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Refrigerated Warehousing FAQ

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Modern Warehouse Design

environmentally conscious solutions

high tech stuff

control panels

doors

dock levellers

Gone are the days of dingy, dirty warehouses! Dark, dirty conditions are unsafe for the consumers of your product and for your workers. 

How to Increase Refrigerated Storage

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How to Design a Warehouse

Warehouse design is key to storage efficiency and process efficiency. 

Refrigerated Warehouse Construction

Every refrigerated warehouse project starts with what your needs are. What are you looking to store? How many pallets are you looking to store? What is the process flow in your warehouse or production facility?

 

Once we evaluate your needs, we put together a design that meets your needs, space, and budget. We look at process flow and pallet racking design to maximize storage and reduce the cost of refrigerated storage per pallet location. We look at the laws and regulations surrounding what your facility does and design your refrigerated space to comply with them. 

We get certified engineering stamps from professional engineers that guarantees that your project is electrically and structurally designed correctly, safely, and according to the law. Then we get approval for your project from the relevant planning, building, and fire departments. 

If demolition is required, we demolish the required areas to make room for your new refrigerated warehouse. If your project involves a freezer portion, we cut out your existing concrete floors to install under-floor glycol floor heat systems and insulation to prevent floor heaving. If your project involves the construction of a new building, we can lay new concrete and foundations.

We order all the materials for your project, down to doors, panels, steel, refrigeration, lights, pallet racking, and more! We deploy our specialized team to take delivery of and assemble the insulated panels in record time. Our team installs all the support structures for the insulated panels, trims and seals all gaps and penetrations. We install high speed or sliding doors according to your facility's design, and install door protection to protect your doors from forklift impacts.

We design and coordinate the installation of roofing (if necessary), lights, refrigeration condensers and evaporators, fire suppression systems, pallet racking, monitoring systems and control panels and more. We coordinate the wiring and plumbing of these systems. If your project involves a custom control panel, we get the panel fabricated, install it for you, and interface it with your existing systems.

Once each piece of the project is installed, we test the systems to ensure that they are operating correctly. We test your lights, doors, control panels, and refrigeration systems to ensure that they perform in accordance with specifications. We ensure your refrigerated warehouse gets down to temperature and that your warehouse is free from icing.

During construction, the project must pass a variety of building inspections. Once the project is done, a final inspection certifies your facility for use. Then, you get to move in and begin operations!

What is the cost to build a refrigerated warehouse?

The ultimate cost of building a refrigerated warehouse comes down to the following factors:

  • Size (square footage, wall & ceiling square footage, and refrigerated volume)

  • Whether the project consists of a cooler or a freezer

  • The relative location of refrigeration equipment and electrical panels on the project

  • Changes made during the project (change orders)

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Freezer space is more expensive to construct than cooler space. For one, an insulated and heated floor must be installed to prevent floor heaving if the warehouse is on-grade (most warehouses are on-grade). Additionally, horsepower of the refrigeration equipment must be larger to get the temperature lower. This is like needing a F-350 truck to pull around that 40' RV trailer. This is true also for lower temperature freezers. A -30°F freezer will need more horsepower than a -10°F freezer. Specialized products intended for freezers must also be used, such as freezer high-speed roll-up doors, which are more expensive than cooler high-speed roll-up doors. Another component which must be used in freezers, but not in coolers, are heated pressure-relief ports. One other thing to consider is the location of your warehouse. The law in some areas requires thicker insulated panels to be used when constructing a freezer as compared to a cooler. These thicker panels will naturally cost more.

The length of copper wire and of refrigerated system pipe will contribute to your overall costs. If the location of the condensers is very far from the evaporators, this adds up to greater material and labors costs to run refrigerant pipe and electrical between the units. Additionally, the father away the power source is from the components that need power, the larger your electrical material and labor costs will be. Luckily, at Steve Stock & Associates, we take these considerations into account when designing your warehouse so that you can save money on these aspects of the project.

The labor cost to build your warehouse out of insulated panels scales according to a negative logarithmic relationship with the square footage of the project. In other words, very small projects will be much more expensive per square-foot than large projects, but very large projects will be only moderately less expensive per square-foot than large projects. However, this only takes into consideration the cost of the installation of the insulated panels. It does not consider cost of doors, lights, refrigeration equipment, etc., or the labor involved to install those components.

