Welcome to our 600-day review of the wooden root cellar storm shelter we built and buried in the ground! When we first started this project, many doubted whether a wooden structure could withstand being underground for so long without molding, rotting, or collapsing. Today, we’re excited to share that it’s still standing strong!
In this video, we’ll break down how our DIY wooden root cellar has held up after over 600 days of use, including all the inclement weather events we’ve faced. We’ll highlight the key features that have helped protect the wood and ensure the cellar remains dry and sturdy, including:
• A well-designed drainage system under the cellar
• A vapor barrier beneath and around the entire structure
• Proper grading to direct water away from the cellar
We’ll also talk about what we love about the cellar and how it’s worked for us so far. If you’re considering building your own in-ground root cellar or storm shelter, this video will give you an in-depth look at what worked for us.
If you enjoy the video, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share with anyone interested in homesteading, root cellars, or DIY storm shelters!
#RootCellar #StormShelter #DIYRootCellar #WoodenCellar #Homesteading #DIYStormShelter #Preparedness #UndergroundShelter #CellarReview
Cellar build video 1:
Building a Storm shelter / Root cellar Pt.1
https://youtu.be/EGrvYdOyGKk
Cellar build video 2:
Building a Storm Shelter / Root Cellar Pt.2
https://youtu.be/yRobZ84OtDk
In this video, we’ll break down how our DIY wooden root cellar has held up after over 600 days of use, including all the inclement weather events we’ve faced. We’ll highlight the key features that have helped protect the wood and ensure the cellar remains dry and sturdy, including:
• A well-designed drainage system under the cellar
• A vapor barrier beneath and around the entire structure
• Proper grading to direct water away from the cellar
We’ll also talk about what we love about the cellar and how it’s worked for us so far. If you’re considering building your own in-ground root cellar or storm shelter, this video will give you an in-depth look at what worked for us.
If you enjoy the video, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share with anyone interested in homesteading, root cellars, or DIY storm shelters!
#RootCellar #StormShelter #DIYRootCellar #WoodenCellar #Homesteading #DIYStormShelter #Preparedness #UndergroundShelter #CellarReview
Cellar build video 1:
Building a Storm shelter / Root cellar Pt.1
https://youtu.be/EGrvYdOyGKk
Cellar build video 2:
Building a Storm Shelter / Root Cellar Pt.2
https://youtu.be/yRobZ84OtDk
Category
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NewsTranscript
00:00What I got behind me here is a project we built 600 days ago.
00:05It's a wooden cellar, had a lot of positive and a lot of negative feedback.
00:10Heard things like it's not going to last, it's going to fall apart, it's going to last
00:14forever, and everything in between.
00:16So we're going to show you how it's done over the last 600 days, but first we're going to
00:21take you back to the beginning and show you how we built it.
00:25Alright, so we're going to drop this hole now, we're going to get it flat, but we've
00:33got to have the bottom of the drain trench, which is going to be a French drain, all the
00:37way around the bottom of it, it has to be just above this grate down here, so we can
00:42run an ADS pipe out, and we're going to make sure that it daylights out here somewhere.
01:24Alright.
01:54Perfect.
01:55Nothing breaks in one piece.
02:01Yeah.
02:02Nothing breaks in one piece.
02:09Yeah.
02:11Come smash this plate on the inside.
02:23That's all good.
02:24I can dump it right here and...
02:27It gets up a lot quicker.
02:54Alright.
02:55Cedar 4x4s.
02:56Those will keep the wall from walking in.
02:57Get all the weight of the dirt.
02:58There we go.
03:00Alright.
03:01That's good.
03:03That's good.
03:04Alright.
03:05Alright.
03:06Get all the weight of the dirt.
03:07No.
03:08No.
03:09No.
03:10No.
03:11No.
03:12No.
03:13No.
03:14No.
03:15No.
03:16No.
03:17No.
03:18No.
03:19No.
03:20No.
03:21You got hair protection?
03:38Me?
03:39Yeah.
03:40You guys down, I'm resting up.
03:47What?
03:48You're crashing.
03:49Hold on a second, I hope you didn't hit any rocks or anything.
04:00Who's the show that's kicking rocks everywhere?
04:10That looks like it's fared pretty well.
04:17That's not too bad.
04:48I'll have to probably do a couple of cuts up the wall.
05:10You good?
05:11Don't move.
05:12Cut.
05:13You're on it.
05:14Okay.
05:15Perfect.
05:46Oh, this one's heavier.
05:53Okay.
05:55Up a little more.
06:06Okay, pull it down the wall.
06:26My way, a little bit, my way, my way, that needs to go that way towards the building
06:46a little bit.
06:50It's just a magic kiss again.
06:57Well, that was stupid.
07:03Okay, ready?
07:06We're in the cave.
07:12Finally getting some shelves in now, starting to deck them.
07:41All right.
07:47All right.
07:53Trying to get this thing done, trimming out, and I make it all pretty now, probably all
08:48the gravel put in there.
08:50It's looking good.
08:52It's like building an arc.
