Off-Grid DIY Underground Earthbag Pantry, Root Cellar, and Storm Shelter | Full Build Documentary

Thank you for watching! If you have any questions about this build, please feel free to comment. We respond to all of them. There has been so much we have learned since this build and we're happy to share what we've learned.

If you are trying to create a root cellar that can be passively temperature controlled, THE LAST THING YOU WANT TO DO IS PUT A REFRIGERATOR OR GROW LIGHTS IN IT. The refrigerator is a HEAT PUMP that will add more heat to the room...same with the lights and growing stuff. All you need down there are a few lights to see what you are doing...otherwise leave it alone and pile up more dirt and rock on the top to increase the insulation.

We have a great idea for doing a round underground storage and still being able to do shelves with a little bit of forethought. You could put two by fours in the sandbag wall sticking out that way, the sandbags make the shelving stable and it's really easy to cut plywood in a circular curve to make shelving

One potential thing to possible add to your root cellar would be a couple of small sandboxes for root vegetables, like carrots and radishes. Storing these veggies in sand or soil can seriously increase their longevity. Of course, this is dependent on how often you go into town for supplies, and is more usually done by people who grow their own produce. It may not really be sensible for your situation if produce does not sit around for extended periods at any point.

You need to vent the staircase, not the lower level. Dig a trench and throw some vent tube in the trench to extend the intake tube. The result will be lower intake air temps. You will exhaust the hottest air out of the highest point, thus resulting in a deeper cold sink. Also, shade the immediate area around the intake tubes to lower the ground temps around the intake opening.

Amazing build. I especially appreciate the useful comments from your viewers. This was a dream of mine that never happened. I am getting up in age and will become difficult for me. Now I enjoy and appreciate you guys doing it. Awesomeness ❤

Some old scrapyard shipping container or farmers silo could have saved a lot of working hours building all those walls etc. But it’s all a balance, getting stuff bought from a scrap dealer or private seller and getting it out there or use what you have and build it all by hand. Me personally having worked in demolition, there is so much good quality lumber, steel, doors, windows, kitchens, insulation, bricks etc. going to waist you could get it all for free from any old building they’re gonna demolish or strip on the inside. You can pick it up if you have the time and transport to get it. A big flatbed trailer securely loaded with pick up truck or two of them, or a big old box car with trailer collectively owned could get you out on a building/ demolition site to get you all you need and more for the price of some diesel and the initial cost of the transporting vehicle. You just talk with the owner and they’ll often let you strip it just to bring down the landfill costs of them having to dump it at a facility. There are some investments to make but once you have big transport capabilities it can be a very affordable and even very efficient and financial lucrative way of getting your building materials and possibly some extra money for furniture, copper, brass, stainless etc to be sold nearby at a scrapyard after taking out building materials for your build. When local demolitions go on you could make a deal to drop materials like just wood, just brick, insulation etc. at your place, maybe pay a reduced price cash or a small fee for them going the extra twenty miles or whatever out of their way for you. But be sure you get what you asked for and don’t get mixed waist instead of recyclable materials.

You could put ridgit insulation on the roof. You can get it two inches thick. Four or six inches would really help the temperature in the Boot. That was my thought when seeing it done. You could also plant bushes around the sides. The shade would be welcoming if it didn’t take a lot of water to get them established. Later

Great job! I have wanted to do a root cellar for years

You could build a playground around it and make the boot part a slide for your kids and it would help camouflage it

Amazing! Keep up the great work for all of humanity :)

A better way to sort dirt might be to use a "A FRAME" Basically build a square frame with the screen and hang it from a frame like a swing set. You just keep pushing and pulling it as someone throws dirt on it. The finer particles get sifted out and afterwards, you "TOSS" the rocks and what not forward. The Philippines almost always use this method to sift the gravel when building house.

I would recommend using a solar collector with fiber optics to bring the sunlight down to your growing shelves if you decide to try that. It will be less or no maintenance and no need to use electricity.

definitely inspirational. I was thinking about building a house over that celler

Those stones around the outside will attract rattlers. Learned much from you.

Spray foam the ceiling to improve the insulation

If affordable you could have the interior spray foamed that would add great strength and insulation. Im a carpenter and building contractor. Kool deal bud. Id just once like to do an English mud house and incorporate some foamcrete into it for insulation and rigidity

Add a handrail to the stairs. (a broken tail bone isn't fun). Use reflective white wash on the on the boot exterior. Provide a shaded air gap above the cellar during the hot season (like saw horses and reflective plywood, or something similar to decrease solar heat gain to the earthen cellar roof). Adding some R-value to the interior roof surface would be helpful of course.

10:30 Bloody Build... I still to this day remember the look on my wifes face when she first saw the tiny house I built and I had used a red chalk line to snap a lot of the lines for things and the drywall was bare... She though it was all blood, like I blead all over the interior.

I love the fact that you just went for it and learned as you did the project.