DIY camp cellar. DIY cellar under the house

Not a basement: if the latter is necessarily located away from the house, then the basement is under it or in the immediate vicinity; Most often, the basement as a building structure is also the foundation of the house. The basement must be buried below the standard soil freezing depth (NGD); The cellar can also be a bulk cellar. The basement floor is often located below the groundwater level (GWL). All this makes the basement and the house on it especially sensitive to soil movements and the action of groundwater. Moreover, the basement can aggravate the influence of both of these factors. All this makes the construction of a basement perhaps the most difficult and responsible task of the entire cycle of construction work. When built to order on a turnkey basis, a house with a basement costs 30-100% more than the same one without a basement. However, a basement in a house provides a lot of conveniences and benefits, and it is quite possible to build a basement with your own hands and save a lot of money. Let's try to figure out how.

What does a basement provide?

The traditional use of a basement as a food storage facility is already more useful than cellars: the microclimate in it is more stable, easier to regulate, and it is much more difficult for pests to get into the basement than into a cellar. The basement is also more suitable for a workshop and other utility rooms: it is electrified, gasified and heated along with the house.

The basement in a private house is especially advantageous as a center for the concentration of life support systems (LSS): all equipment can be located safely, compactly and conveniently for routine maintenance and repairs, on the left in Fig. And that’s not all: a boiler or heating stove with a water circuit, moved in the same house from the boiler room (furnace) upstairs to the basement, turns out to begin to consume 3-5% less fuel due to the same stable microclimate of the basement. Savings for heating season in material terms it turns out to be quite tangible.

Another advantage of a house with a basement is still little known in our area, but in the countries of Southern Europe, the demand for houses with a residential basement (on the right in the figure) consistently exceeds supply. The point here is survival, but not in case of war or some fantastic cataclysms. There are also enough real ones: due to global warming, the Sahara will “spit” hot air every summer for a long time. Surcharges, special or “environmental” tariffs, penalties, etc. fees for excessive consumption of electricity in countries that are provided with their own energy resources - mom, don’t worry! When it stays at +(40-45) outside for weeks and months, it’s impossible to live normally, and the energy bills for air conditioning the whole house come in such a way that... better think about democratic values, they are eternal. Moving to a residential basement for the summer either reduces air conditioning costs to acceptable levels or allows you to do without it altogether.

Waterproofing: the beginning

The basement under the house will only be a benefit when it is dry and does not disturb the stability of the entire structure. Both of these factors are interconnected, because a house with a basement often begins to tilt and/or settle precisely as a result of the disruption of underground drainage by a rigid box buried deep in the ground: the natural movement of underground water is disrupted, see fig.:

As a result, the mobility and load-bearing properties of the soil also change. There are known cases when a house with a basement, built on dry, dense loam, had to be abandoned - quicksand was crawling under it due to the influence of an improperly constructed basement.

The ways in which soil moisture penetrates into the basement are varied, and there are no 100% effective ways to drain a damp basement. Basement dampness will make the entire house uncomfortable and unhealthy. But you also need to think about the influence of the basement on underground drainage. The only way to prevent such a Gordian knot from tying is the correct design of the basement and its reliable external waterproofing. The choice of design is directly related to the properties of the structural material. Therefore, in order to properly build a house with a basement, its development must be carried out in the following sequence:

• Selection of construction material;
• Selection of power circuits in plan and section;
• Choosing a waterproofing method and scheme;
• Determining the composition of the basement arrangement;
• Selection of construction techniques.

Note: if the basement gets wet, but the house still stands, then there are ways to dry the basement, see below. Such a basement will not be suitable for housing and stationary electrification; drying will have to be repeated every 3-5 years, but as a food storage and/or location for non-volatile heating devices will serve.

Materials

It is possible to make a basement from materials that can withstand lateral soil pressure of 20 bar (2 kgf/sq. cm or 20 tf/sq. m) and formation water pressure of 10 bar (1 kgf/sq. cm or 10 tf/sq.m) . m). These conditions correspond to the strength grade from M200 and the water resistance grade from W10. Of course, the greater the margin for both parameters, the more reliable the basement will be.

Independent developers usually build monolithic reinforced concrete basements (item 1 in the figure), prefabricated concrete foundation blocks with a monolithic base (item 2), brick (item 3), monolithic with a brick base (item 4) or cinder blocks, pos. 5.

The “brick on concrete” option is quite durable if the base is made of burnt iron or clinker bricks: the outer facing brick is not intended to bear the weight load of the building; its service life is up to 40 years, and a house with a basement is built to last for generations. Red working brick in the immediate vicinity of the ground begins to crumble within 25 years, and in 50-60 years it completely loses its load-bearing properties. Iron ore and clinker will last a century, but are not aesthetically pleasing. In general, the basement at pos. 4 is not an option. For beauty, it would be easier, more reliable and cheaper to fill the monolith and cover it to taste.

The suitability of certain materials for building a basement is shown in the figure:

As you can see, they can be divided into 3 groups:

1. Unsuitable.
2. Conditionally suitable on structured soils (dense sandy loam, light loam), if the groundwater level does not rise closer than 0.2 m to the underside of the basement floor.
3. Suitable.

Group I

The obvious “losers” are foam and aerated concrete, and their low load-bearing capacity is not the most important thing here. Let's say the natural wear of concrete is 0.01 mm per year. This is an insignificant amount; in the ground it is much larger. The minimum concrete layer above the reinforcement is 40 mm. In order for the reinforcement to begin to be exposed en masse and thus the structure to require major repairs, in the absence of other destructive factors, 4000 years must pass. Let us also assume that the bridges between the pores of foam and aerated concrete are thick, 1 mm; they are usually thinner. With the same wear and tear over 25 years, the material will lose 50% of its strength (lintels are destroyed on both sides) - major repairs are impossible, the structure has become unusable. In another 10-15 years it will begin to spontaneously collapse without the possibility of restoration. For this reason, in Southern Europe (most of all in Spain), thousands of houses that were once built for seasonal rental are now being sold “for what they will give”. They still look gorgeous, but their lifespan is coming to an end and there is no way to restore them.

This also includes sand-lime brick and expanded clay concrete. The first one in the ground crumbles literally before our eyes, is expensive and requires quite high skills to work with it. The second one is cheap, easier to work with, but, alas, it gets wet through and through, and it is impossible to reliably isolate it, there are no such methods and compositions.

Group II

From this group, it is better not to use red brick and poor concrete for the foundation under a house: they crumble in the ground and repair is often impossible. Clinker brick is quite reliable, durable up to 150 years or more, easy to insulate, but expensive. Burnt iron brick is not much inferior to it and is cheap, but it does not regularly go on sale, because is a manufacturing defect. But a cinder block basement, due to its low cost and ease of working with it, is quite common, see video:

Video: building a basement “box” from cinder block

An important advantage of a cinder block basement is that it is lightweight and a house with it gives normal settlement on fairly weak soils with a bearing capacity of >0.7 kgf/sq.m. see It is possible to build a cinder block basement not only on dry soil. It may be quite suitable for economic purposes if the soil water remains above the basement floor level for no more than 6 months. per year, and the reservoir pressure does not exceed 10 bar; in most cases of self-building, these conditions are met. But, firstly, measures for waterproofing basement walls must begin to be carried out already at the stage of their construction, strictly observing all the rules cinder block masonry, see video:

Video: basics of cinder block laying

Secondly, waterproofing must be done the same as for walls made of bricks or foundation blocks, but reinforced: both painting with bitumen compounds and pasting, see below. And instead of textile-based lining materials, use cellulose (cardboard) roofing felt. Looking ahead, the principle of operation of insulation based on natural bitumen is as follows: if after many years you disassemble the structure insulated with it, not a trace of the original insulator is found. The bitumen from it is pressed into the concrete, on which a waterproof crust has formed. The pores of the cinder block are much wider than those in concrete, and the cellulose fibers from the roofing felt base will become a reinforcing filler for the bitumen in them.

How to insulate a cinder block

How the waterproofing of a cinder block basement is arranged is shown in Fig. on right. Since there is and cannot be any guarantee on the level of groundwater, it is better to replace the backfill with soil with a clay castle (highlighted in color) with an extension at the top of 0.5 m beyond the contour of the blind area. Its presence around the house, as well as heels with a distance of 0.4 m under the foundation strip, is an indispensable condition for the reliability of waterproofing of a cinder block basement.

In this case, pasted (sheet) insulation is applied in the reverse order to the generally accepted one - from top to bottom. It is more convenient to work this way, using a device in the form of a trestle with a stick placed in it or a piece of pipe on which a roll of roofing felt is placed. The tragus is placed on the foundation strip, and then:

1. Paint a section of the wall to the width of the roll +(15-20) cm with liquid bitumen prime mastic (primary) with a gasoline thinner. It is better to apply prime mastic with a wide, hard brush, pressing it into the wall material;
2. Coat the same area with bitumen mastic based on anthracene oil - it is thicker, stickier and dries more slowly than with gasoline. Layer – 3-4 mm;
3. A piece of roofing felt is unrolled from the roll to the bottom with a small margin;
4. Roll the insulator onto the coating, going from bottom to top and squeezing out bubbles;
5. The cut is cut with some margin;
6. The trestle is rearranged so that the overlap of the cuts is 20-25 cm;
7. Repeat paragraphs. 1-6 on a new section of the wall with an extension of 15-20 cm beyond the width of the roofing felt strip;
8. The joint of the sheets is heated gas burner and roll according to step 4;
9. Repeat paragraphs. 1-8 until they reach the corner;
10. At the corner, the adjacent wall is painted and coated, the roofing felt extending around the corner is cut across at the top and bottom;
11. The insulator wing is not heated too much from the outside and is gently turned around the corner;
12. The wrap is heated and rolled according to step 4;
13. Repeat the work cycle until they go around the entire building;
14. In a similar way, apply the 2nd layer of adhesive insulation;
15. Apply an external safety layer of paint insulation from the same mastic;
16. Backfill the soil or install a clay castle.

