Wine Room Construction Process Featuring a Newly-Renovated Home in San Rafael!

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This wine room construction project was located beside the home bar area of this San Rafael home.

When you have a growing wine collection, it can be overwhelming to find or commission a fully-functional wine storage unit, especially that maintaining the right temperature and humidity conditions is crucial for the quality of your wines.  Your wine cellar has to be built properly and it should be functional 24/7 to keep your wines fresh and preserved for a long time. So, before you decide to DIY or find a contractor, here’s a sneakpeak of the wine room construction process, as seen  in a recent project in San Rafael. The client wanted a wine cellar built as an added feature to their newly renovated residence, and Coastal Custom Wine Cellasrs (one of our trusted partners in the industry), was glad enough to venture into the project and help make the homeowner’s dream come true. 

Building a Wine Cellar to Accentuate a Newly Renovated Home in San Rafael

In San Rafael, a city in the San Francisco Bay Area in California, a homeowner had his house renovated. As part of this renovation project, his basement needed to be fully finished. The client called our team of experts, here at Custom Wine Cellars San Francisco, to turn his basement into a residential wine cellar.

It is our standard operating procedure to meet with our clients, so that we can discuss the cellar construction plan. We met with the San Rafael cellar client to determine his storage needs and design requirements. He expressed that he had a limited budget for the cellar’s construction and our designers made sure that the wine room we planned to build was within the client’s budget window.

Our design experts then created a set of 3-dimensional sketches of the planned wine cellar and presented it to the client. The proposed wine cellar was one that could accommodate approximately 1,003 wine bottles. As soon as the client approved the design, our contractors began with the construction.

A Cost-Effective Wine Cellar Construction Approach for a Gorgeous Home Wine Cellar

We started the project by choosing a corner of the basement that would be turned into the actual wine room. In choosing which corner to use, we had to consider having a space close to it that would serve as the area where the cooling unit would vent warm air to.

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A good structural foundation is key to keeping the insulation in place. So here’s our team setting up the framing to shape the wine room and prepare for the insulation.

Installation of Vapor Barrier and Insulation

Once we selected the area for construction, we started framing the room. After the framing was complete, the whole cellar, including its floor, was sealed and insulated. Climate-controlled storage structures, like custom wine cellars, need to be properly sealed and applied with the appropriate insulation. Without the right seal and insulation, the temperature and humidity inside the wine room cannot be kept at the ideal levels. Wines can easily spoil when stored outside the ideal storage temperature and humidity.

This wine room construction phase is when all the structural components are finished. The insulation, vapor barrier, dry wall, door, and window has been put in place and we were already doing finishing touches before bringing in the wine racks.

Installation of a High-Grade Wine Cellar Cooling System

Our contractors installed a self-contained through-the-wall refrigeration unit in this wine cellar. The cooling system exhausts warm air and noise into the space adjacent to the cellar.

A Combination of Wine Rack Types Used

To keep the construction of this San Rafael residential wine cellar within the client’s budget window, we used a combination of wine racks, such as a 6-foot kit racking and individual storage racking.

We installed a kit racking system, which was a 6-foot series of semi-custom racks. To create a more customized look, we also added custom-built cellar features. The racks were made from Mahogany and applied with a natural finish.

Part of our services is to design and install custom wine cellar racks. Since every wine cellar is different, customizing wine cellar racks will guarantee your storage will fit exactly within the dimensions of your wine cellar.

We also installed individual storage racks in this project. There were three variations of single bottle storage racks, and these include those that were slightly slanted at a 15-degree angle, label forward racks, and a high reveal display row. Adding a display row to a wine cellar is an efficient bottle management tool. A collector can simply store like wines above and below the displayed label. The display row also is an opportunity for wine cellar owners to showcase their most prized bottles.

One of the focal points of this cellar was the custom-built table top made from solid Redwood with a clear lacquer finish. A stem rack was placed above this table top for storing wine glasses. We installed a lattice diamond bin storage underneath, which is meant for storing large format bottles and bulk storage. Lattice was used instead of a solid diamond bin storage, in order to cut down on costs. A 1” x 12” solid piece of Redwood is quite expensive!

On the left wall of the wine room, our team of builders created a window, so that guests can view the client’s fantastic collection from outside the cellar. We used dual pane glass for the window to make sure that the cellar is kept tightly sealed. Moreover, dual pane glass helps minimize condensation.

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The window and door in this wine cellar are fitted with dual paned glass to ensure moisture does not built up no matter how hot it gets outside.

Our expert builders made sure that the transition of the racking systems from one wall to another was seamless. That is why we installed a true radius curved wine rack.

The client also added a wine barrel at the center of the cellar to add an accent to the wine room. The barrel was meant to be used as a tasting area for guests.

A repurposed wine barrel makes for a good and stylish wine tasting area.

A Gorgeous Custom Wine Cellar Door

We installed a beautiful door for this home wine cellar in San Rafael. The door was a pre-fit Barolo style entryway with a dual pane glass center panel. This robust door was installed with weather stripping to ensure that the cool air will be kept inside the cellar. We also included an automatic door sweep to make sure that the room was tightly sealed.

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Part of wine room construction involves sourcing out premium materials. This Barolo-style custom wine cellar door was custom-designed with quality hardwood to create a gorgeous entryway to the storage room.

Custom Wine Cellars Designed by Master Wine Cellar Builders in San Francisco

Building an exceptional wine cellar is unlike building a standard storage room.  There are more factors to consider like determining the necessary cooling requirements based on the room’s ambient heat load. Medium-sized wine cellars can take an average of 4-6 weeks from planning to finishing. And if you work with expert wine room contractors like Custom Wine Cellars San Francisco, you’ll have lesser potential issues and delays compared to general contractors who have no proven experience in this sub-industry.

Custom Wine Cellars San Francisco is one of the leading wine wine room construction specialists in California. Our team of experts has constructed various types of wine rooms for homes and businesses. It has always been our priority to provide our clients with high quality services, and through the years we have always kept a consistent reputation of keeping our customers happy. For more information about our products and services, contact us today at +1 (415) 508-8419!

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