Keeping water out of the cellar

-
Principle 12: Creatively use and respond to change

The wettest Autumn in over 20 years has demanded some immediate attention to some unfinished projects. I have built a cover for the entranceway of the cellar which sheds the rain away from the stairwell. The cover has been built with materials recovered from the original house, and left over materials from the construction of the new house. No new materials were purchased for this job.
With the ground sodden, water has been weeping through small gaps in the mortar in the walls, and the cellar has needed the water to be pumped out regularly. A heavy duty electric pump, that was kindly donated to me by my plumber, was installed and pumps water out to the laneway. The hose can be moved around to direct water to plants if needed.
Along the edge of the stairwell I have built up soil with a slope that diverts water into the laneway. I planted a male and female kiwi along the boundry which will eventually grow up the (yet to be built) fence and shade the cellar from the morning sun, while drawing moisture from the soil and providing yummy fruit.
When the ground dries out I plan to fill all gaps in the mortar and paint the walls inside the cellar with polyurethane paint left over from the polishing the slab floor. Hopefully this will reduce the weepage.

Cellar / Tank Stand entrance cover. Cellar bilge pump outlet pipe runs along the right hand side and out to the laneway. Male and female kiwi vines planted along boundary of property.
Cellar / Tank Stand entrance cover. Door made from corrugated iron with a pole used to hold it open.
Side detail showing frame made from hardwood studs recovered from original house, with roof battens along the sides. 6mm mesh used to prevent materials being blown into the stairwell.
Waterlogged soil surrounding the cellar weeping through walls.
Bilge pump used to remove water from within the cellar. Air intake (400mm) for the cool cupboard to the right.

Comments

Chris said…
Rain, Rain and more rain! We love it, but better in small bits often. Congratulations on the new baby and the amazing job you have done on your new/old home. It's been fascinating reading your blog in one hit tonight.
September 6, 2010 at 4:50 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Crazy paving with urbanite

-
Image
Principle 11: Use edges and value the marginal I collected a large pile of concrete which had been sitting out the front for a number of years. It had become habitat for snails mainly. Originally the concrete blocks were footpaths from around the original house, so they hadn't traveled far. This material is more commonly known as 'urbanite', and is used in some pretty creative ways . I've been thinking about creating a space for an outdoor kitchen for some time now, and figured that I really needed a paved area in between the shed and cellar to set it up. The urbanite seemed like the perfect answer, allowing me to clean up around the front and create a great space round the back. My mate Dylan suggested that I make up a form and mortar mix to set the concrete block pieces onto. Seemed like a good idea to me, so after thinking about it for a few months and with summer just about to start, I decided to get stuck into it. After clearing the space I set up a
Read more

The 'Super Fridge' (upright freezer conversion)

-
Image
Principle 12: Creatively use and respond to change I'm one for trying out different things, and I like to see what we can get away with before committing to something bigger and 'better'. Fridges and freezers are one of the biggest energy consumers in the household - usually behind heating / cooling and hot water systems. Our upright freezer to fridge conversion in action We've trialed a number of fridge systems here before settling on the upright freezer conversion. First we used an old 150lt bar fridge that used around 670Wh per day Then we bought a 150lt chest freezer (using around 466Wh per day) for preserving bulk food - with the idea of a possible conversion. Our bar fridge died two weeks later so we used ice from our freezer to create a 'ice box bar fridge' We then tried a smaller old Engel fridge (about 50lt) that I had in the Kombi that used about 420Wh per day. After not being entirely satisfied with any of the above I finally decided
Read more

Cool cupboard completed

-
Image
Principle 7: Design from patterns to details The cool cupboard project has been a very long one. While it demonstrates most of the permaculture design principles I thought that I'd focus on 'Design from Patterns to Details' because it really was the way in which the project evolved and was finally completed. The design was inspired by the cool cupboard that I saw at Melliodora, the home of David Holmgren and Su Dennett. David includes a section about the design of his cupboard in his eBook about the property. Since then I've seen other designs that use the same principles including a pantry in an old house near Sheparton that had a mesh covered hole in the floor and one that was covered up in the ceiling and 'Adelaide House' in Alice Spings which I visited in 2004 and wrote this short report on for my Permaculture Diploma: My cupboard is based more on David Holmgren's design, with a few differences. It draws air through the cellar (with a water tan
Read more