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Root Cellar Retrofit

Foundation Repair- Montpelier, VT

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Montpelier, VT Root Cellar & Foundation Repair

Whole Farm Services was contracted to build a root cellar in an old Dry-stacked Stone basement. This would require building new walls with gunite, reinforcing and stabilizing the existing stone walls and adding new load bearing columns to support the first floor.

Root Cellar chamber in basement. This room was completely constructed with

gunite applied ferrocementCold and moist chamber for potatoes, cabbage, etc.

Some earlier foundation repair had taken place with the addition of two new corners made from poured concrete. We used these existing walls to tie the new walls and partitions to using #4 Rebar and remesh to reinforce our gunite walls.

Walls are made with rebar and remesh reinforcing the corners and creating a matrix to attach insulation to and spray gunite against.

Cedar door rough openings and the future hallway into storage chambers on each side of space. Old stone wall and window opening are visible in background.

Anchors are set into rough openings to create solid attachment to future gunite wall.

Extruded Polystyrene is used to insulate gunite walls providing full thermal break from other chambers and basement places. Thermal mass in the form of gunite will moderate and store cold temperatures and provide mitigation to moisture/vapor spikes.

Exterior grade insulated doors are used with levers for easy opening and preserving interior chamber temperatures. Trim is vertical grain hemlock from local mill - Heath Lumber.

Cold air vent opening at floor of chamber. Cold air enters naturally by pressure gradients when temperatures fall and cold air drops at nighttime or through fan induced draft.

Simple incandescent lighting will ensure your root cellar does not freeze if your operating a totally passive venting system. A pull chain also eliminates need for a switch and simplifies electrical work.

Temperature and Humidity Gauges come in digital or analog.

Carrots being stored in greensand. The crate is only 4-6" deep.

Gunite repaired exterior wall with air exchange system hanging in background. No visible signs of the old stone wall are apparent from the space now. Gunite wall ranges from 12- 4" thick and offers over 6,000 psi- far superior to a poured concrete wall.  Very limited jacking was required to create this repair

4" HDPE Cold air intake vents use hardware cloth to exclude rodents and leaves while allowing for maximum air intake and compliance with standard 4" induction systems. These vents protrude through an old insulated window.