The value of the harvest collected at the dacha directly depends on its preservation. Insuring the family budget from unnecessary expenses and serving a fresh, vitamin-rich harvest to the table all winter - these are the main tasks that the cellar performs. No home refrigerator, even the size of a linen closet, can replace it.

The word cellar is most often associated with a country house. Here on the veranda or in the kitchen there is a hatch leading to the basement or shallow pit.

Free-standing cellars outside the house for storing vegetables, fruits and canning are less common and many summer residents are practically unfamiliar with them. This article will help you evaluate the advantages, study the varieties and understand the features of the construction of such structures.

The difference between a cellar and a basement

Despite the same purpose, a free-standing cellar is structurally different from a basement. Placing an open-air storage facility requires a reliable roof and powerful insulation.

The need to build a cellar on the territory of a dacha arises in two cases:

• At high groundwater levels.
• For storing large volumes of fruits and vegetables.

The type of structure depends on the water saturation of the soil. Surface storage is built in cases where it is impossible to go deeper into the ground than two or three “bayonets” of a shovel.

If the maximum level of soil water rise is at a depth of 1.5-2.0 meters, then the structure is buried in the ground to half its height. If the aquifer is deep, the storage facility can be completely dug into the ground, leaving a flat roof covered with turf on the surface.

Entrance to a semi-buried cellar

Some may say, why would I make a cellar in the yard when I can dig it under the floor of the kitchen or porch? There are several serious objections to this argument.

First. It is best to dig a cellar under the house during the construction of the building. In the existing dacha, the floors will have to be dismantled, and then, in cramped conditions, tons of earth will have to be manually removed.

Second. The construction of a bulk storage facility under a house can disrupt the soil conditions of the foundation and cause the building to settle.

Third. The ground may contain radioactive radon gas, which will enter residential areas.

Fourth. The dimensions of the basement are limited by the size of the room in which it is located. There are no such limits for a street cellar (storage warehouse).

Fifth. In winter, heat from the house significantly increases the temperature and humidity in the basement, worsening storage conditions and activating the growth process of potatoes.

General information on cellar construction

As we said above, the solution to the question of which cellar is better to make depends on the groundwater level. If they are close to the surface of the earth, then the only option is above-ground storage.

Ground cellar - the best option for damp soil

The original appearance of the above-ground cellar is liked by lovers of rock gardens and other miniature “mountain massifs” created in the country.

As the “upper water” moves away from the surface of the earth, the storage for vegetables and fruits can be lowered deeper.

The lower the water, the deeper the storage

Along with the increase in the depth of a country storage shed, the problems inherent in all underground structures become more acute: the need for high-quality drainage, waterproofing of walls and ceilings. To solve them, a trench is dug along the perimeter of the pit, filled with crushed stone and sand. This reserve “pocket” will collect excess moisture that gets into the ground after melting snow or heavy rains. The walls are backfilled not with earth, but with a crushed stone-sand mixture that drains water into a drainage trench.

Regardless of the quality of drainage, an outdoor cellar needs waterproofing. Today it is easy to do. On the market you can find many hydrophobic impregnations and mastics that protect the bottom and walls of the building from soil moisture.

Water protection is needed outside and inside

Any summer resident knows that long-term storage of crops requires a certain temperature and humidity. In winter, the temperature in the country cellar should be maintained from +2 to +4C with an air humidity of 80 to 90%. It is easy to control using a thermometer and hygrometer. But how to ensure that the room is warm enough and not too damp?

The first problem is solved by insulation. In surface and semi-buried storage facilities, this role is played by the soil used to line the walls.

The best natural heat insulator is peat. Unfortunately, it is quite rare. Therefore, if you decide to build a cellar at your dacha with your own hands, buy polystyrene foam boards 5 or 10 cm thick to insulate the floors and walls. They are covered with earth on top and fixed to the walls with glue or bitumen mastic. To prevent erosion of the embankment soil, it is sown with grass or covered with layers of turf cut from the soil.

The humidity in the storage is regulated by a simple natural ventilation system. It consists of a long supply pipe and a short exhaust pipe.

