Your thoughts on my basement plans

[BitChin1]

deleted double post

 

[dragoneggs]

Eddie check into your annual ground temps for the depth you would install the pipe. What you want to avoid is any condensation forming in the pipe that might sit there for extended periods and allow mold to get going which will then be spread into your room when you turn it back on in late spring Google "earth tubes" to get more info on what folks use and potential issues and how to avoid them.

This is a very important issue to address!!!

 

[Streetcar]

For road widening projects, I have torn down several buildings with hvac ducts in the ground. None were insulated or did I see any mold. But this is my limited experience in Ohio

 

[dragoneggs]

For road widening projects, I have torn down several buildings with hvac ducts in the ground. None were insulated or did I see any mold. But this is my limited experience in Ohio

Insulated or not... If it condenses and doesn't vent enough to dry you are at risk.

 

[farmer2009]

Do you run the fan on the AC to help move the heat from the wood burner? If so, that would be enough air to stop the condensation and mold. If not a run once a week should keep it dry. I've never lived in a home that the heat moved that well without some help.

 

[westcliffe01]

Eddie, so long as there is plenty of rebar in it, and hopefully mesh near the surfaces and 8" thick or more on all surfaces you should be good to go. Poured concrete is obviously the best. Doing a suitable door and door frame is also somewhat of a challenge, it would have to be steel and ideally double wall for bending strength without the plate having to be too thick. The latch system should be akin to the system used on a safe door or a watertight bulkhead, not just 2 hinges and a single catch. An above ground shelter should be a lot easier to build than any kind of basement and should be dry. Just make sure to provide some means of ventilation or have the door latched open when not in actual use. All of the CAT facilities in IL have concrete "bunkers" inside the building and some of those have been hit by F5 tornadoes and when it is all over the only thing left is the slab and bunkers. The steel structure, machining centres all gone.

This paper is from 2011 and has many pictures of damage to homes and to storm shelters. Also talks of people being trapped in their shelters and why.https://ams.confex.com/ams/26SLS/webprogram/Manuscript/Paper211671/OKC%20paper%20combined.pdf

I woke up this morning with the realization that I really don't want a basement, and I was overthinking this whole thing, making it a lot more complicated then I needed to. My reasoning for the basement was protection from tornadoes. Since I'm digging a hole in the ground, I might as well make it as big as the room that is going to be above it. There is no reason for a tornado shelter to be 16x16 feet. Once I got to thinking of how big it needed to be, and that while we where in it, we where going to be wide away and not doing anything until the threat had passed, I got to thinking that I could have everything i wanted by just building an above ground shelter in the corner of my garage. This now removes a huge weight off of my shoulders and allows me to move forward with what I really want to do, build my great room!!!

Thank you, I really do appreciate all the great advice and humoring me while trying to figure out how to build something that I now realize, I no longer want. If I would have just listened to my own words when I said that I never plan on going down there once it's built, I would have realized that I really don't have any need or desire to have a basement. As for storing stuff, I am already in the process of creating a canning/processing room that is 12x24 that will hold everything we plan to can or pickle.

 

[farmer2009]

Can you check the link. It's not working for me.

 

[westcliffe01]

It is a link to a pdf file that you need to download, then open. Works fine for me.

 

[MossRoad]

Works for me, too. Scary stuff in there.

 

[EddieWalker]

Do you run the fan on the AC to help move the heat from the wood burner? If so, that would be enough air to stop the condensation and mold. If not a run once a week should keep it dry. I've never lived in a home that the heat moved that well without some help.

No, we just get plenty of heat out of the wood stove. Sometimes too much and we have to open the door to the garage to cool off the house. My house is very well insulated and it doesn't take much to get it warm. Our bedrooms is at the opposite side of my house from the wood stove, which makes it a bit cooler in there, which is what we prefer. My HVAC system is turned off right now and will remain turned off until late spring when temps and the humidity builds back up for summer.