Frequently asked questions

The price depends on the size of the room, the running temperature, the panels, the floor, the door and the refrigeration unit, plus site access and electrical work. A small chilled room for a kitchen costs far less than a walk-in freezer with a reinforced floor for a warehouse. We give a written, itemised quotation after a free site survey. Our cold room cost guide explains each factor in detail.

Installation on site usually takes a few days for a small chilled room and up to about a week for a large room with an insulated floor, a split refrigeration system and electrical work. Before that, panels and equipment typically take two to four weeks to arrive once the order is confirmed. We agree the programme with you at the survey, so your stock is never left without cold storage.

Measure what you store at your busiest time, not an average week, and allow for growth. Small businesses usually need 9 to 23 m² (100 to 250 sq ft) of floor space, while supermarkets, wholesalers and food producers often need 93 m² (1,000 sq ft) or more. Shelving and trolley access take up floor area too. We measure your space and your stock at the free survey and recommend a size that works for the way you trade.

In practice they are the same thing. A walk-in fridge, walk-in chiller or cool room is a cold room that runs above freezing, usually at 0 to +4 °C. The term cold room also covers freezer rooms at -18 to -22 °C and blast freezers that go lower still. Whatever you call it, the room is built from insulated panels, has its own refrigeration unit and a door you can walk through with a trolley.

The unit is sized to the room's volume, its running temperature, how often the door opens, what goes in warm and the ambient temperature where the condenser sits. Small chilled rooms usually take a monoblock unit that sits in the wall or ceiling. Larger rooms and freezer rooms use a split system, with a condensing unit outside and an evaporator inside. We size and specify the unit for you; our guide to chiller and condensing units explains the options.

Yes. The rooms we install are modular: insulated panels with a lock-together joint, cut to size, so the room fits your space exactly and can be taken down and rebuilt if you move. We supply and install complete rooms, including the door and the refrigeration unit. If you only need replacement panels or a new door for an existing room, ask us and we will quote for that too.

Food businesses in England must keep chilled food at 8 °C or below by law, and most cold rooms run at 0 to +5 °C to stay well inside that. Frozen food is held at -18 °C or colder. Refrigerant must be handled by F-Gas certified engineers, the door needs an internal release so nobody can be shut in, and electrical work must meet the Wiring Regulations. A room inside your existing premises does not normally need planning permission; an external unit or plant room might, and we will tell you at the survey.

It depends on what you store. Fresh meat and fish keep best at 0 to +2 °C, dairy and general chilled food at +1 to +4 °C, and many fruits and vegetables at +8 to +12 °C. Freezer rooms run at -18 to -22 °C, blast freezers at -30 to -40 °C to freeze product quickly, and pharmaceutical rooms at +2 to +8 °C with a temperature record. We set the controller for your products and show your team how to check it.

A freezer room costs more than a chilled room of the same size: thicker panels, an insulated floor, a heated door frame, a larger low-temperature condensing unit and electric defrost all add to the price. Size, running temperature and site access matter most. A small walk-in freezer for a kitchen is a modest project; a warehouse freezer room with a plant room is a major one. We quote after a free survey, and our cold room cost guide explains the factors.

Temperature. A cold room, or chiller, holds food above freezing at 0 to +4 °C. A freezer room holds it frozen at -18 to -22 °C. That difference means a freezer room needs thicker insulation (usually 100 mm or more), an insulated floor so the ground beneath does not freeze and heave, a heated door frame so the door does not seal shut with ice, and a refrigeration unit built for low temperatures with an electric defrost system.

A freezer room stores food that is already frozen. A blast freezer freezes it: fans drive air at -30 to -40 °C over the product so that it passes through the danger zone quickly, typically from +70 °C to -18 °C at the core within four hours, which keeps ice crystals small and texture intact. A blast chiller does the same job down to +3 °C within 90 minutes, as UK food safety guidance asks. Most kitchens and food producers run a blast unit alongside a freezer room.

In almost every case, yes. A modular walk-in freezer can be built inside an existing kitchen, stockroom or warehouse, or outside under a canopy, with panels cut to fit the space. We need a reasonably level floor, a route in for the panels, an electrical supply (three-phase for larger units) and somewhere to put the condensing unit where it can reject heat. The free survey checks all of this before we quote.

A low-temperature condensing unit sized for the room's volume, its running temperature, how much product goes in and how often the door opens, matched to an evaporator with electric defrost. Small freezer rooms can use a monoblock unit; larger rooms use a split system with the condensing unit outside or in a plant area. We size and specify it for you. Our guide to chiller and condensing units explains how the parts fit together.

Yes. We design and install industrial freezer rooms and frozen cold stores for food producers, wholesalers, cash and carry warehouses and distribution sites: rooms with pallet racking, forklift access, sliding doors, several evaporators and remote plant. These projects start with a design meeting about throughput, storage density and how goods move in and out. See our commercial cold storage page for larger installations.

Have it serviced at least twice a year. The defrost heaters, timers and drains, the door heater and seal, the evaporator and condenser coils and the refrigerant charge all need checking, because a fault in any of them ices the room up and overloads the compressor. Between visits, keep the door shut, check the seal and door heater weekly and log the temperature daily. Our maintenance contracts cover all of this.

It depends on floor area and height, the number of chambers, the temperature of each, the floor construction and the refrigeration plant, which is often the largest single item. A 50 m² chill room is a different project from a 500 m² frozen store with a plant room. We price from a drawn design, in a written, itemised quotation, and show you where choices such as doors, inverter compressors and heat recovery pay back in running costs. Our cold room cost guide explains the factors.

