Building a cellar door

WINE TALK
1

I am converting a closet in to a small cellar. My goal is space efficiency. Given the footprint and existing roughed in opening, I am planning on this not being a walk in room. It’s really just a 30” deep, 80” wide closet. I will be putting up vapor barrier, insulating, and still using a cellarpro unit that I already have on hand. Cool climate basement, concrete floor.

In order to be able to access everything, I’ll be using double doors. The current rough in width is 72”, so just a few inches too narrow for a standard 72” exterior door.

The options I have come up with so far:

  1. build a modified (4” depth”) version of the door described in Richard Gold’s book.
  2. reframe the current rough opening so I can fit a commercial exterior door.

I’ve done plenty of renovations and think I have the carpentry skills for either. My questions for the experienced cellar builders:

  1. any other ideas on door options that will give me access to the entire width of the cellar?
  2. if you have tried building your own door a la Gold’s book…how was the experience vs your expectation? The written description seems like a short afternoon of work. I feel foolish for committing that to words, and am sure it will now be a multiple of that time.

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Honestly, depends on what you want to spend. You could get a double door with a decent R-factor made in 68", 66", … There are custom shops. Mine came from a custom shop, more for look and style than size.

If looking for off the shelf, you’ll be constrained, but there are options there too. Could do 2 individual 32s (full glass) opening out with 2 studs separating them.

Just thinking out loud given your situation.

Also, if rough in space is 72, there are ways of cheating a bit on the framing, i.e. the left and right walls just encroach by an inch to an inch and a half on each side behind the door and you make it look decorative with some molding if you really want to go 72 double door commercial.

3

Have you considered pocket doors? As long as the receiving pocket is insulated correctly, this might be a convenient way of doing this without worrying about where the door is when it is open, etc.

The other thing to consider is how you will secure the space.

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