08:54It's taking forever.
08:55It's looking good.
08:56All right.
09:15It's looking good.
09:16That's more salvaged foam.
10:17Okay.
10:27Okay.
10:28It might not twist into the hole like this.
10:30Let's see.
10:31Ready?
10:32Look at this.
10:47Okay.
10:47All right.
10:47We got this guy done.
10:49We got the doorstop on, and we're going to go ahead and put the doorstop on, and we're
10:56going to put the doorstop on, and we're going to put the doorstop on, and we're going to
11:03put the doorstop on, and a little detail around the plate, and into the roof cellar.
11:26So we've got to get this fan going again in here, and we've set up these little rails
11:31here to hold a piece of foam board up, so it channels the air in, and then back out
11:35over the top.
11:36Otherwise, it just recirculates right in the doorway and doesn't actually blow the humidity
11:40out, because again, a lot of this wood is still very, very green, and we're going to
11:47have probably a dehumidifier in here for a while until we get the humidity where it needs
11:52to be, and all the wood's popcorn fart dry, so that's the deal.
11:55Look at that.
11:56Jay, you found a bunk bed.
11:57Oh, and all the critters are in here, too.
12:01You're going to die.
12:02Mutts.
12:03No, you're going to hit my face.
12:04Wow, that's pretty good.
12:09Wow, that's more like a coffin than a bunk bed, but it's working.
12:15I guess we've got to get trapped in here for a really long time.
12:18You guys can just...
12:19Elliot wants to be top bunk.
12:21I'm top bunk.
12:22Top bunk.
12:23Oh, boy.
12:24Here we go.
12:25The shenanigans have started.
12:27Shenanigans.
12:29Shenanigans.
12:30Dogs.
12:31People.
12:32You think it's too hot this time of night?
12:33Look at you.
12:34You are.
12:35You're on the top bunk.
12:36Check it out.
12:37Come on.
12:38Come and see.
12:39It's really hot.
12:40That's not too bad.
12:41You want to sit up, Tom?
12:42All right.
12:43Enough talk.
12:44Let's get to what I promised you.
12:45Let's check it out.
12:58Let's take a little look around and see what we've got in here.
13:05Now we have a lot more that we need to stock in here, but I can assure you a cellar this
13:09size, which is 10 by 20 by 8 feet tall, it costs a lot of money to fill it up.
13:14So it's just, you know, it's a work in progress.
13:17We had a lot more in here recently.
13:18We've kind of gone through it.
13:21We will hit the store, hit Costco, keep canning, and load up.
13:28Oh, there you go.
13:29There's some of that white gold a few years ago.
13:32All right.
13:34So let's take a look around.
13:35I'll show you some of the good, some of the bad, some of the ugly.
13:39For the most part, there's not too much ugly and it smells amazing in here with all of
13:44this Eastern Red Cedar that's milled up for the shelves.
13:48So let's go ahead and look in the corners.
13:50We'll just take and pan around here and I'll show you what it looks like.
13:55You're going to see some surface mold or mildew, and that developed when we originally built
14:01this.
14:02It was very, very humid early in the spring, and this was green cut lumber.
14:06It took us a long time to dry all this wood out, and wood naturally gets a mold or mildew
14:12blush.
14:14But I can assure you now, these timbers are very, very dry and they're very hard.
14:21So it's really aged well.
14:22I have zero complaints about that.
14:25Again, there you can see some on the ceiling.
14:28Some of the boards just do it way worse than others.
14:29It's just part of the game when you're working with green lumber.
14:33All right.
14:34A few little known facts about this cellar.
14:37It is designed intentionally to double as some sort of a storm shelter protection.
14:43Is this going to withstand an EF5?
14:44Now, I highly doubt that, but not many things are.
14:47We're not really concerned about that too much.
14:49Down here in the Ozarks, we get a couple of little spin-up twisters now and then.
14:53Not a major deal, but if we had to go someplace, this would be it.
14:57It's better than taking and clutching onto your butt, praying in a bathtub somewhere
15:02in your house.
15:03So we don't have to worry about that.
15:06This is a hell of a lot better than that.
15:07On a scale from one to 10, I give this build a nine.
15:10It was a lot of fun.
15:12We learned a ton.
15:13It turned out beautiful.
15:15It smells amazing.
15:16It serves the purpose, but there's definitely some things we would change.
15:21So as you can see, it hasn't caved in.
15:23It hasn't rotted away.
15:24It hasn't floated away.
15:25It hasn't flooded.
15:26It hasn't burned.
15:27It hasn't done any of the things that people assumed that would happen to it.
15:31My favorite thing about this structure is it's incredibly quiet in here.
15:34It's very, very peaceful.
15:36So when I come in here, I can kind of actually hide from the dogs and the kids.
15:40It's really nice.
15:42Dead quiet in here.
15:43One of my favorite things about living underground.
15:45So actually, coming up, we might be building some more structures underground for your
15:50entertainment and our convenience.
15:52We appreciate you guys.
15:53We'll see you here again on the Ranch.