Subject: Home Cellar
Hello Berserkers,
I am looking into building a cellar at home. Thinking of dimensions of about 6ft wide and 8ft high. I live in Marin County, CA. Does anyone know of a cellar builders or contractors in the Bay area specifically Marin or Northbay?
Here are my options:
Build a cellar in the garage against a corner
a. I have seen many posts on this. Wanted to hear from anyone who has done this recently.
b. I have a door in the garage which exits into backyard. I am thinking of closing it off completely and build a cellar there. Do I need this door? Is it fire safety or building code thing?
My wife wants to get the garage floor redone. Thinking of building cellar under the garage
a. Has anyone done this? Any thoughts or tips would help.
Suggestions on budget for options above would be awesome.
With respect to the underground option - not only would this be cost prohibitive, you would have to look pretty closely into zoning requirements. This might be considered habitable space by the building department and depending on the buildout on your lot you may or may not have additional FAR (floor-area ratio) to work with. Also, depending on when your garage was built, you might be able to build a cellar within the confines of the existing garage but additional square footage will most likely require compliance with current zoning (setbacks are likely to be your biggest issue) or variances, which could have a major impact on the siting of the new garage.
With respect to the door - over the years we have had a couple of issues with our overhead garage door that prevented it from being opened without being released from inside. While it is possible that enough brute force might have forced it open far enough to crawl underneath to release, I was certainly thankful for the side door at the time. This does not count all the times we have been without power and wouldn’t have been able to open the door. If it were me, I would relocate rather than remove the door.
Excavating is the most costly option. And most likely you’ll need 2 exits for fire safety as you’ll be adding a floor technically and floors need 2 means of egress as I recall. If that’s easy and the cost are within means, go for it, but its work.
I had a large area underneath my house excavated out for my cellar, it was work and thought on meeting codes. Fun there-after.
Why not just buy multiple le cache coolers or one of the wine rooms for the garage? That seems like by far the most economical solution for such a small cellar.
100%. I was going to say the same. Given the size of the cellar that you’re looking for, this route would be by far the cheapest (and easiest) solution.