Building Your Own Walk-In Cooler

By Annette Codding

   This last weekend, we finally butchered the steer that has been grazing in my pasture for the last couple of years. It took a little planning to get to the point where we finally pulled the trigger. Once the steer is on the ground, everything must be in place or we ruin all of that meat. First, we had to build a walk-in cooler, which required a concrete floor. Of course, that meant that I had to clean out the barn where the concrete would eventually be poured.
   You don't realize the amount of stuff you have until you start moving it somewhere, even if it is only outside the barn. And rather than throwing it all out, it needs to be sorted and organized and kept safe until you actually need it. Some people who visit my barn look at all of the stuff as a bunch of junk that I have hoarded. In reality, it is the pieces and parts to a project that I don't even know about yet.
   So I moved all of the stuff out of the barn and had a crew come out to pour the concrete. While we know a lot of good concrete guys, in the last few years my husband has been working side by side on some jobs with one man that has impressed him a lot. Ryan Moore owns and runs the company, and his sons work for him. It turns out that my mom and dad were friends with Ryan’s mom and dad when we were children. So it was pretty neat to have them do the work, and since they are excellent at what they do, it was fun to watch.
   After the concrete was poured, it was time to get the walk-in cooler built. We bought a kit from Tim at T&K Coool Buildings in Astor. I just told him what size I wanted and what we would be doing with it, then he put a kit together for me including all of the panels, screws, caulk, and trim. I bought it back in December and by the time I was ready to build it last month, I needed a refresher on how to do it. I called back up there and Mr. Tim remembered me and was able to tell me exactly how to do it and where all of the pieces of trim went.
   The little room went together pretty easily. The trickiest part was building the door. You pretty much just cut a door sized piece out of one of the panels and trim it out to be a door. It’s tricky because you don’t realize just how much room the trim takes up. I originally gave myself a quarter inch on each side to allow for the trim. It barely fit, so we took it down and cut off another quarter inch. Put all the trim back and it still didn’t really close enough. After another cut, we finally had a door that would slide in the hole.
   But once we put the hinges on, it wouldn't fit again…sliding it straight in, is much different than swinging it out. Once again, we removed some trim and took off a little more. I think that once all was said and done, we ended up taking off nearly an inch and a quarter. The door finally fit properly. A strip of door-sealing foam was put around the outside and it was mostly airtight.
   To cool the whole thing we used a large window unit air conditioner with a Cool Bot attached. The Cool Bot is a neat little gizmo that hooks up to the thermostat to trick it into thinking that it’s warmer so that the unit stays running. So far, we are holding the room at 41 F, but are hoping it gets on down to 36 F.
   The floor was sealed so that blood and other liquids don’t soak into the concrete. We really should have sealed the concrete before we build the room, as it is bare under the walls. And looking back, we should have pressure washed the concrete before sealing it, as there is a swipe of what could possibly be chicken poop under the sealer. That is what I get for being in a hurry and not thinking things through. Now I have my very own, very permanent, crappy reminder to be more thorough.
   We ran electricity to the room and made sure the outlets were high and water-resistant. We put the light switch on the outside, so that there's less time keeping the door open. Brian built a nice meat rack for hanging the quarters and other pieces. I picked up a couple sticks of angle iron and the rest was scavenged from the steel pile out back. It's good to have a bone yard to pick through for projects! Again, I was in a hurry so it didn't get painted, but that can be done later. One day I'll learn…maybe.
   So, Sunday morning we started what I thought would be a couple hour job of ‘simply’ quartering a steer and hanging him in the freezer. Boy, did I underestimate that job. It took most of the day and we were plumb worn out by the end. I’ll tell you all about it in the coming weeks. For now, I am going to spend some time in the garden and in the woods enjoying the little break I have between the killing and the processing. Until next time, get outside…it’s such a pretty time of year!