After hauling some major piles of trash out with my little 'super car'... A construction landfill is pretty close to me, and each time I'd take a load of boards, debris, etc., someone (odd, only seen males there) remarked on how much I'm able to pack in this vehicle.
But I still had a stack of construction styrofoam, the 5" - 8" thick 4' squared panels. I've talked about a storm shelter for years, realizing there is absolutely no safe place here if a tornado did meander through; figured God was aware of this and the cost / labor was more than I could take on through the years. I expect my house would survive about as well as if it were made of cards.
We are in a natural shelter of sorts, simply due to the lay of the land. Yet I defy anyone to predict tornadoes, and another case of 'overconfidence could be fatal' - "One hasn't hit here in 50 years, therefore never will." But a few funnel clouds have passed overhead; I watched them moving through, touched down a few miles away.
SO... I started digging. Not contemplating a storm shelter, just to bank the water from the house. Then I figured I may as well dig a pond for the water to go to -- logic, in that in a dry year, this excess water would be useful, and in a wet year, it'd help divert it from the house.
But then I figured if I was digging, I may as well dig what I needed worst, first. So I kept on digging, until I had a hole about five feet deep and eight feet long (logic, the 4 x 4 blocks would suit this configuration). Took two days, but learned a little of the land - dug through an old burn, mostly clay, found a layer of loose rock starting at five feet, no rocks of size.
I had leftover plastic from last year's emergency roofing ("Chance of rain overnight - zero" which meant a deluge) so I used several thicknesses of this before lining it with styrofoam panels. I created as I went, interlocking panels for support and adding two 'benches' -- one as a step, but mainly extra reinforcement for the sides.
Some 2x4's, a few 4x4's - kick through the 'saved scrap' piles for these and framed it up for added support, then topped it with two 8" thick panels that overhang the edges (knew it'd shrink as I went, cut down panels to fit, so it ended up about four deep and six feet long -- just room enough for a few people and dogs).
Had to break down and buy some plastic to finish the top, but with rebate, current investment is a dollar? I already had the styrofoam, but the original cost of it was $22, so financially it seems I could hardly do more with less. Strange how that works in my life!
If a major storm did break loose here, I'd place my bet on being under ground-level in this shelter than being anywhere else on this property. Survival odds higher, though never guaranteed. To have these materials and not at least try to remedy the ongoing worry of vulnerability seems to me a greater error than my attempting to create a small shelter.
If'n I had the wherewithal, I'd have created a full-blown root cellar of some size, but working within my limits, I did what I could for The Kid and our furry friends. There is no easy access to the crawl-space, which is sheer nasty, and I have no confidence in it being safe, anyway.
So I dug a hole...
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Good Job! I'd do the same here since my crawl space can't be any less nasty than yours, but with our high water table it'd fill up before you could finish digging it. Consider that come fall, when the severe weather threat goes down, you'll have a great root cellar for the winter.
ReplyDeleteJim, thanks! It has created a bit of messy look right now, but I used my stack of tires to bank the front side - they'll be used as planters for the die-hard cucumbers and zucchini. Practical groundcover I think.
ReplyDeleteI've been rocking it, but wanted to add that extra 'thing' - The Thing turned into two panels friend Pete gifted, nine feet long and covered with outdoor carpeting. Topped the mound with the 4-foot wide one, and the narrower 2.5-foot one was stood up and propped on top so it lounges a bit.
I made a sitter?
These cover the length, so extra supports on the end for 'me little cave'. Always practical (yeah, that's me), this then has use both under- and above- ground! :)
Next 'dig' will be a pond for the water to run into, since it's determined to flow down the driveway from the neighbors. Figure I may as well give it a place to go rather than having wash-outs along the driveway and puddling close to the house...
Do you want your pond to stay filled? If so, either your soil needs to have a very high clay content or you'll need to use a liner. We'd love to have a water feature here besides the river, but we just have too many trees.
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