My studs are up for my cellar. Insulation, visqueen, caulk and greenboard are going up in the next 4-5 days. But i was trying to decide on those other critical parts like is there a specific type of paint to use or not to use? Ceramic Tile for the floor or marble, granite or wood? I have seen wood but im worried about the high levels of humidity. What wood species for my racking as i want to avoid the soft pine but also avoid high cost of black walnut or other exotic woods. Decorative glass style door with very low r-value or solid 1 3/4" solud oak six panel door?
Joe, best to use a low VOC paint. I was affraid of wood also for the same reasons. Regarding the racking, a long time ago there was a thread about this and someone posted info from the forestry service and according to that my best option was white oak, it has very similar rot resistance to redwood and once properly sealed it can exceed redwood, and way cheaper. However it’s a little grainy, but cuts, takes nails, etc. very well.
Regarding the door, the cellar pro guy did a pretty extensive “performance audit” of my cellar build and a glass door is a negative with regards to load on the cooler, but I think you mentioned you were trying to go passive.
My only other advice was the first lumber yard I priced non dimensioned white oak I was shocked at the price, so I thought well they had to buy it somewhere so I found a distributor and since I needed quite a bit they would sell to me direct at a much lower price and then subsequently found where they bought it and bought directly from them at a tremendous savings, you might try that.
Bz
I used vinyl floor tile i one cellar I built? Cheap, easy, easy to clean, and not bad looking. Not self-stick, but contact- cement glue down. I used a solid door in that cellar. In the next cellar, the home came with a finished room and I had insulation blown in to the walls…and the existing door. The door split at the seams from over- blowing a bit but it was easy to repair and worked great.
We bought some of our racking from them, allowing me to blueprint the system to build my own racking. Then I ran into the same problem as Craig. The local yard’s prices were way too high to make it cost effective. The racks we did buy were mahogany.
Should have bought that racking Joey Cuccaro had for sale and pieced it in.
Before buying racks check around for restaurants that have gone out of business. A week after I put mine together I found a deal where I could have saved 60%.
We used cork floors and love them. We also used an exterior grade wood frame glass door and I love it since I walk by the cellar a couple of times a day. Even without the light on you can see it well enough to bring a smile to my face. I don’t know how much cooling I lose through it but I can’t feel it on the outside.
I had two redwood racks that are slowly falling apart. Part of the problem is they are free standing and not anchored to a wall. Movement loosens nails and screws so I suggest you anchor them to the wall and not use them as a free standing island. I have a homemade pine rack that is holding up real well at 20 years of age. The rest are mahogany and doing very well at 12 years and one major earthquake.
Since you mentioned flooring, we have a free floating wood floor in the wine cellar. Because the wood expands and shrinks, I did not anchor the racks to the walls. Breakage and damage was surprisingly limited after the earthquake. The wine store room has a concrete floor and all shelving and racking was anchored to the wall. A lot of bottles above 6 feet on the shelves/racks took flight. Fortunately, you aren’t in an earthquake prone area.
At any rate, i am trying a passive cellar first. Im going to hold off on racks for a while and monitor temps. If i cant get the right temps over the summer months, then i will insulate the two concrete foundation walls using 2" rigid r-10 insulation and drywall. And a cooling unit. At that time i can add the permanent racks.
The pic looks like you used 2X6 studs. You can cram a lot of insulation in it. It also looks like it’s in your basement and maybe deep enough to remain nice and cool passively.
A glass door may not be the most efficient, but they are a statement
You might look into coating the floor with epoxy. Unlimited colors, textures, sheen, etc. and relatively inexpensive vs slate, marble, tile etc. Done in 24 hours and very durable.
Very cool floor. Yes im in the basement. That is the south wall full foundation 9 feet high. Im lowering the ceiling to 8 feet so i am 12 inches below grade plus a 6 inch slab stoop outside of that with overhangs. Im trying to use those foundation walls for cooling effect. Ill get r-19 insulation in those 2x6 walls. Ill put some rigid on the crawlspace floor around the perimeter.
Andrew, for “low cost” pre-fab racking the prices seem low but it’s all pulp wood and tongue and groved to make the long runs and is dimensioned very thin. I was forced to make use of my vertical space so I had to go up 10’ and was worried about the cheaper racking carrying the weight. When pricing raw lumber white oak was much cheaper.
Joe, if your in no hurry do the craigslist thing sooner or later you’ll get lucky.
I am 25 miles south of DC and I went passive with similar approach but conditions not as good as these. Temp swings from 55F at the coldest to 68F at the warmest. The extremes are short lived so most of the time the cellar sits in the 58-64 range.
Like you I left the foundation walls without insulation and the interior walls are only 2x4 so r-13. You should be able to cut down the high temp that I get as I have about 1 foot above grade and a small window. The window does face east (the cellar is in the north-east corner) and gets very little sun. Also my doors while they are solid wood exterior door they don’t seal completely when closed. I did leave the floor uncovered and just painted the concrete to get full impact of the heat sink. So with what you described as completely below grade, no window,r-19 on the interior walls, and better door; I am guessing you could keep your summer high to 66.
I should note my temps are taken at a height of 5 feet and next to the door. Temps along the floor and/or opposite the door are slightly lower. Also the temps are for a cellar full of wine (~1200 bottles) so not sure exactly how much influence all that mass has on the temp reading if any. I am sure it slows the swings but may not influence tha actual high or low.
Have you thought about having the door open out? If you ever need/want to use the floor space, it will be much easier to do so and maneuver if the door opens out of the cellar.
I used ceramic on the floor. Since it was a relatively small room, I went to the tile store about bought a close out by the front door for $1/sq. ft. I used the bigger tiles (i think 14x14) which made installation easier in a earthy tone redish brown color. I did my walls and ceiling with tongue and groove cedar, unfinished. It think it looks great and could not justify the cost for redwood. Most of my original racking came from Ikea. Their IVAR system offers the ability to use both bottle racks and shelves for boxes/crates. I left it unfinished. I have since filled in all of the nooks and crannies with more flexible unfinished pine racking from Wine Racks America offered in a large variety of sizes and configurations. I just replaced the small table that I had in the middle with a tasting table from Wine Racks America that gives me another 128 bottles of storage.