Pipe A – inflow, pipe B – exhaust

There is a very effective and cheap way to accumulate cold in a storage facility - a glacier. Our great-grandfathers successfully used it to store meat and dairy products. This is a shallow pit with ice (in our time, its walls are made not of wood, but of concrete). There is nothing clever in the design of the glacier, but the cold release from the ice blocks is very impressive and persists for several months.

What types of cellars are there?

The simplest cellar is a wooden frame made of logs, on which a slab rests. A layer of roofing material is laid over it and soil is poured.

This is what a wooden vegetable cellar looks like

Wood, even antiseptic, will not last more than 15 years in a buried storage facility. Therefore, most often the walls of cellars are built from brick, cinder blocks or monolithic reinforced concrete. The ceiling is made from standard hollow-core slabs or using concrete poured over a reinforcement frame.

Sometimes wooden beams are used for the ceiling, between which expanded clay insulation is poured or mineral wool is laid.

Concrete storage slab made from wooden beams

Insulation of floors with expanded clay

For underground storage of vegetables, in addition to concrete and brick, you can use metal or plastic. A finished cellar for a summer residence is a container with stiffening ribs, which is buried in the ground to a given depth. The metal is treated with bitumen coating before installation. Plastic does not need additional protection.

Metal cellar in the process of installation

During the period of seasonal rise of the “high water”, a powerful buoyant force acts on the caisson cellar (Archimedes’ law). Therefore, a prerequisite for its trouble-free operation is the use of ballast - a monolithic or prefabricated concrete slab. It is placed with a crane or poured at the bottom of the pit before installing the tank and secured to it with anchors.

When considering the option of purchasing a ready-made storage unit made of plastic or metal, you need to take into account the following considerations:

• The price of a container for storing fruits and vegetables (including installation) is higher than the cost of building a structure made of concrete or brick.
• Despite the high factory readiness of the caisson, you will not be able to completely abandon excavation and concrete work (a foundation pit and a ballast slab are necessary).
• It is problematic to drive a crane into a developed summer cottage to install a stove and container without damaging green spaces, paths and fences.

The only real advantage of plastic and steel construction is absolute tightness - a factor that is important for a deep cellar.

The average cost of a 5 cubic meter plastic cellar (without installation) is 95 thousand rubles. Installation work will cost 50 thousand rubles.

The approximate price of a metal storage facility of the same volume (walls made of steel sheet 5 mm thick) is 85 thousand rubles. You will have to pay at least 45,000 rubles for installation.

When looking for an inexpensive option for outdoor vegetable storage, pay attention to concrete rings. They are used for septic tanks and other underground structures. By making a concrete base and installing several rings on it, you will get a reliable shelter for the grown crop.

Factories make not only round, but also rectangular concrete sections

The floor in the cellar made of prefabricated rings and its walls must be treated inside and outside with a waterproofing compound (coating or impregnation). A prerequisite for tightness is the presence of joining locks on the concrete sections.

Construction of the underground storage facility is nearing completion

You won’t have to manually cast a concrete lid for such a cellar. It can be bought together with rings.

If there is old slate lying idle on the farm, then the problem with the cellar can be considered solved. Having made a frame from a corner or pipes, it is lowered into the prepared pit. After this, the slate sheets are attached to the profile with self-tapping screws.

A slate cellar on a metal frame is a simple and inexpensive option

After preparing the sand and crushed stone and installing the reinforcing mesh, the bottom is filled with concrete. The next stage is laying electrical wiring, coating the slate and frame with bitumen mastic. The work is completed by concreting the floor and backfilling.

Monolithic slate ceiling

Regardless of the type of material used to build the walls, a well-executed cellar floor design includes several layers indicated in the diagram.

Floor design

To conclude our review, we will consider two options for above-ground mini-storages. The first of them is a “box” made of boards with a gable roof and a door. By insulating the space between its outer and inner lining with mineral wool (thickness of at least 150 mm), you will get inexpensive and functional storage.

The second option for an above-ground mini-cellar is a structure attached to the wall of the house. The benefit of this solution is twofold: saving space and one finished wall.

