We are looking at down-sizing our house as we are splitting our time in multiple states and our kids will soon both be in college. I built a passive cellar in our current house that has a capacity of about 750 bottles and is currently about half full (more accurately, half empty).
We are looking at beach houses in our area, many of which do not have basements, but many of which have in ground pools. That got me thinking…I wonder if anyone has ever turned an in ground pool into a wine cellar/wine bunker. Crazy?
Didn’t do it but knew someone who did. He collected a lot of Burgundies, built a cellar where his pool was and covered it with dirt. Got divorced, his wife didn’t care about wine, he lost his business and car and all his savings, now has his house and a cellar of wine that’s been kept at 55F for many years.
I would check with current building codes. There is a reason you can’t have basements in your area and the structures must be elevated. You would need to pull permits most likely.
That’s a good point - you don’t want to have water seeping into your cellar or hit some underground stream. NJ is a very wet state so you’d want to check thoroughly.
Walt - funny. I don’t know if she left the dog. I didn’t know the guy well, just met him a few times thru someone who did and he seemed like a dry and bitter fellow. Then I found out his story and his disposition made more sense. Poor bastard. BTW - he was in NJ. I would think that as you head towards the western part of the state where it’s hillier, you wouldn’t have as many problems with subterranean cellars.
The reason that most houses built today don’t have basements is a matter of economics - it’s cheaper – and not because of an elevated water table (of course those areas would be an exception like Louisiana). But, certainly you’ll need structural engineering for the “cap” on the pool, and you’ll need to drill major holes in the bottom of the pool to allow ground water to seep into the pool, lest it will literally pop out of the ground like a boat if heavy rains saturate the ground and elevate the water table temporarily. Obviously that necessitates a sump pump or other drainage. It could even be cheaper to demo the pool and build a wine cave in its location.
If it were me, I would not do this to a pool. As a complete aside, I recall in the fires about two years ago, someone threw all of their wine into the filled pool to protect it. The wine survived, but it must have been fun drinking hundreds of bottles of wine with no labels!
Appreciate the feedback. Knew it was a crazy idea, but we are getting a bit anxious given our house is sold and we are still looking for 1 each houses in 2 different states.
We are less than 4 miles from the beach now. Looking at some that are 1-2 miles away. Some have basements, some don’t. Mostly a cost issue. Just looking for options.
As to the story above on the other NJ resident that did this and then hit a bad luck streak…My 1st wife got the dog and the house in the divorce. Dog died shortly thereafter (just saying). 2nd wife introduced me to wine. So far, so good.
