Help Convert Closet to (small) Walk In Humidor

[Nature]

Umm, I think someone has been confined at home too long.
What you are describing is not “(small)” for personal use.

How about a freestanding humidor hutch placed in the opening? In your taste of finish, of course.
Save a lot of headaches and you get the instant gratification and use. If you ever move, you can take it with you.



With that being said, your existing painted drywall will hold moisture fine. No vapor barrier needed for that. The question is if it will resist mold at 70ish % RH, and I think at that level it probably will be OK. Cigars, a natural fermentable product doesn’t support mold until above that.
Not necessary to line with SC. ..$$$ Unless for aesthetic or tradition reasons or for that SC aroma. If desired, you could line it with just about any wood; oak, maple, birch, poplar, pine, etc. Just not aromatic cedar. A thin veneered product would be the most economical and easiest to install. Could also go with ship lapped pine, if that is your style.

Your biggest challenge will be sealing the opening and providing humidification. That size, you may need something along the order of an electronic humidifier with humidity feedback. You already have the power supply in there.

I do like the sliding glass door or French door option, but a little pricey. You could install yourself, but your opening will likely require something custom as it is a bit narrower than the standard. If you go with a slider, it needs to open automatically with a wave of your hand and go “whooosh” like on the Enterprise in Star Trek.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. Lighting, you will need lighting, even if it is plug in led strips or rope lighting. A GFCI is overkill as you won’t be expecting open water.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[WNYTONY]

My contribution here @SoCal gunner is that for Spanish Cedar I have used and recommend a guy on eBay called gym_bob_in_maine
Don't know if he can do some of the large sizes you may needing, but he's a good dude to work with. Message him and tell him what you're looking for and he'll cut it to what you want and work with you on pricing. Not practical for big sheets but great for the smaller stuff for shelves, trays and such.

[jhedrick83]

TJ-

First of all, if you do this, I'm moving to your neighborhood. Vapor barrier for sure, either some 6 mil plastic sheeting or a small roll of Tyvek, whichever is cheaper based on how much you'll need. If you wanted to go full out, you could line the walls with SC or try to find a SC veneered plywood. Are the ceilings 8'? If so, it looks like 4 4x8 sheets of plywood would take care of the walls. I think if you didn't line the walls it would be fine, as big as that is, SC shelving would be awesome. Either way, it would probably smell like heaven.

As for expansion, if you let what you are going to line the walls with/make shelves out of rest in the humidified space for a few days it should acclimate and be fine to just butt the ends as long as the room itself wouldn't have big temp swings on a regular basis.

As for materials, when I turned an old gun cabinet into a humidor (and then did another for a friend) I used Bristol Valley Hardwoods Bristol Valley Hardwoods – Hardwoods & Speciality Wood Products They will even (or did several years ago) cut to size before they ship it.

If you do this, you must post pics. Must. Post. Pics.

[SoCal gunner]

Umm, I think someone has been confined at home too long.
What you are describing is not “(small)” for personal use.

How about a freestanding humidor hutch placed in the opening? In your taste of finish, of course.
Save a lot of headaches and you get the instant gratification and use. If you ever move, you can take it with you.



With that being said, your existing painted drywall will hold moisture fine. No vapor barrier needed for that. The question is if it will resist mold at 70ish % RH, and I think at that level it probably will be OK. Cigars, a natural fermentable product doesn’t support mold until above that.
Not necessary to line with SC. ..$$$ Unless for aesthetic or tradition reasons or for that SC aroma. If desired, you could line it with just about any wood; oak, maple, birch, poplar, pine, etc. Just not aromatic cedar. A thin veneered product would be the most economical and easiest to install. Could also go with ship lapped pine, if that is your style.

Your biggest challenge will be sealing the opening and providing humidification. That size, you may need something along the order of an electronic humidifier with humidity feedback. You already have the power supply in there.

I do like the sliding glass door or French door option, but a little pricey. You could install yourself, but your opening will likely require something custom as it is a bit narrower than the standard. If you go with a slider, it needs to open automatically with a wave of your hand and go “whooosh” like on the Enterprise in Star Trek.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. Lighting, you will need lighting, even if it is plug in led strips or rope lighting. A GFCI is overkill as you won’t be expecting open water.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I meant small as in I probably wont be able to turn around inside with shelving.

My original plan was to do even less than what you showed: I have my grandmother's old cedar chest that I was just going to put in that space and load it with all my tupperdors.

[SoCal gunner]

When I do one I think I would line the walls and ceiling in either tongue and groove boards or there is a similar plywood like product home depot sells. I think it is M11? Not positive the name off the top of my head. Either should hold up to moisture well. I think you should be able to hit the wall with a good sealer like drylock and just nail or screw into the studs. I would think that some of that wire shelving would work fine or if you got skills just make up some nice hardwood shelves. I think you also want somebcirculation fans. Maybe a small dict down low with an inline fan that moves it up to the ceiling and exhausts. Keep the moisture moving and stabilized. Some of the room humidifiers have a humidity sensor and I think that with the air movement would get the job done.

Ryan, I'm not seeing a M11 product at home depot. Would love to know what you had in mind.

After reading and watching as much as I could find on what to use for the paneling, I'm leaning towards going with an alternative hardwood to SC for cost. But you GOTTA have that SC smell, right? So maybe spring for SC shelves on closet system type shelving brackets?

[SoCal gunner]

Anyone have a suggestion on splitting up the sheets (assuming 4x8s) ? Aesthetically, I'm thinking cutting them to 4'x68" gives me two horizontal seams on the back and no need to worry about vertical stud placement.

Not sure as a puzzle it makes the most sense/least waste? Especially if I carry it to the sides.

[Tombstone]

Ryan, I'm not seeing a M11 product at home depot. Would love to know what you had in mind.

After reading and watching as much as I could find on what to use for the paneling, I'm leaning towards going with an alternative hardwood to SC for cost. But you GOTTA have that SC smell, right? So maybe spring for SC shelves on closet system type shelving brackets?

I will check with my Dad what its called and take some pictures of projects we did with it. It holds up way better to moisture than normal plyvwood.

[josh lucky 13]

Anyone have a suggestion on splitting up the sheets (assuming 4x8s) ? Aesthetically, I'm thinking cutting them to 4'x68" gives me two horizontal seams on the back and no need to worry about vertical stud placement.

Not sure as a puzzle it makes the most sense/least waste? Especially if I carry it to the sides.

I like the idea of horizontal seems. You can hide those with static shelves that never move. I like the idea of Spanish cedar shelves but you don't have to jump to that off the start. Depends on how fast you want it and what you want it to look like in the end. But if your going this far you want to make it everything you want. Before your wife realizes what she agreed to.

[WNYTONY]

Ryan, I'm not seeing a M11 product at home depot. Would love to know what you had in mind.

After reading and watching as much as I could find on what to use for the paneling, I'm leaning towards going with an alternative hardwood to SC for cost. But you GOTTA have that SC smell, right? So maybe spring for SC shelves on closet system type shelving brackets?

I think @Tombstone is thinking of T111 - I used that in my hot tub room and I agree that it holds up well to the moisture.

[Tombstone]

I think @Tombstone is thinking of T111 - I used that in my hot tub room and I agree that it holds up well to the moisture.

Yep! Thats the stuff.