The Auswine Forum

Bargain! The value of your property just went up 20 grand I reckon... Wish I could find a little cellar in my old place

Cool find!

I'd been hanging off for about 2 weeks trying to decide where the best place would be to rip a couple of boards up.
A couple of builder mates thru their 2 cents in so I thought its time to go looking for it.

Next job is to open the stairs, get a wheelbarrow and a bucket and start emptying it.
Still quite a bit of work but mainly just hard graft shovelling rubble and repairing a few joists.

I'll post some more pics as I progress with it.

Scotty, you do not know how lucky you are!!

My house in Unley here in Adelaide, blue-stone built in 1880.
The era had nothing to do whether there is a cellar or not rather the religious denomination of the builder...alas mine was a teetotaler.

Great find indeed.


Cheers Craig.

phillisc wrote:Scotty, you do not know how lucky you are!!

My house in Unley here in Adelaide, blue-stone built in 1880.
The era had nothing to do whether there is a cellar or not rather the religious denomination of the builder...alas mine was a teetotaler.

Great find indeed.


Cheers Craig.

Seems quite hit and miss with these old places. Mine is a 1910 sandstone fronted villa.
I'd been renovating the place for about 5-6 weeks before I moved in
and I'd joked with a mate that maybe it had an old cellar hiding somewhere.
He agreed and said you just never know.
I had absolutely no clue until it was brought up in conversation with the previous owner.
If it hadn't been brought up I seriously doubt it would've ever been found.

So awesome!

So so awesome. I am salivating.

Inspired by your find of a cellar under your house, I started looking for a cellar under my house too. Haven't found it yet, but still looking. See below:

Very nice

Scotty,

It looks surprisingly like my cellar here in Adelaide but a little smaller but clearly yours is the deluxe model with steps. Ours had just a ladder. When we bought the house in 1990 SWMBO asked what I considered a rhetorical question - What are we going to do with that space? Only problem now is it's chockers if you believe that's a problem. Many years ago a mate found a similar style cellar under the floorboards. Someone had taken the time to fill it with dirt so we took the time to rectify this fault.

Carl

Very Nice Scotty. Looking forward to the updates to come.

Chuck wrote:Scotty,

It looks surprisingly like my cellar here in Adelaide but a little smaller but clearly yours is the deluxe model with steps. Ours had just a ladder. When we bought the house in 1990 SWMBO asked what I considered a rhetorical question - What are we going to do with that space? Only problem now is it's chockers if you believe that's a problem. Many years ago a mate found a similar style cellar under the floorboards. Someone had taken the time to fill it with dirt so we took the time to rectify this fault.

Carl

Stairs were a bonus, I didn't expect to find them. I was hoping it wasn't a third to half full of rubble but I'll take it.
Casting my eye over it I'd say there's 2-3m cubes of bricks and broken concrete.
SWMBO knows I'm a bit of a kid in a candy store with the find so I'm off the leash to do as I please.
The next step is reopen the entrance from below. I've got to get thru about a inch of concrete.
As it is, there's floating floors on underlay, on top of concrete, on top of rotten floorboards.
The only non negotiable is making it safe for little people with a proper trap/hatch door.

The only non negotiable is making it safe for little people with a proper trap/hatch door.

...something that automatically denies entry when you've had a few bottles too many ?

Cheers
Matt

Hi Guys
Long-time reader.
I am planning a new cellar under our house.
Planning to use the space where an existing workshop is currently built under the house - built into the side of a hill with double brick on three sides and concrete floor.
I have followed this thread with interest and it’s prompted me to ask a few questions.
I have decided on racks from here: http://www.wine-cellar-racks.com.au/ - will be power coated black.
Space wise I have room for approx 2k bottles with space for magnums and half bottes and a few boxes here and there. Plus a nice tasting table etc.
I will be testing the temperatures in the space over the hot months here in Melbourne and see if a cooling unit is required.
Issues are currently:
1. Do I need to insulate the entire space like the above example? Planning to polish the concrete floor but given the walls are double brick I doubt I need insulation.
2. I need to redo the doors. They do not seal correctly and will need to be replaced. Any ideas on a company who can assist with cellar doors?

