Do-it-yourself wine cellar or how to make a "Ambrosia Cradle"
How to provide wine with optimal storage conditions
A short excursion to a self-built wine cellar is already a serious reason for the white envy of your guests. But in order to surprise your friends and neighbors, you will first have to make some efforts. Looking at the aesthetics and unique design of already implemented projects, you might think that the desire to build a wine cellar on your own directly borders on a pipe dream. But away from doubts! Take this challenge! Study the basic requirements for this room, decide on the project and get to work.
Content:
- DIY wine cellar: basic requirements
- Converting an ordinary cellar into a wine cellar
- Building a wine cellar from scratch
- Wine cellar interior
DIY wine cellar: basic requirements
When you start building a wine cellar, you should always remember that you are creating a non-trivial and somewhat exotic room. Therefore, its design must be carefully thought out. Everything should be taken into account: from the size and ending with the angles under which the bottles of wine will be stored. Otherwise, you may end up with a regular eggplant cellar.
It sounds somewhat exaggerated, but it is. After all, the conditions inside the wine cellar must meet certain parameters:
- First and foremost, the temperature regime must be strictly observed in the inner space of the wine cellar. The ideal temperature in the wine cellar is +11 C °, but depending on the varieties of stored wines, other options are possible - from +10 C ° to +14 C °.
- Air humidity is also important. In order for the wine corks not to dry out, and the walls are not covered with mold, this indicator should be kept around 70% (± 10%).
- The wine cellar must be completely protected from sunlight. Be aware that only artificial lighting will keep the exquisite product intact. Well-planned illumination can always bring a special touch of aesthetics to the existing environment.
- The room must be reliably protected from vibrations. This requirement is not essential, but the proximity of a wine cellar to a railway line can adversely affect the quality of the drinks stored in it.
- Proper ventilation must function in all rooms of the cellar. It is not necessary to make it forced, because a natural exhaust is quite suitable to ensure good air circulation.
This is what one of the participants of our portal says about a successfully implemented project of a wine cellar (about ventilation and room size).
slawickk
FORUMHOUSE member
Ventilation - natural, supply and exhaust - in every room. The height inside to the vault is 2.5 m in the large room and 2.25 m in the rest. The photo shows that the floor is at different levels.
Converting an ordinary cellar into a wine cellar
If there is already a spacious basement under your house, for which you have not yet been able to find a worthy use, then the arrangement wine cellar in its inner space is the shortest path to creating a reliable storage for hoppy and aromatic drink.
Despite the fact that the room is already ready and “tested for strength”, you will need to bring it in accordance with the requirements listed in the previous section. So, a user of our forum Yawa3891 recommends first of all to make sure that the basement is completely protected from the ingress of groundwater inside. But even if this is the case, you still need to hedge yourself and waterproof the walls, ceiling and floor. After that, you can start creating effective ventilation. If the existing system is insufficient (this is determined by the moisture level), and on the wall surfaces pockets of mold were noticed earlier - it is good to think about installing equipment for forced airing.
It makes little sense to objectively talk about the layouts of air ducts and the power of the recommended equipment within the framework of this article. After all, it all depends on the characteristics of the room and on its area. Equipment must be selected individually for each project. Ventilation manufacturers are best suited to address these issues. The same can be said for climate control systems. Their characteristics can be determined only by consulting with the specialists who will be engaged in the installation of climate control equipment.
Yawa3891
FORUMHOUSE member
Based on the percentage of moisture, wood is selected for all products - wine cabinets, racks, etc. An important point is in the air conditioning system. It is installed in a complex, you need to select it immediately for the entire project. This will allow you to determine the size of the cabinets and ensure that the optimum temperature is maintained throughout the cellar.
In terms of interior decoration, there is a huge space for imagination. But we will return to this question later.
Building a wine cellar from scratch
If the presence of a spacious basement or at least a small cellar at the construction stage of the house was not planned, then this flaw can be corrected by creating a wine cellar on the territory of a suburban plot. This process is a little more laborious than the one described in the previous chapter. But you will have the opportunity to implement a project of the desired scale and apply the most preferable design strategy to it.
Before "grabbing a shovel", try to think carefully about the project of the future premises. Give him special attention and write your thoughts down on paper. Only in this case the future building will fully meet all your wishes.
A special wine cellar is built by analogy with a cellar for storing ordinary products. The whole process can be divided into several main stages:
- Creation of a pit with specified dimensions. The dimensions of the pit should be about half a meter larger than the outer dimensions of the walls. This will subsequently make it possible to make high-quality waterproofing of the cellar.
- Pouring the foundation, reinforced concrete floor and building walls (walls can be brick, concrete, etc.) - it all depends on your preference).
- Waterproofing floors and walls.
- Installation of the upper floor.
- Creation of the aboveground part of the cellar.
- Installation of doors, installation of climatic equipment, arrangement of ventilation and implementation of the finishing part of the project.
If there is any kind of elevation on your site, then the cellar should be built in this place. This will protect yourself from the troubles associated with the rise of groundwater. Before construction, geological surveys should be carried out for the depth of the underground aquifer.
Building a wine cellar is similar to building a cellar for food storage. Only in our case it is necessary to comply with the requirements listed in the first chapter of this article.
Wine cellar interior
With a certain amount of imagination in your own wine cellar, you can create a very colorful entourage. Anything can be used - from daring experiments with lighting and up to exclusive racks for storing wine bottles.
Any home wine cellar is unique in itself. Typical projects, especially those implemented at home, are extremely rare. But there are some general recommendations on this topic.
So, the use of natural materials in the construction of a wine cellar is welcomed by many. Stone structures - walls, shelves and partitions - are very widespread. The stone well "remembers" the temperature regime of the room, so the wine is stored in it better, and it becomes easier to keep a constant temperature in the cellar. No other material is capable of damping mechanical vibrations as effectively as an array of stone does.
slawickk
FORUMHOUSE member
The material for the walls is sandstone, the red niches in the depths are “royal brick”. The design is based on a combination of vaults of different geometries and purposes. Particular attention was paid to the processing of stones- each stone is cut with a grinder on five sides with high cutting precision.
But what happened after the completion of construction:
It is recommended to use only solid wood for wine cellar furniture - oak, ash and other solid woods. All kinds of chipboard and MDF should be avoided. After all, these materials are not suitable for use in wet rooms. In addition, they are so saturated with synthetic substances that, with all the desire, they cannot have a beneficial effect on the microclimate of the room.
When making shelves, remember that wine should be stored horizontally. It is allowed to put bottles at a slight angle, but in no case should they be placed vertically.
The shape of shelves for shelving can be different - from diamond to straight horizontal. Diamond-shaped shelves, for example, are designed for long-term storage of a drink. It is very convenient to store wine on them, but it is problematic to get the lower bottles from them. Indeed, in this case, they will certainly “disturb” all the wine stored in this cell.
In order for the wine cellar to have a complete look, you can install a real oak barrel or equip a tasting area in its inner space. This area will contain tables, benches and other necessary attributes. It will be doubly pleasant here to uncork a bottle of wine, knowing that the whole environment around is created by our own hands.
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If you would like to participate in the discussion of home wine storage facilities created by regular users of our site, be sure to visit the forum section “Wine cellars». Do you want to learn all the intricacies of building a cellar in a high water table? Then pay attention to the article with practical recommendations about this question. And finally, “Wine cellar project"Is a section of the forum for those who are just looking for ways to implement their ideas. In the video - do-it-yourself hammam for a penny.
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