Case Study · Video Walkthrough
Stainless Steel — Walk-In Cooler, Walk-In Freezer, and Commercial Kitchen Build
The Build
A full back-of-house build: cooler, freezer, and kitchen
Stainless Steel needed refrigerated storage, frozen storage, and a working kitchen, all specced to their daily workflow rather than catalog templates scaled to fit. WFE designed and built two paired 10' × 20' cold rooms (a walk-in cooler and a walk-in freezer) and the full back-of-house kitchen alongside them, delivering 400 sq ft of usable cold storage plus a finished cook line under one in-house crew.
Detail Gallery
Operational, in detail.
Stocked and operational. Custom shelving loaded across the full footprint.
Five-fan KeepRite evaporator on the walk-in cooler. Refrigeration sized to the room's load.
Three-fan evaporator on the walk-in freezer. Drain line insulated for sub-zero service.
Inside an empty envelope. Reinforced concrete floor finished in 2-part epoxy.
Walk-in exterior. Stainless cladding tied into the facility's electrical service.
Commercial Kitchen
A full back-of-house build.
Stainless Steel was more than cold storage. WFE also fabricated and installed the kitchen at the back of the facility: the stainless prep line and the commercial exhaust hoods over the cook line, built by the same in-house crew that delivered the cooler and freezer.
What's in the Build
Spec'd for the work.
Every component sized for the project's actual load, door-cycle profile, and shift volume. Nothing pulled from a catalogue.
Two walk-in envelopes built to the customer's exact footprint: a 10' × 20' walk-in cooler and a 10' × 20' walk-in freezer. 400 sq ft of usable cold storage total, each room specced to the operator's daily workflow. Sized to the work, not to a catalog default.
Both rooms got concrete floors reinforced for the load of fully stocked cold storage plus daily forklift and cart traffic in and out. Vapor-sealed sub-slab construction so the structural integrity holds long-term against freeze-thaw cycles at the door zones.
Both reinforced concrete floors finished with a 2-part epoxy coating: non-slip when wet, easy-clean, and rated for cold-storage temperature swings. The finish that keeps a commercial cold room floor running cleanly through years of daily use.
Shelving designed in-house to fit each room's exact interior dimensions. Maximizes usable storage volume across both 10' × 20' footprints without dead space at the walls or wasted clearance at the ceiling.
Separate ceiling-mounted evaporators sized to each room's load profile: a five-fan KeepRite unit on the cooler and a three-fan unit on the freezer. Condensing units BTU-matched to the operator's daily cycle. Full pull-down test and defrost-cycle verification on commissioning.
Alongside the two cold rooms, WFE fabricated and installed the back-of-house kitchen: stainless prep tables, counters, and wall paneling, plus the commercial exhaust hoods and ventilation canopy over the cook line. Same in-house crew, same schedule as the cold storage.
Both cold envelopes, refrigeration, reinforced concrete floors with epoxy finish, custom-designed shelving, and the kitchen stainless and ventilation delivered as one project. Stainless Steel went operational on handoff.
Equipment Sourced From
Manufacturers listed are representative of WFE's standard build kit; exact units sized per project.
Outcome
How it landed.
Both Stainless Steel cold rooms went operational with the envelopes holding spec from first pull-down. The reinforced concrete floors with epoxy finish handle daily forklift and cart traffic without surface damage. The custom-designed shelving holds the operator's product across both 10' × 20' footprints. WFE delivered the build turnkey: two envelopes, refrigeration, floor finishes, and shelving as one project.
Deep Dive
Floor finish and custom shelving make the difference long-term
Both rooms got reinforced concrete floors finished in 2-part epoxy, plus shelving custom-designed to each room's exact interior dimensions. That floor build is what keeps a cold room serviceable long-term, where a bare or under-built slab is the part that fails first.
Cold storage and kitchen stainless from one crew
Because one in-house crew handled both the cold rooms and the kitchen, the operator dealt with a single team and a single handoff instead of coordinating a cold-storage contractor and a kitchen fabricator separately, with the refrigeration, the stainless fabrication, and the ventilation all kept on one schedule.
Refrigeration plant detail
Two ceiling-mounted evaporators: a five-fan KeepRite unit on the 10' × 20' walk-in cooler and a three-fan unit on the 10' × 20' walk-in freezer, each sized to its room's load profile. Condensing units BTU-matched to the operator's daily cycle on commissioning. Full pull-down test and defrost-cycle verification on handoff.
Project FAQ
01 Can WFE build a walk-in cooler and freezer together as one project?
Yes. Stainless Steel is a paired build: a 10' × 20' walk-in cooler and a 10' × 20' walk-in freezer designed, fabricated, and installed together by WFE's in-house crew. Building both rooms as one project means shared site prep, coordinated refrigeration, and matched floor and shelving specs across both envelopes, with a single crew and a single handoff.
02 Does WFE build commercial kitchens, or only cold storage?
Both. The Stainless Steel project pairs the two walk-in cold rooms with a back-of-house kitchen build. WFE fabricated and installed the stainless prep tables, counters, and wall paneling, and mounted the commercial exhaust hoods and ventilation over the cook line. Running the cold storage and the kitchen stainless under one crew keeps the refrigeration, fabrication, and ventilation coordinated on a single schedule.
03 Why pour a reinforced concrete floor for a walk-in cooler or freezer?
A walk-in cold room floor takes more punishment than most commercial floors: forklift traffic, cart wheels, daily cleaning, and constant freeze-thaw cycles at the door zone. A reinforced concrete pad (properly insulated underneath and finished with the right coating) holds up to all of that without cracking, settling, or failing at the door threshold. WFE specs reinforced concrete on any cooler or freezer where the operator runs daily forklift or cart traffic, which is why both Stainless Steel rooms got one.
04 Why an epoxy finish on top of the concrete?
A 2-part epoxy coating gives the concrete a non-slip, easy-clean surface that resists the thermal stress of cold-storage freeze-thaw cycles. Bare concrete absorbs moisture, traps debris in pores, and can crack at the door zone where temperature differentials are sharpest. An epoxy finish solves all three. It is the floor coating that keeps a commercial cooler or freezer running cleanly for years rather than failing at the surface in the first season.
05 Why custom-designed shelving instead of standard racking?
Standard racking is sized to standard dimensions. A 10' × 20' cold room whose actual interior is a few inches off catalog specs loses real usable space to the clearance standard racking assumes. Custom-designed shelving fits the exact interior dimensions of each room, so the operator gets every cubic foot of usable volume across both footprints.
This Build Maps To
Service. Market. Coverage area.
Custom Cold Storage
Custom-built cold storage sized to the operator's exact footprint, including paired cooler and freezer builds.
Service detailFood Processing
Walk-in cooler and freezer builds for processors with daily forklift traffic.
Market detailMississauga
WFE HQ. Walk-in cooler and freezer builds with reinforced-floor scope.
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