From ancient times, the cellar solved the problem of preserving vegetables. Growing a crop is only half the story. Where it is more important to keep it. Even now, with the advent of the digital age, the concept of the cellar remains the same as a thousand years ago.
The use of modern materials has led to the fact that the construction has become as quick and simple as possible. An example of this is a concrete cellar.
What is it needed for
Anyone living in the countryside knows how much a cellar is needed. It truly is a strategic building. Keeping a constant temperature close to zero, you can store vegetables and pickles in it throughout the year, regardless of the temperature on the surface.
For a good cellar is not important - frost on the street or heat. It is always dry and cool. It does not require any energy sources in order to maintain an optimal microclimate.
The above positive aspects are achieved due to the fact that the room for the storage of vegetables is below the depth of freezing of the soil. In each region, this depth will be different. 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.
By the type of its 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, however, it is not used much in central Russia. The reason for this is the great depth of freezing, the room should be completely underground. Therefore, partially elevated options are being built in the southern regions.
Vegetable storages are so in demand that even urban residents make concrete cellars in garages and basements of their homes.
Varieties of materials for construction
Before choosing materials for construction, you need to answer the question: what properties should they have? The basic requirement is the ability to tolerate high humidity. And the higher the ground water is to the surface of the earth, the more resistant the material should be. Poorly tolerated dampness:
- Silicate brick. With prolonged exposure to water, it collapses.
- Some types of red bricks. This applies to varieties that are not sufficiently burned during manufacture.
- Wood. It tolerates moisture poorly, even when treated with special compounds. The exception is larch, which only improves the mechanical properties of 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 in itself helps keep vegetables fresh, but its excess leads to mold.
Of the most practical materials for construction, you can choose:
- Cinder block. This is a durable material that is not afraid of moisture, has low thermal conductivity.
- Brick "iron ore". This material is well annealed during manufacture, so it is not afraid of high humidity.
- Reinforced concrete. It can be either ordered from the manufacturer or prepared independently. 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 materials, but also the cost, you can decide in favor of building a concrete cellar.
Alternative type of construction
Construction takes a lot of time and money. The desire to save money leads to extraordinary decisions. One of them is a cellar made of concrete rings.
These rings are used for installation of sewer wells and arrangement of cesspools.
For construction, products are taken whose outer diameter is 2.2 m. In this case, the inner diameter of the cellar from concrete rings is 2 m. This space is enough to place a rack with shelves inside.
Often an earthen floor is left inside. This can be done if the cellar is located on a hill, and groundwater will pass below floor level.
These rings are good in that, depending on the depth of the pit, they can be selected of different sizes. The maximum height of one product is 1790 mm, and the minimum is 590. The maximum internal diameter is 2.5 m.
Such dimensions add 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 omit such a mass manually. Therefore, for the installation will have to use a truck crane.
This construction option is also good because all the elements (floor, roof, walls) are standard. No need to invent anything. First of all, the bottom is laid in the pit. Its diameter is more than 2m. A cellar made of concrete rings will be stronger if the ends of the parts for the walls are of a castle type. This will minimize the axial deviation of one ring from another, as well as the penetration of moisture through the joints.
A lid is laid on top of the walls. It is made like a bottom, but has a hole for the hatch.
After the cellar of concrete rings is built, it is covered on the outside with a waterproofing layer of mastic. A staircase is installed inside.
Since the concrete ceiling of the cellar is at least one meter below the ground level, an entrance is installed in the form of a ring of smaller diameter, which will fulfill the task of a transitional vestibule.
After the installation is complete, the perimeter is covered with earth and rammed.
How to make a concrete cellar on your own
Any construction begins with planning. A concrete cellar is no exception. It is necessary to determine 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 a road to the vegetable store.
- The cellar should not block the passage to the garden. During the harvest, vegetables and root crops must be taken out on a wheelbarrow or on a trolley of a walk-behind tractor, so its location should not impede.
- If the site has a hill 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 pit can be made. If the water is close to the surface, then digging a deep pit will not work. It will crumble already at the time of digging. In any case, digging a hole more than 3.3 m is difficult. This is due to the technical characteristics of wheeled excavators. And if you take into account that the trajectory of the bucket during digging is circular, then the depth will be even less.
To dig a pit, you need to choose dry weather, having previously familiarized yourself with 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 working the excavator will have to do the planning, leveling the ground. If the clay gets wet from the rain, then it will be very difficult to work with it. She will stick to the shovel, and the planning work will take a lot of time.
Materials for the performance of work
Prior to construction, you need to learn as much as possible about the soil. From its composition depends on what material will be made under the concrete floor in the cellar. Before pouring it, the surface of the soil is covered with either sand, or gravel, or a sand-gravel mixture. This is done for the following reasons:
- Surface alignment.
- The foundation on which the floor will be poured must retain its properties in all circumstances.
- Screed insulation from particles of plant and animal origin.
- Protects concrete during hardening from deformation.
- Provides high drainage ability. Water can freely escape from under the concrete base.
- It will give strength to the surface on which the weight of the structure will fall.
