I assume you are asking about framing because the plaster is directly applied to the brick? Or is there already framing with insulation behind the plaster between the plaster and brick? Personally I would tear out the plaster and then put in standard 2x4 framing with spray foam. You’ll lose 4 inches of depth (framing + drywall) or less depending on the thickness of the plaster that’s taking up space already.
In my case, i tore open a closet in my basement (9.5’ wide x 4.5’ deep). The long back wall and one side wall is 2x4 framing in front of the concrete foundation wall. Spray foam was applied 3” thick directly on the concrete to fill each stud bay. The other wall is spray foam applied to drywall since it’s an interior wall. Mold resistant dry wall (green board) seals the walls. I’ll have glass doors installed to replace the original closet double doors.
No way my cellar is winning any awards for being the most efficient, but It’s at least located in a spot that does not have any direct sunlight hitting it.
Plus…it makes me happy every time I walk into the house
I mostly agree with this. I had two bids (all inclusive) by cellar builders, with an average cost of $35k for ~800 bottles. The higher bid had more bells and whistles, e.g., glass doors, decorative led lighting in the racking, and black oak racking, and I chose them for the job. When I saw a break down of the costs for each phase of the build, I was astonished at the basic construction costs, so I hired individual contractors for demo, insulation/drywall, electrical, and tiling. This saved me about 30%. I chose the cellar builders for the racking because they offered CAD designs with multiple revisions, and the racking is custom built for the space, which helps maximize storage and allowed me to add some design elements like arches, display cases, magnum racks, LED lighting etc. while being able to see how the space will look. Also I didn’t want to hunt for a glass designer on my own because I have no experience with glass doors/walls and wouldn’t know who to trust with a cellar. I’m sure if I had gone with Wine Racks of America and found my own glass guy I could have saved another 20%. In the end, it will be a little under $30k for my project. I’m guessing you can get away with $20-25k.
Rich, I’ve liked your wine wall for sometime now even when I could only see portions of it. I am also thinking of doing something similar. What type/brand of a split unit did you go with?
Thanks Albert! And that’s awesome - I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with the decision.
For the split system, I looked around locally and was able to find the company that does the cooling for most of the full-service cellar companies here in town. They modify regular home AC units and it works flawlessly. Better yet, any maintenance is easily done by them (or prob most hvac companies). Happy to provide additional feedback as you get into it - feel free to PM me
Ive always wondered this as well, for this type of cellar - they are popular and I see them in a lot of new builds these days.
The light must impact I would have thought if you are doing 5+ yrs of aging?
I would be curious to get more feedback on this, too. Obviously if direct sunlight is hitting the cellar/bottles then it seems like a huge problem, but I’m curious if even indirect light causes problems.
Mine is placed in a spot in our dining room area that does not get any direct sunlight, so I’m not worried about it (just regular 1/2 inch glass).
Its definitley not the most efficient cellar in the world but the enjoyment i get out of it every day supercedes any lack of proficiency by a wide margin
So my builder is finally available this fall for my renovations. We’re dusting off these plans to get a better sense of costs.
Did folks replace the flooring or insulate it somehow as well? I just have 2” oak hardwood planks over a shallow crawl space below that stays pretty cool. Thinking that shouldn’t be much of an energy concern but don’t want to spend all this time on the rest of the framing and insulation and have the floor choices somehow screw it all up.
Can’t help much on the cellar, but I’ve had some experience with crawl space issues. Humidity is the usual problem. If you are not having issues now, I would not be too concerned. On the other hand, if I was dropping $20-30k into a project like that, I think I might have an expert look at it. Depending on site specific issues, maybe a vapor barrier. You need someone that knows what they are doing, or you can create problems.
Rich - how much room did you leave on the interior of the enclosure between the glass and the front of the racks so that you could reach in and access bottles? Looks like maybe 4-5 inches based on seeing the few bottles standing in the front on the left? Do you wish you had more room or was that amount of space actually unnecessary for accessing the bottles that are directly behind the door seams?
I think you can do a bit better on the glass. That said I obtained 3 quotes-$25k, $12k, and $6k. All were for about the same-double pane glass, door, etc. Due to supply chain issues and 4 months to get the glass and door installed he insisted on giving us a $100 discount-so we had it done for $5900. We used Wine Racks America also. Alder with a custom gray stain. All in was right at $20k. Could have reduced a few things and got to $16-17k. I’m glad we finally did it. It’s nice to have a walk in wine room.
As for something I would do differently-this wine room is adjacent to our tv area in the basement. The WhisperKool unit points out across the chairs/sitting area. The cooling unit is not as quiet as I was thinking it would be, and it does kick on more often than I thought it would. We did increase the unit 1 size due to the amount of glass we have. If I could do it over again I would have put the cooling unit above the racks on the door side-so the sound would mostly be on the other side. We did think about that but decided we didn’t want to see the cooling unit when we got to the bottom of the stairs. It would have been fine there, we just didn’t think it through very well.
Yep, that’s about right. And zero issue at all with that amount of space as I’ve never had trouble reaching the bottles based on how the doors were installed. Plus, we have a pretty ‘minimalist’ look at our house so I wanted to maximize storage while keeping the space as tight as possible.
Glass is beautiful but horrible for energy efficiency. That said, if you insulate everywhere else you can you can lessen the effect. For insulation and vapor barrier, you can never beat foil-faced polyiso for space efficiency. You can maximize R value and the foil is the vapor barrier. Tape the seams really well (don’t forget the ceiling) and it will work without losing too much space. You can do the slat-board wall or drywall directly over it (longer screws to the studs) and it ends up looking like any other room.
I had a great experience with Wine Cellar Innovations for my racking. Inexpensive, looks great, and is well-sized to fit almost all the bottle sizes/shapes.
Nah, closed cell foam is 10000% the way to go. You don’t have to worry about any of those things that you mentioned. And with my modified mini-split system, I haven’t had any trouble keeping it at 55 degrees even with the glass. The enjoyment I get from the wine wall is for sure worth any loss in efficiency.
Wine Racks of America was an excellent experience for my racking (and free design consultation). Just another option
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