How to Make an Underground Fort

If you like this Instructable, It would be extremely appreciated if you voted for me in the Wood Challenge. 

First I would like to say these can be extremely dangerous. I made mine by myself but that is HIGHLY not recommended and can lead to serious injury or even death. Do not be in denial about how dangerous this can be because it can be extremely dangerous. Always have someone there with you. I cannot stress enough how dangerous these can be.



In the middle of making this my camera broke and I couldn't take pictures of some of it but I will do the best I can to make this instructable good.


You can make your underground fort as deep as you want. Just keep in mind that the deeper you dig the bigger chance of collapse. Mine was made 6 feet on one side and 5 feet on the other because the area I made this on was going down hill. You can also make it as long and wide as you'd like.

It kinda depends whether you would want wooden walls or use the dirt as walls. I used wood because I was scared of snakes and bugs. I can't guide you through the building part because It would be to complicated to explain and the way I made it was very complex and had unnecessary things. If you have a plan on how you'd like to make it you could just build it like a fort that is not underground as it does not matter once the hole is dug. Just use pressure treated wood so the rain does not destroy it. I will explain it as using the dirt as the walls as well as using wood though I will not explain HOW to make the walls and stuff.




What you will need:
A shovel
A bucket (If necessary. I didn't need one.)
A saw if there are any tree roots you need to cut
A weather treated sheet of wood for the roof
A wheelbarrow to move extra dirt
Treated Wood (if you are not using the dirt as walls and would like to build a room.)

Use your shovel to dig how deep you want it. This can be very exhausting and time consuming but it was well worth it in the end for me.  In the photo it shows the pallet I used for the floor that I had put in. If you are using the dirt as walls that is not necessary and you do not need a pallet in there. If you are not using the dirt as walls you do not need to use a pallet as the floor only because I did. 

As I said before, You have to build your room your own way. I will briefly explain how I did mine though so I can give you an idea.


I put a pallet down in the hole and nailed wood planks onto it and used that as the floor.
I put four wooden beams up that were nailed to the pallet
I got 8 wooden planks and made 2 go across from 1 beam to the other on each of the 4 beams.
I nailed sheets of wood onto those wooden planks that are connecting the beams to make walls
I connected the beams at top with 4 wooden planks
I got a sheet of wood for the door and connected it at top with a hinge. 


Or you can skip all of that and just get a sheet of wood to cover the hole, cut a square out of that for the door, And get another sheet of wood to cover the hole in the door and connect it with a hinge. Just expect to see more bugs and snakes ect.

Put dirt over your fort and fill in any extra space if there is room around it. Your goal is to make it as level as the dirt around it not put a pile of dirt on top of it so keep that in mind.

Camouflage your fort so that no dug up dirt is visible. For instance, If the area has a lot of leaves, Disguise it in leaves. If the area has a lot of pine needles and sticks, Disguise it with pine needles and sticks. Use the surrounding materials to hide it. 

Use your wheelbarrow to remove excess dirt around your fort. You can put the excess dirt where ever you like. After you remove it the ground still might look somewhat discolored from the dirt that was previously there. If that is the case also disguise that with the surrounding materials.

A while after I finished my fort it rained and pact down the dirt around it so I had to put more dirt there to make it level again. To prevent that just pact down the dirt yourself as you are building it. It was rained several times since then with no problems. 



As for bugs, I noticed a slug problem right away. The day after I made it there were around 3 slugs in it. I removed them but every time I go down there there is at least 1 slug  down there. I sprayed bug spray and that prevented spiders from going down there but there are still slugs. I just have to live with it.


If you spray bug spray in yours then don't go down there for a while because bug spray has lots of chemicals.

You can now enjoy your underground fort! 


Note: I have to clean mine up a bit