DIY Walk In Cooler Build

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Irrenarzt

Professional Homebrewer
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Half a mile from Tucson
I've decided to build a 144" x 80" outer dimension walk in cooler off the back wall of my garage. Eventually, I plan to have an insulated trunk line through the wall with a number of taps in the garage with keg storage in the walk in. Ghettogyle Greg is my brewing brother/neighbor and has been helping with this project thus far.

Should be a fun project. I have a budget of about 3K left and I've spent about 1K so far (but this includes a 12' x 6' lean-to shed which is framed out now but needs to be sheathed, roofed and painted). I expect the shed to free up a fair amount of space in the garage that I can use to more comfortably brew. I've got way too much schit in my garage.

I currently have way too many chest freezers so I thought a consolidation of these via a walk in would be a good idea. I will use this thread to document the process. I also need more bottle storage as I have a significant collection of commercial and homebrewed beer in 750 mL bottles that I could be doing a better job of cellaring with.

So far I have a 6" deep base course foundation that has been solidified with portland cement, squared and leveled concrete footer pads and a waterproofing treated 2x6 base built. The base is lagged to the garage wall and is not going anywhere. I plan on insulating the space in the floor and getting a 6 mil LDPE vapor barrier sheeting and hopefully 3/4" tongue and groove OSB flooring down by the end of the weekend. I decided to forego an insulated slab/foundation as that would eat up my budget significantly. It would definitely be more ideal but if I went this route, I would be broke before I could conceivably finish the walk in. I think a well insulated raised floor should suffice at a significantly lower price.

Here's the floor as it stands now.

kKjjXC0.jpg


And today I put in staggered 1/3rd spacing cross-members. This should allow me to support more weight in the cooler once it is finished.

qREranU.jpg
 
Small update, today I bought a Coolbot, an AC unit and I'm talking to a guy about a used walk in cooler door right now. Tomorrow I plan on hitting up the Home Depot in the AM for a large building supplies run.
 
Sorry about that. At least it is a good song to get stuck in your mind. There are about a million ones that would be much worse.

Here's the Furthur version from last New Years in SF, which was kicking ass. Videos don't do it justice.

[ame]http://youtu.be/0HxaCOaXlBk[/ame]
 
Oh, I wasn't complaining. I saw a lot of Dead shows between 1978 or so and 1995 and I swear they played Jack Straw at almost every one of them. Fun times!
 
I have wanted to build one of these to hang deer and other meats in as well as lager. But, half that size, kudos man ill be watching to learn!:mug:
 
It was a song that was in heavy rotation throughout. They played Jack Straw 473 times from '71 to '95, with the only years it not being played in '75 and '76, both of which were the years they were on break (only 4 shows played in '75, and the long 5 full month break in '76).

I'm really more of a Help > Slip guy but I love a good Jack Straw as well.
 
I'm intrigued to see what happens next. I was thinking about converting a small-ish closet in our garage into a fermentation chamber with separate AC. Nothing bit, maybe space for a few fermenters and some cases.

EDIT: Love the OP's screen name :D
 
I was planning on taking my back bedroom where I store grain bags currently and cutting it in half originally and insulating the piss out of it to make it a walk in cooler kind of room. But I decided to go with the outdoor version as then I can go through the wall with beer lines. This route will end up costing more, but seems to be more useful in the end.
 
Cool project :D

Will there be insulation on top of this floor or are you going to put insulation between the joists? If the latter, don't you want your vapor barrier beneath the wood and insulation?
 
For the floor, the insulation will fill the space between the joists, followed by a 6 mil vapor barrier then capped with 3/4" OSB. I will likely cover the OSB with vinyl tiles to make a better working surface.

The walls will have 4" walk in cooler panels/OSB/air gap/vapor barrier/thermal foil plywood/studs/space filled with pink board/then a final inner wall panel which I have not yet decided. Maybe drywall?
 
I think you need the vapor barrier outside of your insulation. I could be wrong but its how I've seen it done for insulating floors above crawl spaces.
 
I think you need the vapor barrier outside of your insulation. I could be wrong but its how I've seen it done for insulating floors above crawl spaces.
I think Carlscan is right. The vapor barrier will also help keep critters from damaging the insulation batts between the floor joists. I would at least add some heavy painters drip cloth or plastic sheeting to the bottom, install the insulation batts, then cover them with the vapor barrier. Once you get the floor and tiles down it will be fully insulated and protected from critters and bugs. But I live in Fla with all kinds of critters and bugs of all descriptions, so it is just a thought..

