Brian, thanks for all that data. Im hoping for the best on the passive system. The subdivision i am in is older with larger half acre plus yards and old growth trees. My yard and home is primarily shaded in summer with about 5 trees with heights of 60 feet and tree girths between 36-48". They really spread out over my yard plus other trees here and there. But direct sunlight will never be an issue.
The space i have will allow for about 1000 bottles in racking and enough width in the aisle for more cases but i only own 360 bottles right now and am trying not to go over 400. From peoples stories here though i decided more rack space was better for when my habit goes out of control.
I used exterior siding in 4x8 sheets for the interior walls. That way I didn’t need greenboard and didn’t paint. Used greenboard outside of the cellar even though probably could have used regular 1/2 inch drywall. The wood siding does seem to “absorb” moisture so sometimes I leave a larger vase of water with a washcloth hanging out in a corner or on a shelf to add some humidity.
Got my racks made by Apex, but through Costco.com. 7’ height, perfect sizing on openings (not too big as to waste space but also big enough for even the largest bottles (some that are crazy big are a bit tight). i used leftover travertine tile from my home’s interior. Glass door (exterior dual-glazed pre-hung with weatherproofing) from Home Depot (Special ordered) for under $300. And as suggested, door opens out!!!
Only thing I would have done differently now is use the newer LED can trims (Which is a simple switch-out now) , and of course, I wish I made it bigger!
I did but aesthetically i would rather see from the public side(family room/bar area) a door that is not flush with the wall. Plus i just never hope that my cellar is ever so filled that the door swing becomes the issue. I would imagine at that point there would be 2000 bottles in there. For me that would be insane amount of wine.
I am also trying to utilize the granite i already purchased for my first floor remodel. I have about a half slab of black galaxy, giallo ornamental and uba tuba. Really just using it for a countertop at one end of the cellar. But the floor colors and wall colors are affected by my granite choice.
Again, this is almost exactly my story. Carried 360 bottles on average for a decade and even into the first couple years of the new cellar. Then in what seemed like over night we were over a thousand. I know longer remember what I designed to (1800?) and I can already see that if we don’t change behavior we will run out of rack space in a few years. I guess then we just stack bottles on the cellar table or as we have already discussed replace the table with a center island of additional racking.
Best of luck with the cellar. I always like reading these build-out threads. I got so many ideas in preparation of building my own. I was really lucky to find some local good 'ol boy craftsman cabinet makers to custom fabricate my racking at a fraction of the price of any of the usual suspects. Based on what I wanted for performance they suggested using clear heartwood cypress which is pretty available in my area. It was my best decision. Dimensionally stable, tough and probably the most rot resistant wood out there (moisture turned out not to be an issue for my cellar).
For the floor I went with 14x14 ceramic tile I bought at close-out from Lowes for $0.70 a square. Insulated with sprayed closed cell icynene, including the floor. Green board drywall. Low VOC satin paint. Recessed LED canisters. Insulated exterior metal cased door.
The one non-optimum feature for my cellar was that, due to the location, it was not feasible to put in a split cooling system without the compressor being in the front of the house. Had to install a contained unit vented into my garage. Luckily the garage is large enough so the unit does not work that hard in the summer.
+1 on outswing. Guess I would have had the opposite view on aesthetics. But in addition to the added space (and you’ll realize you were insane for not providing for the space one day), you avoid the hassle of having to close the door to access the racks to the right. (although I’m not sure in your case you’ll lose any real space with inswing - you can go along all walls equally either way given your design.
So i was in my basement and i looked at my cellar construction. My contractor placed all of the vapor barrier on the inside of the cellar area. Now i told him it had to be on the warm side. The outside walls. This is due to humidity and temperature changes that will occur inside the walls. My problem is this. Inside the cellar room will hopefully or should be 50-70% humidity at 55-60 degrees. So why am i wrapping the wood studs and ceiling joists inside this high humidity cacoon?
the concern is over condensation, not humidity. Water won’t condense when it hits a warmer surface, only when it hits a colder surface. Therefore you want to keep the moisture from hitting the colder material in the cellar, even though your basement may have Lower humidity than your cellar it still has some.
