Feedback on this root cellar design?

[jpjuniper]

Hello.
I am thinking of building my own root cellar using galvanized steel culvert pipes - keeps construction extremely simple, since the culvert is load bearing and, of course, keeps the cost down as well.
The overall design plan is to bury a 4' diameter culvert piece horizontally under ground and have a 3' diameter culvert positioned vertically and entering the 4' culvert near one end. I would then have a ladder in the 3' culvert to descend into my cellar.
This root cellar would be position under my porch with an insulated trap door.
I would have two ventilation pipes, one high, one low coming out of the ground at each end.
I was going to cover the bottom with gravel, which I could keep dry or moisten as needed to maintain optimum conditions.
I live in Alaska, and have several resources suggest it should be buried at least 4'.

Do you think it'll work? Any advice to avoid condensation issues? Any other forseeable problems?
Thank-you!

PS. This is my first post to the forum and it wouldn't let me post a url for a visual of the design I'll try to do it as a comment after I post.

 

[jpjuniper]

Here's the link to the design!
myhomeinthewoods.blogspot.com/2011/05/root-cellar-design.html

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

Hello neighbor

 

[jpjuniper]

Hello Bubblingbrooks!
We truly are neighbors... I'm up in Talkeetna.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

Hello Bubblingbrooks!
We truly are neighbors... I'm up in Talkeetna.

Cool! If you fish at all, and have stopped in at 3 Rivers Fly and Tackle, then you've met my hubby!

I like your idea for a root cellar.
The only concern I hear over and over is to take into account frost heaving.

We are putting one in our lightly heated, full house crawlspace, with a vent to the outside.

 

[Emerald]

One tiny suggestion. If you are worried about too much humidity then maybe a barrel with holes drilled and filled with rocks/pebbles attached to a drain and sank down deeper at the lowest end will help. I know that when I make a root cellar here I am putting one at the lowest end of ours. If you worry about sitting water you could probably put a u-bend pipe in the drain to the barrel and keep water in it.
I do know that most root veggies benefit from a certain level of humidity.(I'd have to look it up tho.. Brain is on standby due to the great weather we had today and the big dinner I just ate!.)
I rather like your idea. I wonder how well it would work with the big cement drains that they use around here?

 

[valmom]

Sounds like a good design. Our problem around here would be getting it down the 4 feet to get below frost line. We tend to hit bedrock before that on our property.

 

[Farmfresh]

I have several questions about the design.

First - why so deep? Several of the old fruit cellars that are around here are either built into the side of a hill or buried about 4 feet and have several inches (maybe a foot) of earth heaped over the top for insulation. Many of these have been holding canned goods and root crops for a century.

Next MAJOR thing that I see is the whole idea entering via a ladder. How are you going to carry 6 quarts of tomatoes up a ladder? Or 20 pounds of potatoes? Even if you could hauling stuff up and down a ladder simply sucks! Heck these days running up and down my basement stairs where I have my cold store is hard enough. It would be much easier, more convenient and probably WAY cheaper to make a stair way or ramp down into the root cellar with a highly insulated wall and door at the open end.

I notice plenty of ventilation, but what about a drain? It would make the cellar far easier to clean out (with a hose occasionally if needed) and make any excess moisture go away if their was a bed of gravel under the culvert and plenty of well placed drain holes in the floor area. It would probably also be a good idea to use some kind of level flooring (like dry deck for basements) to make it easier to work in.

One final thing to think about is usable space/dollars spent. My sis used to manage a stable that had a Quonset hut as the main barn and arena. Basically the same idea as a half culvert on a grand scale. The amount of wasted space was enormous! Due to the curvature of the walls there was lots of space that was wasted because it was too short to put stuff in and inconvenient to access.

If I had a space for a full blown root cellar I would look into Fiber Cement SIPS panels. Easy to work with and super insulated.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

I have several questions about the design.

First - why so deep? Several of the old fruit cellars that are around here are either built into the side of a hill or buried about 4 feet and have several inches (maybe a foot) of earth heaped over the top for insulation. Many of these have been holding canned goods and root crops for a century.

Next MAJOR thing that I see is the whole idea entering via a ladder. How are you going to carry 6 quarts of tomatoes up a ladder? Or 20 pounds of potatoes? Even if you could hauling stuff up and down a ladder simply sucks! Heck these days running up and down my basement stairs where I have my cold store is hard enough. It would be much easier, more convenient and probably WAY cheaper to make a stair way or ramp down into the root cellar with a highly insulated wall and door at the open end.

I notice plenty of ventilation, but what about a drain? It would make the cellar far easier to clean out (with a hose occasionally if needed) and make any excess moisture go away if their was a bed of gravel under the culvert and plenty of well placed drain holes in the floor area. It would probably also be a good idea to use some kind of level flooring (like dry deck for basements) to make it easier to work in.

One final thing to think about is usable space/dollars spent. My sis used to manage a stable that had a Quonset hut as the main barn and arena. Basically the same idea as a half culvert on a grand scale. The amount of wasted space was enormous! Due to the curvature of the walls there was lots of space that was wasted because it was too short to put stuff in and inconvenient to access.

If I had a space for a full blown root cellar I would look into Fiber Cement SIPS panels. Easy to work with and super insulated.

Permafrost OP lives up the road from me!

 

[Farmfresh]

Well THAT makes sense!

Still the rest of the suggestions stand.