The ceiling here is made of boards covered with crumpled clay and a layer of roofing felt. The embankment is made with soil, which after laying is moistened, compacted and covered with turf.

Have you ever thought about how to build a house without disturbing the environment? But it’s possible! Indeed, there are technologies that allow you to build houses from... earth!

The history of constructing dwellings from the ground goes back a long way. Once upon a time, people built dugouts and lived in them, but dugouts were not full-fledged houses. Then adobe construction appeared (earth was mixed with clay and straw, and walls were built from the resulting mixture.

The most famous adobe building in Rus' is the Priory Palace in Gatchina. When Russian Emperor Paul I became Master of the Order of Malta, he needed a residence, and he commissioned the court architect N.A. Lvov to build a palace. ON THE. Lvov was an enthusiast of earthen construction and personally created the project and supervised the construction of this palace (1797-1799). The composition of the soil mass from which the walls of the 2-story palace were erected was as a percentage by volume: gravel with a particle size of 3-7 mm - 4%; sand - 58%; fine earth (dust) - 20%; clay - 18%. Organic impurities and cement were not added. The strength of the earth is driven by N.A. Lviv has survived to this day.

The technology of adobe construction was further developed in the construction of buildings from bags of earth (Earthbag Building). Its founder is considered to be the American architect of Iranian origin Nader Khalili, who created the Cal-Earth Institute in Southern California, which is developing the construction of houses from earth and teaching this technology, which is extremely simple. Polypropylene bags are filled with moistened soil, laid on a foundation consisting of a layer of gravel, reinforced with barbed wire and compacted. And so, row after row, the walls of the building are erected.

These photos show earthen houses built in Europe by the architect Petr Wegsch.

And such projects of environmentally friendly houses are being implemented.

TECHNOLOGY FOR CONSTRUCTION of earthen houses with polypropylene bags.

TO Of course, we are more interested in practical application in our areas, so to speak. It seems to me that a house like the one shown below is suitable both for storing equipment and for storing food, crops... If groundwater is close to the site and digging a cellar is useless, then this hut is just for you. And now it has become fashionable to arrange small ponds and reservoirs at the dacha, that’s where to put the land. I think it will be beautiful - a hobbit’s house on the edge of the pond. If there was a larger plot, I would have done so!!!

HOUSE FOR INVENTORY

Consider, as an example, the construction of a small dome-shaped house (architect and builder - Owen Geiger, California) for storing equipment. The house plan and section are shown in Fig. 1.

First, Geiger made a foundation, which was a trench filled with rubble. Excavated soil was used to fill the bags. The first rows of bags were filled with crushed stone to provide drainage (photo 7).
Next, the bags were laid with reinforcement with barbed wire and their subsequent compaction (photo 8). To arrange the arched doorway and the canopy above it, an old car tire and legs from a table were used (photo 9). The bags were stacked with an offset inward so that a dome was gradually formed (photo 10). The door frame was secured to pre-placed bags between the bags
T-shaped inserts (photo 11).

The Hobbit House of Bilbo Begins

The Hobbit's home can always be recognized from afar due to the large round door. By the way, you can buy a metal door like this with installation. This strange and very cute structure is more reminiscent of a beaver den than a human house.
But not the hole where there is an abundance of worms and the roots of neighboring trees stick out, but a completely comfortable, cozy hole with all the amenities.

The Hobbit House: From fairy tale to reality

Almost 80 years have passed since the first memories of the home of “Bilbo Begins” appeared in the manuscripts of the English inventor J. R. R. Tolkien.
Contrary to the nihilism of architects and art historians, the professor’s bizarre buildings not only took root in world literature, but several decades later began to appear in our environment.
Attractiveness is the first thing that catches the eye of people tired of city bustle and exhaust fumes.
Reminiscent of respect for nature, modern Hobbit houses are environmentally friendly and very cozy. They have everything - heating, electricity, communications, bathrooms and even a security system, and their construction requires very little investment.
Tolkien fans have done everything to turn fairy-tale “holes” into luxurious apartments.

How is the Hobbit House different?

Over the past 10 years, most Englishmen and Americans have begun to build such structures for their children as playgrounds.
Indeed, what could be better than a fairy tale in reality?

