Need help quick with walk-in freezer issues!

[hysiderafter]

Hi, I'm new here and am posting a rather long description of a problem in order to get some help quickly from the experts on this forum. Here's the situation: I have an 8'x16' walk-in freezer that is mounted end to end with an 8'x20' refrigerator at my facility. It was installed new in 1991 when the building was constructed. The unit was built by Kalt Mfg. out of Oregon, USA and they are apparently no longer in business. It is built from metal clad foam panels and sits on a concrete slab parallel to an exterior wall of the commercial kitchen. The exterior skin of the walk-in is exactly 1" from the exterior plywood siding of the building. We recently discovered a hole in the floor of the dishwashing area right at the wall adjacent to the freezer. After dismantling about 4'x20' of the floor and completely removing 16' of the wall to expose the walk-in we discovered that there is an ice buildup about 8" wide and up to 1/2" thick along each vertical seam where the panels meet. In addition, the sheet metal on the ends of the 4" thick floor panels has been pushed out about an inch in places from ice buildup inside the ends of the panels. All of this is restricted to just the wall of the unit adjacent to the building. The other 3 walls are completely outside in the weather and have no issues whatsoever. The unit has a membrane type roof over it which is attached to the building siding under the eave. It is in good shape and is not the source of the moisture. There is no sign of moisture in the wall (which is about 18" taller than the freezer) except from the roof of the freezer on down. I think the moisture has come from 2 sources. One is the extremely wet commercial dish washing area that covers the entire length of the interior wall adjacent the freezer. The original wall had no vapor barrier of any kind. The second is that the evaporator drain has plugged up a few times and allowed water from defrost cycles to overflow the drain pan onto the shelves and floor. This we plan to fix by running the drain line directly through the interior wall (less than 1') and into a floor sink. It currently runs about 10' through the freezer and drains to the outside. We have repaired all the damage to the building floor system and are trying to thaw the ice buildup in the floor of the walk-in. At this point the exterior walls of the walk-in are all ice free and dry. Before I rebuild the building wall again (which is difficult to do from the inside) I would like to hear suggestions on what is the best possible fix to prevent the frost problem from recurring, given the following constraints I'm stuck with:
1. The walk-ins cannot be moved, nor can the bulding wall so the 1" space between is what I have to work with.
2. I only have 7 work days to complete the repair including sheetrock, fiberglass reinforced wall and ceiling panels and an epoxy floor covering being installed. We also need to re-install all of the stainless counters, commercial dishwasher etc.

My current idea is to seal all the exterior seams of the walk-in with butyl caulk after the ice melts. Then install a 1" layer of rigid foam insulation tight against the metal panels. We have to build the exterior wall of the building in sections with the siding on it and then slip into position from the inside. It's a 6" wall and we plan to side the exterior with 1/2" pressure treated plywood, put a 6 mil vapor barrier on the inside and then apply a 5/8" tile backer instead of sheetrock. Please feel free to tell me if I'm off base in any of this and suggest anything that will work better. Thanks in advance for any constructive ideas!

Steve Albright

[ibraheem]

It is an interesting case that some one will like to know about, only what i can surggest now is that it will be better if some layout rough drawing is attached with this detail, i can see that you tried to give a good description of situation but as you know in engineering with sketh it will be more proper, anyway i think the remedies that you emback on is ok, as temporary and urgent solution, in long term i think you have to take dramatic measure on that case that you will not constrained to any thing for proper maintenance measure, that come's up for unseen reason now, if the facilitie is old enough as i could see in your case right from now you have to plan ahead having another one sooner.

