Glass wine cellar

Sorry if this has been discussed but I couldn’t find anything via search.

Does anyone have an all glass cellar? Looking to build one to separate my dining area from a adult game area (billiards, darts, shuffleboard etc…). This will not be used as my only storage, so its not going to be huge. Probably 10ft high by 12ft long and not deep as it will divide two spaces, prob only 15-18 inches. I’m pretty handy and built my previous cellar myself. It was a basement walk in, so this is a completely different beast. Looking for any and all input, even reasons against doing this. I do know the risks with a pool table nearby… :slight_smile:

If it’s glass, then it has to be “Safety” [tempered] glass, like they use in automobile windshields.

But sooner or later there are going to be children in that gameroom, and I’d think strongly about just skipping real glass altogether and trying to work with something like plexiglass/acrylic instead.

The guys who had the aquarium reality show, called “Tanked”, on the Animal Planet network, were working out of “Acrylic Tank Manufacturing”, in Las Vegas.

So Acrylic can’t be all that bad.

Our resident construction expert John Gonzalez can probably give far better advice regarding what glass to use. I’d only be concerned about it being in a game room. At some point something hard with velocity behind it is going to hit it.

Google vintage view for racking

Seems like you need help from the future:

Please update this thread with photos assuming you move forward with a build. :slight_smile:

Yes been looking at different racking options like vintage view.

Yes pool table is a concern, but wife always wanted one so it’s a must.

I haven’t seen acrylic used in my research, wonder why?

You can (hopefully) protect the wine from heat, but how about light?

Timely question as we recently finished building our house and my favorite thing in it - my glass fronted wine wall. I’ve been meaning to post some pics/details as I know there’s been a few threads on the topic.

It’s not completely glass but some of my feedback on the build might be helpful. Plus I’m in AZ as well and can share some of the trades we used. Too tired now but will do it tomorrow…

There is an acrylic hollow panel product that would give some insulation, mostly used for skylights, green houses. Not as transparent as glass, but would not shatter and is much lighter than insulated glass panels.

I see this in restaurants all the time. I would find someone in restaurant construction and ask them. If you are going to DIY for sure I know someone who used exterior grade floor to ceiling picture windows and sliding glass door for a display cellar.

I am building one right now in my florida house - the front and left side are glass, the back wall and the right side wall are drywall with a glass door on the right side. The glass has been ordered and should be in soon - it’s from a commercial glass company, and it’s definitely not cheap! I did the vintage view racks - floor to ceiling along the glass walls and 8 foot attached to the walls with drywall. Will post a photo when it’s done.

Serious question: isn’t one purpose of a cellar to have a dark place to store your wines?

When my wife and I were looking for a house, there was one I refused to go into. It had a bright red front door, with an oval class section, and a spider web design in it. My feeling was that anyone who had such disgusting taste to have purchased a front door like that, would own a house that needed every room to be completely refurbished. I was right, we bought the house when we became desperate, and indeed every single room needed work. The first thing to go was that appalling door, but somehow, I realized it would make an excellent door for the wine cellar. And it does look quite good, much better for the fact that apart from a paint job, it didn’t cost me anything. It has been there 20 years, with kids coming in and out, taken a few direct hits with various balls etc, and come through.

My point is why not google some outdoor glass doors and incorporate them into the design. You can do multiples, they are already toughened and insulated, and depending where the cellar is sited, don’t let in much (or in my case any) serious natural light into the space.

I’m a bit confused why you would want glass as well. To protect from light strike, I would recommend some glazing for UV and blue light.

I would also be concerned with condensation building up. It would be disappointing to have fogged glass or acrylic to look at.

We have a completely glass-fronted cellar in the basement. It is very thick glass and heavy, but still possible it could be shattered, but risk we were willing to take as we liked how it looked. We’re using the 3 deep vintage view racking as well, which I think looks good. It is however a bit of a pain in the butt if you want to drink something in the very back as you need to temporarily move the two bottles in front of the one you’re trying to reach. The whole thing is probably not optimal from a light exposure standpoint but we justified it by realizing that room is pretty dark 95% of the time as the two tiny windows don’t let much light in and if we’re not down there we don’t have the overhead lights on. We personally haven’t had any trouble with condensation.

I have seen this in single family construction in large cities. Usually an alcove with glass door and inefficient wall racking - the type of thing designed by a non-wine person. It looked to me like a humidity nightmare as the hardwood floors were extended into the wine alcove.

As I mentioned, my wife and I finally finished building our house, and while most of the design choices were made by my wife (Thank God), she did leave the wine wall up to me. After doing quite a bit of research and talking to a handful of ‘full service’ wine cellar companies, I decided the best option for us was to design the wall myself, and then sub out the install of the glass, cooling unit, and rack installation. While it was definitely a little more work managing the project myself (really was minimal compared to building our house, which we also acted as the GC on), we saved a ton of money, and ultimately I’m really happy with how it came out. We have a very contemporary styled home, so I ended up going with vintage view racking through Wine Racks of America, as they were the most cost efficient, fit with our style, and allowed us to maximize the number of bottles we could fit within the space (14 feet long, 8 feet high, and 3 feet deep). For what it’s worth, I had a great experience with Wine Racks of America both in regards to pricing and service. There’s great literature on their site around racking options, and using the vintage view specs, I designed the cellar to the best of my ability, and then ran it past one of their design consultants (which they offer as a free service). Turns out I was slightly off with my measurements and would have ordered too much racking, so I’m glad I spoke with them first. Total storage is around 1,000 bottles, and includes special racking for magnum’s and larger format bottles (bottom/center of the wall).

For the glass, I used a local company who I found online and specializes in wine cellar installs, and went with the thicker ½ inch glass compared to 3/8. Turns out it was the same glass company that the full service wine cellar companies sub their glass out to here locally, so I got a great install for a fraction of the price. The cooling unit was the only real mistake that I made. Even though in the back of my mind I knew it was a bad call, our HVAC company that we used for our house swore up and down that they do wine cooling as well, and that this ‘commercial’ unit they were recommending was going to be perfect, and that it would be completely quiet. Yeah…quiet like a freaking freight train. This thing ROARED. It was so bad I could literally hear it from upstairs. Long story short, I found another local company that specializes in wine cellar cooling, and they replaced the unit with a modified mini-split unit and it works flawlessly, and is whisper quiet (literally quieter than our sub-zero refrigerator).

So despite the extra research/effort on my end, it was a fairly painless process, and well worth it in the end. As we all know, part of the fun of this ‘hobby’ is collecting bottles that we enjoy, and that often times have some sort of story or special meaning behind them. So for me, being able to easily look at the majority of my wines through the glass wall in the middle of my dining room is a beautiful thing. Is it the most practical and energy efficient cellar ever? Absolutely not. Does it keep the wines at a consistent 55 degrees and bring a huge smile to my face every time I walk into the house? You bet your ass it does.
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It looks awfully lighten up
Do you have blinders?
Why glass/PC/PMMA anyway