Convert bedroom into cigar room with walk-in humidor?

[codemachine]

So I was talking to Jeromy (aka impluse1977) and we hatched a long term possibly awesome plan. I have 3 empty bedrooms upstairs in my house. More than I need anytime soon. So I'm considering converting one of them into a cigar room and turning the closet into a walk-in humidor. So this would really be 2 seperate but related projects in my mind. The closet/humidor and then the cigar room.

For the humidor, it seems like it would be too simple to:
a. rip out the carpet
b. line the whole thing with Spanish Cedar
c. replace the door with one that makes a proper seal
d. add humidification/cooling apparatus
Am I missing anything?

As for the cigar room, my plan is to:
a. rip up the carpet
b. lay a pergo or wood floor
c. replace the door with one that will make an airtight seal
d. add exhaust fan to go out through the roof and not into the rest of the house
e. furnish with (p)leather chairs, bookshelves, lcd tv, etc

Any advice, guidance, pitfalls to avoid, or things I'm missing and not considering here, I'd love to hear about it. This is in the pre-pre-planning stage. But I want to make sure I'm thinking about all the right things before deciding to pull the trigger.

Thanks in advance. :awholelot

PS: any of ya'all in the Dallas/Fort Worth area will of course be welcome to stop by and help during construction, testing, and breaking it in if it comes to fruition. :smokingbo

 

[jmatkins]

Sounds like and awsome plan, good luck.

 

[Altercall]

I'll come by!!

 

[Mitch]

On the humidor side, I'd consider a vapor barrier and/or extra insulation. Don't know how dramatic a difference in humidity and temperature you are trying to adjust, but it might prevent head aches down the road.

 

[CWS]

Only thing missing is money dude. Sounds great. Good luck.

 

[Electric Sheep]

I have no idea how any of that construction works, but I know that people have done essentially that same sort of thing in their basement. This is one that I've seen posted several times:

http://www.ryandeyer.com/cigarroom/

If you do decide to build this, I'd like to stop by and maybe help a bit (don't know what I could do since I'm not handy *AT ALL* LMAO!) but I don't think I could come over all that often since I'm probably about an hour away from you.

But a couple of trips over could be fun. :grin:

 

[Frank N]

Sheep, send Claudia over, I'm sure she knows how to swing a hammer.

 

[codemachine]

On the humidor side, I'd consider a vapor barrier and/or extra insulation. Don't know how dramatic a difference in humidity and temperature you are trying to adjust, but it might prevent head aches down the road.

That's one of the things I was wondering about, if I needed to do anything to the walls before putting up the Spanish Cedar in there.

 

[codemachine]

I have no idea how any of that construction works, but I know that people have done essentially that same sort of thing in their basement. This is one that I've seen posted several times:

http://www.ryandeyer.com/cigarroom/

If you do decide to build this, I'd like to stop by and maybe help a bit (don't know what I could do since I'm not handy *AT ALL* LMAO!) but I don't think I could come over all that often since I'm probably about an hour away from you.

But a couple of trips over could be fun. :grin:

If this turns out as awesome as I hope it does I might have host the "BOTL North Texas BBQ & Herf" to break it in or something

 

[avid toker]

Not sure howmuch temp swings you get in the closet but R insulation might be necessary in the ceiling and the walls. Vapor barrier is a must in the closet. They build A/C units that can mount above the door to save space. Bob Staebell or Matt from Avallo can help you with the humidification specifics. They can build custom units for you if need be. Also, you can find cheaper subsitutes for spanish cedar such as honduran mahogany. Don;t need to line the floor of it either. You can use the pergo flooring in there too or tile can work just as well.

As for the smoking room, make sure you put a damper in any return vents that are in the room otherwise the smoke will enter the return and redistribute the odor throughout the rest of the house. DaKlugs on CS did a calculation and figured out the cfm's needed to clear out a room of smoke. Here is a snippet from his original post on CS...

Exhaust fans are rated in CFM - Cubic feet per minute and sones - their relative loudness. These are the 2 important specs to consider when looking at one for your application.

CFM is the real issue in gettin the smoke out. If you have a 10 x 12 room with 8 foot ceilings that is 960 Cubic feet of air. My personal experience has led me to a simple calculation for this size rooms needed "actual" CFM.

1 smoker - 200-300 cfm
2 smokers - 450 cfm
3 smokers - 600 cfm
4 smokers - 900 cfm

Needed being defined as keeping the room from getting nasty.

A typical bathroom fan is 100-150 CFM rated. This can be deceptive as this is "at the fan". If you have long runs of exhaust lines it can dramatically reduce the capacity.

Larger fans can be loud so you need to consider this in your decision. Some of the best solutions are "inline" a fan that can be installed closer to the outlet and 4-6 feet outside of your room buried in a wall or crawl space. These can dramatically reduce the noise. It's important to pay attention to the duct sizing. Getting a high CFM fan (6-900) and installing it with too long a run/too small of pipe can drastically reduce the effective CFM exhaust you get.

Simple solutions can be cheap and very efficient. Window fans do a great job and you can pop them in and out as needed even in winter months.

Hope this helps and good luck on the project! Take pics

 

[codemachine]

I was planning on doing some sort of inline exhuast fan in the ducting in the attic. The room in question is on the second floor so it's a short distance to go from the ceiling through the attic to the roof. I don't remember off hand and it's tough to look at the moment since the room is full of boxes but I don't think there is a return in the room, I think it's in the hallway.

I was also wondering about cooling for the humidor. Can I just get a TECA unit and stick it in there, or would I need to mount it in the wall of the humidor and provide an exhaust to somewhere? How do they pull the heat from the air and cool it off is what I don't understand so I don't know if it needs an exhaust of some sort.

 

[Altercall]

If you do decide to build this, I'd like to stop by and maybe help a bit

You mean like you help with the trucks?

 

[avid toker]

I was also wondering about cooling for the humidor. Can I just get a TECA unit and stick it in there, or would I need to mount it in the wall of the humidor and provide an exhaust to somewhere? How do they pull the heat from the air and cool it off is what I don't understand so I don't know if it needs an exhaust of some sort.

It depends...I'm not sure about the TECA units but you'd have to make sure it does not dehumidify the environment while it cools. Wine chillers are probably the best bet but might be overkill if your closet is small. Not sure how much big your closet is in cubic ft but when I plan on building my walk-in this is the cooling unit I'll probably use. It's all self-contained in 1 unit..no separate exhaust run, no condensation line, etc.
http://www.beveragefactory.com/wine/cooling/koolspace/AP-3.shtml

 

[Electric Sheep]

You mean like you help with the trucks?

Trucks? What trucks?!?

 

[RonC]

how many cigars will you be storing?

 

[cvm4]

Just some quick thinking but you'd probably have to hang some vapor barrier sheet rock (like in bathrooms) in the closet as it will be at a high humidity constantly. And I'd put some sort of liner under the whole room, including the closet.

 

[Frank N]

Here is what happens when you have Sheep over to help.

 

[Altercall]

That can't be Duane! He looks..... in shape.

 

[Frank N]

LOL that was before he quit smoking cigarettes.

 

[vperlman]

... Also, you can find cheaper subsitutes for spanish cedar such as honduran mahogany...

I don't think I'd do that. I'd be concerned than anything other than Spanish Cedar will have too strong an aroma or the wrong one. It might smell fine in a sniff test, but remember, your sticks are going to be exposed to this stuff for years and years...