I'm in the process of completely renovating an old cottage located adjacent to the main house. The idea is for it to function as a simpler guest house for overnight stays and maybe be used a few times a year (mostly in the summer). Under 2/3 of the cottage, there's an old cellar that has seen better days. The initial plan was to also renovate this and spruce it up to store some canned food/vegetables, etc., but we've realized it's too much work.
So the question is: how can you "decommission" a cellar? Do you have to fill it up with some kind of gravel, leave it as it is, or could you brick/cast over all openings to become a "box"? As you can see from the pictures, it's quite run-down. It has some kind of steel construction; the walls contain stone and some kind of concrete, and it's starting to fall apart.
Deep clean, wash walls and floors thoroughly, and do rough repairs on the walls. You never know when a basement will come in handy. It's also good to be able to monitor moisture in walls and make new installations from underneath.
Thanks for the response!
Yes, maybe that is what we should do then
The problem is that there is only one opening up into the cabin, not directly from outside. I had hoped to avoid installing a new hatch in the floor to avoid sucking up damp basement air and bad smells, but maybe it can be constructed in a smart way to avoid that?
