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Don Demuth is from Phila., PA and you can write him at: demuth@biochem.dental.upenn.edu

Finally completed my wine cellar over the weekend. It's up and operational, wines are cool and happy. But whew! That was a lot more work overall than I expected it to be. Part of the problem however, was the layout of our 75 year old house. Not a single exterior wall could be used. Iron waste pipes encircle the entire basement at floor level and 3 inch hot water lines for the radiators are present along the entire perimeter just below the ceiling joists. Clearance under the hot water lines was barely six feet. Thus, building the wine cellar along any of the exterior walls would entail constructing over the waste pipe, making access for repair very difficult. It would also leave less than six feet of head clearance in at least a portion of the interior, not an option since I'm 6'3". In addition, having hot water lines running through the center of a cold room was not ideal. So into the center of the basement it went, abutting a 24 inch square poured concrete pillar that supports one of the center hall I-beams. Interior dimensions are 4.5'D x 6.5'W x 7.0'H.

All four walls were framed with 2x6, 16 inch on center and anchored to the concrete floor and to the exposed ceiling joists. One interior wall is boxed around the I-beam. A relative who is an experienced do-it-yourselfer was a welcomed helper and brought along all kinds of neat tools that made the job easier. Like the nail gun that fired a ten penny through a 2x6 and an inch and a half of slab concrete floor. Maybe that's overkill, but the room is bombproof; a wine cellar/bomb shelter. Walls were insulated with standard Owens Corning Fiberglass R-19, ceiling was R-25 Miraflex. Given all the horror stories I heard about installing insulation and working with fiberglass, this part of the job went quickly and easily. And so did the installation of sheetrock, water resistant type for the interior and ceiling, regular sheetrock for the exterior. However, I quickly learned that I have absolutely no skill at sheetrock finishing. A spackle knife in my hands bears no resemblance to a paintbrush in Picasso's, although the final products show similar angular chaos. I eventually learned enough to generate smooth joints between sheets of drywall and also got pretty good at smoothing exterior corners. But interior corners were particularly frustrating and difficult to finish smoothly. Irregular about describes the finished product. A generous coating of flat latex and the racking hid most of the major wrinkles.

I made only one real error. After installing the pre-hung door, the remaining space (about 0.5") between the door frame and the wall frame needed insulation. I purchased spray foam insulation to accomplish this. Just sprayed it in, let it expand and dry and install molding over top. And expand it did! So much so to bow the door frame. Hmmm, now my door was 0.25" wider than its frame. Two days of chipping out the hardened foam and finally I could close the door again. Turns out, using the foam was a good idea, but I should have purchased the "minimally expanding" type of foam. Live and learn.

Installation of fluorescent lighting, carpet and KoolSpace 400 was a breeze. Wines are now in their new home. Cellar is at 20% capacity right now, which means lots of empty racks and little thermal mass, but lots of room to grow. Internal temperature (air) has been constant at 56F with humidity at 60-65%. Ambient external temperature is 68F. Duty cycle for KoolSpace about 20 minutes per hour. No condensation.

Picture 1 shows the cellar from the outside, with the front wall butted up against the concrete pillar supporting an I-beam. The KoolSpace 400 can be seen on the right wall.

Picture 2 is a similar view but with the door open, showing some of the redwood racking, the carpet and temperature and humidity gauges.

Picture 3 is a shot of the KoolSpace 400 from the inside. We chose a dark burgundy color for the interior walls to highlight the light wood of the racking.

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