Debris shelters

Gaurdian_A1

Gaurdian_A1

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Jul 28, 2009
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Whenever i go out into the bush for any period of time, i have an agenda, somthing i want to practice or learn more about..I went out yesterday and built a solid debris shelter...turned out really nice...I built it on the edge of an opening on the forest floor, surrounded by young mountain ash trees, giant cottonwoods and spruce trees ( quite the mix )

It is also built underneath a patch of big spruce trees for added protection against wind and rain.

The frame. This shelter has good bones..as you can see, i set up the main spine of the shelter lean-to style instead of traditionally and found this to work really well...very stable.
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The frame taking shape..front view
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After adding loads of twigs and sticks as crossmembers i pryed huge pieces of dead cottonwood bark to use as shingles..typically, you would cut your main braces on the shealter to no exceed the spine so rain wont run down the stick into the shelter, i didnt bother because i had the shingles.
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After that, i started to add debris and vegetation wherever it was needed to make the shelter impervious.
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shelter complete...i added a few more pieces of cottonwood bark, and lots of leaves and vegetation..turned out not to bad IMO.
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inside shot. Absolutely ZERO spots of light or any hint of light coming through the roof on this thing...The way the cottonwood bark is layed out when it rains it will travel down the bark into the ground.
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backside
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other side
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anyway, i had alot of fun making this shelter...best thing about debris shelters is that the more stuff you add to it, the better it is...the hieght of the peak was at my chest and i'm 5'8"..so i am guessing 4' tall...nice shelter.

enjoy.
 
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Neat! That's always a fun project. Thanks for the pics.

If you'd allow it, I have a few small suggestions for future shelters. One, try building it much smaller on the inside. It should be such that it's almost difficult to get into. Smaller area inside means less energy to heat it. (And when it's crappy enough to need one, it may be your body doing the work of heating.) Two, use a lot more vegetation on the outside (leaves, branches). There are two reasons for that. Firstly it affords better insulation (it'll take like two feet of leaves to achieve this). Secondly, it improves the odds of making it water 'resistant'. Even though no light go through your shelter above, it's quite unlikely to have protected you from rain.
 
SpookyPistolero said:
Neat! That's always a fun project. Thanks for the pics.

If you'd allow it, I have a few small suggestions for future shelters. One, try building it much smaller on the inside. It should be such that it's almost difficult to get into. Smaller area inside means less energy to heat it. (And when it's crappy enough to need one, it may be your body doing the work of heating.) Two, use a lot more vegetation on the outside (leaves, branches). There are two reasons for that. Firstly it affords better insulation (it'll take like two feet of leaves to achieve this). Secondly, it improves the odds of making it water 'resistant'. Even though no light go through your shelter above, it's quite unlikely to have protected you from rain.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions!
 
Great shelter bro !! Did you use the 5 for all/most of it ?
Awesome shingle job.:thumbup:
Looking forward to the next outing.:)
 
What everyone needs to consider here is also my location and the time of year.

Its summertime, and was 26 degrees out when i set out to build that shelter that day. I built it under a conopy of evergreens...it was raining hard when i got there, but where i chose to build the shelter was dry...Most of the leaves on the ground from last fall have deteriorated.

If that was built in late fall, i would have access to sh*tloads of leaves, which would aid in insulation due to the colder environment. But all of this beind said i would have a fire going in either situation which would warm me as i was in the shelter..maybe not all of me, but it would be damn good enough!:D I looked at some of those debris huts in the ESEE contest and couldnt help but notice a few different guys built thier shelters in a low spot on the ground with a flat roof and tonnes of leaves on top...thats all good and fair, but rain settles in low spots and pools on flat surfaces..even with a pile of leaves on top, rain would find its way through eventually.

My roof is steep, and i have natures finest shingles covering my roof, and i stuffed vegetaion and what was left of last falls leaves in all the nooks and crannies..but there was no uncovered spot on that shelter..before i even started covering it with ground materials i made sure that the cottonwood bark thoroughly covered the frame. So based on my site selection, the materials i used and the fact i could have a fire with my shelter..I would be warm and dry.

I also am religious about carrying a thin 14'x14' sheet of poly with me in one of my cargo pockets on my pants..If i didnt want to goof around i would just throw that over the shelter as it is, throw some logs on the edges so it wouldnt blow away and bed down for the night.

I made one once that had a moss/leaf roof entirely..we had BRUTAL rain for 3 days, and that shelter was 100% dry inside. no issues.
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thank you for all the views and responses though, i love all the different opinions and such, you never know when you're going to learn somthing new.

Thats debris shelter # 14 for me.

-G1
 
hiwa said:
Great shelter bro !! Did you use the 5 for all/most of it ?
Awesome shingle job.:thumbup:
Looking forward to the next outing.:)
Click to expand...

No buddy i had the 4 that day, i only cut 1 branch with it and used it to pry bark off of dead trees. The 5 would have worked even better though.

When i made the one out of moss i carved a special " moss knife" to cut strips of the forest floor for roofing on the shelter.
 
What thickness of poly do you prefer? I assume thin enough to carry, but thick enough not to rip?
 
Nice shelters!

I have two further suggestions on the first one: (1) pick a somewhat larger horizontal support pole. The one you use looks from the picture somewhat thin. If you stack more debris on it or - more important- when the roof gets soaking wet from rain, it might collapse. Furthermore - place the pole in front of the vertical support (i.e. trees) as opposed to the back - this strengthens it even more. I usually place two supporting sticks under the horizontal pole too, to stabilize it. The added weight from the roof will only make this a stronger construction then.

Keep building them!

-Emile
 
I really like that moss/sod shelter.
on the current one, what did you use for cordage to tie the main braces/spine together?
 
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