Paul,
I went with the VintageView metal wine racks and I am very happy with them. They hold a lot of wine in a small footprint and they are relatively easy to install.
Regards,
Jon
Don, The link you provided does not work. Maybe it’s just my iPad, but just FYI.
try this.
http://vigilantinc.com/index.php
+1 I also have VintageView…
That’s what I did - very happy with the results.
Thanks. Are you doing bins?
Some bins, but the jigs will be to build vertical individual bottle racking. Some double-side, some single. I have made some serious commitments to have this done before the summer.
If you have an IKEA near you, they have a pine wood wine rack. You can leave it unstained or stain it any color you’d like.
Here is what you will need:
(2) HEJNE post 67 @ $5.50 per pair. These are the 67 inch vertical posts that come in pairs.
(max 14) HEJNE shelf, 30’ @ $4.50 a piece (they come in 2’s). These are the shelves that easily screw into the posts.
(14) OBSERVATOR @ $3.50 each. These are metal racks that go on the shelves and hold 8 bottles.
So for, $11.00 + $73.00 + $49.00=$133.00 you get a rack that holds at least 112 bottles.
Jon -
I’d be curious if you could give some stats about your cellar and the VV racking? # of bottles? Dimensions of the cellar, etc? I have a mix of VV racking and wood racking but was curious abot capacity in an all VV racked cellar
Alan,
You can determine how many lines of racks you can fit by dividing the length of the wall by 13". If you are going to put racks on the adjacent wall, then you will lose about one line of racks on each wall in the corners. You can cheat a bit if you want and build one wall all the way to the corner and then start the adjacent wall about 5" from the front of the other wall’s corner rack. I cheated a little bit and was able to get 13 lines on a 16’ wall. I used a combination of 3’, 4’ and presentation racks. That will hold 858 bottles. If I used two 4’ racks per line I could have got 936 bottles on that wall. You can also install racks in open rows that are secured to the floor and ceiling. That adds quite a bit of cost though as the supports are not cheap.
Jon
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I think I’m going with double-deep wood around the side, a VV stand-alone section in the center, and a one-ton Wine Guardian split system. The space is about 26 x 13. The contractor has speced 3 inches of closed cell foam; I’m inclined to tell him to frame the space with 2x6 and up the insulation (basement in DC) but would be curious for thoughts.
Paul - I framed 2x6 and was happy I did. The closed cell foam is hard to control, so if you get what you paid for, you’ll actually get more - the last thing you’ll want to see if insulation getting scraped off and thrown away!
The 1 ton unit seems big - have you used their calculator spreadsheet? If not, I have it somewhere and can share.
Thanks. If there’s something more detailed, I’d love to see it. The info I was looking at just gave huge ranges (800-3000 cf for the 1/2 ton and 1500-6000 cf for the one ton). I thought better to be a little overbuilt than tax the unit, but if I’m just giving them another $1100 for no reason that would be good to know.
What’s the additional cost? More is more, and the question is how much more are you paying to reduce your cooling needs.
Paul,
Is the framing going up in front of existing cinder block? If so, everything I read indicated that you want to pull the framing out a little bit so the vapor barrier aspect is as complete as possible. That makes it closer to 4 inches of foam at 6-7 R value per inch. 24R is probably as good as you need.
James
Thanks to both of you. I don’t know what the marginal cost is, but my guess is not a ton (the change in framing cost should be negligible, and for the insulation is just materials and not labor). I’m thinking power outages more than cooling costs. The guy’s specs say three inches, but I haven’t had a chance to walk through it with him yet.
The guy’s plan seems decent, but he’s insulating the floor, which seems like the wrong move to me. It should be at least 5 feet below grade, probably 6 (without even counting the slab); maximum soil temperatures at that depth around here seem to be around 70 from what I see on geothermal sites, and usually much less.
I am sorry i did not insulate under my floor - and now it is too late. WhAt is the downside?
You should insulate the floor if it’s feasible - I live in DC as well and did the calculations in a similar situation. Basement is about 6 feet below grade. Average ground temp in DC is 57, with +/-10 degrees at 5 feet deep. (And probably warmer under your house because it’s not exposed to cold temps). Your slab/foundation is an infinite heat sink, and if you do the cooling calculations will probably be the biggest BTU contributor to your cellar (if you’re looking at 3 inches of closed cell that’s ~24 r-value; your floor is about 1 r-value if you put down wood flooring - i.e., 24x as much BTU). Anything you can do to reduce heat gain from that will keep cooling effort down.
The best way to check your soil temperature is to measure it. The charts have such a wide variance because of water content, soil composition, convection heat, etc… This will all impact the benefit of insulation and a vapor barrier. There are inherent risks in insulating a floor due to moisture and you will uniformly lose volume in the room without a lot of R gain. Unlike walls where the increase in R value is cheap and risk free (although some loss of space), floors are different. I had the same question when starting construction of my cellar and a measurement made me realize it would rarely go above 60 in the summer at 7-8 feet below grade. Granted I am still building it, but I feel good about the flooring. I have just finished terracing the hill outside the house where the split system condenser will go. So there is some progress.
Measurement’s a good idea but probably impractical (I can’t put the reno on hold until August) - I might at least be able to see what the story is today. I’m balancing higher cooling load against a passive “backup” - if the cooling unit goes out for a few days in the summer, I’d rather go to soil temperaature than ambient.