Cellar for cottages — how to build with your own hands? Step-by-step instructions with drawings, photos and videos.
A cellar on a country plot will not replace a refrigerator: only a basement room can accommodate a huge amount of supplies for the winter. One of the most common ways is not to use the basement space of a residential structure, but to build a cellar next to the house with your own hands, creating an exclusive finish, as well as design the room inside at your discretion.
It is important to understand that the cellar is significantly different from the basement. The second option is a room located in a residential building under its first floor. As a rule, it is the same in area as the main structure, so it accommodates a couple of farm units. It can accommodate storerooms, laundry and even a swimming pool, garage.
The cellar has a specific purpose, which consists in storing various products. The room has a lot of racks and shelves, there is a ventilation system, thermal insulation to create the necessary conditions for storing various fruits and vegetables.
For a separate category of products, the cellar is equipped with a natural freezer. The cellar is located both in the basement of a residential building and in an above-ground special structure.
It is not difficult to build a modern cellar with your own hands, as well as to build a bathhouse, especially if you have some experience and the required tools.
The construction of the cellar
One of the most common types of cellar for cottages is semi—buried. Thanks to such a construction, it is possible not only to ennoble the territory with a sound structure, but also to create suitable conditions for the long-term storage of various food products.
The structure has several parts that differ in size, one of them is located above the ground surface, and the other is deepened under the soil.
The desire to build a ground cellar arises mainly when the basement available in the dwelling does not allow storing the necessary products, especially since there is a need to build an additional structure, for example, a summer kitchen.
Of course, you can't do without a plan of upcoming work. Any building materials are suitable for wall surfaces, since their construction is similar to the construction of an ordinary dwelling with a basement. In most cases, stone, brick, or concrete is used, while a natural massif will be the best choice for the aboveground part.
The floor surface is poured using concrete, sometimes they stop on clay. Beams made of wood are used as ceilings.
The wall and floor surfaces are covered with a special thermal insulation layer using improvised materials, for example, clay grease. The best option is the use of mineral wool, polymer, and bitumen coatings.
Several tiers are combined by a hatch, its size is determined by focusing on containers: cans, bags and so on.
Rules of construction:
- Construction works are carried out exclusively when it is warm outside.
- For the arrangement of this building, a fairly elevated terrain is suitable.
- An indispensable condition is the presence of a ventilation system inside the room.
- Antiseptic should be applied to the wood elements.
- The entrance is located from the north.
Underground part
First of all, you should make a pit with a margin of 50 cm in all directions. These supplies will be required when it is necessary to carry out the necessary communications or arrange waterproofing of the wall surface. Walls are made of stones, blocks, or bricks.
If logs are used, they must be pre-treated with an antiseptic so that they are not subjected to rotting and mold formation in the future. Often, a monolithic structure is created from concrete as a base: a formwork is being prepared, a mesh of reinforcement is being erected, poured with concrete.
To protect the joints, as well as the corners, roofing material is used. At the end of the dismantling of the formwork, a mixture of cement is applied to the wall surface.
Regardless of the size of the future of the cellar, there is a great idea not to wait long for the drying of the solution. Instead of pouring from a monolith, you can apply special asbestos cement sheets, mounted on the crate wood.
From the outside, bitumen mastic is applied to the structure. The drainage layer will protect the building from groundwater. As a material for drainage, you can use crushed stone, gravel, or a brick fight. The base of the structure should be protected with a waterproof cushion.
Installation of the ventilation system
In order not to collect gases dangerous to health in the room underground, excessive humidity from condensate does not occur, a ventilation system should be created, which consists exclusively of a galvanized pipe with a diameter of about 10 cm.
One end of this pipe is brought inside the room, the other — outside. The improved solution provides for the presence of several pipes, one of which is located under the ceiling surface and is designed for effective extraction, the other, above the ceiling surface — for air supply from the street.
Pogrebnitsa
The ground part is equipped at the end of the main works related to the construction of the cellar, the creation of backfill. There are many options for the construction of a cellar, both small vestibules and large rooms are offered in the catalog of ready-made cellars.
If the main purpose is to protect only the hatch leading underground, then it is enough to equip high—quality waterproofing, as well as a solid door for the construction. But if you want to create a room for temporary residence, then it needs to be equipped more thoroughly.
It is also important to build a good roof, decorate the wall surface and thermal insulation. The last stage of the construction process refers to the interior arrangement of the premises.
Registration of the ground part
There are a huge number of types of cellars for cottages. Sometimes it is problematic to distinguish such a building from an ordinary gazebo, or a summer kitchen. Some buildings cannot be called anything else, like a cellar, since their entire appearance indicates that winter food stocks are hidden behind the door leaf.
Such buildings have an original design: rough masonry made of stone, an exclusive roof, rather massive doors made of natural oak.
Types of cellars from the store
If you have experience and knowledge, you can build a cellar yourself. However, in the absence of the required skills, desire and time, you can buy it ready-made.
Capsule
This design resembles a ball in shape, to which a ladder is attached. To install such a room, you need to dig a pit of appropriate dimensions and place a plastic cellar in it, then fall asleep. On the surface, it is necessary that only the door remains.
Ready - made
The duration of the operational period of such a design is at least 50 years. It is made of special plastic. The set includes a steel door, lighting, ventilation system and much more.
To install such a building, you need to equip the right size of the pit in order to place the structure there and fill it in. Only the hatch remains on the surface.
Barrel
To create such a product, the best quality fiberglass is used, which allows you to create a sealed structure installed on any soil. The service period of such a building is designed for a long time.
A barrel cellar for a cottage, as in the photo, is perfect as a storage for food, because it maintains a stable temperature. To install the product, you should dig a pit of the right size, place a barrel there, and then fill it with soil.
Brick cellar
The construction of this structure begins with the arrangement of the pit. Its depth reaches four meters. In the finished form, the structure will include such rooms as a vestibule, as well as a staircase.
When the issue with the pit is resolved, it is necessary to seal the wall surfaces, floor, stairs. Then the floor surface is filled with concrete. As soon as the concrete mixture hardens, you can perform masonry.
Rolled metal is mounted on the equipped walls, which is considered the basis for future overlap. The formwork is mounted under the metal frame, the base is filled.
After the concrete mass has completely solidified, it is possible to equip the aboveground part by performing masonry, as well as to create a roof.
Photo of a cellar for a cottage