Well, at least you’ll be able to keep the corks wet when you stack the bottles upright.
I also love these cellar build threads. Even more so now that I am in the beginning stages of planning one of my own (~6ft x 15ft). We are having our basement finished and am hoping to have the contractor build out a wine cellar which he has never done. I was planning on doing the racking myself. We live in the Boston area and are at least 9ft below grade. The area where I am planning on putting it is surrounded on 3 sides by foundation w/o windows. I am contemplating passive but am concerned that with one long wall part of the finished basement I might need active cooing.
I’m speaking with my contractor this week and would to have some more specific ideas as to what I might require from him. Any suggestions / advice? Any good online resources?
TIA
-Jason
Getting there
Sideways
Hi All-
Reviving this old thread, as I need some help! I am in the process of building a cellar, but I am struggling with finding an appropriate door. The issue is the size of my rough cut-concrete opening -which is roughly 35"w x 74.5" high. Obviously, my contractor will need to add some wood framing to mount it, reducing the size of the door itself from here. Most off the shelf doors are 80" tall, so that knocks out a standard door from HomeDepot/lowes. I have been calling all over, and people are giving me estimates of $3k for a basic steel door, which seems high compared to other more essential doors we have replaced in the house. This is not a showpiece cellar, and the door will be in my non-finished laundry/storage room in my basement. Ie; I don’t want anything fancy. Just secure, insulated, and good QPR. I live in the DC area.
Any advice on where to look?
Seems to have a number of “shorter” doors. A good finish carpenter could cut a solid core door or even build one for you.
Bruce- thank you!
My studs are up for my cellar. Insulation, visqueen, caulk and greenboard
Why not use steel studs and extruded polystyrene? Greenboard can grow mold, so why not use wonderboard? Instead of building a closet, people should think like they’re building a bathroom and it’s a lot easier.
Any wood will be OK in the interior if you seal it. I built my own cellar in a few days, used plywood for shelves sealed with water-based ply, and never had a problem.
Anyway, it’s not like the cellar is going to be underwater, so whatever you’ve done to date is going to be fine. Best of luck!
That’s crazy and steel doors are terrible (dent). Take a look at a local lumber yard for Thermatru. They come in stock widths of 2-4,2-6,2-8 (plus the width of jamb, framing and casing) which will easily fit your opening. The stock height is 6-8 and will require a double cut (off the top and bottom rails) by the millwork shop. I’d expect this door to be +/-$1200 in fiberglass, maybe $1500 with full clear insulated glass.
I’m kind of excited I am 95% finished with my wine cellar expansion. I previously had a 5.5’ x 8’ cellar carved out of my third car garage. I had to go through the garage. Adjacent to it was a laundry area in the garage. After we had to move/replace the HVAC system, the opportunity to open a door to the home for a fairly good size enclosed laundry came about -exciting the wife - and giving me the opportunity to enlarge the wine cellar, and provide through the house access. We framed the two new walls, moved the cooling unit, and then demolished the old walls that made way for a roughly 9x11 cellar. Installed travertine to match the laundry room (and because the original cellar had travertine remnants installed and I did not want to remove the racks). The number of bottles in racks has doubled, but plenty of floor space and new shelving for OWC cases instead of stacking them on top of racks which worried me in case of earthquake.
Finishing touches remain, including face frames on shelves with a lip for a modicum of earthquake safety, baseboards, door trim and touch-up paint.
(The racks to the left and straight up to the magnum rack were the extent of the original built-in racking)
Bruce, do those cardboard boxes start to breakdown over time because of the humidity?
Craig,
Not Bruce, but I’d doubt there’s any problem with the cardboard unless actual liquid water comes in direct contact with the boxes. I would think humidity wouldn’t be of much concern unless we’re talking tropical/sub-tropical conditions.
Btw Bruce, nice job, your cellar looks fantastic.
Thanks Alex!
Craig, I’ve only been using the cardboard since Realm started shipping in them (2012 vintage). I guess the Cirq since 2011 too. I took some extras and made vertical boxes of some cherished Myriad Dr. Cranes I want to save. The boxes seem to have no degradation over the two to three years max at 58% humidity on average. If they start to break down I’ll move the wines to racks.
Any advice on where to look?
I imagine you found your door already, but you can always build one. It’s basically a box. I made it the same thickness as the walls and used the same insulation - didn’t want to have six inches of insulation and then a door that squandered it all. Others have used exterior doors.
Mine was not nearly as nicely turned out as those pictures posted - those are almost works of art, but it was in the basement and was meant to be strictly utilitarian. Next to it were storage shelves and behind it were gardening supplies. I had construction tools since I grew up in the construction business, so ripping the shelves, etc., wasn’t a big deal although it would have been much faster to buy pre-made shelves. Either way, in the future I’m making individual slots - the bins are a pain.
Regarding oak - it’s light, strong, doesn’t split, and it’s not too hard. Also good with moisture - they use it for ships and barrels after all. But if you seal it, there’s little to worry about.
Door looked like this, I suppose I could have done something far more elegant but I only had a weekend so didn’t spend a lot of time thinking it over:
Inside ended up looking like this, again, strictly utilitarian - I wasn’t going to spend time hanging out in there:
While certainly my door is not 72" as you may require, but one does not need to spend thousands on doors if you have good cooling/insulation otherwise. The entry door in my post above is a dual-glazed glass door from Home Depot. They cost about $225 - it is a little more if you need to order an outswinging door.
I like your shelves Greg.
Thanks for posting this thread. It has been providing a lot of food for thought as we embark on our Cellar project.
We’re starting a build out in the next two weeks. Ours will be on the utilitarian side with powder coated metal racking, ceramic tile flooring, and holding about 2,000 bottles. We’ll be installing a split system refrigeration unit.
I am going to enjoy having most of our wine on-hand and fewer hour long drives to off-site storage.
That’s win-win! Looks great!
First, I would never use an insulation except spray foam insulation. It costs a bit more but has the advantage of high R value per inch and also is the only type of insulation that is also a foolproof vapour barrier. If you use conventional batts you end up with dew points forming half way through the insulation and condensation resulting. Closed cell spray insulation gives you an R value of 6.5 per inch, so a 6 inch space results in R 40.
Second, although many sorts of hard flooring look wonderful, if you drop a bottle on them (I should say when, not if) it is toast then and there. I use a commercial grade of woven Berber that is thick enough to allow a bottle to fall from a top shelf with a 90%+ chance of survival, assuming it doesn’t strike any of its brethren on the way down.
I suggest that you screw the bottom of the racks to the floor in case of earthquake and use square section lengths of foam under the necks the lowest rank of many whites (e.g. Alsatian) that have suicidal tendencies when stacked in a bin.
I used my old solid oak front door in y new cellar - has the advantage of a knocker and deadbolt! Picture taken in mod construction before door mouldings etc.
Bill:
Won’t the carpet mildew in short order from humidity? If you don’t keep the cellar humidity above 60% your corks will dry out in a few years.
Never had a problem with humidity - used similar carpet in my old cellar and no issues for 20 years.
Ideal humidity is anywhere between 50% and 70% (mine is usually 60-65%).
If you have spills you can spray them to prevent mildew, but if you are really worried about it, cork offers some resilience (easier on wine bottles and feet.