"I found the technical information supplied by Spiral Cellars very useful and found the details sufficient to easily incorporate the product into the plans for the house. One of the benefits of the MD being a trained architect is that documentation is written with the architect in mind.”
Bobby Desai
Desai Architecture, an innovative practice lead by Bobby Desai, recently specified a Spiral Cellar for the home of a wine merchant. The project – the refurbishment and remodelling of a terraced Victorian property in south west London – initially did not include a cellar in its plans however, because the client wanted the house to accommodate their sociable lifestyle, it became clear that storage for wine was going to be necessary. The owner not only wanted to keep drinking wines close at hand when entertaining friends and associates, but also had quite a collection of fine wines that he would drink in the future, but would benefit from several years of laying down.
Bobby Desai recommended Spiral Cellars as the best solution for storage, as it offers the greatest capacity and, because it is dug into the ground, is space-saving so it wouldn’t impact on the design of the interior. The plans for the project were quite established by the time the Spiral Cellar was introduced, however Bobby was able to accommodate the cellar very easily, only having to make minor alterations such as redoing the joist layouts.
The cellar – a 2m White Spiral Cellar with recessed trap door for timber flooring – was to be placed in the front reception room, which was to be heated with under floor heating. Under floor heating pipes should normally be placed at least 300mm away from the circular area of the Spiral Cellar excavation, however because of limited floor space in the room the Spiral Cellars design team developed a bespoke solution so that the room would still be heated as planned – the under floor heating was placed over the closed half of the cellar, and the space beneath the pipes would be insulated to prevent the heat affecting the temperature of the cellar.
The cellar was set 250mm lower to allow room for the necessary insulation and an extra step was added so that access to the cellar wouldn’t be affected.
As there were major construction works taking place on the property it made sense for the builders to complete the excavation of the hole, which was then covered until a later stage in the construction programme when Spiral Cellars attended to install the cellar modules, fit the trap door and finish the cellar to its specifications.
In the case of this project, Desai Architecture arranged the Building Regulations and a Party Wall agreement was not necessary because the cellar was more than 3m from the neighbouring wall. However Spiral Cellars can arrange both Building Regulations and Party Wall agreements, where required, as part of its service.
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