Love to hear from anyone with experience (or hell, just an opinion!) on what best to do.

Thanks!

Greg

If you tests show the temperature is stable and within a range you are comfortable with, then I'd say no to insulation. On the other hand, if not, then insulation makes sense. If you need to go down the route of active cooling, then insulation makes sense. It's not that expensive and will cut down on running costs.

As for the floor, mine originally had tiles on a concrete slab. Turns out a fair bit of heat comes in that way. I bought some interlocking carpet squares with about 1cm of foam insulation from Bunnings and cut to shape. Has worked quite nicely and looks alright too. Bonus is if I accidentally drop a bottle now, its not likely to shatter. Again, pretty cheap solution.

Hi Dave

Yes i think that’s the way to go. Can you elaborate on the heat coming in via a concrete slab? I had assumed (there was my mistake) this would be fairly stable.

Thanks

I suppose my conclusion wasn't hugely scientific. My cellar is ground level with tiles on a concrete slab. You go through the laundry to get to it. I noticed how cold the tiles in the laundry had become. One of the walls also adjoins the garage and I noticed the same thing. Figured there must be significant energy transfer going on. Spent about $100 on the carpet tiles couldn't hurt.

In the grand scheme of things though, I think wall insulation would probably be more important, but this is just guessing. I'm no expert on insulation

Finally got around to cutting open the cellar.
Quite a few obstacles I must say!
I convinced all other family members to vacate the premises for the day then a mate and I (mainly my mate) set about
measuring and cutting thru the top.
This was like cutting thru a cake. Started with floating floors, underlay , asbestos vinyl tiles ( ), concrete, then old rotten floor boards.
Thankfully i sealed off the house with builders plastic as cutting thru 100mm of concrete creates an absolute snow storm of dust.
1 foot visibility if you're lucky.

Luckily set the circular saw to the exact height of the floating floor as a the scary discovery of asbestos vinyl tiles underneath were at least intact.
Most of those came off with a light lift of the scraper. A little heat gun persuasion and the rest peeled away.
Also lucky for me is that my mate is site foreman/building designer so all safety protocols were followed.
Once the pesky tiles were gone it was out with the 9 inch bladed concrete cutter.
For those of you contemplating using one of these indoors,
be ready for a the biggest dust cloud of your life.
Made the cut then it was all in with jack hammer and sledgey.
Angled grinded out some dodgy old disused water pipes acting as concrete reo, then the whole lid collapsed inward.

1 hour later when the dust settled i swept and mopped and repeated for the next hour while my mate installed the lid.
Emptying the contents is for another day (maybe next weekend ) but for now it's phase one complete.

Love it. Thanks for the update Scotty.

That is awesome....well not the bit about the asbestos...that's scary.

I love these build type threads. Great work and can't wait to
See some more progress shots and the finished project !!

the semi finished result.
going to install some struts and hinges later in the piece but for now my number one instruction
from upper management was to make it safe.
Not the end of the asbestos situation either as i spied some old dimple fibro board dumped down in the bottom of the cellar.
Only a couple of 100mm squared chunks that i can see so far but it will another masked and suited up job. No chances taken.
Once that's done it will get a termite treatment, some masonry repair and water proofing.
Then, after the stench goes out of it, I might actually put some wine in there.

Phase two will be emptying out all the rubble bucket by bucket. hopefully its all loose and no hard stuff to jack out.
Long term some metal racks and maybe a barrel or table or something to give it the man cave feel.
Also bought a wireless temp gauge so i can monitor the temp from up top.
Had a temp probe down there on 36 degree day and it got up to about 18 max.

