I'm about to finish my cellar and have noted that some people suggest the use of green drywall instead of "normal" drywall. Is the greenboard really necessary? Note that the cellar will be air conditioned.
-- Geoff
Geoff Schultz wrote in news:Xns96E05948B6693geoffschultzorg@216.196.97.136:
Greenboard is supposedly designed for high moisture areas, although for really high moisture areas like showers builders are now using "wonderboard" which is a concrete product. Using an air conditioner will reduce the humidity. You might want to increase the humidity, making the area more like a cave, in which case the greenboard may be necessary. Without added humidity I would doubt the need.
Do you really mean air-conditioned? I'm not totally anal about storage, and don't worry about humidity. But a real airconditioner will drop humidity way down. No need for drywall, but there's a possibility that really low-humidity would lead to drying/shrinking corks.
If, on the other hand, you mean you'll have a wine cellar cooling unit (with over 50% humidity), then I would strongly suggest greenboard. It costs a bit more, but it would be worth it in peace of mind.
Actually, even worse than the humidity issue is the rapidity of temperature change with a standard A/C unit. You want a constant temperature, something that standard room units are not designed to achieve.
Mark Lipton
You should not stop at drywall of any kind. A space-age reflective insullation such as Reflectix shold be applied to the walls and ceiling. This material is fairly thin and consists of layers of foil and plastic bubbles, It is not expensive and can be found in large building supply stores - I found some at the local Lowe's a few years ago. It comes in long rolls and is about 4 feet wide. It is easy to cut with heavy ordinary scissors. Furring strips should first be fastened over the drywall so that the Reflectix is held away from the wall. Then the material is fastened to the strips with staples. The joints are sealed with a metal foil adhesive tape. This is both for looks and because the room needs a good vapor seal. If the floor is above a crawl space or unfinished basement, bats of fiberglass insullation attached to foil should be applied under the floor and held in place with special rods made for this purpose. It is important that the foil side face in the correct direction.
I have been accused of many things, but being a good carpenter is not one of them. Yet I had no trouble in installng the Reflectix over the wall and ceiling. I hired a contractor to install the fiberglass insulation under the crawl space of my whole house. In addition to helping the wine storage room, the oak floors in the bedrooms and living room are not nearly as cold in the winter.
Without proper insulation and vapor seal, a wine storage room, especially above ground, will require a much larger BTU cooling unit.
There is nothing unique about cooling a wine room. The best solution, if money is no object, is to hire a commercial refrigeration contractor. They can install a refrigeration unit to keep the room at any desired temperature from much below freezing to a higher temperature than a human can tolerate, with humidity regulated from near zero to near 100%. The special wine units are an easy way out for most who can not afford the commercial contractor.
An ordinary room air conditioner can be used only after modification. Many will freeze up at the low temperatures needed, so an added fan to force air more rapidly through the unit is needed. Also the air conditioner needs to be rewired to stay on all of the time, since the AC thermostat is not satisfactory. A commercial thermostat is used that can be set at very accurate turn on and turn off limits desired is used, and the large bulb detector of the thermostat should be be about mid-way up a wine rack well away from the AC. Also a fan at the ceiling of the room, also controlled by the thermostat, will help to mix the air well when the AC is on. Humidity is easy to increase, if need be, with a large capacity portable humidifier that can be bought at well under $US
100. If you keep your humidity at about 50 to 60%, you will not have to refill with water very often unless you live in a very dry region.Reply to snipped-for-privacy@cwdjr.net .
Greenboard isn't that much more expensive, so even if it offers a tiny benefit it's probably worth it.
My cellar gets very wet in the summer, as I'm cooling 75 degree humid air down to 57 degrees (meaning there's some dripping and condensation). So I'm glad I went with the greenboard.
Shaun Eli
This is in fact exactly what I did when recently redoing my cellar. One thing to keep in mind is that Reflectix has a low insulating power (R6-8). If you need to do serious cooling of 20 or more F, you need to use other insulation in conjunction with the Reflectix or employ a much bigger cooling unit. In my case, I was installing it in a converted coal cellar that never gets above 67-68 F even in the heat of summer, so my insulation needs were relatively minor. It *does* lend a space-age look to the cellar, though: my wines are in a silver tube of Reflectix now which looks quite surreal when illuminated. One other note: Reflectix is not only an effective vapor barrier, it also makes a good spider barrier: no cobwebs on my racks even after nearly a year.
Ditto! I even managed a somewhat credible job with the furring strips, despite the fact that they're now invisible.
Mark Lipton
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