The Auswine Forum

Been a while since posting.

Planning to add a cellar to my renos. The problem I have is that I am on a hill and excavating has quite a few issues, especially with retaining walls, waterproofing and impacting foundations of neighbours and my fireplaces.

Long story short, I have a of room roughly 1500w x 5000l x 2200h.

Happy with the 5400l x 2200h, just wondering what everyone else's thoughts were on the 1500mm wide...

If I assume that a wine rack (modular/metal frame) was 400 wide, that means I have a 700mm walkway.

Should I push the builder to make it wider? Say it is 2000mm wide, which would give 1200mm walkway, which allow me to store cases.

Preliminary calcs makes the capacity to about 2000 bottles, the extra room in the middle enabling case storage would bump this up (possibly by about 500 bottles in case for).

Thoughts?

700mm will be more than enough in my opinion. I am building a cellar underneath my stairs and I only have 600mm walkway. If you are only using it as a cellar and won't be doing anything other than storing wine in there, then as long as you can access the bottles, it will be fine. I think you will find a bottle is about between 300 and 340, depending on the bottle. Just get the racks made this size and you have another 100mm.

If it is unreasonable to make it bigger, then just maximise what you have with custom racks. Under my stairs I am making my own racks, as to buy ready made ones would limit my storage capacity. I am sure that there are mobs out there that will make whatever you want.

Good Luck!

I think that 700 would be fine. Most doorways are 900. I was also looking at some racking last night and found this mob. Could be worth a look. I think the prices are very good.
http://wine-cellar-racks.com.au/

700 is workable but tight. Its fine for just walking in, turning around and walking out, but when you have a box in your hands or are bending down to get at the bottom row, watch whats behind you!

Cheers

Andrew

I would make it wider. Once you get too much wine, it will go on the floor, and you will wish you had moved the boulder.

Hey vt,
Building one right now and have similar constraints on excavation issues.
one section is 1400mm wide due to excavation restraints and its quite small
I would say push it to as big as you can.
You are already spending the money on the cellar and excavation and to push it just a little further is not a great cost usually.
I always say to my clients that if you are thinking about it then you should do it as they always kick themselves later for not changing things.
And at worst just make the living room smaller or the bedroom, as the wines more important. Right?
Red Smurf

Give these guys a call
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHcu5bukV5U

1500 with wines on both sides + 700 corridor in middle may work but can be bit risky with all the glass around, i'll say 1000 corridor will make a big difference as in turning, sliding boxes around, bending/kneeing down etc....

Thanks for the replies guys...got the engineer working on it now...see if we can get another couple of cm's into the cellar.

dave vino wrote:Give these guys a call
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHcu5bukV5U

Now that would be one serious cellar!!