Building A Fine Wine Cellar

Buying a wine cellar unit is a great option, especially if you live in a condo or do not have a home with a basement. However most wine lover dream of having a wine cellar in their house, one built specifically to store their collection and even do their tasting inside their cellars. This type of project can be a big undertaking and I recommend you have a good contractor and/or are working with a company that specializes in this type of work.Following is some key information you need to know before starting the construction of you home wine cellar. You will also need a cellar air conditioner unit to temperate the room. For the walls: All walls must have a vapor barrier and insulation. The interior walls must have a minimum of R-11 insulation and exterior walls must have a minimum of R-19. For the ceiling: The ceiling must have a minimum of R-19 For the floor: concrete ground floors need a vapor barrier only (sealed with concrete sealant). Any above ground floors need to be R-19 with a vapor barrier. The vapor barrier: The vapor barrier (6 mil polyethylene plastic sheeting) must be on the warm side. The warm side means that the vapor barrier is protect from wine cellar (cold side) by insulation. The vapor barrier put on the wine cellar side will cause the humidity to condensate on the barrier and could cause damage to your walls.Typical Wine Room Conversion/construction1. The floor - Seal concrete floor with water base sealant (Make sure if your going to tile floor that sealant is compatible with tile adhesive). Install vapor barrier on walls and ceiling.2. The walls - Fur out walls using 2 inch x 2 inch strips or 2 inch x 4 inch. Use 1.5 inch rigid (Cleotex/R-max type with foil on both sides) for interior walls, 3 inch for exterior walls and ceiling. Using fiberglass type insulation will require 2 inch x 4 inch and 2 inch x 6 inch fir out to achieve the required R factors.3. The door - must be solid core or insulated type. Glass door must be dual pane insulated glass type and cooling system must be sized correctly. Door must be weather-stripped and air tight. Check for air leakage in room, switches, pipes, vents, and other sources. The use of recess lighting isn t recommended. Use low voltage track type. Remember you can never over insulate or seal your wine cellars.4. The interior - Finished wall surfaces: Drywall (preferable green board), Redwood and other rot and mildew resistant woods. All paints and/or stains must be water base type and air completely to rid wine cellar of odors. Once cooling and humidity is done smells will only get worse, be careful.5. The cooling unit - Size your refrigeration requirements by room volume, where you live and jfk space center total R-factors of your wine cellar.6. The size - To calculate volume: Width x Depth x Height cubic areaFinally, just want to warn you that make sure you that if you build a cellar you built big enough. Most wine lovers when they start to have a cellar they tend to fill it fast. Here s how to calculate what you will need for space: a good indicator to start a cellar is to determine your annual consumption of bottles and review space heaters multiply it by 2.5 to determine the total capacity of your collection in the cellar. Personally, I keep 60 per cent of my bottles for my regular consumption and about 40 per cent for storing; however, this ratio could be different for you. If you need advice or have questions on this topic, please contact me, I would be happy to help you. Next week, a list of wines that can spend many years in a cellaronly get better with time. Have a great weekend, Robert Noel is Alcool N.B. Liquor s sommelier. His column, World of Wineappears each Saturday in Life & Times.