Cold storage facilities are an important staple for many industries, especially those involving food. These powerful installations store a wide variety of items that require cold or freezing temperatures in order to remain useful and safe for consumption. If you run or manage a cold storage facility in Chicago IL or anywhere else, you must regularly maintain its interior so it operates at maximum efficiency and doesn’t corrode over time.

Painting your cold storage facility is an important part of this maintenance process. However, as you might imagine, painting the inside of a freezer or refrigeration room is a bit different than painting a standard room or surface. Let’s discuss the ways in which painting a walk-in freezer differs from other paint applications, and how to go about this difficult but important industrial painting task.

Painting Conditions

Obviously, the main difference between painting a normal room and a large cold storage unit is temperature. Whether your facility is located in Chicago IL or not, most cold storage facilities are kept between 33 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit. The industry standard for freezers is typically -10 degrees. Room temperature is somewhere between 68 and 72 degrees. So, the temperature difference between cold storage units, freezers, and standard rooms is major, and it has implications specific to paint jobs.

Generally speaking, interior paint should be applied at a temperature no lower than 40 degrees Fahrenheit and no higher than 85 degrees. In other words, room temperature is perfectly fine for typical commercial painting projects, but your cold storage facility must maintain its chill. Shutting down your unit is not recommended, and if you do, you must remove everything from the room and place it in another, which takes a lot of effort.

The Right Kind of Paint

Because cold storage facilities are colder than normal and impermeable (not porous), normal paint will not adhere nor dry properly in this atmosphere. You need the right commercial painting supplies for the job. Special types of paint, such as alcohol-based, urethane, or epoxy coating, should be used in order to stick to the freezer’s non-porous material. Latex or acrylic paints will simply not cut it.

Additional Precautions

You must also keep in mind that human beings are the ones getting the job done. Spending too much time in a cold storage unit can be dangerous, or at the very least uncomfortable, without the proper clothing and safety equipment. Plus, before painting can even begin, contractors must also perform proper industrial cleaning to ensure that floors, walls, and all equipment are free from dirt and other debris. In other words, your painters will have to be in there for a while.

All painters should wear thick coats and gloves, hats that go over the ears, respirators, and goggles. Goggles and respirators are especially important when spraying paint, which is the best application method for painting any kind of cold storage facility or freezer.

Hire the Right Company

Painting a cold storage facility comes with several challenges that go beyond the scope of normal paint applications. This is why it’s best to hire a commercial painting company with the right experience and resources to handle this important task for you. Painters USA can paint your facility so it remains durable and efficient for many years to come. To learn more about our company and all the services we offer in Chicago IL and elsewhere, contact us at 1-800-999-8715.