The first thing you're going to need is a dedicated sump hole. This will need to be reinforced with wood to keep the dirt from filling it as the water flows in. So, wood sides, wood bottom. You're going to want it deep enough to sit the sump pump in there, so maybe only a foot or so. As far as the wall that is caved in, there is no saving it as it is... but that's not a bad thing. You're going to need to dig it out from the outside. And since you're already going to be digging it out, expand the room. Build another few wooden walls, make sure they're reinforced at the bottom, middle and top like you did with your new shaft, and build a floor for the whole area. It doesn't have to be wood, but it should be something porous yet hard. Something like stone tiles (like the steps they use for gardens) or river rock or brick or something. Wood will likely rot if left submerged and exposed to moist soil unless it's something like cedar. As you're putting in that floor, you'll need to install some bracing from wall to wall to keep the sides from bowing out again. This bracing can then be covered by your flooring. Ideally, something like steel that won't rust or wear away would be ideal for this. Wood is strong enough to hold back a lot of pressure, but it has to be properly braced.
This is recoverable. It's just going to take some more work.
Now it's time to dig with your tractor. Dig in from the side with the front bucket. I know it will do it. I've dug bigger, deeper holes with my brothers' BX25. Build a cabin (log cabin), bigger & easier access once you're through the main tiny door. Put in drain tile & a sump hole. This time, make the exit culvert easier to load yourself onto the cart. Maybe extent the the tracks into the cabin about 7'. Ha ha ha - Make the top bunk bed actually an ejection bed.
Good luck buddy. Stay safe when you go back in there.
I think you’ll need to crib out your entrance like you did in the main room. Also dig the main entrance hole deeper so any water will settle in the entrance “sump”.
Really cool tunnel and bunker!
Just when we think it will never rain again, it pours. We enjoy your vids! My hat is also my pencil holder.
From Alberta.
I think salvage what you can out of it. Fill the hole in having worked in civil construction for 20 years without a lot of external excavation and drainage points it will be very hard to contain it in future events.
Just so you know, pumping out the water like you did likely contributed to that wall busting open. The water inside the box helps to equalize the pressure that's acting on the outside of the box. By pumping out water you increase the pressure difference between the inside and outside, and put the walls under more strain. You should have braced first, then pumped.
Adapt and overcome . You got this brother
I think your on the right track. A new floor and a sump pump. Also maybe a deisel heater to dry the space out...
I think the main mistake with the walls were the short nature of those beams making up the walls. Should have spanned from corner to corner to be more sturdy overall.
Another thing that could be useful if terrain allows is a horizontal pipe leading to another area with lower elevation, as to provide some natural drainage without the need for pumps. (but this might not be a viable option.)
Having a deeper drainage point, a well of sorts that is "constantly" pumped dry is another method of ensuring that the water table is a bit lower around the hideout. Here deeper is to a degree better, since it can provide a buffer if the pump fails. The water table generally moves slowly. Downside with lowering it too fast/far is that all the trees can die from their roots going dry. So keep that in mind.
To be fair, it is very far from an impossible problem to fix.
I would change the walls during the dry season to be inherently more stable. Longer horizontal beams. And now with the escape tunnel, it should be easy to bring them in.
My understanding is that the spider holes were built into hills, not under flat ground. So likely no water table to worry about.
one word, Concrete. I know it sucks and is expensive, but it's the only thing water won't destroy.
The wall blew out when you drained was because you had heavy wet, loose soil on one side, and the water inside was pressing against it. once the water was gone, the pressure was all on one side and it gave.
Congratulations on your new master bedroom
make a slight mound over the whole tunnel and chamber system, maybe create another couple of slight mounds nearby to hide it in plain sight. mount a solar panel up in one of the trees a little ways away, bury the line to the hole, hookup little 12v battery and a bilge pump with screens et al. and the discharge disguised with a small pile of rocks or at the base of another tree.
@ 22:20 done deal /don't abuse DON / quit go to next amazing project / A frame video would be nice WE LOVE THE DON !!!!
Put in top and bottom braces across the main structural beam and then put gravel and sand then subfloor use the newly imploded wall opening and convert that to a full size door with steps leading to the surface. Think “exterior basement doors” lol I’d watch the hell out if that video!!
If you put concrete and reinforced steel rebars between your wooden ceiling and walls and the dirt/sand/clay/gravel/whatever behind them, then you won't get any more water in there than in a basement. Some basements have a slanted concrete floor under the floorboards with a bilge pump down there to keep it dry in the rainy/defrost seasons.
You may need some deadman posts to sturdy the wall before continuing with any kind of fix. Also, you may need to correct any water flow from rain to direct it away from this whole structure.
Wait for it to dry out a little, and then....EXPAND!!! Make the room bigger :) Concrete the outer wall, wood on the inside...then put a sump pump and have it pump out of the emergency exit! Let me know if you want help, I might be available by the time things dry out :)
Maybe collab with Colin furze?
dig a hole straight down and over to the edge of the hill for a drain and put down wood floorboards. Done.