One of the first people who came up with the idea to build a Hobbit house was (designer) Ashley Yates from the UK in 2003.

According to Ashley, after the project was completed and newspapers began writing about it, in just one week more than 30 tourists called the editor, willing to pay hundreds of dollars to spend the night in the green “Nora.”

A few years later, Hobbit houses for children actively spread throughout the world.
We will now tell you how to quickly bring to life one of the most fabulous projects of our time.

Do-it-yourself Hobbit house (in the country)

Due to the fact that DIY Hobbit house should be round in shape, it is best to take a metal or concrete pipe as a basis, the cost of the latter is much more expensive, so the conclusions are obvious.
It’s good when the metal pipe is corrugated.
The predominant length is 2 – 3 m.
Diameter 4.5 – 5 m.

To install the pipe, you need to clear the potential area for the house and dig a small pit up to 0.5 - 1 m deep. Install the pipe using a crane. Thus, the main part of the construction of the house can be said to be completed.

Next step - embankment

Hobbit House (in the country)

The issue needs to be resolved by using the earth dug for the foundation pit.
A rented mini-excavator will easily and quickly complete the task in 30–60 minutes.
The surface of the pipe will eventually be completely dug into the ground, and the slide will have a rounded shape.
By the way, during the embankment (on both sides of the “entrance”), you need to install temporary walls made of OSB so that the earth does not get inside the pipe.

Now Foundation

On both sides of the pipe, dig small recesses up to 0.5 - 0.6 m to install a strong concrete foundation.

To form the future entrance to a fairy-tale house, cut out a form for the entrance from the OSB board and install it close to the pipe.

The porch is best made from cinder blocks; beams for the entrance itself are securely installed in them.

The seams between the OSB and the pipe are sealed with a building mixture, as a result we get a strong and stable structure.

And then the floor

The main installation work has been completed, so the next stage of work is finishing the floors, walls, windows and doors. (fascinating, right?)
To secure the base of the floor to the pipe, use cement and a pair of cinder blocks (see photo).
Next, fix the beams and slopes (the slopes are attached diagonally, so as to prepare a flat and stable surface for the floor).
It is best to use OSB boards as the floor. (You need to fix the plates using self-tapping screws and a screwdriver).

Lighting "Nora"

Candles and other self-contained lighting systems are pointless and harmless. Therefore, for maximum comfort for children, it is best to install electricity in the Hobbit’s house.

By the way, electricity can be supplied from the house using a cable channel installed and buried in the ground.

The roof remains

Be sure to install a small decorated canopy over the porch to drain moisture during rains. It will help waterproof the entrance to the “Nora” and eliminate problems associated with dampness.

The most important thing is the door

Door to DIY Hobbit house, should be round.
The material is necessarily wood.
The color is predominantly green.
We recommend using water-repellent paint to paint the door.
The door must be secured to long forged curtains. Be sure to install a beautiful round handle. The door may also have a small diamond-shaped window.

Decorating the house inside

Divide the “Nora” space into 2 parts, maybe even 3 if you don’t mind the work, and you would like to make a corridor and a cozy kitchenette near the door.
Cover the walls and ceiling with flexible wooden panels; you can also glue wallpaper.
On the back wall (on the other side of the pipe), pour the foundation, install cinder blocks and fix the OSB board. Here you will need to install a beautiful window. Just like the door, it is best to order it from an experienced craftsman.
Once the window is installed, seal all seams securely.

Only the hill remains

If you decide to take on this project, be sure to decorate the artificial hill outside. Otherwise, a better rank than a dugout, DIY Hobbit house will not be worn.
In order for the lawn to take root, open up the entire mound with good fertile soil and sow the grass.
If this seems too labor-intensive and time-consuming, we recommend using dug-out turf instead of grass. (At first, be sure to water it with water, so it will quickly take root, and the natural bright result will come much faster).

By the way, inside DIY Hobbit house it is always warm and cozy (you can spend the night even in the cold autumn and spring), and in winter the slope can serve as an ideal sledding hill.

