Since ancient times, the cellar solved the problem of preserving vegetables. Growing a crop is only half the battle. It's more important to keep it. Even now, with the advent of the digital age, the concept of the cellar remains the same as it was a thousand years ago.
The use of modern materials has led to the fact that the construction has become as fast and simple as possible. An example of this is a concrete cellar.
What do you need
Anyone who lives in the countryside knows how necessary a cellar is. It is truly a strategic building. Keeping a constant temperature close to zero, it can store vegetables, pickles throughout the year, regardless of the temperature on the surface.
For a good cellar, it doesn't matter if it's cold outside or hot. It is always dry and cool. It does not require any energy sources to maintain an optimal microclimate.
The listed positive points are achieved due to the fact that the room for storing vegetablesbelow the freezing depth of the soil. Each region will have its own depth. The earth, accumulating summer heat, does not allow it to freeze in winter, and the cold accumulated during winter does not allow it to warm up in summer.
According to the type of location, the cellar can be both underground and half above ground. Buildings that are partially underground can serve as a concrete cellar with a side entrance. This type is convenient for loading root crops and vegetables, but is little used in central Russia. The reason for this is the great depth of freezing, the room must be completely underground. Therefore, partially above-ground options are being built in the Southern regions.
Vegetable storage is so in demand that even city dwellers are building concrete cellars in their garages and basements.
Varieties of building materials
Before choosing materials for construction, you need to answer the question: what properties should they have? The main requirement is the ability to tolerate high humidity. And the higher the groundwater is to the surface of the earth, the more resistant the material should be. Does not tolerate damp:
- Silicate brick. If exposed to water for a long time, it is destroyed.
- Some types of red brick. This applies to varieties that are not sufficiently fired at the time of manufacture.
- Wood. It does not tolerate moisture well, even when treated with special compounds. The exception is larch, which is onlyimproves mechanical properties from contact with water.
- Foam concrete. Despite the fact that its strength increases from water, it itself has a porous structure, which will contribute to the appearance of excess moisture. Humidity alone helps keep vegetables fresh, but too much moisture leads to mold.
From the most practical building materials you can choose from:
- Cinder block. This is a durable material that is not afraid of moisture, has low thermal conductivity.
- Ironstone brick. This material is well annealed during manufacture, so it is not afraid of high humidity.
- Reinforced concrete. You can either order it from the manufacturer or cook it yourself. Knowing the ratio of components, you can achieve any strength. In addition, concrete in a humid environment increases its strength.
Taking into account not only the properties of the materials, but also the cost, you can decide in favor of building a concrete cellar.
Alternative building type
Construction takes a lot of money and time. The desire to save money leads to extraordinary solutions. One of these is a cellar made of concrete rings.
These rings are used to install sewer wells and equip cesspools.
For construction, products are taken, the outer diameter of which is 2.2 m. In this case, the inner diameter of the cellar of concrete rings will be 2m. This space is enough to fit a shelving unit inside.
Often an earthen floor is left inside. This can be doneif the cellar is located on a hill, and groundwater will pass below the floor level.
These rings are good because, depending on the depth of the pit, they can be selected in different sizes. The maximum height of a single piece is 1790mm and the minimum is 590mm. The maximum inner diameter is 2.5m.
Such dimensions give a lot of weight to the rings. For example, with a diameter of 2 m and a height of 1790 mm, the product will weigh 2200 kg. Naturally, it is not possible to manually lower such a mass. Therefore, for installation, you will have to use a truck crane.
This construction option is also good because all the elements (floor, roof, walls) are standard. You don't need to invent anything. First of all, the bottom is laid in the pit. It is over 2m in diameter. A cellar made of concrete rings will turn out to be stronger if the ends of the parts for the walls are of the castle type. This will minimize the axial deviation of one ring from another, as well as the penetration of moisture through the joints.
A cover is laid on top of the walls. It is made like a bottom, but has a hole for a hatch.
After the cellar of concrete rings is built, it is covered on the outside with a waterproofing layer of mastic. A ladder is installed inside.
Since the concrete ceiling of the cellar is at least one meter below ground level, an entrance is installed in the form of a ring of smaller diameter, which will perform the task of a transitional vestibule.