To a beginner, this whole procedure will seem very labor-intensive, but any reliable anti-pressure insulation is no easier to make. But a cinder block basement will cost 1.5-2.5 times less than a concrete or brick one.

At the same time about brick

The insulation described above does not provide 100% protection for a brick basement from dampness - the pores of a brick are thinner than a cinder block, and bitumen is pressed into them poorly. It is better to insulate the walls of a brick basement with modern penetrating materials with a deep penetration effect (see below). Typical scheme their insulation of a brick wall is shown in Fig.:

It is necessary to plaster the wall using a mesh under insulation: penetrates reliably fill cracks up to 0.4 mm, and wider ones can form in a brick wall. The role of a clay lock, preventing capillary moisture from entering the concrete-brick joint, is played by plugs made of Penecrit in the 25x50 mm groove and Penecrit with Penetron in the holes of the concrete heel. The disadvantage of this scheme is that penetrates are not eternal, like natural bitumen; after 10-30 years the insulation will have to be replaced.

Repairing a damp concrete basement with deep penetration compounds

Note 2: if a previously dry concrete basement began to dampen drops along the walls and floor (the underground drainage has changed), it can be repaired with Penecrit and Penetron for 5-20 years, see fig. on right. Strobe – 25X25 mm. The insulation is plastered with moisture-resistant plaster in 2 layers of 15-20 mm each with a reinforcing mesh (see above) to avoid swelling of the insulating layer by capillary pressure. The work is carried out during the driest time of the year. The basement is pre-dried, see below, and immediately before applying the insulation it is wetted twice with a wide soft brush.

III group

IN materials III High-strength moisture-resistant concrete stands far ahead of the group. Only from it can you build a dry basement on water-logged soil, without having to deal with such a complex and not always technically feasible thing as site drainage. It is enough to apply inexpensive (and very durable) bitumen insulation, see next. Fig., and the basement will not dampen generations of residents, no matter how the groundwater “walks.”

The big disadvantage of a concrete basement is the rush to pour and technical breaks to gain strength for the monolith; If you build on your own, you may simply not be able to make it in time for the season. In addition, M400 W>10 concrete is not cheap, and the concrete truck will not arrive exactly at the time you set. Most likely, it will be prescribed to you, and you will also have to wait.

The solution is to build a basement from ready-made foundation blocks. Into the water for masonry mortar 2-3% by volume of liquid glass is added. It is better to buy ready-made blocks, they are already M(400-600) W(20-3). The 200x200x400 block is moved by one person. The masonry is then laid in 2 blocks with ligation of the seams and alternation of spoon rows with bonded rows, like a brick wall. The corner “half-blocks” are not chipped or cut off - let them stick halfway into the ground, the whole structure will only be more stable. If you have 2-3 strong helpers and at least a hoist, it’s even better to buy 400x400x800 blocks - they have teeth and the masonry will be very strong. In this case, it is carried out in one block with sutures bandaged in rows.

Foundation blocks on reinforced concrete structures undergo steaming, which is not feasible at home. But let it be known that the aging period is from 3 months. blocks that have gained 25% strength in a stack under the film completely replace it. The rows in the stack must be arranged with pieces of wood so that there are gaps of 20-30 mm between them; in hot, dry weather, the stack is wrapped in damp burlap. You can prepare high-strength concrete with your own hands by mixing it by hand, see the story:

Video: making concrete by hand

Building a basement, especially in an existing house, can generally be considered a third task that cannot be rushed. Then, for the first year, we slowly prepare the required number of blocks; Next summer we will build again without any rush. You can cast non-standard blocks according to your own strength and teeth - the finished masonry will withstand a pressure of more than 30 bar. And W? In production, liquid glass is mixed into the concrete mass in special devices, which again cannot be done at home. But self-builders successfully prepare moisture-resistant concrete using W(10-15) with the well-known repair composition Dehydrol, see video:

Video: how to make hydraulic concrete

Note: homemade hydraulic concrete does not guarantee against the penetration of capillary moisture, therefore the external anti-pressure insulation must be supplemented with internal anti-capillary insulation from the same Dehydrol, see fig. Also, inside the entire basement is plastered with armor insulation made of cement-sand plaster, see above.

Power circuits

The basement waterproofing scheme is tied to its general power (bearing) scheme. It is developed depending on local conditions, first in section and then in plan.

Possible power circuits makeshift basements The section is given in Fig.:

A basement on a slab is built on weak, homogeneous soils: a large supporting area gives low specific pressure on the soil and distributes the weight load more evenly over it. In fact, the entire building in this case stands on a deeply buried slab foundation. The removal of the slab along the contour is required to be no less than the thickness of the basement walls (foundation strip), otherwise the weight loads will be concentrated on the edge of the slab, it will crumble over time, and the whole house will begin to sink crookedly. Also, basements on soft soils float up more easily, see below; The “side hook” counteracts this. The slab is poured with the onset of stable warm weather, kept until it reaches 50% strength (at least 20 days) and built on it from any other suitable material. If the seasonal standing of groundwater is possible above 0.6 m above the level of the base (not the floor!) of the basement, a slab is poured one and a half thick (from 300 mm) with a tooth at a third of the height, see below.

A basement on a strip is built, on the contrary, on dense, well-bearing (from 1.7 kgf/sq. cm), and possibly heterogeneous soils: the slab from a boulder that lands on its corner when settling will tilt dangerously; the tape will either push it down or push it to the side. On dense, homogeneous, non-heaving or slightly heaving soils, if the house has been stable without disturbance for at least 3-5 years, it is possible to build a foundation on a strip in an existing house. A typical diagram is shown in Fig. on the right, but in each specific case construction is carried out according to individual project based on on-site research.

If the basement on the tape is built at the same time as the house, then the emergency concreting cycles are not tied to each other: the pouring of the permanent floor can and even should (see below) be postponed until next year. In any case, the extension of the heel of the tape to the side must be at least 0.6 m in order to “disperse” the loads from the force of soil resistance to the subsiding building (shown by the red dotted line), otherwise the floor may simply be squeezed up.

Temporary floor

It is advisable to leave the basement on the tape for a year without a floor, if the groundwater level does not rise above 0.2 m under the base of the basement, so that the building gives an initial settlement and the permanent floor is definitely not pushed out. In the meantime, you can lay a temporary floor, just like laying floors on the ground.

Schemes for installing floors on the ground are shown on the left in the figure:

Pos. And it is applicable if the soil waters do not rise above 0.6 m to the base of the basement; pos. B - if they reach 0.2 m below it. In the case where the utility cellar on the tape remains dry for more than 3 years, a warm dirt floor is often laid in it, on the right on the rice: this way vegetables and fruits are stored longer and spoil less. Plant products in storage release ethylene, which stimulates their ripening; Without ethylene, products “sleep.” Ethylene is slightly heavier than air and is not completely removed by conventional basement ventilation (see below); There are many known cases of ethylene poisoning of people who spent a long time in food basements. The soil, on the contrary, greedily absorbs ethylene, you just need to make the bins ventilated and on stands of 15-20 cm. In addition, homemade kvass, liqueurs, wine, beer, mead in a basement with a dirt floor ripen better and turn out to be much tastier.

Note: basements on slabs and strips are suitable for installing boiler equipment and electrification for housing only after at least 3 years after the completion of the construction of the entire house, if during this time there were no signs of dampening of the basement and/or uneven settlement of the building.

A basement-caisson made of moisture-resistant concrete with external pressure-resistant insulation will be dry on any soil, even if it floats in water - during the Second World War, even sea ships were built from reinforced concrete. A coffered basement is also compatible with any building, see below. But its construction is a complete complex emergency, see below. And on light, loose, highly watered soils, a basement caisson can suddenly float up. Basements on slabs and strips make it clear that the underground drainage is in trouble by dampening despite any insulation - working and masonry seams are torn - and the caisson can literally float up in a week and fall on its side along with the house. Therefore, it is not recommended to build caisson basements at the highest ground level of more than 0.6 m above the basement floor, and the box offset should be given from 0.6 m on medium and dense soils and from 0.8 m on light soils.

The power diagram of the basement in plan is linked not only to the ground, but also to the structure of the building. Its possible options for self-construction are shown in Fig. below. The basement floor (item 1) is the only one that allows you to immediately equip a boiler room and a house communications distribution unit in the basement (on the left in the figure at the beginning); in this case it is built with a caisson. The important thing here is that the boiler room must have a window, and the walls of the caisson and the base of the building are a single monolith.

An incomplete basement floor is built less often - saving on earthworks ah, it is more than eaten up by the excess of concrete. Typical justified cases are heavy, complex and expensive soil to develop (pos. 1a) or on heavy soil a light loose spot is found, the size of which is suitable for a basement, pos. 1b. In this case, on the contrary, in no way should you build a basement-caisson or on a slab, only on a strip! The caisson is not recommended for pos. 1a, so you will have to wait several years before moving the boiler room to the basement or equipping it for housing.

Note: an incomplete basement floor and a basement mezzanine are different things. In the basement mezzanine it is possible to install an outdoor front door, buried in the pit no more than 3-4 steps.

It is even less common to build basements adjacent to the foundation of an existing house (item 2 in the figure above) - there is a high risk of new uneven settlement of the building. If a professional builds it according to a project, then the owner and operator sign that they will bear the damage from all possible consequences. In an existing house, it is better to build a “floating” basement, separated from the foundation strip of the house by at least 1 m, pos. 3. Any cross-section of its power circuit is possible, but you will have to spend money on a separate basement floor, between which and the floor floor of the house you need a free clearance of 0.3 m, i.e. and the foundation pit for the basement needs to be dug deeper. The reason is the difference in the speed and amount of settlement of 2 separate buildings nested inside one another.

