Wine Cellar modifications for Earthquake Preparedness

Hello,

We touched on this in a previous thread, so I thought a thread for this subject is best.

My cellar will be all bottle racking with a few boxes for cases.

@Bill Spohn - you had a few extra ideas. Are they doable at scale?

[Robin Garr]

Welcome back, David! Earthquakes aren't much of an issue in these parts (unless the New Madrid fault goes centuries before expected), but I'll still watch this thread with interest.

[David M. Bueker]

From discussions elsewhere, bottle bins are a disaster in earthquakes. Racking is much better, as each bottle is set in, with the bottle width behind the brace.

As for the racking itself...not sure how to make it more quake resistant.

[Jenise]

If we have a quake here I'm in trouble. I have not protected my wine. Most of my 'bins' contain 12 to 16 bottles each which would move as a group--right into other groups. They'd all die. I've thought that I should line (with glue) some of that rubber matting that keeps rugs from sliding onto the bottoms of each bin but have never done it. Bill's hardware store foam looks (I've been in his cellar) like a real good idea too.

Maybe I should put precious bottles like first growths in the lower bins. But I haven't--of course, they're near eye level cuz I like to see them.

Yeah, individual double-deep bottle racks are what my walls are predominantly, with some spaces for wine boxes.

@Bill Spohn said this in the previous thread:

The issue of earthquake areas mandates some additional bracing between bins, plus a shallow riser at the front of the bins to keep them from shaking out. I already use strips of black plastic foam to shore up between layers of Burgundy bottles; they, along with Alsatian wines are the worst for stacking solidly.

So that may help with ideas for folks with Bins.

I wanted my racking folks to tilt the individual double-deep racks slightly upwards in the front but the person said it was very expensive. Yet, another racking person said it was not, I guess each racking company have different feelings towards this.

Maybe I'm fatalist about this, but I tend not to worry about it on the theory that there's a good chance they'd all be cooked anyway if the earthquake were severe. I do deliberately keep my off-site well off site, on the theory that any disaster, be it earthquake, fire, loss of power, or theft would at least be limited to one site. Even a powerful quake is not going to cause moderate damage across an entire metro area.

I know nothing of earthquakes (beyond having dealt with cabinet latches while visiting CA friends/relatives).
Scary stuff.
But when rigging up vans for my non-profit, I've used stretch webbing (like you see on pickup trucks with no tailgate, or holding groceries in hatchbacks) to keep blankets/supplies from falling on volunteers' heads from shelves mounted over seating. Could you put something like that over front of a wine rack? Depending on design might not hold everything in (or nothing if "Big One" , but then lots of designs might fail) but should certainly reduce bottle fatalities in a more modest quake. Could easily unclip when you need access.

I agree with Dale and like Dale I don't know nothing about earthquakes. (I totally "missed out" on an earthquake we had here on the East Coast of the US). For binning racks bungee type cargo net (as lomg as the "mesh" is small enough (when the net is strtched out)
to hold a bottle in place and the rack itself is secured to a wall ceiling would probably "save" some bottles. For "individual bottle" racks (secured to a wall or ceiling) I have seenn O-rings small enough in diameter (2 1/2- 2 3/4 inches) to "cradle the neck" of a wine bottle but not let the "fatter" part of the bottle pass through secured to the front (top rail) of the rack with tie wrapes or staples.

Salute