Build a Cellar in Thailand

[user343434]

Hi all,

 

i am wondering if anyone has succeded to build a cellar that stays dry and cool in Thailand or anyone can give me some do and don't do's on the way.

As you see in my profile is cooking and gardening my hobby and especially when it comes to smoked ham and sausages we are getting close to the requirements I have for my cellar.

The ground water level is in my Land just 1.5 - 2 meter because the surrounding mountains keeping the valley wet.

On the other hand I fear that a mound of earth as cellar just ends up as a pizza oven in this tropical heat.

Would it make sense to build a cellar under my house that I plan to build next year? or is there another way to get a cool cellar without blowing the money through a huge aircondition?

Any experience would help and if we come to a succes building a cellar that can store and ripen the best and most expensive ham on the world which will outnumber the Jamon Iberico Bellota or any Manchado de Jabugo, we will have to wash it down with a couple of Leo's on my bill.

 

At least the last ham I made from my 'pet pig' was delicious. It had a personal value as it was following my dogs and me wherever we went to and might not have reached the above mentioned hams but came close to it.

It was a free range pig and always eating overripen fruits and so turned into an agressive alocoholic steered up my dogs whenever it had a chance and finally starting bullying family members and myself especially when it was on Longan fruits and got pissed as a fart.

"Jamon Ban Phe de la cocino alcoholico de fruta mixta"  I would say would be a more than suitable name for the ham that came out. A fruity meat taste with a Lao Khao in sea salt undernote.   

 

Cheers all

Will 

[bankruatsteve]

5 minutes ago, See Will said:

i am wondering if anyone has succeded to build a cellar that stays dry and cool in Thailand

 

No.

[Anythingleft?]

With that water table you will face massive issue to keep the water out, having said that if you are just making a usable area I have worked on old victorian houses with cellars that had exposed floor drain run offs to allow for water seepage from the walls to be removed

Does it need to be sterile and walls drywalled or are you just after a brick room type setup?

[Kwasaki]

Anything building wise is possible it's just restrictions you have to watch out for if they exist and " YES " you can build a dry cool cellar, a German acquaintance has done here in our village under a circular tower he built, what made me laugh was he had to take it down some height of the tower because it was higher than one of the main village existing temple structures.  

[user343434]

Thanks all,

I am not thinking I could ever create a sterile environment here but yes, the humudity should be controllable.

I thought about using concrete to make a bassin and cover it with an epoxy like factory floors sealing inside. 

May be 2 doors as a lock in the staircase to keep the heat out by entering.

Interesting would be only if a cellar in the ground would reduce the temperaures noteable or if the ground is generally heated up even a meter deep due to the hot climate here.

I have never seen a cellar here in Thailand and this must have a commerial (e.g. too expensive for Thais) or natural reason.   

Fact is, when I am showering too long the water temp is changing to freezing cold but I have no clue how deep the pipes are.

[eyecatcher]

If you build up your house by 2.5m on legs then you will have quite a cool area under the house. the open sides generally keep it cool and the structure on top doesnt allow heat or rainfall to penetrate.

 

I am not sure that excavating for a cellar is really necessary but if you prefer that idea maybe think about dropping in a pre-made structure like a steel shipping container or even something akin to a grp water storage tank, then you just need to hold it down and fit it out.

you could access it like a submarine hatch.....even have a periscope to check when the wife is back!

Edited September 12, 2016 by eyecatcher

[user343434]

Water tank, well yes that's a solution or just a GFK swimming pool body covered with a concrete roof...  

Thanks, 

like always small issues always getting complex and I forgot to think easy how simple it could be. I had in mind using a pond liner but one day that thing will be leaking, epoxy is there more resistant. 

Building a wall inside with clay bricks could give it the right cellar atmosphere and balance.

Evtl under the Pool a nice pipesystem for cooling down the air for ventilation (through an air dryer keeping the mold in gates)  and I reckon we are a good step ahead.

 

well the periscope thing: My wife always wants to have the entire 10000sqm of our land tunneled as the Chú Chi tunnels in Viet Nam. Its a dream since her childhood, but I think I leave it by a proper chellar without persicope.