In addition, sand and gravel are used to make concrete. Sand is better to take medium and large grain. If it is small, then the amount of cement required for the preparation of concrete will increase.
As a large filler, gravel or crushed stone with a grain size of 10-40 mm is used. Crushed stone is sold in fractions, the maximum of which is 80 mm.
To achieve the best concrete quality, Portland cement grades 300, 400 must be used. It is most resistant to soil corrosion.
During concrete preparation there should be no interruptions in water. The porosity and strength of concrete depends on its quantity. Its content in the mixture should be about half the weight of the cement.
Flooring, walls and ceilings will be reinforced with reinforcement during pouring. It can be fiberglass and steel. To reinforce the base and walls, you can use fiberglass, while steel is better suited for the ceiling.
Base concreting
In fact, if groundwater does not reach the floor level, then it can be made earthen or adobe. Our ancestors did this for many years. However, flood waters that may flood the vegetable store in the spring should be considered. If you make a concrete cellar in a lowland, it is better to equip the screed floor.
To do this, first prepare the surface, 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, level beacons are installed on its surface, which will indicate how long to fill the concrete.
Along the perimeter of the future premises, formwork needs to be done. It is mounted from boards, old furniture panels. Its height should overlap the thickness of the poured base. After installing the formwork, the future floor is waterproofed.
In order to protect the cellar from water, a thick plastic film spreads over a sand cushion. In addition to it, roofing roll materials can be used. They are stacked in strips with partial overlap and fastened together by melting the edges with a gas burner or a construction hairdryer.
The next step is laying the fittings. It binds into cells with a size of 10-15 cm. The connection occurs using a knitting wire. You can also use welding for these purposes.
The floor in a monolithic concrete cellar is not the most loaded element, therefore, to reinforce it, you can use a reinforcing mesh instead of reinforcement. It is made of wire of different cross-sections and has a different mesh size. A mesh thickness of 3 mm and a cell width of 10 cm is used for screeding. The screed must be at least 10 cm thick.
Concrete preparation
When building a concrete cellar with your own hands, the most responsible operation is the preparation of concrete. The durability of the structure depends on how high-quality it is. If ready-mixed concrete is ordered for pouring in a mixer, then all questions regarding 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 one-time construction? However, ordering finished concrete and delivering it to the construction site is so expensive that buying a concrete mixer is justified. Moreover, in the household, such a thing is always useful.
- Depending on the desired brand of concrete, different proportions of the components are taken. For the cellar, they often take the M 300 brand, so the ratios will be taken for this brand. Since it is more practical to make measurements with buckets, 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 state that it is better to first load sand and gravel into a concrete mixer, then, when they are mixed, pour cement and then pour water. But practice has shown that with this order of loading, many unmixed inclusions are formed. The concrete is heterogeneous and the mixing time is long. Therefore, it is better to first fill in the water, then fill up the sand. After obtaining a homogeneous suspension add crushed stone. And only at the very end, pour cement. The preparation time for a portion of concrete in this sequence is about 10 minutes. In no case should you load the concrete mixer to failure. Components fall asleep a maximum of ⅔ of its volume.
- After preparing the concrete mix, 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 concreting is completed, the surface is coated with a material that protects the concrete from drying out. A chemical reaction should occur with enough water. For this purpose, a plastic film is used. Within 5 days, you need to check the surface condition and additionally moisten it with water. Concrete gains operational hardness after 28 days.
Wall Concreting
The erection of the walls is slightly different from the filling of the floor. For him, more concrete is needed, 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 in two stages. The first pouring will take place from the 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 pouring, you need to take a break and wait until the concrete reaches a small strength: it will cease to crumble from exposure to fingers. Then the first layer must be passed with a metal brush to remove the film that forms during the hardening of concrete. After this, it is necessary to pour cement 2-3 cm thick on this surface and after that continue pouring.
How to make a ceiling
The ceiling in the cellar is the most difficult element. The reason is that the concreting of the floor occurs at a height of two meters above the floor. This means that before making the formwork for pouring, you need to install poles that will serve as its support. The easiest option is to make the supports log. To do this, you need to saw logs of the desired height and arrange them indoors. Between them they should be fastened with boards so that they do not fall during the installation of formwork.
It is better to make formwork for overlapping from old furniture panels. They have a large area, which makes them easier to install on poles than boards.
Supports should not reach the top level of the walls. They need to be cut so that the top of the wall limits the poured concrete around the perimeter. Also, when mounting the formwork, an entrance must be provided. It is better to do it near the wall, so as not to violate the stiffness of the roof.
Before pouring, it is necessary to conduct communications in the form of ventilation pipes and electric cables for lighting.
In order for the walls of the cellar to have a rigid connection with the ceiling, the ceiling reinforcement must be welded together with the wall reinforcement. To do this, the wall reinforcement should protrude a few 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 externally and internally. Outside, the floor is covered with bitumen mastic, which fills the pores. Waterproofing inside can be done with a cement mix for pools. It is diluted with water and applied with 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.