The Survival Man-Cave - Suggestions for the plan?

Walk out into the forest with a shovel.

The farther in you go, the better.

Ideally look for a place you can cross country ski to in the winter.

Is there fresh water near by, is it fairly flat, can you plant a garden near by, can you fish, can you hunt.

Find a clearing in a forest high enough above the water table - Start digging, Make a hole between 10 feet by 10-20 feet. Make it 9 feet deep.

Against the sides of the hole strap barn roofing, plastic or tin so that you have a waterproof membrane on the inside of the shelter. Poor a concrete slab in the hole, 2-3 inches thick.

Bring in 12-16 foot cedar 2x4's or 4x4 posts and Lay them over the hole with 3 feet in between each.

For a 10 by 20 foot shelter you would need 7 of them.

Cut down 14 trees that are 4-6 inches in diameter to act as supports for the 2x4 roof and place them in 2 rows, under each roofing beam.

Install a ladder on the far end of the shelter - to one of the roofing beams.

Cover the outer rim of the roof beams with tarps that begin 2 feet inside the walls and reach 6 feet beyond the edge of the walls.

Lay down barn roofing so that 3 feet of it extends out beyond the walls of your shelter. Cutting a large hole above your ladder. This hole should be cut to fit any door that you have available - that is concealable. A hatch style, Perhaps taken from a dryer, a stove, a fridge, or made custom with waterproof seals. I'll probably use a full 3 foot by 7 foot steel door for a house, to allow large items to have access - This will also allow for locking

Seal in your door. Erect 2-4 vents - Just pipes from the inside of your structure to the outside.

If you want to get fancy with it, drag a woodstove in and pop in one of those insulated metal chimney stacks.

Now that all structural elements are taken care of and water seepage is no longer an issue, begin burying the stucture with the 54 cubic meters of earth you dug out and pray that you built a strong roof. Add more posts accordingly to support you noob survival building skills.

When the earth is on, cast the seeds of a new home, having gathered seeds fro wild flowers, wild edibles, and grasses.

Voila - There you have it , the ultimate man cave. concealed in the forest below ground, all entrances and vents are hidden with long grasses and if tapered properly the roof should appear as no more then a slight bump in a clearing.

It's going to take a lot more then some barn tin to stop water seepage on the inside walls.... I might suggest some pond liner behind he barn tin still it is difficult to stop period. You also need to make sure you are not in the path of some seasonal run off. And the vent pipe need covers and screens to keep the rain and insects out etc.

this could work as hide for a single person but for a family it would be rough. Could be a good place to cache some things. etc. That is a lot of digging with a shovel.

You could take a old gutted travel trailer and put a bobcat in it and haul it out to your spot like you were going to camp and with a generator and some lights dig your place in an evening perhaps?

Interesting idea...

a question though - the fridge, dryer, etc... how are you going to connect it to power without drawing attention? Solar panels can be fairly reflective...

wow! uhh i think you left out the paved road and the flatbed truck to move all of that stuff.

not counting the 4 to 6 months of perfect weather. and 3 or 4 person crew it would take.

living in bc you should also figure what kind of work it would take to dig a hole that size in febuary. good luck boss:

no offence just my take on it

Originally posted by Boredomsux
wow! uhh i think you left out the paved road and the flatbed truck to move all of that stuff.

not counting the 4 to 6 months of perfect weather. and 3 or 4 person crew it would take.

living in bc you should also figure what kind of work it would take to dig a hole that size in febuary. good luck boss:

no offence just my take on it

Rome wasnt built in a day.

And this certainly would be a sound comfortable structure safe from bears and other people.

realistically it might take close to a year to build something like this, hauling materials and digging, working, rigging.

I wouldnt want to be roughing it eternally in a a dug out or a van and as a previous poster mentioned, this would be a great stash for weapons and food, fantastic cold cellar.

Lets not forget that this could be 5x10 by 6 feet deep as well...Complex structure, made simpler.

another idea to add for the cave man with limited time and resources.Dig a big hole ,drive a minivan or caravan into said hole,make an entrance and bury with dirt ,move in and start wondering why you are buried under dirt when you could be parked on top of a hill with a nice view.What or who are you hiding from?

Or you could take it and make it even more complicated if you wish. If you're going to involve equipment I say get a friggin back hoe and make it much larger and deeper than that. You could insulate the walls from water from a water proofing gel I have read about that is made for basements, coupled with the tin and or plastic of some sort you should have a pretty darn water proof structure. You could honestly use some type of method to tie the materials together also without the use of any sort of metal whatsoever, even by using cord or rope to tie the roof together..avoiding metal is probably best because if you are ever in a SHTF scenario you don't want somebody walking up on your shelter and finding you because they have a 50 dollar metal detector.

Think of the movie "Blast From The Past" with Brendan Frasier 20ft deep by 70ft x 200ft you could honestly if you had the ability to get the back hoe at no cost or little cost because you knew someone with one. You could build a structure that size, water proof it, and tie it all together for around $3-5000. That includes being able to include some pretty good ventilation via maybe taking apart and using the screens out of some emergency gas masks. I'm totally going MacGuyver lmao give me a stick, a piece of string, a stopwatch, and a paperclip, and I can make a laser guided missile YA BABY!!!!

reply to post by 12voltz


Well I'd imagine a minivan burried in the ground is a lot warmer then on a hill, If we wrapped it in tarps it would probably resist the rusting a lot better as well.

Who would we be hiding from? Well apparently if you build any type of structure in plain sight, the rangers will burn it down. "Sorry sir, you built on the land that is owned by the province"

Here in BC, Canada - The Fed owns 97% of the land, none of it is for purchase, and in some rare cases they allow you to lease it.

Laughable isnt it? The Illusion of freedom - We're still in a cage - Just a really really big one with chilled out guards.

reply to post by Gradius Maximus


I am so used to a warm climate that i forget that others are freezing.It is hard to live off the grid and i guess the rangers that burn your hut down are probably jealous and dont like the idea of someone having a simple life or are following orders from the safety police.