My house has a lower level walkout basement. At one end of the house, the far end of the pic below, is an old deck that is 15x22 with 15 on the walkout side. I am considering excavating the area under the deck out for a Garn cave. Two sides would be masonry against earth. One stick wall shared with the existing lower level with a door for inside access. The fourth wall would allow the boiler to slide in and have a large door probably big enough to stick the 5' bucket of my tractor through. The boiler would also vent through this wall. The ceiling would be concrete poured over a steel deck.
My biggest concern is that I am putting a big piece of steel that I plan to have for a long time in a concrete room with little ventilation and potentially not that dry. Second, the man cover access would have to go through the concrete deck. I think I can hide this with a table of sorts on top and from what I've read here I am not going to need access to it that often anyway.
Anyone think these are show stoppers? The big benefits are interior access for tending, exterior access for fuel, location is in the geographic center of the heat load and a perfect place for the dhw tank and I can vent horizontally.
My biggest concern is that I am putting a big piece of steel that I plan to have for a long time in a concrete room with little ventilation and potentially not that dry. Second, the man cover access would have to go through the concrete deck. I think I can hide this with a table of sorts on top and from what I've read here I am not going to need access to it that often anyway.
Anyone think these are show stoppers? The big benefits are interior access for tending, exterior access for fuel, location is in the geographic center of the heat load and a perfect place for the dhw tank and I can vent horizontally.