Cold Room Installation – from Design to Installation
MTCSS designs and installs chillers, freezers, dual-compartment and ambient cold rooms, both indoors and outdoors. We also handle the panels, doors, floors, and refrigeration as a single contractor.
Cold room design, supply and installation
At MTCSS, we work as the main contractor on your cold room. This means one team handles the project from the first site survey through design, supply and installation, as well as managing health and safety on site. You won’t need to coordinate a panel installer, a door supplier, a flooring contractor and a refrigeration engineer separately, because we specify every part together and the finished room works as one system. If you already have a refrigeration engineer you trust, bear in mind that refrigeration is only one of several things that keep a room at temperature, and the panels, doors and floor matter just as much.
As expert cold room contractors, we make the key decisions alongside you, rather than for you.
Insulated panels
Panel thickness is set by the temperature the room has to hold, so a freezer room uses thicker panels than a chiller. Every walk-in room we build uses food-safe insulated cold room panels.
Doors
Hinged doors suit pedestrian access and rooms with lighter traffic, while sliding cold room doors suit pallet access and wider openings. For busy loading areas, we fit high-speed doors, and we also supply insulated doors that can be automated.
Flooring
A freezer room needs an insulated floor with a heater system underneath to prevent frost heave, while a chiller or ambient room only needs a dedicated floor if you ask for one. How heavy-duty the floor must be depends on whether people, pallet trucks or vehicles will use it.
Refrigeration and controls
Monoblock systems are installed through the cold room wall and suit smaller rooms, and split systems, with a separate evaporator and condensing unit, suit rooms from small to large. Where stock can’t be put at risk, we install 100% backup cold room refrigeration that takes over if a system or the power fails.
Lighting
We supply and install LED lighting designed for chilled, frozen and ambient rooms.
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What types of cold rooms do we install?
We design commercial cold rooms around what you store and the space you have, whether you’re a farm shop replacing a row of upright fridges or a manufacturer adding a freezer store. Running several upright fridges and freezers usually costs more in energy than one well-insulated room, and an ageing room that struggles to hold temperature puts stock at risk every time it fails. A single walk-in chiller goes through the same survey and design process as a multi-room project.
- Chiller rooms – also called walk-in fridges, for chilled storage.
- Freezer rooms – also called walk-in freezers, for frozen storage.
- Dual and multi-compartment rooms – where one structure is divided into separate rooms, each with its own refrigeration.
- Ambient rooms – for products and work areas that need a controlled temperature above chilled.
- External cold rooms – built outside your building, for sites with no space inside.
- Modular cold rooms – for small to medium capacity storage.
If your requirements don’t fit any of these, we design bespoke cold rooms to your specification – just let our team know what you need.
How a cold room project runs
Our cold room installers follow the same process on every project, so you know what’s happening and when.
Enquiry
Tell us what you need to store, roughly how much, and where the room will go.
Site Survey
We visit your HQ to measure the space, check access and discuss how the room will be used.
Design and Quote
We specify the panels, doors, floor, refrigeration and lighting, and send you a quote based on that specification.
Installation
We agree to the installation programme with you before any work starts, so you know which areas will be out of use and for how long.
Commissioning and Handover
We bring the room down to temperature and check it holds before we hand it over.
Aftercare
Maintenance, repairs and parts come from us, as set out further down this page.
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We’ll learn your business inside out to design the ideal cold storage solution for you.
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What does a cold room include?
Every element of cold storage design depends on what type of temperature-controlled space you choose, from walk-in fridges to walk-in freezers and solutions for ambient areas.
However, most commercial cold or chiller rooms will include:
- Cold room wall panels
- Cold room doors – from hinged and sliding doors to high-speed doors
- Cold room flooring
- Refrigeration systems & temperature control – including cold room refrigeration, air conditioning, and cold room lighting
Cold Room Wall Panels
Depending on the products you would like to store and the temperatures needed, your cold room suppliers will install wall panels in a range of thicknesses. This allows for a range of temperature-controlled spaces, including:
• Chiller cold rooms (also known as walk-in fridges):offering +0 to +8 degrees
• Freezer cold rooms (also known as walk-in freezers): between -1 to -40 degrees
• Dual compartment cold rooms: one cold room split into two separate rooms, these can include 2 chillers, 2 freezers, or a chiller and a freezer. You can also have multi-compartment cold rooms!
