I’m planning out basic layout of cellar, planned for about 1100 bottles. For those who’ve alread done this, does an 8 x 8 foot footprint seem about right for 1100 bottles? I don’t want wall to wall bottles. I want to leave some space for a shelf or two and a display shelf for some magnums. Haven’t yet decided on the exact cooling unit.
Lee
8x8 sounds pretty tight if you don’t want wall to wall. I would look into the racking you want to use, make a layout that works for you, and then see what size space you need.
I agree with doubling it. If I knew than what I know now, I would not have bought the 900 bottle ‘wine room’ when I had 200 bottles.
It was full within 2 1/2 years. Then I bought a 300 bottle unit… and it’s full too, with about another 150-200 bottles sitting in boxes on the basement floor!!
You’re gonna need a bigger boat.
The bigger you build it, the more wine you need to buy so it doesn’t look too empty! I learned that the hard way and am now working on spreading out my wine so I can hold off the desire to fill it up with more wine than I need!
I’m thinking that you’ve got a pretty tall order there and it will be tough to get 1100 bottles and still leave yourself all that extra space. But I what do I know.
A google search found this: 8x8 Square wine cellar design for 944 bottles. I don’t know anything about this particular company: Wine Racks America.
Good luck.
I just built a cellar about 9’ x 10’ (converted a bedroom). If you build your racks two bottles deep and go all the way to the ceiling (24+ bottles tall), you have a chance. There will not be much space for wine paraphernalia though. Another option is to leave space for OWC’s or shelves (X-bins for example) where you can rack a case or so with the bottles touching each other. You can get a few more bottles in there. Good luck on your project. Oh, and do not forget racking for half bottles and magnums.
I opted for more open space and only built racking for ~600 bottles and put in a table and wine barrel.
Wine Racks American, Vigilant and a couple other companies have all the specs and will design for a fee. Collect the measurements from their racking and calculate what you can cram in there. 8 X 8 is tight, but you can look at the optional types of racking/storage, including a two bottle deep counter in the middle of the room.
I built a cellar that was 6x11 with the door on one of the long sides and no racking on the ends. It had double-deep racking on one side (custom constructed by my then-girlfiend and myself) and single deep on the other. The middle three feet of the long wall opposite the door (the two deep side) was mostly empty above counter height. The racking was built 3.5 inches on center vertically and 4.25 inches on center horizontally out of 1x1 and 1x2 (3/4x3/4 and 3/4x11/2). That allowed for columns 27 bottles high and 11 columns in a 4-foot space. I had 6 of those, so the cellar held 6x297 or 1782 bottles, plus another 160 or so under the counter and a few mags that we provided for above the counter.
I’ve studied this a lot and a rectangular room will get you more bottles than a square room if efficiency is your goal. With a square room you lose the corners. Longer and narrower is better and the optimal width is 5, 6 or 7 feet depending on how much - if any - double-deep racking you have. I’ve also studied it a lot and rectangular bins are not much more efficient that single-bottle racking and diamond bins are LESS efficient. I realize this defies what you’d expect but it’s true.
Bob, your comments are interesting. I’m thinking of 9x9 with 8 foot height (earlier version was 8x8), which gives 648 cubic feet. With preliminary plans based on proposed racking, I came to a bit less than 1100 bottles. Your 6x11 layout yields 528 cubic feet assuming 8 foot height. Yet you get 1782 bottles. I’ll look into rectangular.
And don’t forget to calculate space and location for the cooling unit, electric outlets, (if any) and put all switches outside the room if you can.