Lucio Lamborgio

This thing has been "done" for almost a year.
We have a big wood stove in there and burn it frequently to help the logs dry. Works pretty well as a sauna. Up to 130 degrees in there sometimes.

Instead of disconnecting our barrel at the base and vacuuming out the riser and manifold, I just put a shop vac into the fire box as a blower and air-blasted out all the ash. It really helped to have an exterior, horizontal clean out. Make sure any interior cleanups or connections are gaskets so the positive e pressure doesn't blow ash inside. So fast and easy.

We did it on a super rainy day so the ash just washed away into the lanescape like a mild volcanic eruption deposit. You could add a pipe elbow and blow into a filtered bag if your scene doesnt support a dusting of ash.

I tried to search out if someone has already posted about this but didnt find anything.
If this idea is redundant, my bad....

Move in ready!
Still gotta: dry out logs (2 years?), bury it (by hand), build exterior wall, and set the side buttresses for a full bury (gonna wait till summer/excavator to stack rock).

It's cold and dry in there!

This front drain is connected to the perimeter foundation drain on the downhill side. It doubles as the low side vent. I understand that making an earthened vent is something Sepp does to pre-cool the air before it enters the cave in hotter seasons but I haven't totally got my head wrapped around how this will function passively. Seems like the cold cave air will drain out and suck warm air in through to ceiling vent, i.e. heating the cave. This vent is shallow and adaptable so its not a big commitment. We'll see. Any explanation from the wise/experienced or commentary would be appreciated.

Drain at front and fine grading to help with dryness.

Membrane details.

Effluent.

The pressure relief from the site excavation and a few saturating rainstorms have sprung 3 springs on the back side of the cave. Overnight the sidewalls sluffed out about 2 cf of soil into the ditch. It's a nice confluence of events and timing as the 2nd layer of geotextile-wrapped drain rock had just been added. No evidence of significant flow is noted around the foundation walls and about .5 gpm is flowing from the pipe drain terminus. Looks pretty clean. Time will tell how long it works.

Membrane protection.

We folded and nailed in old hole filled tarps around the corners and across the roof in another effort to minimize membrane stress and puncture dangers. Always looking for a way to incorporate items slated for a trash pile.