Market / Cannabis
Cannabis cold storage is not food cold storage. Cured flower wants 13-15°C at 55-65% relative humidity, not 4°C at ambient, and that humidity precision is something a standard refrigeration contractor won't quote. WFE builds purpose-spec'd cold rooms for licensed cultivators and processors across Ontario, with the same in-house crew from layout through commissioning to Health Canada documentation.
Fig. 01 · What you actually buy
A standard walk-in keeps food cold. A cannabis room has to hold a tight humidity band, run two setpoints, sit inside the secure perimeter, and document everything for Health Canada.
Here is what each one means for your licence and your product.
Cured flower degrades fast outside 55-65% RH, yet most commercial walk-ins drift to 35-45% RH in winter. We hold 55-65% RH within ±3% and 13-15°C within ±1°C across the cabinet, with active humidification on the supply air.
Post-harvest curing runs 60°F at 60% RH with controlled airflow; finished-product storage runs 55°F at 55% RH with minimal disturbance. We build separate zones with zoned control, not one compromise setpoint.
In a licensed facility the cold room sits inside the secure perimeter, so door, lock, alarm, and camera spec all have to match the security plan you filed under the Cannabis Act. We coordinate with your security integrator early, so the room is part of the secure-area design.
The same in-house WFE crew frames, seals, and commissions the room, then hands you the spec sheets, NSF/UL certifications, commissioning records, and temperature and humidity logs your Health Canada file needs.
Fig. 02 · Why a food walk-in fails
Same mechanical family. Opposite environment.
The why behind each row is in the Deep Dive below, or read the custom cold storage page for the full build spec.
Fig. 03 · How we'd spec it
For a Standard Processor or Cultivator handling 200-500 kg dried flower per month: a 2-zone cold room totalling 800-1,500 sq ft.
● DWG WFE-CN-01 · plan view · schematic, not to scale
Build sheet · how we'd spec it
Fig. 04 · Recent build
WFE built the cold storage envelope at 35 Silton inside an existing commercial building, framed around the structural support column, with every insulated panel cut and fit on site by the in-house crew. The finished rooms run as cannabis cultivation and post-harvest cold storage.
See the 35 Silton buildFig. 05 · Coverage
GTA next-day site visits. Scheduled-install windows across Ontario, including Northern Ontario. Same crew on every job.
Deep Dive
Expand any section for the full detail on Health Canada requirements, why food-grade contractors get it wrong, curing vs storage, security integration, batch separation, and industrial scale.
Health Canada's Cannabis Regulations (SOR/2018-144, Section 88) require licensed cultivators and processors to document cold-chain handling, specify equipment, and maintain SOPs for any licensed handling site. Cured flower holds quality at 13-15°C and 55-65% relative humidity. WFE builds purpose-spec'd cold rooms and provides the spec sheets, commissioning records, and temperature logs your Health Canada licence application and Ontario AGCO retail audit require.
Standard commercial refrigeration is engineered for food: low humidity, 4°C setpoints, regular defrost cycles, condensate drained continuously. Cannabis storage wants the opposite on humidity, a warmer setpoint, and minimal cycling that disrupts the cure. Most contractors will quote you a food-grade walk-in cooler with the temperature dialed up. That unit will cycle the humidity wide enough to shatter trichomes and trigger mold in alternating weeks. We've been called in to retrofit those rooms.
Post-harvest curing has different requirements than finished-product storage. Curing wants 60°F at 60% RH with controlled airflow over the product (burping cycles or active air circulation depending on your process). Finished-product storage wants 55°F at 55% RH with minimal airflow disturbance to packaged goods. Most processors benefit from separate zones; smaller operations can run both off a single envelope with zoned control.
Cold storage in licensed facilities is one of several systems inside the secure perimeter, along with the vault, processing rooms, and packaging. Its door, alarm, and camera spec has to integrate with the security plan you submitted to Health Canada. We work directly with your security integrator and compliance lead so the cold room arrives as part of the secure-area design package. Our installs include OCS-licensed projects that have passed Health Canada and AGCO walk-throughs.
Licensed producers track product by batch, so the layout matters: separate rooms or zones for batch isolation, and physical separation between bulk-cured and packaged inventory. We design to your batch handling SOPs, not to a generic cold storage template.
Cannabis operations move large volumes through curing and storage. We build from small post-harvest rooms (200-400 sq ft) up to multi-zone industrial cold storage (4,000+ sq ft) with shared mechanical systems, spec'd for cannabis-specific load profiles.
Fig. 06 · Producer FAQ
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