Cold Storage Facility Construction in Texarkana, Texas

Frost under a freezer floor is a slow disaster. A room held at minus ten degrees pulls heat out of the soil beneath it for months, the moisture in that soil freezes and expands, and the slab rises in a dome that cracks racking, doors and the walls on top of it. In a climate where July highs reach the low nineties, owners sometimes assume frost heave is somebody else's problem. It is the first problem of a freezer building, and the concrete team has to solve it before anything else is poured.

Cold storage is a small slice of the building market in Northeast Texas, which is a reason to be careful about who builds it. The structure around the cold rooms is a simple warehouse. The floor, the vapor barrier, the underslab heat system, the dock and the refrigeration pads are not. We bring the same crews and the same quality control used on our warehouse work, with added attention to insulation, vapor control and drainage under the floor.

What a freezer floor is made of

From the bottom up, a freezer slab is a compacted subgrade, a drainage or sand layer, a vapor retarder, heavy insulation panels rated for the load, another protective layer and the structural slab on top. Under a freezer room there is also a heating system, either glycol loops or electric cables or an air duct network, that keeps the subgrade above freezing. Under a cooler room, where temperatures hover near 35 degrees, the heat system may be omitted but the vapor control is still needed.

Each layer has a tolerance, and each is placed once. We build the stack in a continuous sequence so that rain does not wet the insulation and so that the vapor barrier is lapped and taped before steel goes down. The industrial concrete floors trade crews set the slab reinforcement on chairs that will not puncture the barrier, and they pour the floor in one controlled series so that joints stay where the designer put them.

Wet clay and a high water table

The Texark soil series, mapped in Bowie County with its type location near Dalby Springs, is a very fine smectitic clay that is somewhat poorly drained with very slow permeability and an apparent water table at 2 to 3.5 feet on flood plains. A freezer building on that ground is asking for trouble. Water that is held against a cold floor system freezes, and clay that swells and shrinks moves the foundation when the heating system cycles.

For these sites we recommend deeper over-excavation, engineered fill with controlled moisture and underdrains that carry groundwater away from the building. Where settlement is a concern we use drilled pier foundations with a void under the grade beams. The geotechnical engineer should review the soil and the groundwater at the actual building location, not just a general report for the park.

Where the money goes in a cold building

Insulation, heat protection and vapor control add a layer cost that a standard warehouse does not have, and the floor can run a large multiple of ordinary slab cost per square foot. Beyond the floor, the biggest swing items are the extent of subgrade correction and the refrigeration equipment pads. The pads for condensers (see our equipment pads and machine foundations) and compressors need to be level and isolated from the floor, and they often sit outdoors in the weather.

The other cost trap is schedule. Insulated floors cannot easily be repaired. If the vapor barrier is punctured or the slab is poured onto wet insulation, the repair may involve cutting out the floor. We prefer to take extra days at the start of the floor sequence than to absorb a failure that shows up in the first winter of operation.

Water, power and trained people

Cold storage needs a lot of power and a dependable water source. The TexAmericas Center site west of the city has a new onsite $200 million water treatment plant reported as funded when the Army's RCRA permit was lifted, and the park lists rail with transload service. The Texas Water Development Board says Wright Patman Lake supplies water for Texarkana. For a refrigerated building, the question is whether the water and the electric service at the chosen parcel are sized for the load.

Maintenance talent matters too, and it is easy to overlook when the budget is built around steel and slab. Texarkana College opened the 15,000 square foot McCulloch Industrial Technology Center in 2023 to house technology and air conditioning and refrigeration programs, which is a local source of trained technicians for a refrigerated facility. Cold space is usually attached to something else, either a food and beverage processing line that needs chilled holding rooms or a logistics and fulfillment center that adds a temperature-controlled bay. Whatever the host building, an owner siting a cold building here should ask where the first service technician will come from.

Placing a floor that cannot wait

The structure usually stands before the freezer floor is built, so the roof is already shedding rain. The floor system then goes in as one operation: subgrade final proof roll, drainage, vapor retarder, insulation, heat system test, slab placement and a long cure. The refrigeration contractor needs the floor cured and the heating system energized before it can begin pulling the room down, and a typical room is brought down gradually over several weeks to avoid thermal shock.

Cure management gets more attention here than on a dry-storage floor, because a slab that dries too fast at the top curls and one that stays wet under an insulation board takes longer to be ready for coatings. Our concrete testing and quality control plan includes slump and air tests at the truck, cylinder breaks and a moisture check on the finished slab before coatings. If you serve the agriculture and dairy sector or run a food line, ask the refrigeration engineer for the pulldown schedule before we plan the pour.

Start with the temperature and the soil

Send the design temperatures, floor section and geotechnical report. We will review the groundwater and subgrade plan and price the floor stack in sequence.

Common Questions

Do we really need an underslab heating system in Texas?

For a freezer, yes. Soil under a room held below freezing will freeze to a depth that grows over time, and the heave will damage the slab. A cooler room kept above freezing usually does not need heat, but it still needs the vapor control. Your refrigeration engineer will set the design temperature and the system.

How long does a freezer floor take to build?

Longer than a warehouse floor of the same size, because the layers go down in order and each is inspected. Plan on several weeks for the stack plus the cure before the room can be cooled. Rain on exposed insulation or a punctured barrier will add days, so the structure should be roofed first.

What is the usual problem on clay soil?

Moisture. Clay with a shallow water table holds water against the floor system. We control it with drainage layers and underdrains and by keeping the subgrade dry through the pour. Where the clay is too wet to compact, we replace it with engineered fill.

Can you build the refrigeration equipment pads?

Yes. The condenser and compressor pads are standard equipment foundations, but they must be level, isolated and located so that drainage runs away from the building. We coordinate bolt patterns and conduit sleeves with the refrigeration contractor before forming.

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