Circular Electric Wine Cellar Door, Installed in Scotland
Dio-Met designed and manufactured a bespoke circular electric wine cellar door and supplied it to a private home in Boat of Garten, in the Cairngorms in the Scottish Highlands, where it was installed into the ceiling of a new below-ground cellar by the client's main contractor. It is our round motorised hinged glass floor hatch, made here to a 1480mm clear opening: a walk-on glass disc set flush in the floor above that lifts open at the touch of a button to reveal the cellar below. With the door now in and working, the client has asked us to design and build a bespoke spiral staircase for permanent access, so this one is a project in two parts.
Project overview
- Client: Private (residential)
- Location: Scottish Highlands (Boat of Garten, Cairngorms)
- Product: Circular Electric Wine Cellar Door (round motorised hinged glass floor hatch)
- Clear opening: 1480mm diameter (overall circa 1556mm diameter)
- Glass: 25.5mm toughened laminated structural glass with a black painted border
- Frame: Powder-coated steel, RAL 7016 Anthracite Grey
- Operation: Electric motor with wall switch and remote control
- Load bearing: 150 kg/m² glass loading, to BS EN 1991-1-1
- Finish: Non-slip surface treatment to the glass
- Certification: UKCA certified to BS EN 1090-2
- Supply: Made in Sheffield, delivered to the Highlands, fitted by the client's main contractor
- Next phase: Bespoke spiral staircase for permanent cellar access, to be designed and made by Dio-Met
- Scope: Design, manufacture and delivery (supply), with a spiral staircase to follow
The brief
The client was building a new wine cellar below the ground floor of the house and wanted a striking, discreet way in and out. A round electric glass door was the answer: closed, it reads as a walk-on glass disc in the floor above; open, it lifts clear to give clean access to the cellar. The job was managed through the client's own main contractor, so we made the door to the opening and supplied it to site in Scotland for the contractor's team to install.
The door
The door is our circular electric wine cellar hatch, a motorised round glass floor door built in our Sheffield workshops to a 1480mm clear opening, circa 1556mm overall. The glass is a 25.5mm toughened laminated structural make-up with a black painted border, given a non-slip surface treatment, so when the door is closed it carries foot traffic like any other section of floor and keeps the sightline clear. It sits in a powder-coated steel frame finished in RAL 7016 Anthracite Grey. At the touch of a button, using either the wall switch or the remote, the motor lifts the door open on its arm, as shown in the photographs taken from inside the cellar. The unit is UKCA certified to BS EN 1090-2, with a glass load-bearing capacity of 150 kg/m² to BS EN 1991-1-1, and our current electric doors are supplied with a UPS battery backup as standard so a power cut cannot leave the door stuck. It went in as a supply item here, made to the contractor's opening and delivered to site in the Highlands.
Next phase: a bespoke spiral staircase
Right now the cellar is reached by ladder while the room is finished off, which is exactly why the client came back to us. Pleased with the door, they have asked Dio-Met to design and make a bespoke spiral staircase to drop through the same opening and give safe, permanent access down into the cellar. Making the door and the staircase as one package means the two are designed to work together, so the finished cellar is both easy to reach and worth showing off. That stair is the next stage of the project, and we will update this page once it is made and fitted.
Expert insight
"A round electric door and a spiral staircase belong together. When we make both, we can set the stair out to the exact opening and swing of the door, so access is safe and the whole cellar looks like one considered piece rather than two separate jobs."
Frequently asked questions
Do you supply wine cellar doors for projects in Scotland? Yes. This circular electric door was made to a 1480mm clear opening and supplied to the client's main contractor in the Highlands to install. We regularly supply glass cellar doors and floors to Scottish projects, working alongside the client's architect, engineer and contractor, and we supply nationwide.
How does a glass cellar door sit within Scottish Building Standards and the building warrant? A structural glass floor unit like this falls under Scottish Building Standards and normally needs a building warrant, often an amendment of warrant, through the local authority building control. Meeting the warrant conditions and anything arising from the Structural Engineer's Report (SER) process is handled by the client's appointed architect and structural engineer. Our part is to make and certify the product: we issue UKCA certification to BS EN 1090-2 on delivery and, on request, provide written confirmation of the glass load-bearing capacity (150 kg/m² to BS EN 1991-1-1) to support the warrant and SER process. We do not provide project-specific structural calculations or the SER itself, as those sit with the client's professional team, but we are used to supplying the product information they need.
Is the glass safe to walk on when the door is closed? Yes. The door uses a 25.5mm toughened laminated structural glass make-up with a non-slip surface treatment, so when it is closed it takes normal foot traffic and sits flush with the floor above. It is rated to a glass loading of 150 kg/m² to BS EN 1991-1-1. Our circular electric wine cellar door page has the full specification.
Is the door insulated or fire rated? No. It is a non-insulated structural glass floor unit and is not fire rated. Where Scottish Building Standards or a warrant condition call for a particular thermal performance or fire resistance in the floor construction, that is achieved in the surrounding build-up around the unit by the client's architect and contractor, not by the door itself.
How is guarding and access handled when the door is open? This is exactly why we like to make the door and the access staircase together. An open floor void needs proper guarding to prevent falls, and a conventional descending stair would ordinarily need a handrail through the floor, which is not compatible with a flush glass door that closes over the opening. Designing the door and a bespoke staircase as one package lets us help the client's architect and contractor arrive at safe, workable access and guarding, with responsibility for building-regulation compliance resting with their professional team.
Can you make a matching spiral staircase for the cellar? Yes. As on this project, we design and make bespoke spiral and access staircases to suit the door and the opening, so the two are engineered to work together. See our metal and steel staircases.
Explore more from Dio-Met
Related products
Similar projects
Helpful guides
Planning a wine cellar door or cellar access staircase?
Whether you want a circular or rectangular electric glass cellar door, a spiral staircase to reach it, or both made as one package, we design and make to suit your opening and deliver anywhere in the UK. Call us on 0114 243 9009 or email sales@diometonline.co.uk, or request a quote online.
Tags: circular wine cellar door, electric wine cellar door, motorised glass cellar door, round glass floor hatch, walk-on glass cellar door, spiral cellar staircase, glass floor Scotland, wine cellar door Highlands, Boat of Garten, building warrant glass floor, bespoke wine cellar, Dio-Met
