Protecting wooden wine racking in damp cellar

[mangocrazy]

The cellar in my humble abode is a multi-purpose man cave. It contains a work bench with vice, large amounts of tool storage and assorted racking for all those important things I will need some time in the future. It also contains a large number of bottles of wine, which really need organising properly so I can actually get to wine I want to drink. I want to use the only remaining wall space in the cellar to construct some wine racking.

For cost and workability reasons the racking will have to be wooden. This gives me a problem, as the walls of the cellar are damp. Not running wet, but permanently not dry, if you know what I mean. I'm looking for something to line the cellar walls with to block the passage of damp from wall to racking. Ideally I'd like something that's available in sheets no more than 7 feet tall and 4 feet wide and which can be bolted to the (brick) walls and forgotten about. Thickness of these sheets should really be no more than 25mm, and preferably less. I'd be using stainless fixings to bolt to the wall, obviously. I would need to cut these sheets into smaller sections for certain areas with normal tools (saw, angle grinder etc.) and I'd prefer if the material wasn't prohibitively expensive.

Any suggestions?

 

[brightspark]

exterior ply sealed and a visqueen polythene membrane behind

 

[Olderisbetter]

What about using tanking slurry, If you have bare brick thats moist it will just stop it where you apply it to the wall, I have used it many times and around £20 for 20 kg so cheap to try
https://www.toolstation.com/shop/Roofing+&+Drainage/d250/Roof+Compound+&+Waterseals/sd2809/Cementone+Tanking+Slurry/p79194

 

[CompoSimmonite]

Twin wall polycarbonate sheet ?

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Why not Make the racking freestanding and fix to wall and floor with stainless brackets allowing a standoff for air circulation. I'd make the racking as open as possible for the same reason.

 

[mangocrazy]

Wow, impressed with the speed of answers and the options suggested... So taking it from the top:

1) exterior ply sealed and a visqueen polythene membrane behind - I was definitely thinking of using birch ply as the racking material, and also using it as the wall panels makes sense as it's very good stuff to fix to. Not quite as keen on a membrane as I am on tanking slurry, though. Perhaps use both or is that overkill?

2) Tanking slurry - I'm definitely leaning towards using this, as long as it does what it's supposed to. From the responses so far, it certainly seems to.

3) Twin wall polycarbonate sheet - I like the idea, but the disadvantage is it won't be possible to fix to.

4) Freestanding racking & stainless brackets. - I very much like this as well. Reducing the amount of wood in the racking not only improves air circulation but also reduces weight. There will be enough weight in there with all the wine. Like the stainless brackets as well. It also means the system is portable in the event of moving house (not that I'm planning to).

5) Tanking slurry Again) and ventilation - almost certain that tanking slurry will be part of the chosen solution, and agree about ventilation. There's good ventilation from the outside (several large air bricks), but I don't want warm air in the cellar - bad for the wine. Wine needs a cool temperature with no large swings and a degree of dampness is positively beneficial - stops corks drying out.

My initial thoughts is that I'll probably use a hybrid of most of the suggestions made. Tanking slurry will almost certainly feature, as will stainless brackets and (possibly) a freestanding rack., although the weight of the wine involved is going to need a fair bit of support. The last thing I want is the whole plot keeling over (too awful to contemplate)...

Thanks everyone - much appreciated!

 

[mechman]

Drink the wine as quickly as possible so no storage probs

 

[mangocrazy]

exterior ply sealed and a visqueen polythene membrane behind

BS, what kind of sealant would you use for the ply? Something like yacht varnish?

 

[mangocrazy]

Drink the wine as quickly as possible so no storage probs

A couple of cubic metres of wine might take a while to dispose of...

 

[Olderisbetter]

I think most varnish types would be ok with exterior ply

 

[Olderisbetter]

My house has solid walls so i also get the moisture problem under the damp course, The slurry works but you still need a wall finish like the ply to hang stuff, You can end up with a decent dry room but it gets costly, I think cellars are great spaces wish i had one use.

 

[mangocrazy]

My house has solid walls so i also get the moisture problem under the damp course, The slurry works but you still need a wall finish like the ply to hang stuff, You can end up with a decent dry room but it gets costly, I think cellars are great spaces wish i had one use.

I can't imagine life without a cellar having had one for so long. Every house I've ever owned has had one.

On thinking about it, I reckon that studding fixed with chemical anchor into the wall would be ideal to hang the ply off. Fix the studding first, then slurry the wall with as many coats as it takes, then use thin sections (10mm approx) of copper pipe or similar to act as stand-offs between wall and ply. Bolt ply onto standoffs and you have a good base for the racking sides. Air can circulate around the ply which should help keep the ply rot-free (or so the theory goes).

 

[Olderisbetter]

The house i have now looked like it should have a cellar but just hads a gap under the floor, Such a let down i have always wanted one lol, The air circulation should in theory help stop the rot, I have used 2 coats of slurry in most damp areas of my house, They are quite decent coats more like skimming plaster but with a wall paper brush, I have done alot of the outside with it aswell due to mixed bricks colours and types during previous extensions or repairs, It will be painted eventually but i thought a slurry aswell makes it better for now.

 

[mangocrazy]

Yes, I'm not sure when builders stopped putting cellars in houses; probably after WW1 I suspect. Having just 'discovered' slurry I can see quite a few places where it would work well. Quite looking forward to start using it, to be honest.

 

[wookie]

Yacht varnish is good but expect to have to redo it at some point especially if it's exposed to sunlight. The much more expensive solution but far superior IMHO is to coat the finished wood in epoxy then it will standup to seriously damp/wet conditions.

 

[brightspark]

anything that's not water based and soaks in 5 star wood preserver https://www.toolstation.com/shop/p68513?table=no if it was my cellar id tank the walls I wouldn't buy the small buckets though id buy the 25kg bags and mix it with sbr bonding agent the same as sovereign damp-proof company's use. there are cheaper makes as sovereign are expensive

 

[winchman]

Why not use terracotta pipes or these
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Terracotta-Wine-rack-10-set/dp/B001IUPAXS

Its a pity you are so far away as a bloke at a local Car Boot sells off cuts of top quality marine ply for a couple of quid each!

 

[knighty]

I'd worry about tanking... it's underground so there's always going to be water coming through from the outside.... if you tank it with paint the water can't get 'out' anymore so it'll build up behind the paint/coating

depending on the height of the watercourse outside and how deep the cellar goes, you could end up with the water level behind the tanking being much higher than it is right now... managing to reach and rot wood or get into places it can't right now


a small fan for a bit of ventilation should fix the damp right away - it's shocking what a bit of ventilation can do!

in the winter you might not want the ventilation making it cold down there - a little dehumidifier will keep it dry and they cost hardly anything to run - if you have a drain down there most can drain into a drain so you don't have to keep emptying it

 

[MrFluffy]

The solution to the last issue is to put a gravel drain at the lowest point running around the periphery, and a sump to house a lift pump in. Then instead of the hydraulic pressure forcing the water through the walls and pushing the tanking, it drains into the drain and the lift pump whisks it away.
You can get a dry work area below the water table if you need to doing this.
The problem then is, the best wine cellars are always damp with gravel floors, its in their dna. Not great for tools though.

 

[mangocrazy]

Yacht varnish is good but expect to have to redo it at some point especially if it's exposed to sunlight. The much more expensive solution but far superior IMHO is to coat the finished wood in epoxy then it will standup to seriously damp/wet conditions.

No sunlight is present in the cellar, it's artficial light only. And while I like the idea of epoxy, I'd like the finished product to look reasonably aesthetically pleasing. Not sure if epoxy would?