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Show me your long term shelters!

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Shot from last weekend.
IMAG0754.jpg


In the snow.
IMAG0315.jpg
 
The top shot is the second incarnation after a rebuild was needed. It will happily sleep 4 people and is fantastic at trapping the heat.
It is a hell of a lot of work and rescources to put together but with regular maintenance it will last a year or two no problems.
We have a nice brick laid heath in the center which stores the heat and radiates it outward. There is also a metal plate in the bottom which stops the fire eventualy working its way down.
One thing i did notice last time out was that a good leaf covering makes a hell of a difference in retaining warmth. This was obvious when the first night we used tarps to cover a few holes where the shelter was unfinished and the heat jsut flew out whilst the next day we got a thin covering on the gappy bits and it made a huge difference.
Will dig out some proper pics when i get a min :)
 
The only problem with building long term shelters near to where I live is that people will see them.....and smash them down. Cruel world we live in eh?
 
treadlightly said:
Very interesting....look forward to more pics. btw, how high and thick are the walls?
Click to expand...

Struggling to find any more pictures but i will definately take some next time i am up.
The height now is about 5ft,10. The walls when done will be about a foot or more thick, more the better. You also find after a few weeks without a visit a lot will have slipped down and will need topping up which takes no time at all.
2fa9a898.jpg
 
Thanks. So, are the walls made entirely of woodland debris and do you leave the tarp up when not there. Sorry for the extra questions but i am thinking of having a go at this myself.
 
No worries ask as many as you like, no point in us both making the same mistakes as I have in the past.

The whole shelter is basicaly the same shape as a 50p which supports its self when constructed. Make sure to dig your footings well for the 6 main upright posts and choose green wood or very good condition dead wood about wrist thickness or more. Same with the horizontal supports, these need to be strong and are a nightmare to replace later on should you use wrotten wood or wood thats too thin.
The poles that surround the shetler are all bout thumb thickness and can be dead or green. Lucky we had a lot of ash and hazel coppice at our site but even still its a heck of a lot of material, probably a few hundred atleast, but.. if done properly it will last years and most of the materials will see you through a few rebuilds. The poles will also need to be atleast 7 feet long to give you enough room in the shelter its self.
The walls are just leaf little/pine litter and light soil.
The tarp is usually left over the top whilst we are not there or left in place and raised a little to allow more smoke to escape. The tarp also had a silver reflective inner which can make a massive ammount of heat trapping as its bounced back down into the shelter. Not needed at msot of the year mind.
I will take some more detailed measurements in the next few weeks as it was all done by eye.
 
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My understanding is that debris shelters need the best part of a metre thick covering to be weather tight and very regular topping up ie almost daily
 
jonajuna said:
My understanding is that debris shelters need the best part of a metre thick covering to be weather tight and very regular topping up ie almost daily
Click to expand...

We have had a shelter in that spot for about the past 3 years and there has never been more than a foot or so of thickness in the walls. From past experience about a foot/18 inch is more than enough to shed the water especialy when you take into consideration the angles involved. You also get quite a bit of shelter just being under the canopy. We can go a month or two at a time before getting a woods pass and after a few visits of topping up very little repeat work is needed, certainly no more than about 15-20 mins work. There would also be a daft ammount of weight if the litter had to be a meter thick.
 
Some friends and I have built a handful of variations on the large group shelter using leaf litter and evergreen boughs, (I tried to post piccies but my PC had an episode, so I've edited the post) they easily last over a year with only remedial work. However built with cut poles and more time they can last years, I'll try and resolve the piccy thing. Coz I'm really rather proud of them.

Fingle
 
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dwardo said:
We have had a shelter in that spot for about the past 3 years and there has never been more than a foot or so of thickness in the walls. From past experience about a foot/18 inch is more than enough to shed the water especialy when you take into consideration the angles involved. You also get quite a bit of shelter just being under the canopy. We can go a month or two at a time before getting a woods pass and after a few visits of topping up very little repeat work is needed, certainly no more than about 15-20 mins work. There would also be a daft ammount of weight if the litter had to be a meter thick.
Click to expand...
My experince is that dwardo is spot on, my unit of measurement is roughtly from my elbow to end of my fist as a thickness or depth .
Good luck!
Chris
 
Hi Sam,

Check out my Advanced Long Term Shelter building article in Bushcraft and Survival Skills magazine. It's in two parts, first should still be on sale now, the second is due out towards the end of Feb. It'll give you some ideas regarding design and using the local resources. No tarps needed!

Cheers

Joe
www.wilderness-survival.co.uk
 
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