In building a house in Western North Carolina we ran into a large rock when digging out the basement. The decision was to wall around the rock creating a smaller basement and step the outer foundation walls up over the rock creating a root cellar with a large rock which protruding from under the stepped up foundation walls. There is a door from basement to root cellar but currently no outside foundation vents. We'd like to take advantage of the damp cool environment and use this area as a true root cellar but assume that damp environment will create problems for the 1st floor framing and insulation above. All I've read on crawl space waterproofing entails a installing a vapor barrier on the ground which obviously doesn't work in this case (rock rises to just below the floor joists in one corner). The best option as I see it is to install a drop ceiling under the floor joists and insulation creating a vented 6 to 12 in. cavity with vapor barrier between it and the root cellar below. The only other alternative seems to be leave floor joists and insulation exposed and vent the whole root cellar which would reduce root cellar performance and may not keep floor above dry enough.
Thoughts? Other (better) solutions? Code restrictions that apply here?
Thanks
Thoughts? Other (better) solutions? Code restrictions that apply here?
Thanks
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