You can get by with a smaller total volume of earthen and concrete work, as well as a general ceiling, by building a connected basement - connected to the foundation of the house with rigid reinforced concrete lintels the width of the foundation strip. They are buried, like the foundation strip of a house, but at a rate >0.6 m below the standard freezing depth (NGD), and the walls of the basement are as needed so that you can walk in it at full height (1.9-2.2 m + floor thickness + thickness of the cushion under the floor). As a result, the difference specific pressures on the soil of the foundation of the house and the walls of the basement is the size that jumpers up to 1-1.5 m long can accommodate.

The T-shaped pattern (item 4) is used on light, pliable, homogeneous soils; H-shaped (position 5) for light heterogeneous and medium ones, and cellular (position 6) for medium heterogeneous and heavy homogeneous ones. In any case, a connected basement is built only and only on a tape - on a slab or a caisson will tear the lintels and destroy the foundation of the building. Typical mistakes when developing foundation and basement connection diagrams are as follows:

• The corners of the basement adjacent to the connected ones are left hanging (pos. 7).
• The connection diagram is made asymmetrical relative to both axes of the foundation plan (item 8) or centrally symmetrical (item 9).
• The corner of the basement box is connected to the corner of the foundation, pos. 10.

The latter is especially dangerous for the integrity and stability of the entire structure. In the case as in pos. 10, it would be necessary to either change the layout of the house with a basement to symmetry along at least one axis, pos. 11, or, better, without changing the plan, connect the internal corners of the foundation with a lintel, and make the basement incomplete ground floor, pos. 12.

Waterproofing

In the process of developing basement waterproofing, its design is first selected in relation to a given building under these specific conditions, and then suitable materials are selected. Water is an insidious element and it is impossible to protect against its penetration for decades with a single obstacle. A typical case in individual construction is when, at the seasonal peak of dryness, the groundwater level drops below the base of the basement floor by 0.2 m or more, and at the peak of moisture it rises to the level of the humus layer; the most fertile layer of soil is considered to be constantly moistened, but does not create any significant flow and pressure of moisture on the structure.

In these conditions, the only reliable solution is external pressure waterproofing. Non-pressure only from surface runoff does not guarantee a dry basement, because, firstly, in rainy years the pressure of surface water can become significant. Secondly, the underground drainage under the structure itself may change, see above. Internal anti-capillary insulation and armor holding it may be required if the lower water supply is stable at the level of the basement floor or higher, see below.

External waterproofing of the basement is carried out in general in 2 ways: cut-off (cut-off), on the left in the figure, and drainage (discharge), on the right:

If a building with a basement stands on permeable soil (pebbles, gravel, cartilage, sand, sandy loam, loose loam), then shut-off insulation can be performed without drainage; in this case, the clay castle is continued down to a level of -(0.25-0.3) m below the base of the basement floor cushion. This is her great dignity– no need for an expensive and labor-intensive drainage system. If the basement is built of hydraulic concrete, then the outside walls are plastered over the insulation with cement-sand plaster and, instead of a clay castle, they are backfilled with excavated soil. This is the second advantage of shut-off insulation - self-dug clay is not suitable for a lock, you need to buy construction clay, and a lot of it.

The disadvantages of shut-off insulation are, firstly, a large volume of excavation work. Secondly, they are not always technically feasible - choosing a pit of the required profile (see below) may not allow nearby buildings. Thirdly, clay is an obstacle to moisture, but not a blind barrier. It reduces the flow and pressure of water on the wall, but does not stop it completely. Therefore, complete external insulation is needed (prime + coating + flooring), and if the basement is cinder block or brick, then reinforced, see above. Fourthly, cut-off insulation is applied only entirely, at least within the wall, because the joints of the flooring sheets need to be glued and heated, so installing it on an existing house is very problematic - you cannot completely dig up any of its walls without risking the stability of the entire structure.

The drainage insulation operates only in conjunction with drainage: its basis is a membrane with a reverse capillary effect that collects moisture and removes it to the drainage. The membrane itself is glued to the wall instead of the shut-off insulation sheet and is protected from rapid clogging by soil with geotextiles. The main advantage of diverter insulation is its minimal or zero impact on underground flow under the house; cut-off insulation even with drainage changes it, so it is recommended to insulate the basements of houses on soils with complex unstable hydrology with a membrane. Additional, firstly, a pit for shut-off insulation is needed with a width less than the extension of the blind area (practically 0.6-0.8 m is enough, just so that the worker can squeeze into it). Secondly, you can insulate it in pieces about 1.5 times the width of the membrane. Therefore, the basements of existing houses can almost always be insulated only by the drainage method.

The disadvantages of drainage waterproofing are also very serious. The first is an even greater volume and complexity of excavation work, only accompanying. Building drainage for a site is no joke, but finding a place for a discharge field drainage flow It’s also not always possible. Second, the best membranes last up to 20 years; more often - 10-12 years, and on heavily watered, loose soils for 3-7 years. If you intend to insulate the basement with a membrane, be prepared to dig up the house and change it at regular intervals.

When you need it inside

If the GW is more than 3 months. per year stands level with the basement floor or rises higher, the external anti-pressure waterproofing is complemented by internal anti-capillary waterproofing. Concrete, not to mention brick, is not a solid monolith. Its microstructure is the smallest grains of cement, similar to sea ​​urchins, the needles of which are silicate crystals. With these “needles,” the cement grains are interlocked with each other, and the gaps are filled with sand and, in hydroconcrete, hardened liquid glass (which is also silicate), and in moisture-resistant polymer additives. In both cases, micropores remain; The polymer also decomposes in 3-15 years, and under pressure the concrete slightly allows moisture to pass through. It's not noticeable in the hydroelectric dam, but very noticeable in the basement.

Options for internal anti-capillary waterproofing of the basement are shown in Fig. on pos. In and D, external insulation is not conventionally shown, but it is needed here too. Seam insulation at pos. B - at least 4 layers of roofing material, glued together with liquid prime mastic and heated with a burner. You cannot seal the seam with thin mortar - it will leak. Tolm or roofing bitumen insulation (hydrobutyl, etc.) is also not allowed - the wall will crush and squeeze out. Glass cutting and others based on fiberglass, on the contrary, will underpress the weight of the wall - the base will remain uncrushed and capillary moisture will flow along it, so this is also not possible. Pressure wall at pos. B – plastering on a grid with cement-sand mortar, see above.

Insulating materials

Roofing and wall waterproofing materials are not suitable for basements - they are not designed to withstand soil pressure and formation water pressure. Based on method of application and purpose, materials for basement waterproofing are divided into:

• Primary, or prime, or impregnating - liquid mastics applied to the prepared surface (see below) to create a base for coating with other materials.
• Painting or coating - more viscous adhesive compositions, used either separately, or as a base holding the overlay sheet insulation, or, again together with the prime, for anti-capillary coating inside. In the latter case, after coating, the walls are plastered over a grid with any moisture-resistant plaster in one layer.
• Thick-layer mastics with cement filler - designed for applying coatings up to 20 mm thick only on the sides facing the pressure. They are used instead of overhead materials in cases where the ground water does not reach the basement floor for more than 9 months. per year.
• Overhead or lining - sheet flexible or soft materials on a woven or fibrous base, impregnated with the insulator itself. Universal and most reliable insulator. They are also applied only to the sides facing the advancing water.
• Capillary membranes - a special coating with a reverse capillary effect is applied to a waterproof plastic base, see above.

The insulating principle of these materials, except for membrane ones, can be as follows:

1. Bitumen has not yet been surpassed in durability, but is difficult to work with. How bitumen waterproofing works, see above. It is produced in the form of primary mastics with a gasoline thinner (primes), coating mastics, thick-layer mastics and overlay materials. Armor insulation is almost never required; if so, then cement-sand plaster. Sticks to any wall (concrete, brick). Penetration into concrete is up to 30 mm (usually 7-15 mm), so the treated surface loses its water resistance due to mechanical damage.
2. Bitumen-nairite mastics are frost-resistant and can be applied at temperatures down to -(15-25) degrees. Layer – up to 6 mm. Cracks up to 30-50 mm wide are tightened, because foam in air, so the opened package must be used within the period indicated on it (or in the instructions). The coating retains plasticity up to –(45-60) degrees. Service life – 10-25 years. A specific material for northern construction or complex repairs of completely dilapidated buildings.
3. Epoxy, epoxy-tar and epoxy-furan mastics are an even more specific material for waterproofing building structures that are regularly flooded to the point of being completely submerged in water, freezing and icing up unheated. They are fragile and require complete replacement after 3-5 years. Difficult to work with, toxic, carcinogenic.
4. Natural elastomers (liquid rubber) are easy to work with, but are only suitable for repair purposes for internal insulation. Only brick and cinder block fit well. The renewal period for waterproofing with natural elastomers is 1-5 years, depending on local conditions. Armor insulation of at least 2 layers of cement-sand plaster over a mesh is required, because easily swell and peel off due to capillary pressure. In general, an “ambulance” remedy for a damp basement until your hands and wallet get around to more serious repairs.
5. Synthetic elastomers - semi-urethane, silicone, MS plastics. They act similarly to bitumen, but penetrate deeper into concrete, up to 100 mm. After 7-20 years, the insulation needs to be updated. For repairs from the inside, apply to a dried and abundantly moistened surface immediately before treatment, see below.
6. Penetrating (deeply penetrating) compositions – synthetic elastomers + cement + polymer additives. Available in the form of mastics for painting in a thick layer. The work is simple. Are used only for external insulation. They are pressed into gaps up to 0.4 mm (polyurethane) or up to 10 mm (on silicone or MS) to a depth of 100 mm and seal them with cement that recrystallizes under the influence of moisture. The surface to be applied must be leveled to +/–(2 mm) and thoroughly cleaned of dust. Bituminous covering materials do not adhere to themselves. Armor insulation, if required - cement-sand plaster on a mesh. Service life – 10-30 years. Capillary moisture is not cut off 100%, so bitumen anti-capillary insulation inside is almost always needed.

