DIY Custom Wine Cellar

Properly building a wine cellar that will allow you to store your wine for years to come isn’t as easy as it sounds. Learning how to build a wine cellar takes a degree of experience and patience. Problems, unexpected ones, tend to crop up as time goes on. It’s best to have a bit of warning to help you out when it comes to constructing your own home wine cellar. The last thing you want to have to do is rip out everything you’ve installed one or two years down the road to fix some minor problem that could have been avoided in the construction phase.

Moisture is a major issue in many cellars, as is condensation. Wine needs a certain level of humidity or moisture in the air, however, this kind of environment is perfect for promoting the growth of molds. Mold can be very dangerous to you and your family, and it can destroy all that hard work. Be sure when constructing you use a quality vapor barrier between your walls and your insulation to prevent the condensation from forming inside the sheet rock. Also, use a fiberglass coated sheetrock that is impervious to mold growth. It’s a common misconception that the green back sheetrock prevents mold. As a professional wine cellar installer and mold remediator, I’ve seen numerous occasions where they have used green back sheetrock only to discover that mold has eaten it all away a couple years down the line. Spend a little more on quality mold and moisture resistant materials, and you will save yourself plenty of headaches down the line.

Another factor often forgotten is the flooring in a cellar. While carpets and rugs are attractive… they also promote the growth of mold. Bare cement works, though it’s not attractive. We recommend installing some stone tiling or ceramic tiling to give the cellar a touch of class, and prevent any undue mold growth as well.

Finally, mold and moisture love wood. Your wine racks are often constructed of wood. Unfortunately many decide to cut corners here, and end up paying the price. Oak and Maple woods are good, but there are much better hardwoods you could use that would stand the test of time and humidity much better. Be aware though that woods with strong aromas like cedar will taint your wine over time, so avoid these at all costs. The best kinds of wine racks are made of marble, these are excellent insulators, resistant to vibration, and will not grow mold at all.

The lesson to take away from this is to build with quality. You want your wine cellar to last for years and years, so be sure you think long term when you are constructing it.