 

Edited September 12, 2016 by See Will

[manfredtillmann]

first thoughts: (just a few things to consider)

if your ground water level is higher than your planned cellar's floor level you will face almost impossible odds trying to get a waterproofed concrete structure build. even with constant pumping etc.

sinking a fixed structure (like a tank or container, as the above poster suggested) might prove very difficult as it will float and you might not be able to a. push it low enough and b. keep it under ground. (empty fuel tanks do pop through their concrete covers in old service stations)

 

if you have room on your land, build a concrete block structure above ground and cover it with 150 tons of soil, grass, plants etc. it will have the same effect and will cost you heaps less.

[user343434]

there we are again of my Pizza Oven thoughts.. 

And here the first one who brings the cellar above the ground or lets say till water level as it is since 4 years continously 1.5 m in the rain season and 2m in the dry season..

safes lots of cash for sure as also in germany a cellar almost doubles the price for a house.

Dirt, I have on my land in massa, as 3000sqm will be created as a rainforest garden, so we have to dig of about 50cm above the water plate and I was already thinking to sell the 3000 cbm dirt otherwise my pond would become a deep hole by filling up more dirt on the construction plot..

 

Because of a slope that I create i have actually the chance to go for that solution.. Any Idea how low the temperature under an earth cover can get?

I tried to turn some drawings my wife made a bit to ont out where the slope is. There will be a creek and waterfall that needs raised and also beside the house we have a slope where the cellar could be integrated.. 

 

[kamalabob2]

See Will:  I have observed that most any building project can be completed in Thailand if you hire the right people and understand the budget. I have been in the underground parking garage at the very end of Sukhumvit Soi One at a prominent family owned hotel that is top rated on Trip Advisor.  The designer of that hotel is currently overseeing the construction of a pond and man made river at a residential home in rural Buriram. The UK expat who is doing the actual construction is a "foundation man" who also builds swimming pools. PM me and I can send you the contact information of the landscape designer and of the swimming pool builder who have completed projects in Thailand and projects where you can go to see actual quality of the work. At my own home two blocks from the Mun River I had a "wine cellar" dug so i could see possible errors on water pipe installation and sewer pipes under two bathrooms. That "wine cellar" has never had any wine stored, never been used for anything other than a proper place to see and fix plumbing issues. No water has seeped through the common brick walls. It was NOT in any way on the scale you are speaking or that I have seen in person at the Ariyasom Villa.  The underground parking at this hotel is not far from the Chao Phraya River.  It was not inexpensive to build underground so close to the Chaophraya river.  On a different note I know of a home that was built by local labor near Krasang with a cellar and it did not work out well for the expat who sold the house at a great loss.  Your architect based in Thailand might be able to refer you to proper designers and underground builders who have completed projects in or near your province. 

[user343434]

Sounds good,

 

most of the things i have done in Europe and this comes quite handy now where I plan to work out my retirement home.

for me is it most interesting how the temperature can be achieved to make it a suitable cellar.

I know the shower in a resort near my place is screaming cold if you don't mix hot water to it.. but undeerground pipes and cellars are far different.. 

[cooked]

I considered and rejected the idea of a cellar here. I was going to brew beer, illegal of course, but let's leave that out. I had the opportunity to measure the temperature in a 2 metre deep hole overnight (that is to say, below the water table) and the difference of 3 °C didn't seem to make it worthwhile. maybe in other regions or times of the year the results would be different.

I had imagined a double wall with the possibility of pumping out excessive water but it just got too complicated for a small cellar.

[Gary A]

I had given an underground home a lot of thought. The first obstacle was drainage. No pumps or anything elaborate. just gravity. The second was that I did not want any steps and finally how to get sunshine lighting in all the rooms. This is the nearest idea I could find.

 

[user343434]

An entire Home underground would be too cave man'ish for my opinion.

Lucky I am planning a partial (3000sqm) rainforest landscape where the soil is just above the water table.

There in the slope I could integrate an experiment including a swamp cooler and sun cimney, that, if fails will be suitable as an accomidation cave for my dogs.