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
6:

> 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
>

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.

--
Joseph Coulter
Cruises and Vacations
http://www.josephcoulter.com/

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.

DaleW wrote:
> 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.

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 .

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
http://www.BrainChampagne.com
Brain Champagne: Clever Comedy for the Smart Mind (sm)

Cwdjrx _ wrote:
> 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.

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.

> 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.

Ditto! I even managed a somewhat credible job with the furring strips,
despite the fact that they're now invisible.

Mark Lipton