What’s happening in this video… This Freezer floor in a commercial kitchen is exposed to temperature fluctuations and wash downs.

To help protect the concrete floor surface in the walk-in freezer, a urethane cement mortar was specified to handle the task.

Applying a cove as part of a floor resurfacing application should always be considered during project discussions.

Otherwise, your extremely good looking and well protected concrete (freezer) floor can only hold up to half of the desired expectations.

The urethane cove application which seals the floor/wall joint is the perfect compliment to ensuring the ultimate floor protection.

Frequently asked questions about repairing floors in freezer rooms…

What is the difference between control joints and expansion joints? How are these joints handled during a cement urethane trowel applied mortar on walk-in freezer rooms?

The difference between control joints and expansion joints is that expansion joints move and control joints are non-moving joints. When you talk about moving joints you hear terms such as shear construction joints, expansion joints, or isolation joints. All of these are considered moving joints.

Freezer room floors are treated no differently from other floor areas in a food production facility. But, applying a cement urethane mortar in a freezer should ideally be applied at room temperature. There should be no presence of ice in the freezer or refrigerator room during the joint repair and floor coating application.

Regarding non moving joints, terms used in the resinous flooring industry are “control” and/or “construction” joints. Construction joints are considered to be non moving joints because they accommodate shrinkage in the slab and they are used for the express purpose of relieving the internal stresses during the curing process of the concrete after it’s poured. These joints allow horizontal and vertical movement of the slab to the adjoining columns.

There might be a column in the middle of the floor and obviously a wall supporting the roof. These are areas of expansion joints that accommodate movement and they help to prevent the concrete slab from cracking.

Expansion joints are engineered to address the stresses in the concrete construction of a building. At times they are not put in.

Often an installer sees the need for a construction or control joint when applying resinous flooring such as urethane or epoxy coatings. Experience has taught them where to construct an expansion joint where there is movement between a slab and some other adjoining structure.

Let’s look at a column for example. Many times the floor coating contractor cuts a pentagonal or a square shape into the floor at about three quarter inch deep and a quarter inch wide. These cuts are placed around the column because the column is moving.

The non-moving joints are usually put in by the concrete company that installs the concrete structure component of a building.

They put in a control joint in certain areas or a contraction joint to accommodate the shrinkage This happens on every slab to relieve stress. In turn, this will reduce hairline cracking in the concrete slab.

They would make a saw cut through the floor at a depth of about three quarters of an inch and a quarter inch wide. And in most cases, in every case I would say, you would need a diamond blade saw.

Make sure if you’re in a food processing area, and in this example, a walk in freezer, that you’re using an attached vacuum port to that diamond saw.

Also, I would suggest using a bond breaker product such Backer Rod and that can be added to the bottom of the joint. A little trick is when you’re cutting these joints, or we say “honoring” these joints, you want to be sure to mark the location of the joint.

Have a stick of chalk, usually blue chalk is a good color and mark it on the wall on each side so you know where you left that joint because you will be putting that residence flooring system right back of that cut you just made. And won’t see it.

So, if you don’t make your marks on that wall and identify where you put that joint, you can’t go back in and cut it.

Related videos – You may also be interested in:

	Walk-in cooler concrete floors receive the ultimate protection
	A cold climate controlled meat processing room during low temperature floor coatings and repair installation.
	See a floor coating application job on a meat processing plant’s freezer room floor.
	Watch this complete floor resurfacing installation on this walk-in freezer floor.

See more videos about floor coatings for a freezer floor.