Freezer Concrete Floor Slab Design

Concrete slabs for wood floors on sleepers or rubber cushions can be designed the same way.

Freezer concrete floor slab design.

The pink and black coloring on the concrete is microbial growth due to constant and heavy condensation. It is not an option to allow random cracking under hard tile epoxy floorcoverings and thin set terrazzo bonded to the concrete because any cracks in the substrate will telegraph through to the surface of the bonded floorcovering figure 1. Ensure your mix. The freezer slab must be insulated to retain the loss of heat from the slab and balance the vapor pressure with the warm ground below the freezer floor.

Protective layers of insulation vapor barriers mud slabs and sub slab glycol heating prevent the soil from freezing and swelling below your concrete floor. The timing of. On commercial industrial floors. What are the key design elements of a freezer floor.

Properties of the surface are determined by the mixture proportions and the quality of the concreting and jointing opera tions. If a high quality well compacted granular sub base is used under the floor slab the k value will increase. Photo 3 shows the exposed concrete ceiling in a retail store below a supermarket freezer room. If the contractor knows what he or she is doing and knows what the customer wants then the lack of specifications is probably a good thing.

Microbial growth on underside of. In this case the minimal insulation in the freezer floor became saturated with water from floor washing operations further reducing its insulating value. What is frost heaving in freezers. Concrete slab design the concrete slab must be designed to resist the punching shear and weight of the pallet racks.

If the soil then begins to thaw it will also sink and settle causing massive damage to the concrete above. Guide for concrete floor and slab construction aci 302 1r 04 foreword the quality of a concrete floor or slab is highly dependent on achieving a hard and durable surface that is flat relatively free of cracks and at the proper grade and elevation. Freezer floor heave occurs when the moisture in the soil freezes and expands below your slab. So be sure that you have a good depth of course gravel or crushed stone base 8 12 to prevent capillary action.

Foundations and exterior pavements exposed to freezing and moisture are made with air entrained concrete to protect them from damage caused by freeze thaw cycles. The formation of this ice can cause floors to crack break and lift up or heave. Ice formation will lift columns push foundation walls over and rip open roofs. As the earth below a freezer drops below freezing the moisture in the soil will freeze form ice and expand.

Even though you have insulation under the slab which is really to reduce the heat transfer from ground to freezer the sub grade can freeze and heave the concrete slab. Table 2 as mentioned previously a sub base is not mandatory for floor slabs on grade. Most residential projects only specify minimum concrete compressive strength. Value to be used for designing concrete floor slabs.