• Ambient areas: maintaining temperatures of +10 to +30 degrees
Walk-in cold rooms, freezer cold rooms, and ambient temperature control rooms are built from food-safe insulated cold room panels.
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Cold Room Doors
A chiller or freezer room will need an access point (or multiple), which is selected based on who and what needs to access the temperature-controlled rooms and the frequency of their use.
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- Hinged cold room doors: ideal for pedestrian access, smaller-sized doors, and cold rooms that don’t have a high volume of traffic.
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- Sliding doors: perfect for pallet access, larger-sized doors are easier to open than hinged doors!
Our cold room door range includes doors suitable for varying temperature ranges and we also have insulated doors suitable for automation.
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Flooring for Cold Rooms
Specific cold room flooring is only specifically needed within a walk-in freezer but can utilised by a walk-in fridge or ambient room if requested.
Within a freezer cold room, it is beneficial to have specific flooring to not only maintain the internal temperature but also to stop damage from what will be accessing and moving around the room.
For example, if you only have pedestrian foot traffic coming in and out of your cold room, you won’t need a heavy-duty floor in comparison to a room that has pallet trucks or vehicles coming in and out.
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Cold Room Refrigeration Systems and Temperature Control
Temperature control is key to your cold room or ambient room running efficiently and effectively. With various refrigeration and temperature control options available, cold-room suppliers MTCSS take away any confusion by working with you to understand which system will benefit your storage solution the most:
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- Monoblock refrigeration system: a ‘plug and play’ integral refrigeration system that is installed through the cold room wall and ideal for small capacity chiller and freezer cold rooms
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- Split refrigeration systems: ideal for small to large-capacity walk-in cold rooms and include an evaporator and condensing unit
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- 100% backup refrigeration: in the event of power or refrigeration failure, a backup system will kick in to ensure your products are continuously protected in the event of an emergency and maintain the internal temperatures of your cold room.
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- Ambient temperature control: for rooms that require specific temperatures above +10 degrees, we can provide an ambient temperature-controlled solution
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- Air conditioning: for areas that require air conditioning, such as offices and kitchens
MTCSS also supplies and installs chiller/freezer cold room and ambient room lighting solutions. We work with innovative suppliers and LED lighting manufacturers to provide the highest-quality lighting solutions for your temperature-controlled rooms.
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How much does a cold room cost?
The price of a cold room depends mostly on its size and the temperature it has to hold, so two rooms with the same footprint can be priced differently. The main factors are:
- The size and layout of the room
- The number of compartments
- The temperature
- Whether the room is inside your building or outside it
- The type of refrigeration, and whether you need backup refrigeration
- The number and type of doors, including any high-speed or automated doors
- The floor, depending on whether it will carry pallet trucks or vehicles
- Access to the site and any work needed to prepare it
If you would rather spread the cost, we offer finance and leasing. Our guide to the cost of cold room design and installation goes into more detail on each factor.
Equipment we supply and install
We choose equipment for each room based on what it has to do, and two manufacturers feature in much of our work. We supply and install MTH cold room doors and refrigeration units. MTH is an Italian manufacturer of cold store doors, refrigeration units and monoblocs, founded in 1942, and we also sell MTH spares and parts, so parts for the doors and units we fit are available from us.
For busy loading bays and high-traffic areas, we install Nergeco high-speed doors, which open and close quickly to limit the warm air that gets into a chilled or frozen space.
After installation
When something needs attention after handover, you call the company that built the room. We carry out cold room maintenance and refurbishment, and our spares business supplies doors, refrigeration units and cold room spares and parts, so repairs don’t depend on tracking down another supplier.
Regular maintenance keeps a room running efficiently, reduces the risk of a breakdown that spoils stock, and keeps safety equipment such as internal door releases working. Check out our aftercare service to find out what type of support you receive from MTCSS.
Industries
We install cold rooms for food and drink manufacturers and retailers, farm shops and delis, horticulture and agriculture, warehousing and distribution, pharmaceutical and medical sites, hotels and restaurants, and funeral homes. We also work with architects specifying cold storage for their clients. See the full list of industries we work with.
Projects and accreditations
Our recent projects show the range of work we take on.
- Chiller cold room and ambient room for pharmaceutical storage. A dual-compartment, temperature-controlled installation for pharmaceutical products.