Yes, yes, then furniture

Wicker chairs, a table, a sofa, anything you like are perfect. The child can use a laptop for communication (electricity is still present).
DIY Hobbit House and will live up to any expectations and will last a long time.
As a child, a child will be able to play in it, as a teenager, go about his business, invite friends to visit and relax, and as an adult, he will have something to remember and something to praise his parents for.

How much will the Hobbit house cost?

Let's calculate how much it will cost DIY Hobbit house, in Russia.
After all, if you have a suburban area, it will be very difficult to refuse this idea, just let the children find out.

And so, a corrugated pipe, the average cost of 1 m, in Russia is 1,500 rubles. That is, if a luxurious fabulous room can occupy (3 - 4 m2), the price will cost 45,000 - 60,000 rubles.
Truck crane services (up to 14 tons) cost about 1000 rubles per hour.
Soil with delivery (needed for embankment), 1 tone – 150 rub.
10 sheets of OSB, 1 sheet - 500 rubles, respectively 5000 rubles.
1 kb/m of concrete will cost 3,000 rubles.
Window and door to order (approximately), from 6,000 to 10,000 rubles.

Furniture, beams, boards and artificial turf are essentially interchangeable things, not expensive and can be found in everyone who has a summer house. That is, the final cost of a good-quality house will cost approximately 80,000 Russian rubles ($900). Plus or minus, own or hired labor.
That is, compared to modern prices for simple plastic houses, this is quite adequate money for a high-quality, reliable, and most importantly, cozy room.

It is impossible to imagine a private house or summer cottage without a garden, berry garden or beds of various sizes. And of course, during the season you will definitely harvest a crop that will need to be stored somewhere.

And also the products you want keep fresh on hot summer days... In general, you can’t do without a cellar or basement on your property. What will it be? Above ground cellar, glacier, pile, vegetable shed, wine cellar or buried chamber?

What exactly you choose depends on the goal you are pursuing, the landscape and your capabilities. But in any case, it is worth designing buildings so that they look organically on the site, are easy to use and support the overall style.

The cellar can be hidden and made invisible, or you can deliberately make it a bright, original, attractive element of the garden (focal point).

We offer you 30 ideas for decorating a cellar on the site, from familiar and standard to original and fabulous. Let's see!

Do you remember what houses the hobbits lived in? You can build your own Hobbiton in your garden if your site has hills and uneven surfaces. Yes, even if he doesn’t have them, but you have a great desire to build such a cellar, build it too! Of course, such a cellar requires space, so take a critical look at your space first.

An earthen cellar is the most practical. If you built it according to the rules, then the temperature in it will remain at the same level all year round -3-8 degrees.

Such conditions are ideal for preserving food and storing crops. However, it is not always possible to organize a cellar underground (the reason may be groundwater or marshy areas).

An alternative to it can be a bulk cellar, which built on the surface ground or semi-buried, partially located in the ground. High-quality waterproofing and a good layer of earthen covering will help create conditions similar to those in an underground cellar.

If you approach the issue of the cellar creatively, you can combine business with pleasure and organize a children's slide on it, which will not stand idle either in winter or in summer!

Plan the construction of the cellar so that its entrance is on the north side. With this entrance location, the sun's rays will not affect the temperature inside the cellar.

To enhance the effect, plant herbs, ground cover plants, small shrubs for shading, or arrange container plants on the surface of the cellar. Climbing plants will perfectly hide a bulk cellar from scorching rays and, at the same time, decorate the garden:

• climbing roses
• girl's grapes
• Tekoma
• clematis (clematis)
• honeysuckle

An Alpine slide, a Czech rolling pin, gabions, a gravel garden or a flower bed will perfectly camouflage your cellar, while at the same time being a stylish landscape element.

Wine Vault

A wine cellar must meet certain conditions: it is important to maintain a certain temperature and humidity, as well as install the correct racks for storing wines.

The ideal location for a wine cellar is to place it under the house. Here it is easier to create and maintain the required temperature, and at the same time, save space. However, if a house already stands on the site, it is more realistic to plan the wine cellar as a separate one. To ensure that everything in your cellar is taken into account and designed correctly, we advise you to turn to professionals.