What if it’s damp?

Since we are talking about repairing an existing damp basement, it would be appropriate to mention the sets of compounds for it. Their components are prepared, as a rule, on a different basis, but are consistent in their physical and chemical properties. Therefore, repairs to a damp basement from the inside should be done with compounds from one reputable manufacturer.

For example in Fig. shows how basements of different designs are insulated inside with compounds from the well-known Dehydrol kit. Strobe wherever needed - 25x25 mm. Surface preparation - according to the instructions for the corresponding composition. Dehydrol 10-2 is also successfully used to make homemade moisture-proof concrete, see above.

How to dry a basement

Bituminous waterproofing mastics are applied to a dry surface. When they write that penetrating compounds must be applied to a damp surface, this is correct. But when they add that it is better for freshly poured concrete, this is fundamentally wrong. Capillary moisture in a wall prepared for treatment with penetrates should go deep into the dry mass and, as it were, pull the insulator along with it. If the concrete mass is saturated with water, it will flow out through the capillaries and, conversely, squeeze out the insulator. The depth of its penetration into the wall will be, at best, much less than the calculated one; resp. The service life will also decrease, because the composition is destroyed from the outside under the influence of air.

Before renovation, a damp basement must be thoroughly dried, and immediately before treatment, the walls and floor must be moistened several times with water using a soft plaster brush. Moistening with a roller gives a worse effect, and spraying is even worse, because... the air becomes excessively humidified and capillary moisture no longer actively strives to escape into the concrete mass.

Dry the basement with a stream warm air useless - it won’t dry out until it starts to “sweat” again in the fall. It needs to be dried using thermal (infrared, IR) radiation. But not “far” from the electric fireplace or nichrome “goat” (which is dangerous), but “close” - incandescent lamps provide it in abundance, which is why they fall out of use. Near-IR penetrates deeply into concrete and brick, with almost no absorption in the air. You need to hang more light bulbs in garlands at the rate of 60-100 W per 1 cubic meter. m of basement volume. If a test hole is driven into its wall, then most often after 10-12 days of continuous drying of the IR it turns out that the soil around it has already begun to dry. In any case, after a week it is already possible to apply penetrates or coat with bitumen. Drying it a little longer won’t hurt in any case - as long as you have the patience to watch the electricity meter fluctuate.

Repairs are not for your own hands

Sometimes it is possible to dry a damp basement only by injecting special compounds into the surrounding soil, see fig. on right. For example, if quicksand crawls under a house, then the entire structure must be saved. But in this case a body of irregular shape is formed in the ground, and it is impossible to accurately predict the further settlement of the structure. Therefore, only specialized organizations carry out injections into the soil based on the results of on-site research, and they take a subscription from the customer and the owner of the building that they will bear any consequences.

Arrangement

This section is not about 3D wallpaper, a bar, HD TV, a jacuzzi or a 3-bed under a mirror on the ceiling. This and all that stuff is at your discretion. Mandatory and, for residential and technical, desirable arrangement of the basement consists of:

• Ventilation is required.
• An entrance with a staircase is required.
• Access hatch - if the staircase is steeply inclined.
• Insulation – for residential and technical basements.
• Surface drainage - in areas with heavy rainfall in the warm season.

Ventilation

Ventilation is vital for any basement, because... Almost all harmful, poisonous and many explosive gases are heavier than air and flow downwards. For the same reason, basements are built with energy-independent natural supply and exhaust ventilation.

The ventilation device for the basement under the house is quite simple, pos. 1 and 2 in Fig.:

The cross-sectional area of ​​the lumen of the pipes is 5 square meters. cm for each cubic meter of basement volume, but its diameter in any case is from 60 mm. It is better to put a filter on the inlet pipe instead of a rodent mesh, on the right in Fig. Flow-through with a filter filler (item 3) protects from dust and insects, but requires regular inspection and replacement of the filler. The aerodynamic one (item 4) is cleaned as needed; you only need to attach a strip of newsprint, etc., to the mouth of the inlet pipe in the basement. flow indicator: when the air filter is clogged, the air flow stops very abruptly. But especially harmful and cunning mosquitoes and flies make their way through it.

If the basement is next to the house, then making a high exhaust pipe is difficult and not always possible. In this case, basement ventilation is built according to the diagram in Fig. on right. The minimum diameter of the pipes is 100 mm; for a basement of more than 10 cubic meters, the cross-sectional area is 10 square meters. see per cubic meter of volume. In the basement, there should be no obstacles to air movement between the supply and exhaust pipes. The upper ends of the pipes are bent like a goose from rain and snow.

Ladder

The staircase to the basement is one of the most common causes of household injuries, so the utmost attention should be paid to its design. From this point of view, stairs are divided into ascending and steeply inclined. You can climb/descend along the first ones with a load in your hands, without holding on to the railings, but on steeply inclined ones it is generally undesirable to walk - if you step awkwardly or sway, you can crash, leaning back. With a load in one hand, they generally climb up a steeply inclined ladder, grabbing the railing or upper steps with the other.

The staircase design can be any of those shown on the left in Fig. The most convenient ones in terms of saving usable space are highlighted in color:

On the right in Fig. calculated ratios for them are given, and here there is a nuance: since the height of the ascent and descent into the basement is small, a staircase with an inclination of up to 50 degrees will be quite comfortable. tg 50 is almost exactly equal to 1.2, which makes the calculation easier, based on the fact that the minimum tread width of a stair step is 180 mm, and its maximum allowable height is 230 mm. Let's say the height of the descent into the basement is 2.2 m, counting from the top of the ceiling (see below). This height must accommodate a whole number of steps, take 10. The height of the step is then 220 mm. Divide by 1.2, we get 183 mm - suitable. The staircase extension in plan will be 183x10=1.83 m, which is also not bad. The area under the stairs, with a minimum permissible width of 0.8 m, is 1.83X0.8 = 1.464 sq. m.

About erroneous stairs

What you don’t need to do with a basement staircase is, firstly, to do it on a string (one stringer) with hanging steps, pos. 1 in Fig., such stairs are extremely dangerous:

Secondly, pour the concrete staircase yourself on site, pos. 2. Ready-made concrete stairs are a real monolith; they are poured entirely into a split mold. There are no working concreting joints in them, and when pouring “self-made” they are inevitable: the upper step cannot be poured until the lower one has set. The seams are weak, they soon crack in basement conditions, and as a result, a homemade concrete staircase to the basement serves less than a wooden one.

Installation of stairs to the basement

In a dry basement, a wooden staircase serves as well as it does. A properly made wooden staircase does not suddenly collapse and, before the steps begin to rot, a creaking sound indicates a structural failure.

The construction of a wooden ladder for the basement is shown in the figure:

Instead of cutouts in the inner string, you can fill it with fillets from a board or, better yet, thick plywood under the treads of the steps, pos. A. However, the collapse of rotten wooden basement stairs in a damp basement is also a common occurrence in household injuries, so it is better to attach the treads to steel or concrete stringer beams. The cross-sectional dimensions of the concrete stringer are from 100 mm in width and from 150 mm in height. Steel - channel from 100 mm or I-beam from 80 mm.

Methods for attaching wooden treads to steel and concrete stringers are shown in the figure:

Dowels for fastening to concrete are made from sections of 8-18 mm corrugated reinforcement bars. Concrete penetration from 60 mm; in wood from 30 mm. Holes in fillies for mounting on dowels are drilled 2-2.5 mm narrower; the fillies are impaled with blows of the mallet. Fastening the treads to the legs allows you to simply arrange the railing: the reinforcement bars are extended upward to the height of the railing, and sections of pipes are put on them to support the treads and balusters; maybe plastic. It is best to attach the treads to a strip - they will not rot even in a damp basement.

In case there is not even one and a half squares for the stairs, here in the figure are drawings of a wooden steeply inclined staircase for the basement. It will definitely need a hatch, see below.

Note: Before assembling into a product, all parts of a wooden staircase to the basement must be impregnated with an oil-based water-repellent composition (can be treated), and finished staircase varnished with acrylic varnish for external use or painted with moisture-resistant paint. The best thing - acrylic enamel for baths

Entrance and hatch

There is often no space for an ascending staircase to the basement under a private house, and then the entrance to it is made from the outside. This is generally necessary if a ready-made concrete staircase is purchased for the basement - they are not made with a slope of more than 40 degrees. Then, firstly, the entrance to the basement must be protected from precipitation by a canopy, see fig. on right. The overhang of the canopy roof should protrude forward above the edge of the top step by less than 30 cm, and on the sides and rear - from 15 cm. Secondly, the top step should protrude above the ground or blind area by at least 70 mm, and the basement door opening must have a threshold of 90 mm. Both are necessary to prevent rain and melt water from penetrating into the basement. It is better to make the threshold 120-130 mm high, attaching ramps of 400 mm wide to it on both sides.

The hatch to the basement is also not so simple. Nowadays, probably, no one makes “lyada” from boards with rope anymore - there is a wide range of ready-made basement hatches on sale. They are immured in the ceiling (see below) with cement-sand mortar, and the price is as follows. way:

• Non-automatic with a mechanical stop, kind of like old sofa beds: pulled, lifted - it clicked. I need to close it - I pulled it up, it clicked, and I lowered it.
• Semi-automatic with a spring-lever mechanism - pulled all the way, it stays open. I need to close it - I pushed it down and sank.
• Semi-automatic with pneumatic lift - pulled up a little and opened. It needs to be closed - I pushed it down and it closed smoothly.
• Automatic with pneumatic lift - I stepped firmly on the edge of the lid, removed my foot - it opened. To close, lightly push the lid down and it closes.