Wheelchair Bob
 
The first two inches of the floor frame will be filled with base course and cement, which are then tamped and wetted, which creates a solid surface that runs up into the lower part of the free space from ground level. It's a bit unconventional but I did this on the shed floor (which is constructed the same way) and it seemed to work well.

My main concern here is mice as I don't want them getting up in there tearing up the insulation. I was considering spraying in an inch or so of spray foam between the base course and the pink board but I don't think I'll need it and that spray foam is really expensive.

I could lay in some vapor barrier under the foam as well at a relatively low cost. One thing I can guarantee is there will be no air circulating under there whatsoever.
 
I've got plenty more coming this weekend. We just finished tamping in the base course/cement and we need to wait til tomorrow to vapor barrier and add the foam as it needs to dry out overnight. Ghettogyle Greg is busy cutting out the 2" XPS foam sections in the meantime. We plan on adding 4" of XPS for an R value of 20. This is the weak point of the setup in terms of R-value I am thinking but it's not like it will kill the project or anything like that. 20 is still respectable for a non-poured floor.

I'll upload more pics tonight but I've still got a few hours of daylight so I'll work on the shed in the meantime.
 
Vapor barriers are pretty confusing "over the internet" because every weather region has different practices. What's the average humidity in Tuscon anyway? Probably won't even need a vapor barrier, but I'd put it over your hard pack and then go with the insulation.
 
It's freaking dry here. We don't get more than 11" of rain of year on average and that's pretty old data. We are way behind average the last few years, something like 6" a year as of late. As for humidity, I've never seen it over 40%, unless it is raining which is very rare. It's more like 10% now but the average is pretty low. I don't have an exact number.

But here's some pics from today's progress.

Base course being tamped in:

Pznyf3w.jpg


Concreting in the perimeter edges prior to base course fill/tamp:

c3nT253.jpg


More of that:

TyoUhLW.jpg


XPS 250 sectioning for the floor fill:

xhRpT3T.jpg


Base course tamped in:

cT5ca02.jpg


Making progress on shed while base course dries:

jyWNU1c.jpg


Mini Top Tier?

JL8usQt.jpg


24000 BTU AC unit:

vw8vPqH.jpg
 
Lunch break time but here is where we are at.

17dPuux.jpg


We had to cut out the bunched up vapor barrier from the top of the frame but it is continuous on the bottom and sides of the insulation inserts. We will add an additional vapor barrier layer on the top before we sheet the floor. We also plan to put a layer of elastomeric white roof paint and some spray foam on the underside of the floor sheeting which should be about as good as we can do.
 
I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer or anything, but wouldn't this design be horribly inefficient, especially at proper fermentation temperatures?

I admit, I'm not experienced with this type of thing...
 
It's going to be a walk in cooler, not a fermentation chamber. With an R-20 floor and over R-40 on the walls and roof, I doubt it'll be all that inefficient. My limiting factor is the floor for sure but it's not to the point where it'll be a big issue IMO.

Check out some background on building your own here:

http://storeitcold.com/coolerconstruction.html
 
Elastomeric coating on undersides of flooring:

0S0zfmE.jpg


Walk in cooler panels, I scored 10 for 100 bucks from a coworkers brother:

A3BUp4M.jpg


Running across the panels for so cheap was the motivator for getting into this project in the first place, more or less. I would have probably converted the back bedroom into a cold room if I didn't get these panels.
 
Thanks man. I wanted to document this as much as possible as I didn't find much on building your own walk in, other than the Deep Six closet build and what was shown on the storeitcold site. If you saw the original walk in at Heretic, then you would figure ANYONE can do it. Price out a new one and you'll have an aneurysm. These things are unbelieveably expensive. I was looking at 6K to 10K for a 12x6 new outdoor model. Screw that.

Since I scored a sweet deal on the panels, I thought why the hell not build it? I'm sure it'll still be cheaper than buying one but by how much I am unsure. I spent a LOT of money this weekend. I'm still within my budget though, but not by much. I'll add up all the costs when I am done, or I run out of money. The only thing I still need is the door and the inner wall layer (drywall most likely). But I have a line on a used door. A new door can run between 1000 and 1500 so I really need that used door to be in good shape.