In the design of a wine cellar, natural stone (rubble, sandstone, granite), wood, and accessories that we associate with winemaking (barrels of different sizes will be very useful) are often used.

The presence of a cellar on the site will please any housewife. Especially if this building for utilitarian purposes also decorates the site.

Hobbit house=cellar

When developing a site for individual housing construction, the need for a cellar arose. When thinking about cellar options, the following initial ones were taken into account.

1. High groundwater level and topography of the site.
2. Cost of construction (budget no more than 12 thousand rubles).
3. Low labor costs.
4. Ease of access to supplies.

The thoughts dragged on for almost a week, but the brain did not disappoint and as a result came up with a solution. The easiest way to build something is to use ready-made, purchased elements. In my case, these are concrete well rings KS-15-9 measuring 1500x900x90 mm in the amount of 3 pieces. It is possible to make a cellar with rings of larger diameter KS-20-9, but we did not have such a need.

Three rings with delivery cost me about 8 thousand rubles. Delivery was preceded by preparatory work. I installed the formwork for the base plate on the ground surface. The formwork was a box made of boards with dimensions of 3000x500x150 mm. I laid the reinforcement and filled it with concrete with a low water content.

I made a template with a radius of 850 mm from a piece of flat slate. When the cement mortar began to harden, I walked it over the poured slab to get the groove necessary for the stability of the rings.

As soon as the concrete gained sufficient strength, I ordered rings delivered by manipulator. Before installing the rings, I laid overlapping pieces of waterproofing 6 m long across the slab in order to later wrap the installed rings, thus waterproofing the cellar. I installed the rings on the side surface with a gap of 100 mm, then used wire and a pair of reinforcement rods to fasten them together. Using 2 strips of 6mm plywood 200mm wide

from the outer and inner surfaces of the ring as mobile formwork, filled the gaps with concrete. I laid the back wall of the cellar with bricks, fixing a 110 mm bend at an angle of 90°, so that I could then bring out the ventilation pipe. I waterproofed the rings and the back wall.

But it so happened that I was not satisfied with the length of the vestibule. And having assembled the formwork, I increased the cellar by 40 cm and at the same time removed the sidewalls. This was probably the most time consuming part. The fourth ring, increasing the internal compartment, would solve the issue with the length of the vestibule. This is the only change I would make to the project: four rings and, accordingly, increasing the base plate to 4 m.

Now it’s time to do a little leveling on the site, and the excess soil has found its way.

Then there were little things left: from boards, pieces of plywood, flat slate and foam plastic, put an insulated partition with a door inside the cellar, make shelves and compartments for root vegetables, an insulated wall with an entrance door. The basis of the partition is 4 bars with a cross section of 50×100 mm. I positioned them so that, intersecting, they formed a door frame, and their ends were fixed on the inner wall of the ring. Having laid the insulation, I sewed it up with sheet material. I used flat slate for the outer wall and decoration: I placed stones on the tile adhesive.

The whole process took about 2 weeks, but if expressed in numbers, it turned out to be quite a bit, about 16 people/hours and 2 machine/hours. And the expenses were within the budget.

The cellar has been in use for 8 years, there is no dampness or freezing. True, it became necessary to add 30 cm of soil in the upper part of the “hobby house”: after all, the soil sags and is washed away by precipitation. To strengthen the slope, I brought old tires from the nearest tire shop, laid them down and tied them together. The result was a kind of geogrid, which all that remained was to fill it with soil.

As for the appearance of the cellar, it always attracts the eyes of guests and decorates the area.

DIY wine cellar made from sugar stone

I have experience as a builder, and I decided to make the cellar from natural stone on my own.

The search for stone was disappointing: the material with delivery cost from $450 for 20 tons. I needed to buy 2 cars... And then I remembered: near the local sugar factory there is a mountain of suitable cobblestones! I had to negotiate with the plant accountant. As a result, the stone cost $5 per 1 ton.

So, the stone has been delivered. But here’s the problem: when harvesters collect sugar beets from the fields, they send everything along with the stones to the factory. And there their stone trap “spits out” the stones into a pile along with scraps of beets and lime used in production. That is, the stone is very dirty. I had to wash each cobblestone using a high pressure washer and sort it by size. Here it is, the price to pay for being cheap!

