Root vegetables, cold floors and sealed-in-glass table tops
STORING ROOT VEGETABLES
Question: The Complete Root Cellar Book you wrote in 2010 inspired me to try your sand can idea for storing root crops. Does it need any ventilation?
Answer: The sand can approach uses a new metal garbage can to keep root crops fresh for a long time in a root cellar. Lay down three or four inches of dry sand on the bottom of the can, then place unblemished carrots, beets or potatoes on the sand close to each other, but not touching.
Add another layer of dry sand on top, then more vegetables, then more sand until you’ve reached the top. Keep the lid on the can and it will preserve internal humidity and boost storage life.
The only thing the sand can needs is to be kept in a cool space that never freezes. Temperatures a few degrees above freezing are ideal, but in practice things usually get warmer than that. Anything up to about 4ºc or 5ºc (about 40ºf) is pretty good. Dig down as you need to retrieve your vegetables, troweling out excess sand into another container as you work your way down.
As for ventilation, no. The idea with the covered sand can is that it holds moisture that would otherwise escape and let the root crops dry out. Just be sure to use dry sand to load the can.
INSULATING A COLD FLOOR
Question: What’s the best, most practical DIY option for insulating a floor above a four-foot crawl space?
Answer: One of my favourite approaches is to add rigid sheets of two-inch-thick extruded polystyrene foam insulation on top of the subfloor, with a layer of five-eightsinch plywood on top, fastened to the underlying joists with screws that go right through the foam. For this to work you’d need to add a new finished floor on top. If that’s not what you plan, closed-cell spray foam between the joists and on the bottom of the subfloor will work well, too.
One thing I’ve never seen work well is batt insulation stuffed up between the joists. It tends to work it’s way down with vibrations from foot traffic, and mice love to make nasty nests and tunnels in it.
Even with lots of insulation in the floor, it will never feel truly warm underfoot. For that to happen you should consider electric in-floor heating as part of your plans. My favourite is DITRAHEAT made by Schluter, and it’s easy to install and has proven reliable over years in my experience.
MAKING A SEALED-INGLASS TABLE TOP
Question: How do I finish a wooden table so it looks like it’s covered in thick glass, but the wood grain pattern still shows through?
Answer: The effect you’re talking about is done with clear epoxy resin. It comes as a liquid that you mix with a hardener. Depending on the formulation, you have more or less time to get the liquid epoxy poured before it starts to firm up and harden. One feature you’ll need when working with a table top is to build raised edges around the perimeter of the top to contain the liquid epoxy when it goes down. The thickness of epoxy is generally a quarterinch or so.
You can expect the epoxy to be smooth and fairly attractive without further work, but you can also polish the surface for a truly glasssmooth and shiny result. Start by sanding the area flat with an 80-grit belt in a belt sander, working through with 120-, then 180-grit belts.
After that switch to 220-grit in a lightly-wielded random orbit sander, working up to 320-, 400-, 600- then 800grit. Beyond the you can switch to a polishing pad and auto polisher using progress grades of polishing liquid.