Of course you are going to get a perspex/glass cover

I've attached a couple of examples of how we expect the end result to look like, just remember you have the weight on your shoulders of about 50 men longingly watching this, men who will never have the chance of something like this, men who will look at their wine fridges or off storage wine lockers and shed a tear of what could have been, what might have been... so no pressure ok?

dave vino wrote:Of course you are going to get a perspex/glass cover

I've attached a couple of examples of how we expect the end result to look like, just remember you have the weight on your shoulders of about 50 men longingly watching this, men who will never have the chance of something like this, men who will look at their wine fridges or off storage wine lockers and shed a tear of what could have been, what might have been... so no pressure ok?

The boss and I bought this place with no idea the cellar was there.
All the lead up properties we looked at prior to this had me studying the
floor plan to see if a cellar was present.
Being in the market for an old federation reno project i knew that there was a slim chance we might find a house with one.
But I thought It'd be something I'd know about up front. Out of all the houses we looked at, maybe 10 in total,
I think there were perhaps 2 that had cellars. A cellar was always on my radar, but something I thought I'd most likely have to forgo.

If I can get 50 auswine forumites round for the afternoon I'd have this thing emptied in about 20 mins.
A bucket line all the way out the skip sitting in the driveway.
Alas, I think it's gonna be a solo effort as sifting thru rubble and asbestos isn't the way most of my mates wanna spend their weekends.

A glass cover? I'd say it's a little more expensive than 19mm structafloor from Bunnings but If i can make it happen I will.
Looks amazing.

dave vino wrote:Of course you are going to get a perspex/glass cover

I've attached a couple of examples of how we expect the end result to look like, just remember you have the weight on your shoulders of about 50 men longingly watching this, men who will never have the chance of something like this, men who will look at their wine fridges or off storage wine lockers and shed a tear of what could have been, what might have been... so no pressure ok?

It's funny because it's true

I look at the solid floor in my house, which hides no mysteries, and I loathe it

Don't know where I'd be without the cellar. Probably wealthier, fitter, healthier but would I be happier? Probably not. Only problem is the cellar is absolutely chocker block. 900 bottles will last about 5 years and I still want to keep buying particularly with the great 10 and 12 vintages here in SA. Cellars in Adelaide are very similar in construction with brick walls and floor. Has anyone tried expanding one of these? Is it simply the case of removing one brick wall and digging out further under the house? Maybe I might watch The Great Escape again. They did something similar but on a much grander scale.

Carl

so an update on the dig.
have the stairs dug out. One bucket at a time.
finally reached the floor which is 2 metres deep.
Stairs are very steep and I'm already dreading the dinner party dash down into the cellar.
There could be one more step down into the cellar itself but I didn't get that far.
more digging/revealing to come.
Still another ton of rubble I'd say.

you've got your work cut out there one bucket at a time.

Scotty vino wrote:so an update on the dig.
have the stairs dug out. One bucket at a time.
finally reached the floor which is 2 metres deep.
Stairs are very steep and I'm already dreading the dinner party dash down into the cellar.
There could be one more step down into the cellar itself but I didn't get that far.
more digging/revealing to come.
Still another ton of rubble I'd say.

you can do it
you need a mate
me and my father in law dug out for my cellar and a store room beside it
digging and wheel barrowing and dump it on the driveway for the bobcat and truck to take away
just over one tip truck worth
took months over weekends and some days

michel

Another 'dig day' and I finally got it emptied.
An unusual find was a mini dwarf wall on one side.
Not exactly sure what it's purpose is. Could be built up to be a shelf or something.
Could also chop it out and increase the space. Theres some repointing to be done but all in all it's pretty dry and solid.
Had to pick out some small asbestos pieces but a lot less than I was anticipating.
Nice solid concrete floor is better than an undulating red brick one so was happy with that.
Now have to fix all the nagging little issues but glad to see the back of the last 25-30kg bucket.