In 2 days, local guys dug a hole 350x550 cm with a depth of almost 300 cm (I planned to build a cellar measuring 260x450 cm with a vault height of 230 cm at the highest point). The height of the barrels is 130 cm, so there is plenty of space. There was no fear of flooding: our groundwater does not rise above 4-5 m from the surface.

I covered the edges of the pit with plastic film (photo 1): it will hold the cement laitance and protect the edges of the pit from possible rain - so that they don’t collapse. At the bottom, under the future walls of the cellar, trenches were dug and reinforcement with a diameter of 16 mm was laid: 2 rows of 2 rods per row. All this was filled with M300-350 concrete. Along the edges of the foundation I installed a welded mesh made of 6 mm wire with a cell size of 10Ох 100 mm. The height of the foundation was set using a hydraulic level - a transparent hose with water.

In order for the walls to be smooth, I pulled the string, aligning the corners with the construction corner. When starting the construction of the walls, the stones were placed with their flattest side towards the inside of the cellar. As the walls were erected, the space between the stones and the walls of the pit was filled with concrete (photos 2 and 3).

The second row of stone began to be laid, installing wooden guide strips in each corner of the cellar, which helped maintain the verticality and angle of the walls, and I already had an idea of ​​the doorway. On the left side of the opening, as the work progressed, I decided to make a small niche for small items by constructing a formwork box from boards for this purpose.

The string was moved as the walls grew (a building level is not needed here). A more or less useful tool is a plumb line, but correctly set guides will eliminate the need to check verticality.

In the back of the cellar I decided to make a niche for shelves. I built a box from boards and plywood, laid stones along the edge of the box with a protrusion of about 5 cm to form a niche frame.

Gradually raising the walls, he reached the arch of the niche. Again I used boards and a box, and placed the stones of the vault in a row with those that create the visual effect of the frame. I specifically chose thinner stones so that they would stand out against the general background.

The vault above the door was laid out and filled with concrete using formwork both outside and inside the cellar, placing a welded mesh between the layers.

Having reached the vault of the cellar itself, he built a temporary supporting frame. I nailed templates to it, nailed together in a semicircle (photo 4).

Then I filled the semicircular ribs with boards of the same thickness and prepared a weak cement mortar (1 part cement to 10 parts sand). I placed smaller stones on the boards on a layer of mortar so that there were as few uncovered spaces as possible (photo 5).

Having finished laying the stone on the vault, I waited a day for the weak mortar to set. And then, throwing the same welded mesh on top and laying the remains of the reinforcement across, I filled everything with ordinary mortar (photo 6).

On the second day, while the concrete was still damp, I treated the surface with a penetrating waterproofing mixture for concrete surfaces. When everything was dry, I glued roll waterproofing and covered it with black soil so that grass would grow (photo 7).

Then he removed the formwork from the inside and walked with a wire brush over the areas held together with weak mortar. As a result, it spilled out, exposing the stonework.

All that remains is to clean all the seams with a brush or grinder with an attachment in places where it was difficult to do by hand. All seams - both wall and ceiling - at least 1.5 cm deep were sealed with a solution to which penetrating waterproofing was added. It’s a pity that I realized a little late that by adding black pigment to the grout for the joints, I would have gotten a more impressive appearance for the cellar.

On the floor in the cellar I laid vibro-cast tiles 6 cm thick on a standard cushion of crushed stone, sand and a small proportion of cement. I also forgot to say that I ran a 110 mm pipe through the vault for ventilation, and made holes in the lower part of the door for air intake from the street with the ability to close them in extreme heat.

The cellar turned out to be good; in summer the temperature in it is no more than 12° at the very hottest, but usually about 10°. This is the optimal temperature for wine, because if it is too warm, the fermentation process begins again and eventually turns into vinegar. In the new cellar it did not ferment in 5 years. In winter there was no ice either, only when the hood was open, frost appeared. So overall I'm happy with my job.

DIY wine cellar - photo

©G. BORZIN Moldova

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