How to Make a Wine Cellar

Wine cellars provide optimum storage conditions for your premium wines.

Wine cellars are a symphony of form and function. The construction details are fixed in order to create the proper storage environment, yet the architectural possibilities are as broad as the grape varietals themselves. Create a beautiful space for the eyes to feast on, store and display your entire collection, and warm the soul of the wine enthusiast in you.

Things You'll Need

• 2-by-6 studs
• 6-mil poly plastic sheeting
• R19 & R30 insulation
• Moisture-resistant drywall panels
• Moisture-resistant paint
• Wine cellar air conditioning unit
• Specialty wine cellar door
• Wine racks
• Hardwood or stone tile flooring

Instructions

1. Establish a budget. An average wine room built with the help of contractors will run roughly $50,000 to $60,000. If excavation and concrete work are required to create space for the wine cellar, then double that budget number. Naturally, if you perform the work yourself, you will realize significant savings.

2. Determine the function and size of your room. Will it be bottle storage only, or will you also want to enjoy dining and tastings in the wine cellar? If you are looking for bottle storage only, a good benchmark to follow this: A 10-by-10-foot room has enough wall space to handle 1,600 bottles of wine. You will need twice that space to accommodate a dining table and chairs along with the wine racks.

3. Since a wine cellar that is excavated underneath the house will likely only be handled by a professional contractor, due the extent of complexity involved in the process, do-it-yourselfers should focus on a standard build out. A standard build out can be in your basement, garage or any room inside the house. It requires only wall framing as the major structural component of the wine cellar build.

4. Choose a wine room air conditioning unit. To properly preserve and mature wine, the air temperature has to remain between 55 and 59 degrees Fahrenheit. The air humidity must be constant at 65 to 70 percent. This unusual combination requires a system different than a standard home air conditioning unit. Wine room AC units are either through-the-wall, split systems or ducted systems. The kind of cooling unit you choose can have a big visual and auditory impact on the space, so study your options carefully.

5. Frame your walls with 2-by-6 studs; 2-by-6 studs are necessary to accept R19 insulation, which is optimal in keeping the air temperature inside the wine cellar consistent. If one or two of the walls are already existing and they are 2x4 walls, you can work around them. If any of your cellar walls are basement walls, frame the wall against the concrete basement wall.

6. Once your walls are framed, install 6-mil poly plastic sheeting to the face of the wall studs on the outside of the room, called the warm side of the wall. This is a vapor barrier. If one or two of your walls are existing exterior walls and you cannot access the outside stud face, apply the vapor barrier to the inside of the wall cavity, wrapping over the inside face of studs to create a complete barrier.

7. With the walls still open and no insulation, it is time to run your electrical. You will need to confirm the electrical requirements for your wine room air conditioning unit, as it will likely require a dedicated circuit, and choose the lighting system. Low-voltage lights and surface-mounted fixtures are recommended. Low-voltage lights limit the amount of heat created, and surface-mounted lights eliminate the surface penetrations that recessed lights can create. Penetrations in the ceiling can cause cooling and humidity loss.

8. Install insulation in ceilings and walls. Use R19 in the walls and R30 in the ceiling. You will need to provide insulation on the floor if it is a particularly cold floor, such as a basement floor slab in cold climate. In this case, furr out the floor with 2-by-2 boards at 16 inches on center, and install a layer of rigid foam insulation on top of the 2-by-2 furring strips.

9. Sheathing the interior walls is the next step, and choice of material is critical. You must use a moisture-resistant product. An older product that works well is green board, commonly used in bathrooms. However, there are more modern products that have a fiberglass facing, which offers more mold protection than standard green board.

10. Paint the interior walls with a moisture-resistant paint.

11. Calculate how many magnums you want to store, cases of the same vintage and so on. Online wine rack sellers will often provide a free CAD drawing based on your bottle storage needs and taste in rack style. Select and install your wine racks.

12. Choose moisture-resistant flooring. Any hard surface such as tile, hardwood floors or brick will work well. Do not install carpet in your wine room as it will surely mildew, mold and stink.

13. Install the wine cellar door. Several of the companies that sell wine racks also sell wine cellar doors. These doors are just like modern exterior doors. They have weather seals all the way around them and a threshold that provides an airtight seal. If there is glass in the door, it must be dual-pane glass.

References

• Cellarnotes.net: Storing Wine