Minimum Height For Wine Cellars | Signature Cellars
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Minimum Height for Wine Cellars – Conforming to Building Standards

minimum height for wine cellars

20 Nov Minimum Height for Wine Cellars – Conforming to Building Standards

Every wine lover dreams of owning a cellar filled to the brim with excellent quality wines. You search for great vintages, look for the rarest gems amongst the wines, only to hold yourself back when you realize you don’t have a place to house them. Wines are delicate little things, especially if you’ve brought them with the intention to age them. If your goal is to purchase young wines and savour them or sell them when they’re mature, you need a proper place to store them.

Even with all the modern developments, a wine cellar is the natural home of wines. If you finally have a home with some space for a wine cellar, you need to keep some things in mind, especially if you want to build the cellar in the basement. Here are some details you need to know.

Wine Cellars’ Height

When you’re building a wine cellar, it’s important to plan things a little carefully. Just any old basement or room wouldn’t do. Wine cellars need to have the ideal balance of cool temperature and humidity. If you’re building a cellar under your home, either in the basement or in a dedicated room, you need to be sure it is according to the building code in NSW and Australia. The council ensures that all buildings built or rooms added are safe for inhabitation.

The Height Considerations

Accordingly, they’ve mandated the following height regulation for home. Consider the following:

  • Habitable areas like bedrooms, living rooms, entertainment rooms, etc, need to be of a height no less than 2400mm, which is 2.4 meters.
  • Kitchens can be about 2100mm, which is 2.1 meters.
  • Passageways and corridors need to be 2100mm as well.
  • Rooms like bathroom, laundry, pantry, storage room, garage, etc, need to be a height of 2.1 meters as well. This category includes the cellar.

If this criterion isn’t met, the cellar would be deemed a utility room. Therefore it’s essential for the cellar to be at least 2.1 meters in height.

What the Designers Say

While the minimum height for wine cellars stipulation is 2.1 meters, most contractors would suggest that you plan for 2.4 meters if it’s possible. If you plan to spend some time in your cellar or use it frequently, the taller ceiling would be more comfortable. Moreover, you’ll have room to expand your collection to some extent. Even prefabricated cellars are built with the height of 2.4 meters to 2.6 meters.

The height is measured from a fully finished floor to the lowest point in the ceiling. While cellars are usually built under the grade, there are people who will build them above ground. In such cases, if there’s a slope to the roof, more than 50% of it should be of the average stipulated height.

Insulation and Climate Control

It’s very important to properly insulate and control the climate within the cellar properly. You’ll have to take the dimensions of the room before you choose your cooling equipment. Many people are under the misapprehension that your cellar would be naturally cool. That’s not the case, especially not in Australia.

During the summer, your underground cellar would actually cook your wines, i’ll be that hot. Due to this, it’s important to keep the room cool, perfectly humid, and insulate it properly. You also need to make sure that the cellar door seals the room properly.

If you keep all these things in mind, you’ll have a great cellar. For more information, you can call Signature Cellars on 02 9340 7515 or use this contact form to get in touch with us. We’ll be pleased to assist you.

Thanks for reading,
Neil Smallman
Signature Cellars
02 9340 7515

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