In terms of ease of use, both semi-automatic devices are equivalent, but automatic ones are nothing more than a marketing gimmick without regard for safety. Let's imagine - furniture is being brought into the house. The riggers (or you and an assistant) carry the cabinet. The front one steps on the hatch, it opens. The one in the back can’t see what’s under his feet, and he doesn’t care - he falls through and gets hurt. If you really want to fork out for a basement cooler, take a car sunroof with remote control, they are also sold.

Insulation

Insulation is necessary for residential and technical basements. The latter is to ensure that the water in the pipes does not freeze, and fuel savings are noted only in insulated general boiler houses. It is also advisable to insulate the storage basement next to the house: building structures are good bridges of cold in winter and warmth in summer.

The basement must be insulated with sand backfill, see Fig., so that seasonal soil movements do not tear the insulation.

Mineral wool and cellulose insulation, which is excellent in all other respects, are not suitable for basement walls: they cake and collapse underground. Granular foam plastic is also bad: under the pressure of soil and formation water, it quickly crumbles into granules. Extruded polyethylene foam (EPS) is more or less resistant in the ground; Sprayed polyurethane coating lasts for more than 10-15 years. They are insulated using both the usual methods, and before filling the sand cushion they are protected with cement-sand plaster.

Drainage

In places with heavy rainfall in the warm season, no basement without surface contour drainage of the house will always be dry. In other cases, drainage is also useful: it reduces the range of groundwater level fluctuations, which makes it easier to waterproof the basement and/or increase its efficiency. What is equally important is that the influence of a drained house with a basement on underground runoff is reduced significantly. Incorrect settlement of such buildings is extremely rare as a result of gross violations of construction. A diagram of the circuit surface drainage device for a residential building is shown in Fig. on right. The discharge field can be located under a vegetable garden or, better yet, a garden: almost the same atmospheric precipitation is collected in the drains, quite suitable for irrigation.

Basement under the garage

A basement in a garage is attractive because it does not require the removal of land area or complicating the design of a newly built house. The basement under the existing garage is built without destroying the housing. But there are special requirements for the equipment of the basement under the garage, because... explosive vapors of fuels and oils that are heavier than air; much heavier in the cold, when they thicken.

Firstly, the garage basement hood must be high, rising above the roof by at least 1.5 m, on the left in the figure:

It is unacceptable to display “geese” nearby above the ground! Secondly, the exhaust air duct needs a larger cross-section, from 15 square meters. cm per cube of basement volume or at least 120 mm in diameter. Thirdly, the hood must have an aerodynamically closed deflector, providing some “cold” draft even in complete calm, for example. TsAGI or Khonzhenkov deflector. Fourthly, in winter the basement must be warmer than an unheated garage, so that air is drawn into the ventilation only from the outside. Therefore, they insulate the basement under the garage from above, like the attic floor of a house, on the right in Fig.

Drivers, of course, will ask: won’t the car push through this feather duster? And how. Therefore, it is necessary to provide longitudinal gaps in the insulation and lay tracks in them flush with the floor. You will need to drive into the garage carefully so as not to drive out of them. In general, a garage basement isn't that attractive at all; there is a place for a repair pit.

Construction

Building a basement on your own is only possible in dry or seasonally dry soil. In the latter case, all work for this year must be completely completed before the water level rises. Pumping groundwater is so complicated and expensive that it is rarely used in large-scale construction. An exception is a caisson basement, which is built at the top to the side and installed in a pit, but if it is concrete, a crane of 20 tons or more and a team of experienced slingers and riggers are needed. There is, however, an exception to the exception, see at the end. In general, the construction of a basement includes the following. stages of work:

• Excavation of a pit;
• Pouring the base - slabs or tape soles;
• Installation of communication input channels;
• Walling;
• Construction of the floor - on dense soil with the groundwater level standing above its level for no more than 3 months. after at least 6 months. at the end of the annual work cycle;
• Floor installation;
• Basement equipment, see above.

Pit

Building a basement in a hole with vertical walls is a gross mistake - it is impossible to do high-quality waterproofing. When insulating an existing basement, the house is dug up in sections, and the finished area is backfilled before selecting the next one. A typical pit profile for basement construction is shown in Fig. on right. The width of the passage outside the future wall is at least 75 cm along the bottom. The angle of repose is acceptable for the given soil.

Base

At this stage, you need to order a concrete truck with reinforced concrete concrete. The point is not in the quality of the self-mix, it can be better than the factory one, but in its volume. Working concreting joints on the base of the basement are extremely undesirable, so they need to be filled in one fill. Laying the reinforcement frame directly on a sand-crushed stone bed is also wrong - crushed stone requires meager preparation, see below. Before pouring the preparation, apply insulation with flaps on the sides of the pit 150-200 mm above the thickness of the slab/sole. Concrete is poured into the resulting bowl. Thus, direct contact of concrete with the soil is eliminated, which, in turn, eliminates the formation of fistulas in the monolith. The fistula may not lead to dampness of the basement, but it will allow moisture to reach the fittings, but the base of the basement supports the entire house. After pouring the concrete mass, it is deaerated (deaerated) by piercing each cell of the reinforcement frame in the middle with a rod. After the monolith has set, it is covered with damp burlap, which is kept moist until the base reaches 25% strength; In a typical summer in the Russian Federation this is approx. a week.

Walls

The basement walls are erected according to the usual construction technology For of this material. If a caisson basement is being built (see below), the walls are built integrally with the base. Door and window openings are reinforced with concrete lintels with a height of 80 mm, with a depth of 120 mm in concrete walls and 200 mm in brick and cinder block walls. It is forbidden to strengthen openings in the basement with steel or wooden mortgages! Remember again: the basement supports the entire house! When light, dry spots appear on the drying concrete walls that have set, anti-capillary insulation can be applied. By brick and block walls– after 3-4 days after erection to the top.

Permanent floor

The permanent floor in the basement on a tape is poured immediately during the construction process after the walls have gained at least 25% strength. Under the permanent floor, crushed stone backfill is poured over sand with a thin liquid cement mortar: cement from M400: sand 1:3 – 1:4. Fill to a level of 40-50 mm above the tops of the stones. When the filling has set, apply insulation and fill the screed with cement: sand: crushed stone 1: 3: 2 in a layer of 70-80 mm. You can lay a clean floor and finish the walls in 2 weeks to a month.

Overlap

Floors made from hollow core or box-shaped prefabricated slabs are expensive and require lifting mechanisms with qualified operators for installation. Homemade monolithic flooring is labor-intensive and technologically complex. It, like floors made of hollow core slabs, clearly has excessive load-bearing capacity for a private house. Is it possible, by sacrificing it within reasonable limits, to cover the basement with something moderate in price and easier to work with?

In modern individual construction, prefabricated block floors designed specifically for such a case are becoming increasingly common. You can compare a monolith with a prefabricated block structure in the figure:

Insulation of the floor of a house above the basement under a prefabricated block ceiling in normal climatic conditions is not required or a simplified one is required. The load-bearing beams are poured together with the load-bearing belt (see below) in grooved formwork on supports, which are much easier and simpler to make than a solid hanging formwork for a monolith.

Laying and belt

It is impossible to build a house with a “box-on-box” basement: at the top of the basement walls you need a large groove into which the monolithic floor goes, slabs are laid or the load-bearing belt of the prefabricated block floor is poured. In all cases, the minimum thickness of the wall and the placement of the ceiling in it are different for walls made of different materials.

How much flooring is laid in a wall made of concrete or brick is shown in the figure:

Waterproofing is shown conditionally, for the case when the basement ends with the basement of the building with its own ceilings. For a cinder wall, the laying is the same as for a brick one, but its distance from the top is at least 2 rows of masonry.

How to build a caisson

The reinforcement frame of the basement caisson is assembled at the top in its entirety and installed in the prepared pit (see below) by crane. It is impossible to assemble the entire frame by welding - the reinforcement will weaken due to the tempering of the metal. Therefore, the frame is first knitted with wire as usual, and then individual joints are welded: on the bottom at the corners of the cells there are 3x3 or 4x4 frame cells, and on the walls in every 3rd or 4th belt.

The foundation pit for the caisson is prepared as for other basements, see above. Further construction proceeds in the following sequence (see also Fig.):

Note: concrete basement walls on slab and strip are also poured according to paragraphs. 7 and 8. It’s a mistake to pour between the boards and the ground - what kind of reliable pressure insulation is that?

Couldn't it be simpler?

A very valid question. Building a permanently dry, reliable basement is extremely difficult for an inexperienced person, and even experienced ones have a headache. The answer is positive: you can buy a ready-made basement-caisson, put it in a hole on a sand-crushed stone cushion and fill it with a clay castle (it’s a must, otherwise it will float up). If it (the basement) is not needed under the house, not residential or technical. Vegetables in the bins will have to be sorted out from time to time, but suppliers optionally offer delivery to the site and installation in a finished pit.

Caissons for basements are produced as steel welded insulated ones with a hatch, ladder, ventilation and reinforcement for concreting (optional), on the left in Fig. There are also plastic ones on sale, but don’t buy them - 100% float. Individuals also make caissons for basements from steel from 8 mm. To catch the ground from floating, staples are welded from a strip of 12 mm (on the right in the figure), but this is less reliable, and you have to isolate the caisson from corrosion yourself.

By the way, you can do it even cheaper - make a basement-caisson from a used shipping container. If you cover it with a thick layer of bitumen-cement mastic, it will last in the ground for at least 100 years. To hook onto the ground, pipes are threaded into the eyes of the rigging feet at the bottom and an anchor frame is welded to them. The container width is 9 feet (2.7 m). Length – 12-70 feet (3.6-21 m); the most popular are 20 and 40 feet (6 and 12 m). It’s quite enough for a basement, but how savvy amateurs make basements out of shipping containers, see the video.

Not a single self-respecting village resident can even imagine living without a cellar, or even two (one completely buried under the house, and the second half-buried on the plot), where the crops grown on this land are stored, both in their natural form and recycled.

