How to dry the cellar and prevent repeated troubles

Summer residents who are seriously engaged in gardening and horticulture are forced to store their rich harvest somewhere. It's nice to fry potatoes from your field in winter, cut a head of cabbage from your garden, open a jar of pickled cucumbers from your garden. And for this, at the summer cottage, it is necessary to create a storage - a cellar. And this structure must be built and operated according to quite certain rules.

PHOTO: prostayaferma.ru

If the cellar is not divided by type of product, then the average climate indicators in the country cellar should be something like this: in winter at an external temperature of -10–15 ⁰C should be maintained at a temperature of + 2–4 ⁰C, and in summer at an external air temperature of +25–30 ⁰C in the cellar should be + 5–7 ⁰FROM.

But sometimes in the cellar, for various reasons, the humidity rises. For open vegetables and potatoes, this is harmful, because they will not live to see the new crop, they will rot. Therefore, the climate in the cellar must be monitored and dried at the right time.

PHOTO: garden.ru

Why is there dampness in the basement

There are many reasons for the appearance of moisture in the cellar. But the result is always the same: mold, fungus will appear in the cellar, and it will be impossible to use the room - the products will rot. But before you start draining the cellar, you need to find the cause of dampness and eliminate it. One of the most common causes lies in poor ventilation. These can be design errors (when the channel is blocked by other structural elements) or a consequence of improper operation (for example, the ventilation duct is clogged with debris).

Another cause of leaks is in the resulting cracks and damaged waterproofing. Over time, carelessly executed waterproofing during construction gives cracks, and water enters the cellar through them.

Condensation on the ceiling of the cellar is formed due to the difference in temperature inside the cellar and outside. Vapors from products rise to the ceiling, cool and condense on it. Here the reason is the poor thermal insulation of the cellar coating.

Another reason may be the high occurrence of groundwater, when the drainage system cannot cope with their removal.

Exemption of the premises

First of all, the cellar room must be completely freed from everything. Everything that is possible (all sorts of shelves and cabinets) must be pulled out into fresh air and dried in the sun. Of course, this is all good to do in dry sunny weather, and in bad weather you will have to work harder. In the cellar itself, it is required to remove all the mold, scrub everything with a stiff brush, check the ventilation ducts and clean them if necessary. For several days, the doors to the cellar should be kept open. The cleaned and dried cellar should be well treated with an antiseptic. Wouldn't hurt to paint everything inside.

Checking and improving waterproofing

If the cause of high humidity lies in groundwater, then it is definitely necessary to deal with waterproofing. The most reliable way to protect yourself from water penetration is to use a metal or plastic box dug into the ground as a cellar. It will definitely not have any cracks, and it will last for many years.

If the cellar is dug into the ground, and its walls and floor are lined with bricks or filled with concrete or lined with wood, it is necessary to seriously deal with waterproofing. There are dry waterproofing mixtures for sealing any seams and cracks in building structures made of wood, concrete, brick and metal.

You can smear the walls and floor with bituminous mastic, and then stick the roofing material. To get the best result, work should be carried out using a gas burner. The heated material is welded into a continuous waterproof layer. It is possible to cover the walls and floor with liquid rubber or liquid glass using a reinforcing mesh. The floor can also be covered with broken bricks, covered with compacted sand on top. Then this puff cake is filled with clay.

Checking ventilation

The ventilation system must have clean channels. Exhaust ventilation frees the cellar from moist air. In summer, the supply ventilation will supply warm air, it will help to dehumidify the room.

Ways to get rid of moisture and condensation in the cellar

And if you are very unlucky and the cellar is flooded with rain or ground, melt or rain water, then it must be dried. It takes too long to wait for help from the sun, active drying methods are needed here.

Drying the basement using a brazier

There is such a folk method - drying the cellar with a brazier. Its essence is that a brazier filled with burning fuel is somehow placed in the cellar. The heat coming from this unit quickly raises the temperature in the room. Warming up and evaporation of moisture occurs.

The brazier itself is made from a leaky iron bucket. You need to attach legs to the bucket from below or put it on a couple of bricks. This is to ensure that the air needed for combustion comes from below. The bucket is filled with combustible garbage, a fire is kindled, and the brazier-bucket quickly warms up the cellar. The process continues until it is completely dry.

The brazier is strictly forbidden to be used in rooms lined with wood. And during the operation of the brazier, it is impossible to be in the cellar.