After the installation is completed, the perimeter is covered with earth andrammed.
How to make your own concrete cellar
Any construction starts with planning. The concrete cellar is no exception. You need to decide on the place where it will be located. To do this, several factors should be taken into account:
- Proximity to housing. In winter, when everything is covered with snow, it will be inconvenient to dig the road to the vegetable store.
- The cellar should not block the passage to the garden. During the harvest, you have to take out vegetables and root crops on a wheelbarrow or on a walk-behind tractor cart, so its location should not interfere.
- If there is a hill on the lot that meets the previous requirements, then it is better to build there.
The next thing to consider is the depth of groundwater. This will determine how deep the hole can be made. If the water is close to the surface, then a deep pit cannot be dug. It will crumble already at the time of digging. In any case, it is difficult to dig a hole more than 3.3 m. This is due to the technical characteristics of wheeled excavators. And if we take into account that the trajectory of the bucket during digging is circular, then the depth will be even less.
For digging a pit, you need to choose dry weather, after reading the forecast for the near future. If you dig in the rain, the walls of the pit will get wet and settle down, thereby reducing the depth. In addition, after the work of the excavator, you will have to do the planning, leveling the ground. If the clay gets wet from the rain, then it will work very well.hard. It will stick to the shovel and the layout work will take a very long time.
Materials for work
Before construction begins, you need to learn as much as possible about the ground. It depends on its composition, from what material the filling under the concrete floor in the cellar will be made. Before pouring it, the soil surface is covered with either sand, or gravel, or a sand and gravel mixture. This is done for the following reasons:
- Surface leveling.
- The base on which the floor will be poured must retain its properties under any circumstances.
- Isolation of the screed from particles of plant and animal origin.
- Protects concrete from deformation during hardening.
- Provides high drainage capacity. Water will be able to freely escape from under the concrete base.
- Give strength to the surface that will bear the weight of the structure.
Besides this, sand and gravel are used to make concrete. It is better to take sand of medium and large grain size. If it is fine, then the amount of cement required to prepare concrete will increase.
Gravel or crushed stone with a grain size of 10-40 mm is used as a coarse filler. Crushed stone is sold in fractions, the maximum of which is 80 mm.
To achieve the best quality of concrete, you need to use Portland cement grades 300, 400. It is the most resistant to ground corrosion.
During the preparation of concrete, there should be no interruptions in water supply. The porosity and strength of concrete depends on its quantity. Herthe content in the mixture should be about half the weight of the cement.
The floor, walls and ceiling will be reinforced with reinforcement during pouring. It comes in fiberglass and steel. Fiberglass can be used to reinforce the base and walls, while steel is better suited for the ceiling.
Concreting the base
In fact, if groundwater does not reach the floor level, then it can be made earthen or adobe. This is what our ancestors did for many years. However, you need to take into account the flood waters that can flood the vegetable store in the spring. If you make a concrete cellar in a lowland, then it is better to equip the floor screed.
For this, the surface is first prepared, which is leveled and covered with a pillow of sand or ASG. Its thickness should be 20-30 cm. After backfilling, the sand cushion is compacted and spilled with water. This increases its density. Then beacons are installed on its surface according to the level, which will indicate how long the concrete will be poured.
A formwork needs to be made along the perimeter of the future premises. It is mounted from boards, old furniture boards. Its height should overlap the thickness of the base to be poured. After the formwork is installed, the future floor is waterproofed.
In order to protect the cellar from water, a thick plastic film is spread over the sand cushion. In addition to it, you can use roofing roll materials. They are laid in strips with partial overlap and fastened together by melting the edges.gas burner or building hair dryer.
The next step is the laying of reinforcement. It is tied into cells 10-15 cm in size. The connection takes place with the help of a knitting wire. You can also use welding for these purposes.
The floor in a monolithic concrete cellar is not the most loaded element, so instead of reinforcement, reinforcing mesh can be used to reinforce it. It is made of wire of different sections and has a different mesh size. For floor screed, a mesh with a thickness of 3 mm and a cell width of 10 cm is used. The thickness of the screed must be at least 10 cm.
