Ladder Access in Cold Storage and Freezers

Ladder Access in Cold Storage and Freezers

A freezer room is a wet room that happens to be below zero. Every surface carries a film of condensation or ice, the aisles are narrow, the doors have raised tracks, and the work at the evaporator is directly overhead. Ladders that work fine on a dock fail badly in that room.

Condensation Makes Every Surface Slick

The floor in a cold room goes from wet to icy at the door line and stays that way. A ladder foot that sits on that film will slide under the first sideways load, which on a ladder is every time a tech reaches for something.

Fiberglass is the right material for cold rooms. It does not conduct, it does not get as painfully cold to bare hands as aluminum, and its feet hold better on wet sealed concrete. Our Werner Type IA fiberglass stepladder at $99 and the fiberglass extension ladder at $299 cover most cold-room work.

Wipe the feet dry before setting the ladder, and set it on the highest dry spot available rather than the most convenient one.

Cramped Aisles and Racking

Cold rooms are built for pallets, not people. Racking aisles leave maybe four feet of clearance, and a 6 foot stepladder with splayed legs will not open in that space. A podium ladder at $292.21 has a narrow footprint and a standing platform, which is what a tech needs to reach a valve or a sensor above the rack.

For work along a wall, a 2 foot by 6 foot 4 inch S-style frame set at $115.30 fits where a full Baker unit will not, and one lift gets a worker to the top of most evaporator units.

Door Thresholds and Floor Transitions

Freezer doors have raised tracks, and the floor changes height at every threshold. A ladder set across a track is a ladder with one foot on air, and a bridge made of a pallet or a piece of scrap is not attached to anything.

Move the ladder fully into the room before climbing, or set it fully outside and work through the door. If the ladder has to straddle a transition, use a leveler on each leg and check that both feet are bearing before the first step.

Evaporators, Ceilings and Washdown

Evaporator coils, fan motors, defrost heaters and ceiling panels all sit above head height and are usually accessed with a ladder under them. A Baker-Perry scaffold unit at $229 with locking casters is the safer platform for anything longer than a few minutes under a unit.

Cold-room washdown is a daily event in most facilities. Any ladder stored inside the room will be wet every day, so store it outside the freezer and inspect the feet and rungs for cracking before each use.

Inspection After Freeze-Thaw

Fiberglass does not rust, but it does crack, and repeated freeze-thaw plus washdown accelerates that. Check rails for cracks, rungs for looseness and feet for hardening or missing tread.

Retire any ladder that has been dropped, hit by a pallet jack or left with a bent rail. Our ladder range carries the fiberglass sizes cold rooms use, and a spare stepladder in the maintenance closet beats pulling one out of service mid-shift.

Cold-Room Access Done Right

Cold storage work is narrow, wet and overhead. A fiberglass platform ladder, a short frame set for the wall runs and a Baker unit for evaporator work cover it, as long as the feet are dry and the ladder is inspected often.

Tell us your aisle widths and your ceiling height and we will size the access gear for the room.

Everything ships from 5030 Dexham Rd. Ste. 103 in Rowlett, TX, and local crews can pick up the same day. Call 972-331-1090 and we will tell you what is on the floor right now.