Cold and Humid storage area in Montpelier, VT basement retrofit
Crop Storage Services
We offer several services to help you create a food storage structure for your farm, home or institution.
Design/Build
We offer custom designed spaces for Farm storage projects, residential basement, kitchen retrofits, and new construction of full food storage facilities to meet your unique food storage needs, conditions, and places. Our design team offers experience as builders and innovators in the renewable energy and agricultural fields.
Spec Drawings
We offer several premade root cellar designs with associated construction drawings, materials lists, and mechanical drawings. You can use these to inspire and create your own space for food storage. Available online in December- inquire within about your specific needs.
Ventilation and Insulation Services
The first step toward a full basement retrofit, an energy savings boost, and a great way to begin to learn about natural cold storage and food preservation.
Consulting
We offer 1 hour to 1 day rates for consulting on projects within North America. We apply a 5% discount of our day rates for non profits, reservations and CSA’s. We also accept certain forms of natural capital in trade for our consultations.
Beets stored in wooden crates.
Types of root cellars we offer:
Farm Storage
We offer several types of farm scale food storage including:
Barn Retrofits
Utilizing existing space we retrofit interior basements, and upper floors for super insulated, energy efficient storage spaces.
Subterranean Storage Cellars
We have designs for several types of subterranean cellars including the classic walkout root cellar, wet cellars, multiple chamber cellars, foundation cellars, and monolithic cave systems.
Crop Storage/Processing Facilities
Designed to meet several needs for washing, processing, and storage of vegetables, herbs, meats, and live plants. Options include winnowing and threshing systems, wash pack stations, hydro-cooling, production fermentation, preserving, and drying.
Thermal Mass Enhanced Walk-in Coolers
Our most similar to conventional walk-in technologies, and our cheapest to build, these systems use conventional materials to mass enhance storage spaces while making use of modified air conditioning systems to create inexpensive and energy efficient walk-ins saving thousands over conventional compressor technologies.
Potatoes in bushel baskets
Ice Mass Storage Systems
Developed with the old timers in mind, we use modern frost free plumbing technologies to build moldable, stackable, thermal ice batteries, in seasonally super-cooled spaces to provide the necessary cooling for providing maximum energy savings and free ice during summer months. Only available in zone 4 locales and colder areas.
Residential Storage
Our residential storage cellars and retrofits are usually between 600 and 1,600 cubic feet depending on lifestyles, space, and land constraints.
Residential Retrofits
These spaces and chambers utilize existing basements and areas where exposure to underground walls and cool areas will buffer and add cooling power. We super insulate and add thermal mass to the inside of the space and create the specific conditions necessary for the foods you wish to store. Average 600-1,600 cubic feet.
Residential Root Cellars
For the avid gardener, large family, and location to allow for 800-1,600 cubic foot space. We have designed for:
Attached subterranean cellar- with access from existing house. Allows for larger spaces created to exact specifications resulting in the best access, most energy savings, and least amount of outdoor winter exposure. Optional bulkhead for garden access.
Stand alone root cellar- Walkout or completely subterranean cellar offering ease of construction, geothermal protection, access to garden, and larger storage spaces.
For caves, monolithic structures, retrofits, and existing walkin modification. Allows for the optimal adjustment of thermal mass and insulation.
Concrete
Foundation material in flat roofed and additions including root cellars, the highest thermal mass values.
Cinder Block
For the cold and humid storage spaces and for new construction including a floor system for a building.
Concrete Board
for retrofits and walkins, our cheapest but lowest thermal mass material.
Insulated Cubic Forms
For warmer and drier storage spacesinclude as foundation for a building.
Stone
As an exterior and interior veneer, and for some interior load bearing capacities. Generally used for façade appearances in residential projects. Second highest thermal mass capacity.
Other Food Storage Structures we design and build:
