This is a great example of how you can build your own wine cellar without having to worry about any previous construction and/or cellar construction skills ... great job Steve & Jennifer ... Art & Betsy

I started building a passive wine cellar in the basement of my home in the Spring of 2002. My construction time is hard to caculate since I did much of the work in stages and spent the majority of my time running to Home Depot for all the things I didn't know I needed. Since I didn't have any carpentry skills or real knowledge, I bought the Gold book and used it as a basic guide. This resource was especially useful in educating me about insulation and R values, determining insulating needs and understanding the importance of vapor barriers. He also clearly points out common mistakes and pitfalls that can be made in building a cellar (i.e. decorative but uninsulated glass doors, inadequate vapor barriers). I have included descriptions and details about the construction along with the pictures so that anyone attempting a cellar with few carpentry skills (like me) can get a sense of it. I found the how-to's provided by others here at Strat's Place to be extremely helful and instuctive.

Picture 1 shows my progress after several frustrating days of learning how to build stud walls and apply insulation. I used standard 2x4's for the walls and stuffed them with R-15 fiberglass batts w/ vapor barrier to the exterior (a Gold suggestion). I used a staple gun to staple the paper vapor barrier to the exterior stud faces. Floor and wall seams between studs were sealed with waterproof sealant useing a caulk gun.

Picture 2 shows the Tuff R brand polyisocuranate insulation (R 7.5) that I applied to the exterior walls of the cellar. I attached this over the vapor barrier from the fiberglass batts and sealed all seams with duct tape to assist with vapor control. On the ceiling, I used R-30 fiberglass with the vapor barrier facing the overhead floor.

Picture 3 shows a view of the insulated interior walls. For that I utilized rigid 1.5 inch extruded polystyriene boards (R-5) applied over the interior stud faces and fiberglass. I did the same with the ceiling and sealed all seams with duct tape. This brought my wall insulation to about R-27.5 and my ceiling to about R-35.

Picture 4 shows my cellar structurally complete with sheetrock covering the Tuff R exterior insulation. The door shown is a pre-hung insulated exterior door that I sealed in various ways. Since the insulating value on the door was only R-7, I applied 2 inches of extruded polystirene to the interior of the door to bring the total to R-17. Ideally, this value should be higher to protect against heat intrusion; however, I considered this to be the most cost effective and possible solution. Gold is right in asserting in his book that while many doors installed in wine cellars provide for much decoration, they do little to contribute to an appropriate wine environment.

Picture 5 shows the VintageKeeper cooling unit that I bought through the Wine Enthusiast Catalouge under the brand name Koolspace. The passive wine cellar that I started out building just didn't maintain the temperature that I had expected. I didn't consider the degree to which my insulated walkout (partially underground) basement retained the heat of the day. I would recommend that anyone thinking about a passive cellar only attempt this in a fully underground cellar that maintains a temp well below 70F in the heat of the summer. However, despite the added expense of the cooling unit ($500) and the addition of an insulated floor (raised floor with R-30 insulation), I found that my super-insulated, formerly passive cellar was well prepared for active cooling. I currently maintain a consistent and invariable bottle temp of 56F despite basement temps of 75F.

Picture 6 shows my first stage of wine racking which was also purchased from Wine Enthusiast. I bought their cheapest redwood racking and had to assemble myself. It went together easily, looks good and gave me a 160 bottle capacity for less than $.80 per bottle. With about 420 sq. ft. to play with, I expect that my cellar could accommodate about 1500 bottles.

Note: if you would like to contact Steve about the cellar, you can email him at uconnbrown@netzero.net

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