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Your browser cannot render the 3D preview. Every number in this tool still works — the preview is illustrative only.
The eight stages, in order
Press a stage to jump the 3D preview to it, or use Watch it build on the model to play the whole sequence. This is the order a cam-lock panel box actually goes up on site.
Site & slab
Level slab, power and drainage set out. The slab wants to be flat to about ±3 mm per metre — panel joints will not pull tight on a wavy floor, and every gap you leave is a permanent heat leak.
Floor panels
Insulated floor panels laid on the slab with joints staggered and sealed. On grade the floor sees an 18 °C soil boundary rather than ambient, which is why a floor panel matters far more on a freezer than on a chiller.
Wall panels
Wall panels stood on the floor perimeter and drawn together on cam-locks. FireSafe PIR core, λ 0.022 W/m·K aged to BS EN 14509. Corners go up first so the box is square before the runs close.
Ceiling panels
Ceiling panels dropped in and locked to the wall heads. Past roughly 4 m of clear span they are hung from the building steel rather than self-spanning.
Door & hardware
Door frame, leaf, hinges and inside safety release fitted. Any freezer door needs heater tape in the frame, or the gasket freezes to the jamb and the leaf tears on opening.
Evaporator
Evaporator mounted clear of the door throw so its air pattern is not fighting the infiltration it is meant to handle. Condensate drain trapped, and trace-heated on low temp.
Condensing unit
Condensing unit sited in free, shaded air, then pipework, electrics and controls run back. In a Pakistani summer a unit in direct sun loses capacity exactly when you need it most.
Commissioned
Pressure test, evacuate, charge, set superheat, then pull the room down and hold it. Handover with the temperature log already running.
Want the detail behind each stage — panel selection, door protection, floor build-ups and what drives the price? Read the cold room design and build guide.
How this cold room builder works
The builder sizes the holding load of a walk-in cold room using the method in ASHRAE Handbook — Refrigeration, Chapter 24. Three components are summed. Transmission is U·A·ΔT over the walls, ceiling and floor, where U is derived from the selected panel thickness at an aged conductivity of λ 0.022 W/m·K per BS EN 14509. The floor is treated separately by boundary: on-grade and insulated-slab floors sit against an 18 °C soil sink, while an above-grade or suspended floor sees ambient air and becomes a real load. Infiltration uses the mass-flow form — air changes per 24 hours falling with room volume, multiplied by the ambient-to-room enthalpy difference, a buoyancy factor Fm (1.0 for a cooler rising to 1.55 at or below −30 °C) and a door-protection factor F (strip curtain 0.10, air curtain 0.50, none 1.0). Internal gains cover lighting at 6 W/m², a 12 % fan allowance and an occupancy allowance. The sum carries a 10 % safety margin; compressor duty is then the total scaled to an 18-hour running day, and annual energy applies a temperature-appropriate COP derated for the selected design ambient.
The panel schedule divides each wall span by the selected module width and rounds up, with the last panel on each run cut to suit. Module width is a per-order decision, which is why it is an input here rather than a fixed figure. No price is quoted: a walk-in is priced on site conditions, power supply and access. Note also that this is the holding load only — it excludes product pull-down, which dominates if warm product is loaded daily. For the full five-component calculation including pull-down, use the cold room heat load calculator.
References: ASHRAE Handbook — Refrigeration, Chapter 24 (Refrigerated-Facility Load Calculations) and Chapter 35 (Condensers); BS EN 14509 (factory-made double-skin metal-faced insulating panels, aged λ); ASHRAE Handbook — Fundamentals, Chapter 18.