With gardening partnerships and similar developments it is somewhat more complicated. But if everything is in order with the protection of the gardening perimeter, then the easiest and cheapest option is to install a small above-ground, semi-buried cellar (pit cell) on the site. The temperature in such a cellar differs only a few degrees from that completely underground under the house, which is not critical either in winter or summer.

Get a ground cellar on your property

To build a semi-buried above-ground cellar with your own hands, you do not need to invite builders. Any strong man will build it quickly, practically from improvised means, while having a lot of fun. And if you show some ingenuity, it can be made as one of the decorations of the landscape of your summer cottage.

Choosing a location on the site

Semi-buried pit pits, among other advantages, are extremely popular in areas with groundwater close to the surface, since a minimum depth of one meter is sufficient for this outbuilding. It is necessary to measure or otherwise find out the maximum level of groundwater in the spring, during the flood period, and construction, taking these data into account, of course, must be started in late spring or summer.

Half the battle is choosing the right location for a semi-buried basement. And the main thing in this is not its invisibility, but a place that allows it to perform its function as a “room” - to ensure proper storage of agricultural products. The place should be dry and elevated, at least slightly above the surface of the site. If there is nothing like this, it needs to be built specially.

In this video we will look at building a cellar with our own hands:

Types of cellars

Semi-buried pits are built as autonomous structures or wall-mounted ones (one of its walls is common with another structure).

What material to choose for the cellar

Methodologically, ground pit pits are divided into:

1. Constructed above-ground cellars with embankment (creation of an earthen protective barrier) and without it.
2. Capital (material: logs, bricks, concrete blocks).
3. Temporary, made from scrap material, with a service life of one to ten seasons.

Foundation structure

For a ground cellar, a foundation, in the usual sense of the term, is not required. Its role is played by a clay, clay-brick or concrete floor, as well as the underground part of the cellar wall, the optimal depth of which is one and a half meters. If possible, it is better to adjust the depth of the basement to your height or the height of the tallest family member.

Before installing the floor, construct a drainage layer (sand, crushed stone) with a height of at least 100 mm.

Technology and stages of construction

It is better to entrust the construction of a capital, beautifully designed above-ground cellar to professionals, so in this section we will consider those options that are quite easy to do with your own hands and do it very well.

Important! Both edges of the roof of a ground cellar (for a wall-mounted one, one edge) must hang down almost to the level of the ground surface, since the snow cover will become an additional insulation.

Earthen cellar. Do-it-yourself above-ground basement at the dacha, step by step

In order to prevent soil shedding, a hole for a semi-buried pit is dug with a slope. Its dimensions are selected from the expected volumes of food storage, the level of groundwater and the desires of the owner.

A broken brick or stone is placed in the clay diluted with water poured onto the drainage, and a layer of more densely mixed clay is poured again. All this is sprinkled on top with medium-sized brick or stone chips, ensuring that the flooring above the drainage layer is at least 150 mm.

The walls of the cellar are coated with a thick layer of clay, at least 5 centimeters thick, and also sprinkled with appropriate small pebbles. To ensure rainwater drainage, a shallow ditch is dug along the entire perimeter of the above-ground cellar, in accordance with the terrain.

Waterproofing

Any type of above-ground cellars must be systematically equipped with waterproofing, even if the groundwater is located at a depth of more than three meters and the flood control scheme is practically not used.

Cellar cover

To protect from moisture, the ceiling is covered with poles and boards (can be used), covered with roofing felt, and a mixture of clay and soil removed when digging a pit is poured on top of it, in a layer of at least 600 mm, which will contribute to the preservation of vegetables and fruits all year round. You can also lay turf on top of the roofing material or plant grass, throw branches or grass, straw and other seemingly unnecessary materials.

A cellar will help you save space in your home

Entrance device and ventilation

The most difficult thing in this option is arranging ventilation in the cellar and the entrance. The upper exhaust ventilation is equipped with a tin (plastic, asbestos concrete, iron, etc.) pipe with its outlet through the top of the wall or ceiling (roof) of the cellar. The pipe must be covered with a cap and a mesh installed to prevent rodents and insects. The lower, inflow, closing one (also with an inserted mesh) is under the door (it can also be placed in the wall).

It is better to make a ground pit with a convenient approach to the door and further into the basement itself, avoiding structures using temporary lowered ladders and hatches on the roof to get inside. Before constructing an above-ground cellar and, accordingly, entering it, it is necessary to find out the most frequent wind direction for this area and especially in winter. Since if the door is located on the leeward side of the building, the thermal insulation of the above-ground cellar will increase significantly, but the fact that before going to the cellar in winter you will have to clear the snow a little is a small price to pay for the safety of its contents.

The place for the entrance and hanging the doors is outlined immediately, since simultaneously with digging the cellar hole, it is necessary to make a trench with steps and create an opening for installing the doors. The doors (it is advisable to make two of them, internal and external, moreover, even separated by a small vestibule) must be carefully insulated (felt, polystyrene foam, unnecessary “rags”, and so on).

Important! When constructing any above-ground pits, one should not forget about the need to install ventilation, waterproofing, drainage and their insulation.

Wall-mounted ground cellar

The construction of a wall-mounted above-ground cellar is a very good solution, since:

• He already has one wall (the wall and foundation of a house or outbuilding).
• The issue with the side doorway and descent into the cellar has been resolved.
• Placing it on the shady side of the main building will eliminate the heating of its ground part by the sun's rays.

The construction of the floor, underground part of the walls and roof is described above. The only thing is that it is better to make a single-pitched, hut-type roof, embanking it with fertile soil so that the growing short trees perennials created reliable additional protection. Along the entire perimeter of the above-ground cellar you need to do it yourself concrete blind areas around it so that there is a drainage ditch.

Regular storage shed with embankment

Such a structure is built from specially treated (sanded logs are covered with bitumen or a bitumen-containing composition and burned at one end for at least half a meter) logs or stumps of piles, which along the perimeter of the basement (optimal size - 4 by 8 meters) are dug into the ground with their treated edge and are fastened together at the top. The sheathing of the finished wall is slabs or rods, coated with clay and plastered, or a board (between them there is roofing felt for waterproofing).

Ceiling insulation

It is best to make the roof from several layers to better maintain a suitable temperature regime, such as:

1. Board.
2. Insulation.
3. Ruberoid.
4. Embankment with soil (preferably peat).
5. On top there is turf, grass and a specially arranged flower bed for a beautiful design of the roof of the building.

The arrangement of supply and exhaust ventilation, an insulated entrance with a vestibule, blind areas and drainage grooves is the same for all types of cellars.

It’s quite expensive, but there is an option to make such a warehouse-cellar (like, in fact, any other) collapsible. Tired of it in this place - they dismantled it and built it in another. You just need to remember to dig up the soil where it was located and treat it with a five percent solution of copper sulfate.

Wall decoration

Semi-buried pits, as a rule, have pitched roofs, and the height inside is determined by the height of its walls. The task of the walls below ground level is to prevent it from crumbling into the basement, and above it is to ensure that the temperature regime inside the equipped cellar is maintained according to its functions. Therefore, the walls are below ground level:

• They are coated with clay and fired or sprinkled with brick (stone) chips.
• Additionally or separately, they are hung with a metal mesh (another lathing) and coated with plaster.
• Additionally or separately sheathed with wood (slabs, branches, boards, including used ones, and so on).

Construction of the walls of the structure

Walls above ground level (in the absence of a hill or artificial mound):

1. They are constructed from 2 layers of boards stuffed onto a frame with layers of insulation (glass wool, sawdust, crushed stone, etc.) and roofing felt (moisture-proof layer). On top of the boards, on nails or large lathing, it is recommended to let perennial climbing plants grow (hops, frost-resistant grapes, vines, etc.).
2. When constructing a ground cellar with gable roof everything said in this section remains true, since if the walls are shorter than the tallest member of the family, then it will be convenient for him to use the cellar only in the middle of the basement.

Video on how to easily make an above-ground cellar with your own hands.

To preserve vegetables and preparations in your personal plot, it is recommended to build a cellar with your own hands.

Building a cellar with your own hands (step by step)

Preparation. First, you need to decide on the place where the construction will take place, the construction material and the size of the structure. In our case, we chose a project for a bulk cellar made of expanded clay concrete, which protects the room well from moisture and maintains constant temperature regime in room. For such a structure, the optimal depth was chosen to be three meters.

Advice: for the construction of a cellar, it is best to choose elevated places so that there are no problems of flooding of the structure with groundwater.

Let's start digging pit. To make a comfortable descent into the structure, you need to dig a hole in the shape of a rectangle. Next, the floor and walls should be compacted well. After this, the floor is covered with crushed stone or gravel and filled with clay mortar. If there is a threat of flooding, then instead of clay mortar it is better to use concrete, which is poured onto a pre-laid steel mesh.

For building walls may be applied various methods, which depend on the raw materials used. For example, you can build concrete walls. To do this, formwork is installed, longitudinal reinforcement is laid and poured concrete mixture. The formwork is removed after a few days. It is much easier to build walls from reinforced concrete or expanded clay concrete blocks. The masonry process can be compared to bricklaying. Also at this stage it is necessary to provide space for the doorway and ventilation.

After constructing the walls, it is necessary to install overlap. For these purposes, formwork made of chipboard is installed. To keep the sheets in place, they are placed on supports. The formwork is laid on top reinforcing mesh and fill them with concrete mixture.

In order for the walls not to allow moisture to pass through, it is necessary to make a coating waterproofing cellar walls from the inside and outside. Bitumen mastic is suitable for these purposes. A layer of waterproofing made of roofing felt is laid on top of the ceiling.

The penultimate stage of building a cellar with your own hands is backfill concrete floor and backfilling the pit with soil.

Tip: when backfilling the pit and ceiling, make sure that there are no sharp stones in the ground. They can cause damage to the protective waterproofing layer.