Another consideration to the cost of your project is the number of changes that are made to a project while the project is ongoing. Most changes that are made have an impact on the cost of the project. The later a change is made, the more likely it will come with a higher price tag. The best time to make changes is before final design approval, when materials have not yet been ordered and construction has not yet begun.  Later changes may cost you significant money (and time!) depending on the nature of the change and when in the process the change occurs. For example, if you change the layout of the facility once the facility is nearly done, requiring the relocation of walls, electrical wiring, refrigerant piping, etc., that change will cost a great deal more than deciding to add another door before doors have been ordered. 

The best way to find out what your project will cost is to contact us. We can provide you with a budget price for your project. Our turn-around for budget pricing is generally a few days to one week. How do we do this? We have collected data from our past projects to predict what things cost and use software tools to quickly amalgamate all components of a job into one budget price. 

How fast can you build a refrigerated warehouse?

How fast a refrigerated warehouse can be constructed comes down to the following aspects:

  • Lead times for materials

  • Lead time for getting planning approval and building permits

  • How fast the project can be priced and bid

  • How fast the project can be designed and drawn

  • Project complexity

  • Whether you project includes a freezer or not

  • Project changes (change orders)

  • Proficiency and expertise of the construction team

  • Size of your project (square footage of walls, ceiling, and floor)

The speed at which a construction project can be completed depends heavily on the lead times for equipment and on the length of the approval processes of the building department in your area. The process of getting approval from a building department can take a few weeks in some areas, up to one to two years in some areas (such as in many places in California). Lead times for Bally insulated panels and refrigeration equipment generally ranges between 6 weeks and 6 months from the day you place an order with us.

Our turn-around for budget pricing is generally a few days to one week. We also have an in-house draftsman so that you can receive drawings of your project very quickly and the drawings can be changed to reflect changes to the project with the utmost expediency. Our close relationships with our subcontractors and material providers also gives you the best timelines on your project.

Generally, the more complex your project is, the longer your project will take. The more components, the more complex the design, the greater the coordination required between contractors -- all these components will add time to your project. Projects that push the boundaries of what's possible and highly specialized projects will also take longer than more standard projects. 

Freezer warehouse space also takes more time to construct than cooler warehouse space. This is because a heated and insulated floor must be installed so ice does not grow beneath the concrete, causing floor heaving. To install an insulated floor, any existing concrete floor must be chopped out, a floor heat system must be installed as well as floor foam, and the concrete must then be re-poured on top.

Another consideration to the length of your project is the number of changes that are made to a project while the project is ongoing. Every change that is made delays a project. The later a change is made, the more time it will add to your project. The best time to make changes is before final design approval, when materials have not yet been ordered and construction has not yet begun.  Not only with later changes cost you significant time, they may also cost you significant money depending on the nature of the change and when in the process the change occurs. For example, if you change the layout of the facility once the facility is nearly done, requiring the relocation of walls, electrical wiring, refrigerant piping, etc., that change will cost a great deal more in time and money than deciding to add another door before doors have been ordered. 

Many of our team members have been with us for many years, and we train our team members with on-the-job training. Our installation team is top-tier in speed and quality in installing Bally insulated panels and glycol floor heat systems. We can install 1,500 sqft of glycol floor heat in one day with our standard two-man crew. We can install 1,500 sqft of floor foam in one day with a two-man crew. With our standard 4-man crew, we can install 100 (12' x 4') Bally ceiling panels in one day. However, panels must also be received, organized, peeled, trimmed, doors cut, etc. We find that these steps can take up to as much time as installing the actual panels.

Additionally, as may be obvious, the larger the project is, the longer it will take. However, the relationship between square-footage and length of the project may not be as straight-forward as you would think. Based on the data we have collected, the time it takes to build your warehouse out of insulated panels scales according to a negative logarithmic relationship with the square footage of the project. In other words, very small projects will take much more time per square-foot than large projects, but very large projects will take only moderately less time per square-foot than large projects. This only considers the time for actual construction out of insulated panels and does not include other work the installation of doors, refrigeration systems, lights, etc.

Ultimately, the best way to find out how long your refrigerated warehouse construction project will take is to reach out to us and get a budget price! Then we can evaluate your project for its specific requirements, specifications, and location and provide you with an estimate of project duration, start to finish.

Example Refrigerated Warehouse constructon schedule

Example Project Schedule

What does it cost to run a refrigerated warehouse?

Every website has a story, and your visitors want to hear yours. This space is a great opportunity to give a full background on who you are, what your team does and what your site has to offer. Double click on the text box to start editing your content and make sure to add all the relevant details you want site visitors to know.

If you’re a business, talk about how you started and share your professional journey. Explain your core values, your commitment to customers and how you stand out from the crowd. Add a photo, gallery or video for even more engagement.

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