Constructing & Maintaining A Cold Room
If you have to store, prepare or process chilled foodstuff then you’ll need a cold room. The probabilities are that you will need a cold room custom built for your own special requirements. Such a custom cold room can either be built inside existing accommodation, as an extension or as a separate building. It is even possible to build mobile cold rooms or cold rooms in ships.
Cold rooms aren’t just necessary for food production, distribution and storage. Cold rooms are also necessary in scientific research establishments, medical institutions and customs facilities. In some cases people want to have chilled larders or temperature controlled wine cellars.
Such cold rooms can fluctuate from a 5 square metre pantry to a huge 10,000 square metre chilled food production, packing, storage and distribution facility with multiple temperature zones. Cold rooms are created from insulated materials (walls, ceilings and floors) with special insulated doors.
Cold Room Design
It’s critical that you (or a trustworthy supplier) plans and designs your cold room correctly. There are plenty of factors which must be taken into consideration in its design. These considerations include…
- What size does it have to be?
- If it is a storage facility is it required for chilled or frozen food?
- Does it need to accommodate staff working in it (for example if it is a production, packing or distribution facility)?
- Will it need to accommodate mobile gear such as fork lift trucks?
- Will it be important to install production, packaging and distribution equipment?
- Will it be needed to change or extend the facility at a later date?
- Can the facility be built within existing accommodation or will it require an extension or separate building?
Cold Room Construction
The impact of these considerations upon cold room design and construction are very varied including the following.
- A freezer room (in contrast to a chilled room) with sub zero temperatures will require heater tapes around doors to stop them from freezing shut. Freezer rooms usually require a raised standard of insulation than chilled rooms.
- If the cold room walls and roof are exposed to the outside (in contrast to being built inside an existing structure) then special material is necessary to withstand external weather conditions.
- Staff doors require internal release mechanisms for health and safety reasons (so that staff cannot be trapped inside).
If you want a cold room you want to pick a skilled and experienced supplier to design and build it for you. In a similar fashion, if you currently have a cold room you want a trusted partner to be in a position to maintain, repair ,alter and extend it as required without interrupting your normal business operations. For more information, Waterside Installations ‘ site has some answers to frequently asked questions about cold rooms.
Kevin Gale is the Managing Director of Waterside Installations which has been designing, building, installing, repairing, maintaining, modifying and extending cold rooms across the south of England for 25 years. Waterside Installations can design and build a cold room of any size for just about any purpose and almost anywhere.