We had to stop for the day as it was so freaking windy here today that we couldn't lay down the upper vapor barrier/spray in the foam without it blowing all over the place. Solid 25-35 mph winds all day today. Peak winds were measuring at 44 mph. Screw that.
 
It's too late now but was that pressure treated wood given its on the ground like that? I though you would still have a gap between the wood and the earth...if that's not PT it will rot. Heck even PR rots eventually
 
Pressure treated wood doesn't fare well in the southwest. It tweaks hard, even after getting it all set in place. Typically it gets shipped here wet, and twists like a motherf'er as it dries too rapidly in this climate. I've had really bad luck with pressure treated, and I no longer use it here. This is why I went with Douglas Fir and then weatherproofed it myself. It is not sitting directly on the ground either as it is on pads that are a half inch above grade. It is however buried in base course so that argument is not exactly perfect. At least is not buried in boggy mud. The only time it will see mud is never.

I had plenty of Wolmanized when I lived back east but that stuff no longer exists and even if it did, it would probably suck hind teet out here. Euros banned cadmium in 2008 those bastiges. Some things are best left alone, Wolmanized is one of those things.

Rotting is the least of our problems out here since it is so dry. Rotting requires humidity, which is non-existent here.
 
Irrenarzt said:
Pressure treated wood doesn't fare well in the southwest. It tweaks hard, even after getting it all set in place. Typically it gets shipped here wet, and twists like a motherf'er as it dries too rapidly in this climate. I've had really bad luck with pressure treated. This is why I went with Douglas Fir and then weatherproofed it myself. It is not sitting directly on the ground either as it is on pads that are a half inch above grade.

I had plenty of Wolmanized when I lived back east but that stuff no longer exists and even if it did, it would probably suck left nut out here.

Rotting is the least of our problems out here since it is so dry. Rotting requires humidity, which is non-existent here.

That's interesting to hear - definitely different from anywhere else I've lived and built/seen built stuff. Rock on!
 
I have wood on my property that is over 30 years old that was never stained or treated in any way and it is still holding up OK.

When I first moved into this house 12 years ago, I replaced the front outside window sills with ipe, which was expensive as hell. These pieces are still in mint condition, even after 12 years and no treatment whatsoever. I bet I could have gone with a cheaper wood and I would have been fine. The coatings here get trashed from the strong UV, but the wood itself lasts for a long time. North facing, with no standing water? I imagine that frame will last the life of the cooler, which should be 15 years easily. I'll be replacing the AC unit long before I need to replace the frame. The same will not likely apply for people in other climates.
 
It's going to be a walk in cooler, not a fermentation chamber. With an R-20 floor and over R-40 on the walls and roof, I doubt it'll be all that inefficient. My limiting factor is the floor for sure but it's not to the point where it'll be a big issue IMO.

Check out some background on building your own here:

http://storeitcold.com/coolerconstruction.html

Thanks for the link, sorry I missed that it was being used as a cooler only.

Read through some of the information, and what I noticed was that I couldn't really find energy estimates. The cool-bot manufacturer seemed to believe that energy use would be around $200 on average...whatever that means. Also read some articles stating that the system would use half as much energy as a similarly sized compressor. Claims without data...which is frustrating.

The specific A/C unit you have is estimated to run $205/yr on average...which only accounts for power consumption for the A/Cs designed usage. Since you're going to be going beyond that...I assume it would be quite a bit more.

It's an interesting project, and a really neat idea. I just wish I could find some good information on the efficiency of these things. I have to assume they aren't too inefficient, or they wouldn't be so popular.

Just having a hard time wrapping my head around it.
 
I'm planning on replacing 2 or 3 chest freezers that are running 24/7 with this cooler, so I should see some savings. What those savings are, I do not know yet. Could be fairly marginal for all I know. At least I will have more space for storing/carbonating/cold crashing/serving/et cetera...

You should be able to get to 35 F with good insulation and good conditions outside (a cool day with low humidity). I'm hoping to get to 38 F, but even if I can store beer at 55 F, that'd be better than leaving all my 750's in the house at over 70 F.
 
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