Works on landscaping storage facilities. At this stage, doors, stairs are installed and electrical work is performed. To store preparations for the winter, racks are made and installed, and special places are used to store vegetables.

DIY brick cellar at the dacha. Step-by-step instruction

For a country house, you can build a cellar with your own hands from brick. To make such a structure, you can follow the following instructions:

Once a suitable location for construction has been selected, you can begin digging. pit required size. In our case, the size of the cellar is 2x2 meters.

After the walls and floor are compacted, proceed to the installation concrete slab for the floor.

For construction walls Brick was used in this project. The masonry was one brick thick.

Advice: during masonry work, you must constantly monitor the evenness of the walls. To do this, it is recommended to use a plumb line and level.

Next you need to do ceiling For these purposes, wood logs are installed, pre-treated with an antiseptic solution. Next, lay the flooring and cover it with a layer of sawdust. The layer thickness is approximately 25–30 cm.

On top should be built wooden structure in the form of a house with a gable roof, in which a hole for ventilation should be provided and an entrance door should be installed.

Around the ground part of the structure was dug groove for water running off the roof.

For ventilation two pipes with a diameter of 50 cm were used. One was installed at a distance of 20 cm from the floor. The second - diagonally at a distance of 20 cm from the ceiling.

Building a red brick cellar with your own hands

The construction of such a cellar begins with digging pit 3.5 meters deep. The finished cellar will consist of two rooms, a vestibule and a staircase.

After the pit is dug, it will be necessary to seal the walls, floor and staircase steps.

After the concrete has hardened, you can begin laying walls

We lay on finished walls rolled metal, which will be the basis for the overlap.

Under metal carcass formwork is installed and the floor is poured concrete.

After the concrete has hardened, you can begin laying ground parts of the red brick cellar and roof construction.

Construction of a cellar at the dacha

Before constructing a cellar, it is necessary to draw up drawings of the future structure, calculate the amount of material needed and sketch out a rough work plan. You should also remember that the cellar must meet the following conditions:

• it should be cool in it;
• the temperature in the storage should not be too low;
• sufficient protection of products from rodents must be ensured;
• the underground room must be provided autonomous system electricity;
• the cellar should be well ventilated.

Step-by-step instructions for repairing an old cellar at the dacha with your own hands

First you need to free underground covering. After this, you can begin cleaning the earthen and deciduous layer and dismantling knurl. All work is best done in the direction from the edges to the center.

Device foundation. To do this, prepare the bottom of the pit and install formwork on it. To avoid freezing, it is recommended to make the thickness of the walls equal to one brick. According to the project, the height of the foundation is 150 mm.

Next you need to install fittings in three rows. For these purposes, rolled products with a diameter of 16 mm were chosen. Metal strips are welded to each row. Next, the structure is filled with concrete mixture and left to harden. The formwork can be removed after a few days.

Tip: to prevent problems with grounding, it is recommended to weld a figure-eight rod to the reinforcement.

Wall masonry made of brick. First you need to lay the zero row on the surface of the hardened concrete foundation. This row is laid with a poke. On top of it in the middle it is necessary to fix the steel strips on which the embedded parts are welded. In this way, reliable grounding can be ensured. All subsequent rows are made in half a brick. It is recommended to lay steel strips through each row. They will help give strength to the basement walls. There is no need to fasten the strips together.

Advice: when building walls, you must ensure that there are no gaps or voids between the artificial stones through which rodents can enter the room.

When the brickwork reaches a height of one meter, you can begin installing the supply air ventilation. Sewage pipes were chosen for these purposes.

For waterproofing Roofing felt can be used for cellar walls.

The device of the upper trim and ceiling. The lining of the upper part with metal elements can be installed after the 21st row has been laid out. For these purposes, it is necessary to lay it on the last layer brickwork layer of roofing material and cover it with soil. For the strapping I used I-beam No. 12, which was sawn in the middle and 2 profiles. A piece of rail is suitable for the role of a beam.

Construction of reinforced concrete floors 100 mm thick. For these purposes, we install formwork, lay reinforcement and fill it all with concrete mixture.

After this, you need to install the hatch, make insulation ceilings and fill the screed. For insulation, you can use foam plastic 5 cm thick. Crushed stone of the smallest fraction was chosen for the screed.

Device power supply in the basement.

Carrying out finishing works. At this stage it is necessary to install a visor over ventilation pipes. The walls inside the room can be whitewashed.

Differences between a cellar and a basement

A basement is a room located in a building below ground level. The basement can be used for storing garden equipment, as a workshop, etc. The main purpose of the cellar is to store food. In addition, the cellar can be built as a separate room.

How to make a cellar out of a basement

If the building has a basement, it can be converted into a cellar. To do this, it will be necessary to divide the basement with a wooden partition and install shelving for storing food. Also, lighting should be installed in the cellar, fans should be installed and a staircase should be made.

Tip: the stairs to go down to the basement should be comfortable. There should be no steep steps.

If the temperature in the basement during the cold season drops below zero degrees, then it is necessary to insulation walls Before installing thermal insulation, it is recommended to treat the surface with an antifungal compound or slaked lime. You can insulate the walls using rolled roofing felt, glass insulation or regular polystyrene foam. It is necessary to lay plywood or fiberboard sheets on top of the thermal insulation layer.

It may also be necessary to insulate the floor. To do this, you can lay a strong plastic film, on top of which timber is laid. If this is not enough, you can fill the floor surface with bitumen. A layer of sawdust 5–6 cm thick and a wooden flooring are laid on top of this material.

For many years, millions of our compatriots have been using cellars. It's simple perfect place, in which the autumn harvest and canned products are stored almost in their original form. The average temperature in cellars, as a rule, varies from +2 to +4 degrees, which has a beneficial effect on food supplies. A cellar on the street is simply necessary for all those who have a private country house and reap a rich harvest from their garden. You can make all-season storage for fruits and vegetables yourself and without the involvement of specialists. Moreover, the cellar can be located either under the house or as a separate structure on the street.

The cellar, located under the house, occupies the basement of the building and can be accessed directly from the building. Storage facilities built outside have their own entrance. By and large, the options for constructing a cellar are very similar in technology, regardless of its location, and the differences lie only in the construction of the entrance.

Where does the construction of a cellar begin?

The first step is to correctly determine the depth of groundwater, because how to make a cellar correctly can only be done by knowing this indicator. It will help you understand how much to bury the structure into the ground. Find the lowest place on your site and make a deep hole there, 200–250 cm deep. In fact, this will be a well. A pipe is placed in it. This pipe can be used to monitor the presence of water. If after some time water appears in the pipe, this indicates that the groundwater is located above the recommended level for underground construction. It must be taken into account that when it is hot outside, the groundwater level is at its minimum.

Before starting to build a cellar, you need to clarify at what level the groundwater lies.

Before building a cellar, one cannot help but pay attention to such a phenomenon as soil heaving. It can occur when moisture-saturated soil freezes. The ice begins to melt closer to spring, as a result of which the density of the soil is destroyed and it becomes porous. When soil heaves, all work must be carried out with extreme caution.

If the groundwater level is above 2.5 m, then the problem can be solved by installing a drainage system. Drainage refers to a pipe that is laid in a trench underground and is designed to drain all moisture from the cellar into a special container or a nearby reservoir. Here it is also important to provide for the drainage slope, which should be 5–10 cm for every 10 meters. In addition, the installation of a drainage system will be required when there is high water on your site.

What can be highlighted from the basic rules for building a free-standing cellar?

• It is worth starting to make a cellar only in the warm season. It is advisable to plan construction for July and August.
• The best place to build a cellar on the street is a small hill on the site, if there is one, of course.
• Each storage room (if there are several) must have effective ventilation.
• Each wooden part that will be used in the construction of the cellar must be impregnated with a special antiseptic composition.
• The entrance door, if possible, is best placed on the north side.

Digging a pit

The standard dimensions of a cellar on the street are 2.5x2.5x2.3 m. To construct a storage facility, you must choose the highest place on the site, which will reduce the likelihood of flooding. You can dig a pit for a cellar with your own hands, but, if possible, you can use the services of excavator equipment. The length and width of the pit should be larger than the cellar being created, because then the walls will need to be waterproofed.

The dimensions of the pit must be larger than the planned dimensions of the storage facility.

When the pit is dug, the soil at the bottom should be compacted, and then gravel should be poured. The size of the gravel layer is 30 cm, of which 20 cm is sand. The gravel is thoroughly compacted into the bottom of the pit. Then reinforcement with a rod diameter of 8 mm is laid. Then concrete is poured, which is prepared in the traditional way: sand and cement are taken in a ratio of 3:1. After pouring the concrete, you need to wait until the cement has completely dried, and only then lay the waterproofing material.

Floor waterproofing

To build a cellar correctly, we must not forget about waterproofing the floor and walls with special materials. Inexpensive rolled materials that have the proper level of water resistance are simply ideal for cellar floors. For example, traditional roofing felt.

Roofing felt is laid on hardened concrete, after which it is coated with tar. If the transverse size of the cellar exceeds the width of the roll, the latter can be laid overlapping, and the upper edges raised along the walls and glued securely. At this stage of the work, the walls of the cellar have not yet been erected, therefore, roofing felt should only be glued to the concrete, after which the next stage should begin.

Walling

For the walls, you can choose brick or ordinary concrete. The construction of a wall must begin with the laying of a reinforcing frame, the width of which should not be less than 10 cm. When the work is done manually, the concrete should not be poured completely immediately. It is best to mix in several portions, given that it will last for 1-2 hours of construction work.

Reinforcement frame for concrete walls.

The reinforcing frame is made of rods with a diameter of 10 mm. They are laid vertically, after which they are tied with wire. The formwork is mounted along the walls of the pit on both sides of the frame, after which concrete is poured. To prevent the formation of voids, it is recommended to compact it with a concrete vibrator. The mixture will dry completely only after 8–10 days, so it is best not to remove the formwork for 2–3 weeks.

