Custom Walk-Ins

Please contact us for pricing of custom walk-ins.  We will need a sketch drawing of the size walk-in you would like, and how the walk-in will be used.  Please provide us with your phone number and company so that we can contact you with any questions.

We've furnished walk-ins for a wide variety of applications from small 4ft. pre-packaged "step-in" type walk-ins to large warehouses.  The Polar-Pak walk-ins are quoted as a fast simple way to order walk-ins.  However, for many applications, custom designed walk-ins may be needed.  Following are some of the larger special purpose walk-ins that we have provided:

 *  Large walk-in freezer to house Sea World's Antarctic Penguins, Orlando, FL.
          Freezer coils and interior walls has special coating to protect against corrosive ammonia
            fumes given off by penguins.
 *  Large freezer to store 100,000 pounds of ice on special roll-in pallet racks are
     large food warehouses Sea World, San Antonio.
 *  Convenience store walk-in for a new Exxon in Salisbury, MD.  This walk-in
     is crescent shaped with 27 glass doors in a semicircle.
 *  Freezer/cooler warehouse type walk-ins for Denny's restaurant operations in
     in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Curacao, N.A.
 *  Cooler/freezer for Vienna Sausage distribution center, Cleveland, OH.
 *  And thousands of other walk-ins for a wide variety of food service
     operations.

We can provide custom walk-ins in a wide variety of sizes as per a table at the end of this section.

Concerning custom options we can furnish such as:

• Hinged or sliding glass doors.

• Electronic temperature alarms.

• Low temperature fluorescent lights.

• Standard hinged doors in various widths such as 34", 48" and 54".

• Sliding or hinged glass doors (such as for convenience stores).

• Racking systems for convenience/grocery stores.

• Light weight high traffic doors (such as for convenience stores).

• Large 6' x 8' manual or electric sliding or biparting doors.

• Plastic strip doors (www.stripdoorworld.com).

• Door closers of various kinds.

• Shelving and pallet rack systems.

• Various metal materials and thickness for walk-in surfaces.

• Various thickness and kinds of insulation depending on application.

• Special coils such as center ceiling mount to save space and low velocity coils to minimize drying of products and/or for cutting room applications.

• Locking bars with inside safety release.

• Additional incandescent vapor-proof lights.

• Floor ramps, interior and exterior.

• Wall protectors (such as for beer keg storage).

• Special floors (1/4" thick aluminum diamond plate or stainless floors).

• Hurricane or Wind Load requirements and fasteners.

• Sloped roofs for exterior applications.

• Rain guard for exterior door.

• Rain cap/membrane roof for outdoor walk-in.

• Dual refrigeration/freezer systems for back-up capacity and for "take down" load capacity for heavy relatively warm cooling capacity.  (Standard walk-ins for in our industry are for holding product only and typically do not have capacity to reduce temperatures of relatively large amounts of product quickly).

Generally for most applications we recommend the walk-in panels to be made of 4" of "foamed-in-place" with either galvalume or aluminum metal surface.  Other surfaces such as stainless are also available.  Four inches of "foamed-in-place" insulation is pretty much the industry standard although there are other walk-in made with Styrofoam with metal glued to the Styrofoam or walk-ins made of wood with fiberglass insulation or walk-ins with less than 4" of insulation, all of which can reduce investment cost somewhat, but which usually costs more over the operating life of the walk-in.

In terms of height of walk-ins for most restaurant type operations, the industry standard has been 7'6" high which is still commonly used particularly on smaller walk-ins.  For new restaurants for custom walk-ins, most use walk-ins that are 8'6" high and many are now going to 9'6" high as there typically isn't much additional cost for a higher walk-in, but there is a large gain ins space.

In terms of a walk-in, a standard with is 7'9" wide.  The reason for 7'9" being a common size is that after subtracting out the width of the walls at 4" on each side, the interior clearance is then 7'1" which allows for 24" wide shelving  on each side and leaving a 37" aisle.  However, there is now 30" deep shelving available so if a walk-in can be made, approximately 8'8" wide then shelving space area could be increased by 1/3 by only adding a foot to the width.

Concerning floors, we highly recommend on new installations that the insulation be put in the floor of the concrete so that there would be 2 pours of concrete consisting of a base level of 4" of concrete, then 4" of sheet urethane made of 2" thick layers (brick stacked), and then with the top layer being 4" of concrete.  Tile or floor covering should be installed after the walk-in is assembled.  It is important to have 2" x 4" vertical heat barrier breaker strips made of redwood or urethane under all walls to prevent the transfer of cold from the walk-in floor to other walk-in compartments or to outside the walk-ins.  Installation of vertical breakers is very important to accomplish as failure to put in the vertical insulating breakers could end up with ice and/or condensation forming under and near the walls which becomes either very costly to correct and most times can't be corrected.  The reason that we recommend insulating the concrete floors instead of buying an insulated floor as part of the walk-in is that the first thing that comes apart or deteriorates in a walk-in (regardless of the manufacturer) is the floor with the problem being greater in a cooler rather than the freezer.  This problem can occur as soon as a year after the walk-in is installed.  To repair a floor and build it up with heavy gauge stainless or aluminum is normally expensive and can be particularly expensive if a health department wants the floor all welded in one piece with coved corners as is typical in some areas of the country such as Minnesota.

Installation - We can provide installed costs anywhere in the U.S. subject to level floor or pad being provided by you and subject to all electric wiring to and from box and subject to all internal electric wiring of components being by you or your electrician.

Pricing - All of our pricing is highly competitive on an apples to apples basis.  Please be aware, however, that there can be differences in price caused by not quoting on the same specifications.  Any price difference is normally caused by changing the quality of the insulation or more typically on quoting a "stripped down" refrigeration system that is either undersized and/or which does not include items such as weather controls, high and low pressure controls, sight glass, vibration eliminators, etc.  In Florida, for instance, refrigeration installers may quote on a low cost system, stating that the customers does not need crankcase heaters and weather controls as it is warm in Florida.  However, it only takes one night at low temperatures for compressor oil to thicken and for the compressor to burn out.  The same company that says you don't need the crankcase heater and weather controls is the same one that then explains that the compressor burned out because "it was cold last night".  After a cold night we were in a meeting at a theme park in Orlando discussing this subject when the maintenance person came into the managers office and stated that a compressor burned out because "it was cold last night".  So be careful to get any proposal spelled out in detail as to what is being quoted as to what you feel you need.

When our proposal is accepted, we provide a detailed shop drawing of the walk-in and clearly list all the specifications for your review and approval and for review of any local code authorities.  Any cost of permits or local, state code requirements are extra and not included in any of our proposals.

For general reference, the following is a list of typical walk-in dimensions that are generally available in our industry, but the exact size may vary slightly from one manufacturer to another.  Please contact us for your needs.  We would be happy to be of service.