Powder and ammo storage

M

Murdy

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I've got a small room adjacent to an uninsulated outside basement wall, a bathroom and furnace room that I'm thinking I'd like to convert into long term storage (powder, bulk ammo, dried goods, etc). My thought is to seal the room off almost, if not fully and keep these things in there for a rainy day. I could potentially throw things into vacuum sealed mylar bags, and also could install a dehumidifier or just a ventilation fan on a humidity controller.

My question for you all, is how do you store powder and ammo long term? The powder will likely be less long term, but you get the idea.

Also, if you see issues with my plan, feel free to point them out.
 
Go with Post #2 - for what you want to do, heat is NOT your friend.

But I know in Sask was a thing some people made in basement - against a concrete outside wall - three inside walls insulated and ceiling (main floor) insulated - then vent fan to exchange air to outside - is as if "too cool" creates condensation / moisture - so a balancing act to get it cool, but to deal with that moisture content. These rooms used to be called "cold rooms" - for storing garden produce without it freezing or sprouting - do not know if that is still done or not.

We have a Preserved Wood Foundation here in Western Manitoba - basement is R28 walls and concrete floor with 1 1/2" (4 cm) styrofoam under the concrete - if we shut off the in-floor hydronic heating system for summer - will get significant moisture in basement - like 20 litres or more in de-humidifier in about 12 hours - had to run a hose to the floor drain - I could not keep up with emptying that jug inside the de-humidifier. After a few years of that, we just left the in-floor heat system turned on all year - moisture thing just went away for us. Wall thermostat - in centre of basement about 5 feet above floor - is set at 70 F (21 C) year round. Circulation pump runs continuously - it never shuts off. We do not attempt to keep garden produce over winter.
 
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Depends on the furnace. If it is an older draft hood style furnace than I would worry somewhat about heat, could always insult the walls between the rooms. If the furnace is a mid or high efficient there is very little difference in the heat of that room over any other room.
 
The cold rooms usually have higher levels of humidity, and so do bathrooms and furnace rooms, so that would be even more concern to me than the heat.
 
Moisture / humidity in basement - a previous house in central Sask had concrete floor poured on dirt/sand/gravel - apparently a common practice in 1960's - when we built here, codes had changed - required a 6 mil poly "soil gas" barrier - I was astounded how much moisture from soil was found on dirt side of that plastic, once it was laid out, before we placed the styrofoam insulation - without that barrier, that moisture would simply wick on up through basement floor concrete - would be "taken away" by circulating heated air inside, I suppose - becomes a problem when you close off a basement space from air circulation. Must have been harder surface water in that area - multiple white powder deposits under rug all over that basement floor - mostly along hairline "crazed" cracks in the concrete - apparently left behind when soil water seeped up and evaporated. Yet, outside winter air is usually very dry - except it is COLD!! As mentioned, a balancing act to get that dry air in and that moist air out, without freezing up the space.

This place has two Heat Recovery Ventilators - HRV - theory is they exhaust stale, moist air and draw in dry cold outside air - but warm up that outside air with the warm exhausting air - not sure how efficient or successful they are, but is much better than an open window bringing in minus 40 C air into house to be heated. One is in basement to feed the house; smaller unit in attached garage. We have never seen an iota of frost on inside of the windows in this house - no matter how cold it gets outside - so we must be able to keep it reasonably dry in here - and warm.
 
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Every time that I've been in this room (which is not many) it has been good and cool. If I do this, I'll be insulating the walls on the interior and leaving the exposed outside wall bare. I really don't think that heat is going to be an issue.

The points that many of you bring up regarding humidity however... these are my concerns.

So... hypothetically, if I can't keep the humidity low in that room, is storage in mylar bags a viable plan of attack? Does anybody out there use mylar for ammo/powder?
 
I do not use mylar bags to stow powder - all are in the jug or container from manufacturer. But I have not experienced losing 8 pound jug of powder, like other posters on this thread have experienced. I have "learned" to be concerned about temperature for powder storage - can not say that moisture in air has been problem for me - on many metal things, yes, but not with powder in plastic manufacturer containers. Perhaps I am not old enough to still have metal containers, cardboard containers or paper bags of powder left - but I certainly do remember buying and using them!!
 
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