Hi, I'm new here and am posting a rather long description of a problem in order to get some help quickly from the experts on this forum. Here's the situation: I have an 8'x16' walk-in freezer that is mounted end to end with an 8'x20' refrigerator at my facility. It was installed new in 1991 when the building was constructed. The unit was built by Kalt Mfg. out of Oregon, USA and they are apparently no longer in business. It is built from metal clad foam panels and sits on a concrete slab parallel to an exterior wall of the commercial kitchen. The exterior skin of the walk-in is exactly 1" from the exterior plywood siding of the building. We recently discovered a hole in the floor of the dishwashing area right at the wall adjacent to the freezer. After dismantling about 4'x20' of the floor and completely removing 16' of the wall to expose the walk-in we discovered that there is an ice buildup about 8" wide and up to 1/2" thick along each vertical seam where the panels meet. In addition, the sheet metal on the ends of the 4" thick floor panels has been pushed out about an inch in places from ice buildup inside the ends of the panels. All of this is restricted to just the wall of the unit adjacent to the building. The other 3 walls are completely outside in the weather and have no issues whatsoever. The unit has a membrane type roof over it which is attached to the building siding under the eave. It is in good shape and is not the source of the moisture. There is no sign of moisture in the wall (which is about 18" taller than the freezer) except from the roof of the freezer on down. I think the moisture has come from 2 sources. One is the extremely wet commercial dish washing area that covers the entire length of the interior wall adjacent the freezer. The original wall had no vapor barrier of any kind. The second is that the evaporator drain has plugged up a few times and allowed water from defrost cycles to overflow the drain pan onto the shelves and floor. This we plan to fix by running the drain line directly through the interior wall (less than 1') and into a floor sink. It currently runs about 10' through the freezer and drains to the outside. We have repaired all the damage to the building floor system and are trying to thaw the ice buildup in the floor of the walk-in. At this point the exterior walls of the walk-in are all ice free and dry. Before I rebuild the building wall again (which is difficult to do from the inside) I would like to hear suggestions on what is the best possible fix to prevent the frost problem from recurring, given the following constraints I'm stuck with:
1. The walk-ins cannot be moved, nor can the bulding wall so the 1" space between is what I have to work with.
2. I only have 7 work days to complete the repair including sheetrock, fiberglass reinforced wall and ceiling panels and an epoxy floor covering being installed. We also need to re-install all of the stainless counters, commercial dishwasher etc.

My current idea is to seal all the exterior seams of the walk-in with butyl caulk after the ice melts. Then install a 1" layer of rigid foam insulation tight against the metal panels. We have to build the exterior wall of the building in sections with the siding on it and then slip into position from the inside. It's a 6" wall and we plan to side the exterior with 1/2" pressure treated plywood, put a 6 mil vapor barrier on the inside and then apply a 5/8" tile backer instead of sheetrock. Please feel free to tell me if I'm off base in any of this and suggest anything that will work better. Thanks in advance for any constructive ideas!

Steve Albright

[cristopher_uy]

its hard to figure out the situation sir,but your ideas quite good.

what causes the icing of the seams where the panels met came from the walls of your walk-in freezers if im not mistaken

maybe its better to insulate your walk-in freezers wall with a new and durable one and make sure the seam where the panels meet where ice was building up is a tight and sealed where moisture and and air can be eliminated which maybe the cause why the seam has ice builds up on it..

thanx

[Toolman]

It is built from metal clad foam panels and sits on a concrete slab parallel to an exterior wall of the commercial kitchen.
Steve Albright

I read your posting and tried to get my head around what your looking at but the comment above is probably the key , you say the panel sit on a concrete slab ? If that freezer doesnt have an insulated floor that is tied into the wall then thats the problem . The insulation may be under the concrete but the ice migration problems you are talking about are classic for a freezer that has been built onto a slab without floor insulation.
" When they did the job on the cheap they knew it would take a while to be a problem "
By the sounds of it the building is pretty basic ( plywood walls & membrane roof ?)
**THE SOLUTION**
Install a panel floor in the freezer , make sure you have a thermal break on the walls that go to the floor .

[hysiderafter]

Thanks for the replies. The freezer floor is also built of insulated panels similar to the walls. There is a 1/2" air gap between the floor panels and the concrete slab. After tearing out all the rotten wall and floor and investigating thoroughly we were able to determine that the source of the moisture was the drain pan of the evaporator overflowing due to the drain line plugging up. We have resolved that issue and allowed everything to thaw and dry out. I was asking questions on this forum before I knew the whole situation in order to get a jump on things due to the time constraints. I am not an expert in walk-in box design by any means. Anyway it's almost completely back together at this point so I don't need any more suggestions. Feel free to post anything encouraging like "that should work great" but it won't help to suggest doing something different because it's too late.
Steve

[Toolman]

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