Building a root cellar-need guidance

[Lobo]

We are building a root cellar by what we have read and several people have read several sources. You can guess how we are progressing ;).

My question is how much mortar between the rocks we are using in the walls? I thought I had read about 3/4 inch. The rest of the crew is rubbing rocks together which says to me "not enough 'glue' to hold the rocks and thus the wall in place".

Can someone who works with stone and mortar help?

Thanx,

Lobo

[Anon001]

It depends on several things. It depends on the type of rock, the size, and the way they are stacked.

This last spring I was in an old cellar that was probably almost 100 years old. They used NO mortar or concrete. The rocks were cut to angles and stacked up the walls and then the roof of rocks curved. The shape of the rocks and the the pressure applied from the earth actually kept them from moving once in place.

So, it depends on your building techniques.

[Dame]

Our basement is dry stack stone, over 100 years old, with quite crude parging on the inside and above ground on the outside. It is probably 3 feet thick at the base of the walls which are likely about a foot below the floor level and about 15 inches at the top of the walls. The floor joists (wood) are set on top of the walls and the spaces between the joists filled with stone and mortar. Windows are framed through the stone with mortar to fill the gaps.

It was put together in a very short time, given what else they managed to get done, by two men in their early 20's. Muscle appears to have been the primary input given the size of some of the visible stones.

Hope this is of some help.

[Builder Ken]

Lobo It depends on the type of stone you are laying. If this a square cut stone It can be dry stacked I prefer a joint like what you have mentioned, The mortar has 2 uses one being for the obvious to stick the stone together the other for leveling, when you come across a rock that is tapered you will build up the mortar to get it level.Ken

[MrGreenJeans]

Layed mine out today, gona be layed block. Anyone think of what to fill the front block with to help out some. Won't be fast gona be hand dug. Wish i could do a stone one. Don't have the but to back one of those.

[Curbie]

I was thinking of building on a slab, but I seems like a pretty inexpensive addition to cast a cut-out in the slab for a root cellar, so I was wondering if there is a known relationship between root cellar depth, the local frost line, and root cellar temperature???

Curbie

[Boris859]

Root Cellaring by Mike and Nancy Babel ,it's a good book to get started and come with ideas for your root cellar,there is a variety of things that you can use for root cellaring,so this is a good source of finding what works for you :)

[DavidOH]

Where is walls0stone when you need him? Last Activity: 05-26-2009