Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Help on building a Bar for my basement.

OK guys, as you know I'm in the middle of remodeling our basement to include a dedicated home theatre and also rec room with bar and pool table area.

I want to build my own L-Shaped or Curved bar. I'm still open for suggestions as to if it will be a Wetbar or Drybar. Have any of you already taken on such a project, and if yes do you have any instructions/photos on the building process that would help me?

There are a few websites that offer plans to build your own custom bar, and I may take that route. Just hoping some of you have already built one and can offer suggestions or help.

Thanks in advance.

Randy

ps: once completed, I'll buy you all a drink at my virtual bar

the wetbar/drybar decision should be pretty easy.. does the wall the bar is going on have availibilty to water lines? or can they be routed there fairly easily?

i plan on putting a small sink in my bar once we get it built. but i have a pier and beam floor, so running water lines is a snap. if you are in the basement, most likely with concrete floors, getting water to the bar could be a major pain in the a$$.. a wetbar is certainly not a necessity, but it is a nice feature to have. i think the avail to water would be the main issue concerning your decision.

make sure and give it a brass step rail, and cabinets tall enough to handle whiskey bottles standing up. i have a friend who had to tear out a shelf in his bar cause he made them about 1/2 inch too short to put liquor bottles in. just a minor oversite that ended up being a big pain to fix.

good luck with it.. cant wait to see pics once its all in and complete.

bigjohn

thanks BigJohn

I'll expand a little on my original post. The wall that the bar will be against does have water lines prerun. I actually am planning on having a sink and smaller refrigerater along that back wall. I would like the bar to either curve outward, or have an L-shape that would come out from that back wall about 5ft and then the longer section would come back and meet up with a pole that is supporting the I-Beam that goes across the rest of the basement. I may try to incorporate the pole into the bar.

Randy

Water’s easy. The drain may be more difficult though, especially if you have to get a building permit and have it inspected. With the sink, you will be adding another ‘fixture’ to the drain and vent system already in your house. Depending on the size of pipe, length of run and number of fixture units already on this leg, you may not be able to add another (per code). It’ll work just fine, but building officials can be real anal about interpreting code.

For ideas, you might want to go to a few furniture outlets and see what they have for “ready to set in place bars”. Take a few pictures and then design your own. Just ‘borrow’ some elements of their design. Also, go to a couple cabinet retailers and look through some of their magazines. You also might want to look at some appliances. They make some very trick built in appliances that are small enough for a bar (ice maker, dish washer, wine cooler, fridge, keg-er-ators, etc…).

thanks guys for the input, when I had the house built I had the drain piped stubbed in already, so basically all I have to do is connect the trap and sink once installed.

I found a couple of good websites using Google. A few of them offer detailed, easy to follow plans, even for people that are not into woodworking. I'm pretty handy, but don't have all of the tools/machinery possibly needed. I have found a few examples that can be built with simple tools that most people would own.

I guess I was just hoping that some of you have already been down this path and would have pics or intructions available. No biggy, I'm sure I can figure it out. Thanks also to Tharkun for offering to talk to me via a phone call, he has built a few bars in his day

Randy

>>and then the longer section would come back and meet up with a pole that is supporting the I-Beam that goes across the rest of the basement. I may try to incorporate the pole into the bar

A brass pole ? What kind of bar are we talking about here ?

>>Thanks also to Tharkun for offering to talk to me via a phone call, he has built a few bars in his day

Dennis has some great experience with construction and design... and he really helped me out with good advice when I was planning the kitchen for my new house. Totally changed the way I was thinking about it.

We'll see in a couple of months if the advice was any good