- Chiller cold room conversion in the West Midlands. A chiller room converted into a freezer room for one of our refrigeration customers.
- Chiller cold room for hospital storage. A chilled room for a hospital, built to the client’s storage requirements.
“From coming into contact with MTCSS to the finished product, it has been a great and easy process.
“The members of the team listened to our wishes and offered us exactly what we needed. From picking the type of cooler machines, the doors, the lights – everything was exactly adjusted to our wishes.
“Even though through the COVID period where availability of materials were challenging, the cold room was finished on the date as was planned when signing for the order.
“Very professional company from start to finish.”
Bert De Mooij, Bespoke Chiller Cold Room for Q Flowers Ltd, 2021
MTCSS has been trading since 2007. We hold ISO 9001 certification for quality management and ISO 14001 for environmental management, and we are SafeContractor accredited for health and safety. You can view our accreditations and more case studies.
Talk to us about your cold room
Tell us what you need to store, how much and where, and we’ll get back to you to talk through your project.
Call our team on 0188 6833 381.
Contact Us Today For a Free Quote
Frequently asked questions
It depends on the size of the room, the temperature it has to hold, and whether it goes inside or outside your building. We give you a quote once we have surveyed the site and agreed on the specification.
There is no set installation time as it depends on the size of the room, the number of compartments and how much preparation your site needs. We confirm the programme with you before work begins.
Yes. If you have no space inside, we can build the room outside on land you own or have permission to use. An external room needs some different components from an internal one, which we include in the design. Our guide to installing a cold room outside covers what to consider.
We agree on the installation programme with you at the design stage, so you know which areas will be out of use and when.
We design each room to the temperature range, access and monitoring requirements you give us, and we have installed rooms for pharmaceutical storage and for a hospital. If the room has to meet particular standards, tell us when you enquire so we can design it to meet them.
Yes. We carry out maintenance and refurbishment, and our spares business supplies doors, refrigeration units and parts, so the company that built your room can keep it running.
MTCSS offer a range of different cold rooms that can be designed bespoke to your requirements. Below are the different types of cold room that MTCSS can accommodate for:
Chiller cold rooms – Ideal for restaurants, farm shops, mortuaries and an array of industries that rely on a chilled temperature for their business
Freezer cold rooms – Ideal for restaurants, butchers, food & drink processing and retail due to the negative temperatures it maintains. We can also adhere to any blast freezer or pull-down freezer requirements that you may have (Enquire with our team for more information!)
Dual and multi-compartment cold rooms – Ideal for when you need to achieve two, or more, differing temperatures for your products and business processes.
Modular cold rooms – Ideal for most industries that require any type of small to medium capacity cold storage, as modular cold rooms can be installed to achieve temperatures between –20 and +10°C
We can also provide bespoke cold rooms that are designed to adhere to your specific requirements and specifications, as well as ambient areas (with or without temperature control) which are ideal for food industries where positive temperature control is imperative
Get in contact with the MTCSS team today, or find out more about the different types of cold rooms.
You might be thinking about the correct cold room application for your business and have no idea where to start. The MTCSS team can help.
If you’re looking to store produce and prepare products, at a positive temperature, then a chiller cold room is most likely the ideal cold room for you. Whereas if your products need to be preserved at a negative temperature, then a freezer cold room will likely benefit you best.
For more information on the best cold room for your business and requirements, get in contact with the MTCSS team today!
Case studies
Chiller Cold Room & Ambient Room for Pharmaceutical Storage
Dual Compartment Temperature-Controlled Rooms for Pharmaceuticals Pharmaceutical products must be stored at specific temperatures to protect their integrity. Therefore, choosing...
Read More
Chiller Cold Room Conversion in West Midlands
Chiller Cold Room to Freezer Cold Room Conversion We were instructed by one of our refrigeration customers to convert a...
Read More
Chiller Cold Room For Hospital Storage
Pharmaceutical and medical industries must adhere to strict regulations and procedures – so they require solutions that provide them with...
Read MoreFrom coming into contact with MTCSS to the finished product, has been a great and easy process.
The members of the team listened to our wishes and offered us exactly what we needed. From picking the type of cooler machines, the doors, the lights – everything was exactly adjusted to our wishes.
Even though through the COVID period where availability of materials were challenging, the cold room was finished on the date as was planned when signing for the order.
Very professional company from start to finish.