Windy Cellar Photos

[tom.harrigan]

I've finally finished the windy cellar. I thought those who found the previous thread about the wind emanating from the geological fault interesting, might like to see the end product.

Here's a picture of the stairs. They wound to the right at the top, so I rejigged them to go more straight on:

's a picture of the rear of the cellar and the subterranian window. Is that clutter gathering already? front of the cellar showing the location of the fault in the floor and the wall. I've made both openings a little smaller. close up of where the wind comes from: finally the fault as it goes up the other wall. The opening is now about 1/2 the size it was.

[Ian]

Fascinating - I'll send you some pictures of my damp garage caused by a fault in the roofing!

That cellar could be turned in to quite a feature, it looks good now. Why not block the hole up or find out exactly where the wind is coming from?

[Rob]

Impressive - looks like an igloo!

How did you go about treating/painting the walls to get that icy finish?

Rob

[Tim S]

[e-mail] coughed up some electrons that declared:

That is utterly the dog's plums! :)

You just got a free room and guaranteed viewings if you every decide to sell.

Are you going to install funky lighting or go with the oil lamps? I think either would look good.

Cheers

Tim

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember [e-mail] saying something like:

Excellent job. Istr you wrote the entrance was under a flagstone at the front of the house - is that right? Does that make it awkward to use the cellar? Any indication as to why it was filled in, at all?

[Bob Mannix]

A piccie of the outside and flagstone etc., would be interesting!

[tom.harrigan]

The stairs go up inside my house, near the front door. I intend to make an oak trapdoor - I have already installed the frame in 6"x6" oak beams - nice and sturdy!

The flagstone was outside, and covered a hole that was big enough for a slender person to slide through. In the cellar, an area of vaulted ceiling had been knocked out. It looked to me like the hole was made initially for ventilation, but over time got bigger, as more of the ceiling had collapsed. There was another smaller area of collapse where a pipe had been taken through the ceiling to ventilate a fireplace. Both these areas are now repaired.

The icy finish is a combination of flash photography, gloop, and limewash. I repointed a fair bit of the stonework, but as everything was pretty dirty and muddy, particularly where the walls were the bedrock, I glooped the whole cellar before limewashing it. Gloop, as I call it, is a 1:1 lime and sand mixed to the consistency of thick paint and applied with a round brush. I tried various sands for this, block-paving sand making the finest gloop with the sparklyest finish. I also put in a limecrete floor.

I'm definitely keeping the fault open; it's my ready-made radon sump, and I like the fresh air.

There will be lighting and a couple of sockets down there eventually.

T