Here’s the classic question when it comes to wine cellar construction: “Can I put a wine cellar anywhere in the home?” And the answer is: you sure can! However, keep in mind that location will have an impact on the cost of maintaining your cellar’s temperature and humidity. An ideal location for a wine cellar should be in the coolest and most humid place in your home. That’s because the closer you are to the 55°-58° F temperature and 55-75% humidity that your wine will need, the smaller size cooling unit you will need. This will result in lowering the overall cost of maintaining your wine cellar.
So one of the first things you’ll need to do during the initial planning stage is have a heat loss calculation for your suggested wine cellar space. This takes into consideration the surrounding environment and determines the BTU’s required. If the surrounding environment has an average yearly temperature of 85°, compared to an average temperature of 65° then you will have to purchase a larger cooling unit in order to maintain proper conditions. In addition, a dry environment will also require a more frequent introduction of humidity.
Once the plans are laid out and the initial construction stages have started, you will now need to seal the concrete foundation walls prior to installing studs. You will then have to build your vapor barrier. Keep in mind that insulation and vapor barrier are indispensable to your wine room. If your plans include a soffit to cover ducting, piping, or other obstructions, it is important to note the lighting location. Lights installed in the soffit should be placed far enough away so they do not interfere with the finished racking and/or ducting depth. This also includes the depth of the crown molding. You will want to ask for the final depth of your racking including the crown molding at this location and then make sure to allow for the size of the ring on the light fixture as well.
Let’s move on to the actual insulation of your wine cellar. The two common methods are insulation and vapor barriers. Spray foam or 6 mil vapor barrier and fiberglass batts. Spray foam is normally more expensive, but it will prevent the possibility of a puncture mark in your vapor barrier (as a 6 mil vapor barrier is not necessary when using spray foam) caused by insertion of screws, running wire, plumbing, etc. into or through the wall from outside the wine cellar. With non-shrinking closed cell spray foam the screw will not compromise the enclosure and the foam will expand to fill all the crevices to ensure a tight seal. We not have recommendations of brands but this link will show you one brand that will work for this application.
For new construction (where spray foam will not be used,) it is recommended that you install a 6 mil vapor barrier on the back side of your wall studs before lifting them into position. The ceiling joists will also need to be wrapped (as shown). Some cities local codes specify all vapor barriers must be installed on the warm side of the cellar. In those areas we highly recommend you switch to the spray foam insulation.
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