The Practical Ice House 
THE ADVANTAGES OF HAVING YOUR OWN ICE STORAGE PLANT—WHAT 
IS NEEDED FOR BEST RESULTS-PLANS, COSTS AND CONSTRUCTION 
by A. S. Atkinson 
T HE private ice house for the country residence is almost an 
indispensable provision for comfort and economy of living, 
and the uses to which it can be put in catering to the table service 
and in preserving perishable fruits, dairy products, meats, and 
similar edibles are rapidly multiplying. With a properly con¬ 
structed ice house, costing upward of $100, one can lay in a sup¬ 
ply of ice in winter at a nominal cost that will make refrigeration 
possible all through the summer season. Combinations of ice 
houses and cold storage rooms increase the efficiency of the plant, 
and where eggs, dairy products and fruits and vegetables are 
raised in quantities for home use or for market the services of 
such a plant will repay the owner a hundred times for his invest¬ 
ment. 
An ice house is the simplest of buildings to construct, and if 
one keeps well in mind the few important principles essential to 
the storage and preservation of ice almost any one can do the work 
with the help of a day laborer. There are many varieties of ice 
houses in use to-day, built above and below ground, and con¬ 
structed of cheap wood, concrete, stone, and brick. The selection 
of the material may be merely a matter of cost for each location. 
Almost as effective ice houses are made of field stones as of 
cement in many parts of the country, and sometimes the cheap 
wooden affair gives as good practical results as the most elaborate 
structure made of bricks and topped off with stained shingles. 
But the few cardinal principles must be observed in all cases, 
and failure to do this may make the most expensive ice house 
completely worthless. The first principle is that the ice must be 
surrounded on all sides by six to ten inches of sawdust or other 
insulating material or by tight air spaces. This is to protect the 
stored ice from outside heat, air and moisture. 
The second principle is that good ventilation must be provided 
above the ice and under the roof. If there is not proper ventila¬ 
tion, the air saturated with moisture from the ice will be retained, 
and this will cause the ice to rot rapidly and at the same time 
make the place damp, musty and unsanitary. 
The third principle is to see that adequate drainage is obtained. 
A certain amount of the ice will melt in the best house, and if 
The best site for the ice house built above ground is one where the land 
slopes sufficiently to drain off the water from the melted ice 
there is no provision for this to escape it will settle around the ice 
and cause rapid melting. 
If all of these points are carefully observed, and the walls of 
the house made airtight, the ice will keep cool and dry through 
the summer, and the shrinkage of the supply will be very incon¬ 
siderable. Neglect of one of these points is responsible for the 
poor results in nine-tenths of the ice houses constructed. Not in¬ 
frequently designs for ice houses of an elaborate nature have ut¬ 
terly failed because of the architect's or builder’s failure to con¬ 
sider the practical side of the matter. 
The earliest type of ice house was built underground, and many 
of them are in use to-day. The early builders adopted this form 
for very good and important reasons. In the first place, the sur¬ 
rounding earth made the bottom and side walls absolutely airtight 
so that drafts of air could not enter and produce “chimneys” or 
air shafts to melt the ice. In the second place, the underground 
ice house, if built in soil of a gravelly texture, had natural drain¬ 
age. The water would percolate through the open soil and never 
settle around the ice. Where the soil was not porous enough a 
foundation of loose stones and gravel a foot or two in thickness 
was laid first so that there would be natural drainage. Thus two 
of the important points were solved without expense or trouble. 
The ice house built on the surface or above the ground must 
be constructed somewhat differently than the underground house. 
The base and sides of the structure must be made absolutely air¬ 
tight so that drafts of air cannot enter, and some means of arti¬ 
ficial drainage must be provided. This requires sometimes a little 
skill and experience. 
The question of the size of ice house needed must be determined 
in advance. How much ice and how large a house does the aver¬ 
age family need? The smallest size ice house should be at least 
8 by 8 feet inside measurements, and 8 feet high. It is generally 
figured a house of these dimensions will hold about all the ice 
that a small family will require in a year, but if there is a dairy 
connected with the place the amount of ice needed for cooling 
the milk will make too large a demand upon the supply. A house 
at least 12 by 14 feet should be built, and one 14 by 16 should 
Some sort of ventilation, such as fixed slats or open spaces under the 
eaves, must be provided to carry off the moist air 
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