Preparation of concrete
When building a concrete cellar with your own hands, the most important operation is the preparation of concrete. The durability of the structure depends on how high quality it is. If ready-made concrete is ordered for pouring in a mixer, then all questions about its quality disappear. But if you decide to do everything yourself, then you need to follow the instructions:
- Purchase a concrete mixer. Its optimal volume is 120-160 liters. It would seem, why buy this device for a one-time construction? However, ordering ready-made concrete and delivering it to the construction site is so expensive that buying a concrete mixer is justified. Moreover, such a thing is always useful in the household.
- Depending on the desired brand of concrete, different proportions of the components are taken. For the cellar, the M 300 brand is often taken, so the ratios will be taken for this brand. Since it is more practical to measurebuckets, then we will focus not on weight, but on volume. For the preparation of concrete grade M 300 from cement grade M 400, the following ratios are taken: cement - 10 parts, sand - 11 parts, crushed stone - 24 parts. The amount of water is calculated as half of the volume of cement. To obtain concrete of other grades, other proportions are taken.
- Some instructions say it's best to load the sand and gravel into the concrete mixer first, then when they're mixed, pour in the cement, then pour in the water. But practice has shown that with this loading order, a lot of unmixed inclusions are formed. The concrete is inhomogeneous and the mixing time is long. Therefore, it is better to first fill in water, then fill in sand. After obtaining a homogeneous suspension, add crushed stone. And only at the very end pour cement. The time for preparing a portion of concrete in this sequence is about 10 minutes. In no case should you load the concrete mixer to failure. Components are filled with a maximum of ⅔ of its volume.
- After preparing the concrete mixture, it must be poured into the formwork from a short distance so that there is no splashing and separation of concrete into fractions.
Concrete care after pouring
When the concreting is completed, the surface is covered with a material that prevents the concrete from drying out. The chemical reaction must take place with sufficient water. For this purpose, polyethylene film is used. Within 5 days, you need to check the condition of the surface and additionally moistenher water. Concrete gains operational hardness after 28 days.
Wall concreting
Building walls is a little different from pouring floors. It needs more concrete, which means that it will not work to prepare the right amount in one working day. Therefore, you will have to take a technological break and fill it in two stages. The first pour will take place from floor level to a height of 1 meter, and the second from this mark to the level of the concrete ceiling in the cellar.
After the first pour, you need to take a break and wait until the concrete reaches a small strength: it stops crumbling from the impact of your fingers. Then the first layer must be passed with a metal brush to remove the film that forms during the hardening of the concrete. After that, it is necessary to pour cement 2-3 cm thick on this surface and then continue pouring.
How to make a ceiling ceiling
The ceiling in the cellar is the most difficult element. The reason is that the concreting of the ceiling occurs at a height of two meters above the floor level. This means that before you make the formwork for pouring, you need to install the pillars that will serve as its support. The easiest option is to make log supports. To do this, you need to saw the logs of the desired height and arrange them indoors. Between themselves, they should be fastened with boards so that they do not fall during the installation of the formwork.
Formwork for overlapping is best made from old furniture boards. They have a large area, which makes them easier to install on poles than boards.
The supports should not reach the topwall level. They must be cut in such a way that the top of the wall limits the poured concrete along the perimeter. Also, when installing the formwork, an entrance must be provided. It is better to make it near the wall so as not to disturb the rigidity of the roof.
Before pouring, you need to carry out communications in the form of ventilation pipes and electrical cables for lighting.
In order for the walls of the cellar to have a rigid bond with the ceiling, the ceiling reinforcement must be welded together with the wall reinforcement. To do this, the reinforcement of the walls should protrude several centimeters above the upper level. After that, you can fill.
Before filling the ceiling with soil, you need to make the final touch - waterproofing the concrete cellar. It is performed both outside and inside. Outside, the overlap is covered with bituminous mastic, which fills the pores. Inside, waterproofing can be done with a cement mixture for pools. It is diluted with water and applied in a thin layer with a brush or spatula.
After pouring a layer of soil on top of the finished concrete cellar, a canopy is installed to protect its entrance from the weather.
