Ideas for adding a (hobby !) brewery/tavern/mancave to a house...

[brewman !]

AGREED! And check this site out for some inspiration. Some seriously bad ass stuff:

http://hiddenpassageway.com/

I think I'm with everyone else with the outdoor structure overall, though I understand the lot restraint issue. It just seems to me that a bunker would be tough to really get much of anything back on when it comes time to sell the house where as an outdoor structure could easily be converted from a brew house to a guest house.

There isn't enough lot space to add an external structure. Besides, the house itself looks pretty big as it is. I like the idea of it being hidden underground.

 

[brewman !]

Not sure what part of the country you are in, but in our area there are plenty of barns falling down. I would suggest approaching a farmer with a disaster of a barn and offer to take it down for the materials. You could use the beams, maybe hand hewn and the faded barn board for asthetics. If you could find some old tin roofing, the rougher the better for the ceiling, it would give it a very rustic touch. Those colors would meld great with copper as the copper mellows. There are businesses that specialize in barns, you could probably get the materials there, but up here it would be much cheaper to go knocking on farm house doors.

I have a friend that did something similar to the underground room, and it worked out great. The key is good footing drain around the structure. You can also skylight for light if this is going to be under the lawn. A custom made wishing well in the back yard that also provides light to your room would be my vote. You can use an air exchanger to keep the moisture down, and have the ability to vent for your co2 output.

Very good ideas !

Post where you are and maybe people can come up with some good regional suggestions.

Sorry, I need to stay anonymous. Some people don't understand. I don't want to be known as the guy who built a bunker so he could make and drink "homebrew".

 

[brewman !]

I think this is a great idea, but I'm guessing if the OP is shelling out for a 1mil plus house, and is STILL restricted by lot size, then any old barns are long gone. In other words, its probably a fairly urban/developed area. I could be wrong.

The house is located on the edge of an urban area. Its on the edge of a ridge, overlooking a valley. I liked the barn idea for getting timbers for inside the bunker, not for building a free standing structure.

Question for the OP: back to the lot size restriction. Why is a separate above-ground structure a no-go because of lot size restrictions, but you are able to build underground?

Because city regulations (and my wife) say every lot needs a certain percentage of "green" area, ie with no buildings.

Maybe I don't understand what you are talking about when you say "bunker", but isn't a separate structure still a separate foot-print rregardless if it above or below ground? (i.e it still takes up space on the lot).

Its not going to take up space on the lot above ground. It will be totally buried and covered with grass.

Its part of a larger project. We are also adding a dedicated home theater room and putting a basement under the garage at the same time. The total added underground area will be about 1200 ft^2. The bunker is mostly covered by the deck on the back of the house.

We made an offer on the house in question yesterday. If we get it, I'll get an experienced architect and structural engineer involved. Maybe even an interior designer.

 

[wreals]

I think this is a great idea, but I'm guessing if the OP is shelling out for a 1mil plus house, and is STILL restricted by lot size

Welcome to the California real estate reality. In Silicon Valley, a track-home can go for a million. At least, they did until the bottom fell out.


I'd love to see the pictures when this whole project is done.

 

[broadbill]

There isn't enough lot space to add an external structure. Besides, the house itself looks pretty big as it is. I like the idea of it being hidden underground.

But its not going to be hidden underground if you are brewing in there...you need to vent it somewhere. As you have explained it, there is going to be a vent sticking out of the middle of your lawn.

 

[brewman !]

Most of the bunker is going to be under the deck on the house.

I can easily put vents up through the roof if I need to because they will be hidden under the deck.

 

[bluemoose]

If this thing is going to be under the deck don't forget to run your tap lines for draft beer on the deck. Up, up and away beer! Just remember to insulate them.

 

[Clurin]

Most of the bunker is going to be under the deck on the house.

I can easily put vents up through the roof if I need to because they will be hidden under the deck.

Be sure to run those vents out the sides of the deck and not just openly underneath. All that moist air could rot out the deck.

 

[brewman !]

Bad news... our offer on the house was not accepted and we don't want to go higher.

I'm not sure where this leaves my brewery dream.

 

[ryandlf]

Surely you can approach a similar project in the next house you put an offer in on. It sounds like a really cool project and people will tell you that adding a secret room behind a bookshelf in your house with a microbrewery inside won't add any value to the house, but I don't know one single that wouldn't be swayed toward purchasing a house with something like that in it. I'd probably be willing to live in a run down trailer if it had a bad ass bomb shelter 100 feet below it...but that's just the cool factor speaking. And besides the value it will add to the house or not, sometimes we need to spend money just to have things that we enjoy surrounding us...to me that is worth more than a couple dollars.

Good luck...dream big.

 

[brewman !]

The good news in all this is that we are probably going to build a new house.

It sound silly to build a house in these times, but it makes total sense given what building costs are these days and what the owners want for houses given what the market says they are worth.

The good news in that is the beer bunker is probably going to be designed into the new house. We are starting our search for a lot today.

 

[DarkBrood]

Let me know if you need any quality design/drafting done when the time comes - I've done everything from custom architectural detailing and cabinetry design to structural engineering on bridges, water parks, and major international projects (custom islands in the Bay of Gibraltar, anyone?) and plenty of civil design/drainage/earthworks to boot. I work freelance and wouldn't normally advertise like this, but your project just sounds too dang interesting to not offer. I don't hold any California licensing, but could cut your costs significantly by only needing design approval from a licensed P.E.

-Bryan
http://engineering.digitalgibson.com

 

[brewman !]

Update.

This project is going to be on hold for a while.

We spent a lot of time looking at houses and made offers on several. None of our offers were accepted. Its a funny market out there.

After a while we gave up on trying to buy a house and turned to trying to buy a lot and build. In the area we are interested in, this involves buying a tear down. Again, none of our offers were accepted, even the one where our cash offer matched the listed price ! Like I said, its a funny market out there.

So... we struck a deal with the owner of one of the houses that we made an offer on to RENT it. We'll be moving into a nice house, but I will not have the opportunity to build the tavern bunker I dream of while there.

All is not lost, however. We are hopeful that we will be able to purchase a lot and start building a year or so from now.

I haven't forgotten about the pictures. I'll post them up in a month or so when the move is done.

Thanks for all the input into this thread.