If the walls are made of brick, it is necessary to use M200 cement for the mortar. For a cellar, the best option is to use two layers of solid red brick. If the groundwater level is low, one layer will be enough. External insulation of walls is done by coating with mastic, and it is necessary to do 2-3 layers and no less. Then you need to glue the waterproofing material onto the mastic.

The outer side of the walls must be lined with soft clay. This approach will allow you to build a cellar with the highest quality protection from water and condensation. The clay layer should be about 10 cm, but only if the groundwater level exceeds the level of the bottom of the cellar. In addition, it would be correct to backfill the soil, thoroughly compacting it. The inside of the walls should ideally be plastered and whitewashed with lime. This is an affordable and natural remedy for mold and germs.

Entrance to the cellar

Entrance from the street should be convenient and safe. That is why it is recommended to make a monolithic and preferably wide staircase, so that it is convenient to load food into the cellar.

Option for decorative design of the entrance to the storage.

In addition, it is very important to ensure high-quality ventilation of the cellar. A wide pipe is suitable for this, part of which will be placed in the cellar, and part of which will be located on the street.

The door can be made of wood, but using some kind of waterproofing material.

In some cases, a hatch acts as a kind of door. In this version, the ladder can be attached: it is welded to the hatch frame. This is not only inconvenient, but also extremely dangerous (for example, for moving food). Cellars with hatches were made during the USSR, when it was not freely available necessary materials to create a normal input. Today such a problem does not exist, so you should not skimp on your convenience and safety.

Roof structure

A free-standing cellar must have a roof (it doesn’t matter whether it’s a single-pitch or a gable roof). The top of such a roof can be insulated with turf. In addition, the use of synthetic insulation is allowed, however, the use natural materials guarantees a good microclimate.

Gable roof of the storage facility.

For air circulation, you need to install an exhaust pipe, which should go outside and not reach the cellar floor by about 30 cm. Ideally, you need to make two pipes, the second in this case will be a supply pipe.

The inside is laid out with boards flush with the surface of the ground. In most cases, croaker is used. Such boards have a smooth edge on one side, but a rounded edge on the other. WITH inside The slab must be plastered with clay and whitened with lime. The top can be covered with roofing felt and coated with a mixture of clay and straw. After which the coating should be covered with damp soil with moss or grass. This type of roof arrangement is especially convenient and effective if the rear upper part of the cellar is located slightly above the ground surface.

For free-standing cellars, it is best to use a roof with two slopes, which would be correctly built from a board that overlaps the pit by 50 cm. This is necessary to ensure that rain and snow do not get inside. The roof ridge is made of 50 mm timber, roll insulation is laid on the slopes, and straw is placed on top. If possible, you can lay slate or soft tiles.

Design verification

At the final stage, it is necessary to carefully check each structure of the constructed cellar and, if necessary, make timely adjustments. If the presence of any defects is discovered after several years of operation of the cellar, it will be much more difficult to eliminate them.

You can also improve the roof of the cellar by decorating it with beautiful turf, plants, artificial stone etc.

The word cellar is usually associated with a country house. Here in the kitchen or veranda there is a special hatch that leads to the basement room, or a shallow pit.

Free-standing brick cellars outside the house, conservation, are much less common and many summer residents are almost unfamiliar with them. The information below will help you evaluate the advantages, study the varieties and understand the specifics of the construction of such structures.

Types of buildings

A DIY above-ground cellar can look very different. Such buildings have many differences; they differ in ground level. There are three types of structures:

1. Recessed structure - characterized by placement in a special recess in the ground.
2. Cellar with shallow parameters. In this case, about half of the structure is placed in the ground.
3. Above ground or non-buried cellar. A non-buried project means almost the entire structure is on the ground.

However, there are additional separation options:

1. Separate building.
2. An extension to some other structure.

Often, above-ground cellars are made from the following building materials:

• Brick cellar.
• Concrete.
• Logs.
• Cellar made of foam blocks.

Even if you have no experience, you can easily make such a room on your own. The main thing is desire. You must understand well that to build a horse cellar you must choose some elevated place.

After all, if you choose a low-lying area, then your above-ground cellar without embankment can easily flood. In addition, if you choose the first option, you will not have to spend money on waterproofing. You can build a full-fledged above-ground cellar in a very short time.

In order to prevent the building from flooding, it is necessary to build a foundation in a place where the distance to it and groundwater is at least 0.5 m. Construction becomes significantly more complicated.

However, don't worry if you don't have an elevated seat. In this case, you just need to lay a bed of gravel and sand. This way you can avoid such problems.

Ground storage facility

How to build a bulk cellar made of brick? Just! There is a version that indicates that the warehouse was first designed by St. Petersburg residents. This structure is perfect for storing food in such a difficult climate.

Materials

To create it you will need the following building materials:

• roofing felt;
• boards;
• poles;
• bitumen;
• timber

Tool

Required tools:

During the process, you may need various additional tools.

The structure is perfect if the site is located in a lowland. You can use this option if the climate is very humid. You will spend very little time on the construction of such a room, about ten days.

A storage shed is slightly different from a regular above-ground cellar. The very first thing that attracts us is that it does not need an insulated ceiling, which means you can easily save on such a structure.

Stages of construction of a warehouse

• First, you need to bury one end of the logs to a depth of 0.5 m. Wooden longitudinal shoulder straps will unite the ends of the logs that are on top. This way you create a complete and holistic design. True, before all this work it is necessary to sand the logs.
• In order to make the frames, you will need pillars with a diameter of 12-18 cm. Logs with a diameter of 18-22 cm are also suitable. Experienced builders recommend filling the base of the logs that are adjacent to the ground with hot bitumen. This way they can be burned.
• Then the materials used for construction will serve you for a long time. Professional craftsmen indicate that if you use this recommendation, the underground will last one and a half times longer.
• The roof is mounted from boards, and to create the sheathing you will need a hewn board. After completing the roof work, you will need roofing felt.
• Now it is necessary to make an embankment of the earthen layer. Its thickness is 30 cm. Peat soil is suitable for such purposes.
• In order to insulate the roof naturally, the roof must be turf (overgrown grass or cereal crop).
• The building will look like a hut. Don’t forget to also sew up one side of the end with several rows of boards at once (and place roofing felt between them). This will create good thermal insulation.
• Now we begin construction of the entrance. You need to insert the door and be sure to insulate it.

• Once you have made the storage, take care to protect it from rain, water and snow. To do this you will need to make a ditch around it. In this case, the hole should not be too deep.
• Now - . Boxes are used as hoods, and valves are installed in them for control. All this must be placed near the ridge of the roof.

So, you have a ground oblong storage shed. Now two pipes are needed for high-quality ventilation. You can save vegetables long time at a temperature of about 3 degrees.

The optimal parameters for such a storage facility are as follows: Width – 8 m. Height – 4 m. Such a storage shed will last more than eight years.

Above ground cellar

Summer residents, as a rule, choose a regular horse cellar. It is recommended to build it on a hill. After all, it is very important that the groundwater is at a depth of 3 m.

Otherwise, there will be excess moisture in the building, which is fraught with consequences. Your fruits, vegetables and twists will be stored at a temperature of about 3-5 degrees, and these are the most optimal indicators.

Foundation and floor

So, . It is necessary to dig a trench, which should show the approximate shape of the brick cellar.

You will need to use polystyrene foam sheets. They need to be distributed according to outside prepared trench. These plates help protect the building from freezing. You may prefer packaging foam, but then additional wrapping with roofing felt is required. So, you have insulated the building.

Please note that the height of the sand layer must certainly be 15 cm above ground level.

Waterproofing

Now let's move on to . On top of the laid sand it is necessary to lay roofing material in two or three layers. Instead, you can use plastic film. After this, you need to lay the sand again. All this is well and carefully leveled.

As the base of a cellar without deepening, a lightweight concrete block, a wooden stump of piles or stones, which are used to build a street curb, can be used. Other types of blocks are also suitable, but it is important that they are reliable and durable.

The distance between supporting building materials should not be more than 70 cm. These voids are filled with foam plastic.

The next stage is the construction of the structure. For this you will need wooden beams (dimensions - 100 * 55 mm) - this is the best material.

How to build a cellar

First part of construction

Now let's find out step by step at the dacha with our own hands. The homemade, non-buried construction site is quite original. Because one front side of the wall is vertical and three more are inclined.

This design will necessarily have double cellar walls. There should be a special gap of 60 cm between them. These voids. You can use different materials for this:

• slabs made of asbestos shavings;
• sawdust;
• fibreboard;
• Styrofoam;
• mineral wool.

Only before using sawdust do they need to be treated with a special anti-rotting agent. Take into account the groundwater level, because excess water that is close can lead to the destruction of the building.

First you need to make the strapping (external and internal). Then we move on to the vertical racks, as well as the construction of the ceiling of the vestibule of the front wall, and temporary technological racks.

After this you need to install ceiling beams, as well as inclined struts of external and interior walls. The frame should be sheathed from the internal walls.

For this, used boards or unhewn boards can be used, because after that you need to lay roofing felt. Only the facade part needs to be treated with some other material.

In order to make an above-ground built cellar impenetrable, it is recommended to put bottom part special insulating material onto polystyrene foam and fasten it with slats. The interlayer between the internal and external walls will allow you to retain heat.

The roof in the shape of a truncated pyramid also plays a role good insulation. After insulating the ceiling and sheathing, place roofing felt in three layers. To do this, use construction mastic.

Second part of construction

Now we need it. She plays an extremely important role. Competently installed system will keep products in excellent quality.

For this you will need two pipes. One of them should be placed in the roof of the cellar, and the second on the back wall, which passes through the ceiling and roof. When the cold season arrives, cover the system in the necessary places with straw.

You can make cellar doors yourself, or buy ready-made ones.

So, construction is moving to a new level. It's time to install the shelving. Install them at your discretion, but be sure to consider them carefully.