PHOTO: podvaldoma.ru

Drying the cellar with an iron stove

The use of an iron potbelly stove for drying the cellar is based on two physical phenomena. Firstly, the stove creates the same effect as the brazier: it quickly flares up, heats up itself and warms up the entire space around it. Secondly, the stove with its pipe inserted into the exhaust ventilation duct accelerates the air circulation in the room. If you open all the doors and hatches, moist air will quickly fly out into the chimney, and it will be replaced by fresh air from the street. This process must be repeated for several days. But this method is considered the most time-consuming, so it is replaced by other, simpler methods.

PHOTO: arbolit.org

Drying the cellar with candles

This is the most primitive way, but it gives a good effect, because it is based on the laws of physics. To use it, it is necessary to build up the lower part of the pipe of the exhaust ventilation duct and put a lit candle there. Heating the air at the edge of the pipe will slightly lower the pressure in the chimney and increase the draft. The drying process will continue for quite a long time, you only need to change the burnt candle in time.

You can use dry alcohol tablets. They have a double effect: the vapors of the burning tablet kill harmful insects.

The use of special dryers

Dehumidification of the cellar can be done not only by heating, but also by cooling. Just for this you need to know and understand physical phenomena and their laws. Everything is explained quite simply. The air in the cellar is moist, saturated with water vapor. On contact with a cold surface, the vapors condense and turn into water. Water can be collected and removed - and the air becomes drier.

This phenomenon is based on the device "Dehumidifier", produced by the industry. A fan and a cooler are located in the metal case. Freon is often used as a coolant, as in refrigerators. The fan drives humid air from the room through the device, water vapor condenses on the cooler, water drops flow into the receiver, and then the water is removed. The air in the room is dried.

The use of heating electrical appliances

An electric heater performs the same role as a brazier or potbelly stove. Power is selected based on the volume of the room. Heating with electricity is more expensive than wood or coal, but the process is safer. Heat guns give a good effect, but they are more profitable to use in large rooms.

Processing the cellar after drying

In addition to removing moisture from the cellar room and from the surface of its walls, doors, floors and steps, it is necessary to remove all kinds of infection: mold, fungi and harmful insects.

Lime fumes and sulfur smoke grenades

Chemical disinfection and additional drying are carried out. Fungus and moisture vapor residues are removed using slaked lime. It must be densely poured onto the shelves and on the floor along the walls. Densely scattered dry sawdust absorbs moisture. Sodium chloride has the same property. But it has one interesting property. If after a day it is collected and calcined, then it can be reused.

Relatively new means are smoke grenades. They are effectively used to prevent and destroy harmful bacteria, rot, mold, fungus, insects, as well as repel rodents and moles.

If the ceiling is pasted over with dry cardboard boxes, then moisture vapor condensation on the ceiling will stop. Corrugated cardboard is a good thermal insulator.

Mold removers and floor filler

After drying, for the purpose of disinfection, all surfaces in the room should be washed with a 10% solution of copper or iron sulphate, and then whitewashed with a solution of lime.

A floor that does not allow groundwater to pass through moisture can also be considered a means of combating mold. Broken stone is poured over the ground, compacted, then a layer of sand is poured and also compacted. The floor can be laid out with bricks, a good concrete screed can be made - and the water will not pass.

The old way of arranging the floor is also reliable - an adobe floor on a reinforcing mesh. But the technology is very time-consuming, and good quality clay is needed. And this is hard to find.

Prevention measures

A mandatory preventive measure is regular ventilation and drying of the room. Any manifestations of dampness and mold should be stopped immediately. High-quality supply and exhaust ventilation contributes to maintaining a normal microclimate in the crop storage.

For continuous air drying, containers with hygroscopic materials are placed in the cellar: quicklime, calcium chloride. They can be scattered everywhere indoors and on shelves. Quicklime is used once, from time to time it needs to be replaced. Calcium chloride can be used many times. Prevention methods are few and well known, but they should be used regularly, especially when the first signs of a problem appear.

Conclusion

The cellar is very necessary for a good summer resident who worked all summer to harvest. Why is summer there: a good harvest requires year-round and many years of hard work. And in winter, you want to pamper your family, friends, acquaintances and yourself with well-preserved vegetables and fruits. And a good cellar is the first assistant in this. But the assistant also needs help, and above all in the fight against dampness. Preventive measures are constantly needed, and in difficult times - serious repair work. And a good owner knows how to continuously maintain his cellar in working condition.