Below ground, it is always doomed to flood soober or later..build on higher ground and even thrn, its chancy below ground
@@benives254 you mean dig a tunnel under the property? 😛
@@benives254that would be a was of time for Colin you do know he lives in the uk not the us
Spider hole is fun but is it worth dying over? Rebuilding in the same spot doesn't make sense. The time spent repairing would be better used building spider hole version 2.0
I agree.
Probably pretty close to the shelf (limestone or granite) underground.
Drill through that if possible and drain the water below the natural shelf.
Geo survey of that area would show the approximate depth of the shelf.
Kevin, unless you have a way to continually drain the water out it may be best to salvage the items stored down there, and abandon this project until dry weather returns. The caved in wall may become a candidate for another exit.
Your life and Don’s are too valuable to risk with the possibility of being trapped inside. A cubic foot of water is about 60 pounds; remember this when calculating the weight on the walls and their footings.
The mold will be deadly unless you have a way to dry everything out. Perhaps you could convert this into a mushroom farm.
For your own safety as well as Don and other visitors I suggest that you secure the entrances shut and focus on finishing other projects. PLEASE STAY SAFE OUT THERE.
Engineer here - shape needs more vertices - think round not square (or at least hexagonal) - build into side of hill or mountain - you need higher ground
you need to get some kind of french drain going, maybe drained under the emergency tunnel, preferably draining to a point lower than the bottom of the spider hole to avoid using power
You need some 6x6 beams on the floor to support your walls then put flooring on top. You should have added at least one beam in center before pumping out water it was keeping it from blowing out once you removed the water there was to much pressure on walls and no lower support so it blew out or in in your case. Need lots of bracing and a permanent sump pump that will run when water level comes up solar powered battery backup system. Guess you’ve got more digging to do now maybe add a new room into it ware wall came apart? Good luck!
Great insight
I am absolutely not an engineer, but I was a designer. I’m also fascinated by history. I know that in Tudor and medieval England, homes were built of wattle: manure, mud, and straw. What if you worked from the outside in, instead of inside out? Make the outside soul less dense first. The wattle mix is lightweight, but firms up with water. Do some research. You probably have tons of pine needles (straw substitute), and you must live near farms. Do a test on a small pit. Just thinking.
The water probably shouldn’t have been drained to equalize the pressure from the outside. Bad situation bud. Good luck and be safe.
It's a mini Oak Island money pit.
LoL
I gave a like because this was as suspenseful as a horror flick :)
Maybe line the wall facing the dirt with tarp as well as digging the floor out a little deeper, putting gravel on it and building a wood floor. Create a low spot under all that and drop a sump in that has a floater valve (kind of like what you have in the toilet) that is designed to turn the switch on when it gets to a certain level in that low spot. The water will flow behind the tarp and into the gravel floor and going to the low spot.
Ooah nohh
Take a sip of maple coffee every time they say oh no
my thoughts in tackling this one would be to cover the top of the structure to try and stop more water coming in.
Rase the floor to a level the is higher than the water table as best you can. the floor will be able to brace the supporting beams, dig out the blown wall from top side.
Install a permanent pump with float switch, battery backup/solar panels. I not sure about this but maybe making the floor as poores as possible to to alow water to rain might be a good idea. none of these things in this order.
I have really enjoyed watching you build this structure and I know you will get it sorted.
Looks like you should consider rigging a pulley system for the emergency exit in your dugout
I would say your best bet is to add a thick layer of gravel under your floor that would at least run to a drain pipe out your "escape" tunnel. Otherwise the sump pump would do the job as long as the pump and electrical system doesn't break down.
soon as you went in and saw the wall blown out, it looked to me as if that was an invitation to expand the spider hole living quarters. lemons into lemonade.
concrete floor poured once the weather is dryer would be the best option, ideally with a plastic lining to keep the concrete separated from the ground itself
Watching this video, I'm so curious how the Vietnamese dealt with their rain and having all kinds of underground tunnels and bunker rooms. Plus they had soooo much more rain each year. How did they deal with that problem and it would have been a major problem.
Great point, I imagine the Vietnamese made incredible use of bamboo piping system!
@@duwomaiishgabrielle9498 Bamboo would only be a temp measure as it does rot and breakdown with steamy heat and watery conditions. Plus termites etc are more active in tropical climates. I live in tropical north QLD, Australia and cannot use timber or bamboo for any outdoor construction unless it is heavily treated with carcinogenic crap to deter termites - even then they still seem to beat that sometimes.
True but if you look where a lot of there spider holes were built you find that there well above the water table and in much more undulating ground. And probably a lot less clay based soil allowing the water to drain better.
They drowned 😂
They have alluvium soil with high levels of clay and iron, and that mixture would produce cement like bonding properties when it dried. So they would build during the monsoon season and not during dry seasons when the upper layers were moist.
