Freezer Warehouse building floor heaving problems.

                                             Freezer Warehouse building floor heaving problems.

A freezer warehouse building floor this constructed to keep the moisture in the soil below the floor from freezing. Whenever water freezes it expands. When the large amount of soil beneath a freezer floor is frozen the cumulative effect of the moisture in the soil freezing exerts pressure on the floor from underneath. When that happens the freezer warehouse floor will begin to rise upward, and the more moisture there is in the soil, then the greater the expansion and the higher the floor will raise upward. As the freezer floor rises, cement begins to crack.

One of the reasons that freezer warehouse floor will heave is within the construction of the freezer warehouse building’s floor is a component called a moisture barrier. A moisture barrier is basically a large industrial plastic tarp that is laid down over the sand and gravel base. This moisture barrier keeps water from seeping into the cement. Any type of cement will absorb some water. This plastic tarp referred to as a "moisture barrier" in the refrigerated warehouse building construction trade keeps subsoil surface moisture away from the cement.

For a variety of reasons the moisture barrier sometimes fail allowing additional moisture to move upward towards the already frozen cement of the freezer floor, eventually the moisture will freeze and turn into ice and push upwards. Most moisture barriers fail from improper installation when the original freezer warehouse floor was poured. Almost always only a small portion of the freezer warehouse floor is affected, because only a portion of the moisture barrier has been penetrated by subsurface moisture. Signs that a freezer warehouse floor has failed moisture barrier are very subtle at first. Eventually as the floor raises and a dome shaped in the floor will become evident with cracks radiating outward. As pictured at the beginning of this article about freezer warehouse floors.

Jim Cronin is a refrigerated building real estate broker in St. Louis, Missouri.

Phone 314-994-0577 e-mail J.Cronin@hawkds.com or www.refrigerated-buildings.com