Building A Wine Cellar

Full room insulation to keep temperatures at a steady range.

Building a wine cellar.

The best location for a wine cellar is below ground level in a basement generally where cooler and more humid conditions already exist. These steps will provide you with an extra layer of protection. Building the wine cellar. A passively cooled wine storage area is built into a room that is naturally humid and cool.

You need to choose an area away from appliances machinery or heavy traffic as vibrations can integrate sediments into the wine that can accelerate the aging process. We recommend building the walls using 2x6 lumber instead of the standard 2x4 for interior construction. This will also require an adequately sized exhaust room to absorb expelled heat. If you place the outlet outside of this area it is possible it will be obstructed by one of the wine rack posts.

Room length ft room width ft room area sf usable wall space ft avg. How many wine bottles can i fit into space. These wine cellars have little maintenance cost and won t fail even if the power goes out. A corner of a basement with two exterior walls and free of windows is ideal.

Passively cooled wine cellars are built in rooms that are naturally humid and chilly. It is important to follow your local building code for outlet placement and that will supersede any recommendations made for outlet placement in your cellar. Usually they are surrounded by 2 or 3 walls of earth and located in climates known for temperate weather year round. Once you ve determined where your wine storage is going to go there are a few steps to the building process that are wise to follow.

Common questions when building a wine cellar are. Don t build your wine cellar where mechanical or power failures may ruin your wine. How big do i need to make my wine cellar. Wine cellars built above grade simply require special attention and materials to properly insulate and seal the custom wine room.

Then purchase and install a specialized cooling system to keep your wine cellar within the optimum temperature and humidity range. If the location of the wine cellar tends to get too dry a humidifier will be required. The reason for this is so you can add more insulation to the walls. First make sure the space you ve chosen is properly framed and insulated.

Here are some of the climate control actions you need to take when building a wine cellar. The simplest way to build your own wine cellar is to renovate an existing room in your house. Make sure the insulation is also a good vapor barrier. The best places for these wine cellars are typically temperate climates and basement rooms that are already surrounded by a few feet of earth.

For large wine cellars a wine cooling system may be necessary. The more insulation the better for your wine cellar building a wine cellar without adequate insulation is also a common problem. 12 mil reinforced polyethylene sheeting installed as an air vapor barrier first then rigid foam insulation over the poly. With a 2x6 wall you can easily fit r 19 between the joists instead of r 14.

Determine usable wall space and average wine bottle capacity by simply entering your wine room dimensions in the table below.