Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Planning to Build your Own Wine Cellar at Home?

For any wine lover, a wine cellar is a valuable addition to the home. It's a perfect way to store and protect all types of wine for a prolonged period of time.


Whether you’re collecting wines on a large scale or whether you simply like to keep a number of your favorite wines at hand for yours and your friends’ enjoyment, a wine cellar can ensure that you get to enjoy your wine at its very best. This is because these cellars protect wines from potentially harmful external influences, providing darkness and constant, regulated temperatures that are perfect for your wines. When properly stored, wines not only retain and maintain their quality but many even actually improve in taste, aroma, flavor, and complexity as they mature. An alternative to wine cellars are wine refrigerators.

Things to Consider in Building a Wine Cellar

Location

In building a wine cellar, one thing to consider is where you are going to build it. The location that you choose will have a future impact on the cost of the maintenance of your cellar. It is recommended to place your cellar in the coolest and most humid place in your home. The closer you are to the optimal storage temperature of 55°-58° F and 55-75% humidity that your wine will need, the smaller size of the cooling unit you will need and the lower the overall cost will be.

For Newly Constructed Wine Cellar

If your cellar is a newly constructed, you have to stud the space to frame out your wine cellar. To begin, seal the concrete foundation walls prior to installing studs. If you are using spray foam, you can use either 2x4 or 2x6 constructions. The 2x6 construction can be used when you need to increase the insulation value for you to lessen the cooling unit size and energy consumption. Make sure to obtain a permit and comply all local, state, and national building codes when building your own wine cellar.

Building a Soffit

If you’re building a soffit to cover ducting, piping, or other obstructions, make sure that you install the lighting far enough away from the soffit so that it does not interfere with the finished racking and/or ducting depth, including depth of crown molding. A rule of thumb is to leave a 1” gap from the front of the crown molding to the closest edge of the ring on the can light. Make sure also to make use of IC can lights so you can insulate around them.

Installing a Self-contained Cooling Unit

If you’re installing a self-contained cooling unit, first make a hole in the wall adequately sized for the unit and also run an electrical outlet near the space. This may need to be on the inside or outside of the unit based on the unit you decide to purchase. You would also need a drain line, so you'll need to allow for a location for a condensate drain. Ensure also to allow for a 110V electrical outlet for a humidifier in the wine cellar as these units do not have the ability to add humidity to a wine cellar.

In installing insulation and vapor barrier, spray foam is recommended. Though it is normally more expensive, but spray foam will prevent the possibility of a puncture mark in your vapor barrier caused by someone inserting screws, running wire, plumbing, etc. into or through the wall from outside the wine cellar. Make sure to leave no air gaps between the insulation and drywall.

After installing the vapor barrier, put insulation in the stud and joist cavities. You can use fiberglass batts. Make sure that the entire cavity must be “fluffed” with insulation leaving no air filled cavities.

Placing Electrical Outlet

Make sure to place them in the dead spaces at the corners where your racks come together. Ensure also to follow your local building code for outlet placement and that remember they can supersede any recommendations made for outlet placement in your cellar.

Covering the Walls and Ceiling

Make sure to use material that is resistant to the high humidity conditions that will be present in your cellar. The most common choice for wall and ceiling coverings is water resistant drywall (commonly referred to as green board). Make sure to screw the green board into the walls and ceiling of your wine cellar. Make use of fire rated penetration sealant to seal around all penetrations on both sides of wine cellar.

Painting

After covering the walls, next is paint the dry wall. Start with a good primer on the drywall and then make use of water based exterior grade paint. Make sure that the drywall is covered all the way to the floor.

Installing a Wine Cellar Door

Make sure to install an exterior grade door sealed on three sides with weather-stripping and the bottom with a threshold and door sweep. If you’re planning to use a glass door, you will need to thermopane it to allow for insulation properties and to ensure it does not condensate on the glass due to the temperature differential.
If you are planning to use can lighting in a wine cellar, then make sure to use thermally fused can lights, also referred to as IC rated cans.


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