Option 1; Remove all items of value and fill with dirt/none sense but mark the area in case it collapses (depending on how well you filled it).
Option 2; Remove all dirt from the side (from outside above), rebuild the wall but more reinforced, and build a drainage system.
Historic rains probably played a part, but this seems more extreme. Likely overstarution from the rain didn’t have enough time to sink through. Filled what space there was.
Oh I hate this spider hole right from the beginning! Bad juju! lol.....please be careful!
I would rebuild the wall further in from the collapsed part that way you don't have to shovel out so much dirt. It'll be a little smaller when finished but oh well. Then after the walls finished back fill the rest of the collapsed portion so water will not sit behind the wall.
I would have used a pond liner and cynder blocks to surround the wooden room and floated the floor after I cemented it and angled it at a slope to a sump pump that has a float that goes on when a certain amount of water seeps in. Also would have used a entrance that was like the emergency exit just a little larger, maybe like those large cement tubes you see at construction sites sometimes. Could have prebuilt the whole room with a steel frame around it or something. Idk but it could and should have been more thought out in the beginning with the what ifs center stage.
Praise be Don / we need 3 don channels /Don at home/ Don cooking / Don using wood (chopping, burning maybe even whittleng )
Definitely a sump pump with a float sensor solar powered as you suggested Kev. Then depending how far you want to take it as mentioned expand the room possibly with concrete reinforcing ?
I’m currently watching this 11pm and this video can be made into a horror film 🤣
A really interesting bunch of comments... I would be concerned with a major failure with someone in it... but I have an old house built in the 40's that has a basement that they put a sump pit in one corner... I have extra sump pump on hand to replace a failed one... the basement has a driveway that slopes down to a garage door... (Bad design) ... my basement would flood up to about a foot deep... before in had a drain in the sump pit corner to a ditch that was used to drop the ground water level of an area of glacial outwash... I came home from work to a basement flood and had to deal with it... I explored outside and decided to cap the 4 inch drain pipe and put a sump pump in the sump pit... by drilling a hole through the concrete wall of the foundation near the top above ground level... old concrete can be very hard, diamond hole saw and a star drill to knock out the centers until I had a hole big enough to put PVC water pipe the size of sump hose to get sump water outside where I could hook it with hose and more PVC pipe outside to get sump water away from the foundation... and interesting feature of the basement of the old house is a concrete lined well in the basement with a casement stack for the walls of the well , high enough so it doesn't overflow the lip of the well... most of the time the water level is below the floor level. But from small cracks in the floor when ground water is higher in trickles into the basement through the cracks as well as flowing from storms down the driveway, under the door into the sump ditch around the floor along one wall... the system worked okay for years without a sump pump... but the drainage ditch outside has been getting higher through the lack of maintenance... old farm land drainage system getting developed and going through several properties and being ignored by the the town that would have taken over surface water run off... (a whole different rabbit hole)
I moved everything that couldn't take a few inches of water up on 8 inch concrete building blocks... a chest freezer and the oil furnace pretty much written off as useless... burned off most of oil in the furnace system before deciding not to fix it again... a sump pump failure would kill the burn chamber... if I were to have the buried oil tank removed... a heat pump system hooked into the forced air ducts, raised above maximum water level might be a good modification... but the oil system is pointless... anyway there are advantages to the basement, but the floor will remain bare concrete that gets seasonally floor washing... a kind of limited use... it does cool the house in summer and allows easy access to water, wiring, sewer and so on under the house proper without dealing with crawl spaces...
There are reasons to keep dealing with the design faults built into the house... one thing to be wary of is developing a sink hole out of sight under floors or behind walls... that is a major reason I have a down hill flowing PVC pipe draining to the drainage ditch via the cement block bridge I built to access a corner of the estate.
More to my point is even thou back filling up spider hole and just carbon sequestering the supports after removing whatever might still be useful in other projects might be the choice I would prefer... I can see YouTubing videos could create an ongoing evolution of projects for videos that might encourage people puzzling different fixes for issues... messing around underground can be dangerous... you might look into mine saftey and the history of underground projects... spidey hole might some day be a stop on a local subway sandwich shop/station when global warming makes everyone move to Canada and your forest becomes a big city... just be very careful.
Would digging it out from the top then a re vamping and rebuilding all the structural supports and walls be achievable?
looks like you have natures start on a third entrance/exit. You could dig it lower than the floor of your spider hole so it would become the "drain" location and house a sump pump.
Should put french drains above the hole. You can even cover them up with pine straw and they'll continue to work to flow water away from the hole.
Savage Kevin if you are going to save it then yeah your going to need an automatic sump pump mate. 👍🏼
Dig out floor a few inches, lay down some plastic and then rebar and pour concrete.
After that dig down the outer wall and do the same. Leave a few ventilation shafts using pvc pipes.
You get the drift 😅 make a concrete spider hole...