A cold storage room, or cold store, is a large insulated room, usually big enough for pallet racking and a forklift, that holds goods at a controlled temperature: chilled at 0 to +4 °C, produce at +8 to +12 °C or frozen at -18 to -25 °C. It is built from insulated panels with an insulated floor, industrial doors and a refrigeration plant sized for the volume and the daily throughput. Cold stores are the backbone of food wholesale, production and distribution.

Yes. We design and install industrial cold stores with pallet racking, forklift access, several chambers at different temperatures, loading bays and remote refrigeration plant, for cash and carry warehouses, food producers and distribution sites. Larger projects start with a design stage covering throughput, racking layout, energy use and phasing, so the store works for the way goods move through your business. See our industrial cold rooms page for the sectors we work in.

Food hygiene law requires chilled food to be kept at 8 °C or below and frozen food at -18 °C, with temperature records for your HACCP plan. The F-Gas Regulations set leak-check intervals by refrigerant charge and require certified engineers. Health and safety rules cover doors that open from the inside, trapped-person alarms in large freezer stores and limits on time spent working at -18 °C. Building Regulations cover the structure, fire performance of the panels and electrical work, and a new building or external plant may need planning permission. We design to all of these and tell you what applies at the survey.

With planned visits two to four times a year, scheduled out of hours or around deliveries. Each visit cleans the evaporator and condenser coils, checks every defrost circuit, the door seals, heaters and rapid roll doors, the refrigerant charge and the plant controls, and records an F-Gas leak check where the charge requires one. Remote temperature monitoring with alarms covers the time between visits. Our maintenance contracts include all of this for single and multi-site operators.

We design, install and maintain cold storage rather than renting out space. If you need temporary cold storage while a store is built or repaired, a hire company can supply a mobile cold room, and we plan our work around the hire dates. For most businesses a permanent, correctly sized cold store costs less over a few years than renting space, and we are happy to help you compare the two.

A fit out from Alaska Cold starts with a measured survey and a layout drawing showing aisles, shelving bays, checkouts and refrigeration. We then supply and install gondola and wall shelving, display fridges and freezers, serve over counters where you need them, checkout counters, and a walk-in cold room or freezer room for stock. Everything is commissioned and handed over ready to trade, and we can phase the work so an existing shop stays open.

Most convenience stores need a run of multideck chillers for dairy, sandwiches, ready meals and drinks, one or two glass-door freezers for frozen food and ice cream, and often a drinks chiller near the till. Fruit and veg sell better from a chilled display with humidity control. We work out the metres of each type from your sales mix and floor plan, and recommend doors where they will cut your energy bill.

A multideck is the tall fridge with several shelves that lines a supermarket aisle, open fronted or with glass doors. Cold air is blown down the front as an air curtain to keep products at 0 to +4 °C. Cabinets usually come in widths from 1.25 m to 3.75 m and can run side by side to look like one unit. They are available as plug-in cabinets with their own compressor, or as remote cabinets connected to a condensing unit elsewhere.

Plug-in (integral) cabinets have the compressor built in, so they are quick to install and easy to move, but they put heat and noise into the shop and each one needs its own socket. Remote cabinets are piped to condensing units outside or in a plant area, which keeps the shop cooler and quieter and costs less to run across a large installation. For a few cabinets, plug-in usually wins; for a full supermarket, remote usually pays back.

Yes. Serve over counters are the glass-fronted refrigerated counters used for fresh meat, fish, deli, cheese and cakes. We supply straight and curved counters in standard lengths and made-to-measure sizes, with chilled wells at 0 to +2 °C for meat and fish or +2 to +4 °C for deli and dairy, and install them together with the shelving and counters around them. Our serve over counter guide covers what to check before you buy.

Yes. The same team fits out butchers' shops, bakeries and patisseries, delis, takeaways and fast food shops as well as supermarkets. The refrigeration changes with the trade: serve over counters and a meat cold room for a butcher, cake and patisserie displays for a bakery, kebab and drinks displays for a takeaway. See our pages for butchers and fishmongers and for bakeries and patisseries.

The price depends on the cabinet type, its width, whether it has doors, and whether it is plug-in or remote. Remote cabinets cost less each but need pipework and a condensing unit. A short run of plug-in multidecks is a small project; a full supermarket with remote refrigeration is a major one. We quote cabinet by cabinet in a written, itemised quotation after a free survey, so you can see where the money goes and compare like with like.

If you are in Greater London, Essex, Kent, Surrey or Hertfordshire, yes. Our engineers are based at Great Portland Street in central London and cover the whole area, including East, North and North West London, Croydon, Romford and Ilford. Further afield we repair equipment for customers on a maintenance contract and take on larger jobs across the UK. Call +44 7879 685742 and we will tell you straight away whether we can attend and when.

Yes. The emergency line, +44 7879 685742, is answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including bank holidays. Out-of-hours call-outs cost more than daytime visits and we tell you the rate before an engineer sets off. If stock is at risk, call rather than filling in a form: we can usually advise on the phone how to protect it until we arrive.

Yes, and many cold room faults can be fixed on the first visit. The usual causes are a failed compressor or fan, a refrigerant leak, an evaporator iced up by a faulty defrost heater, a dirty or blocked condenser, a failed controller or thermostat, or a door that no longer seals. Keep the door shut while you wait: a well-insulated room holds its temperature for several hours. If the room is more than 10 to 15 years old we will tell you honestly whether repair or replacement is the better value.

Yes. We repair walk-in freezer rooms, glass-door display freezers, chest and upright commercial freezers, blast freezers and the condensing units that serve them. Freezer faults are often about defrost: a failed heater, timer or drain leaves the evaporator iced and the freezer struggling to hold -18 °C. We also replace door gaskets, frame heaters and fans, and repair refrigerant leaks.

A repair is priced as a call-out charge plus labour and parts, and out-of-hours visits cost more than daytime ones. A door seal or thermostat is a small job; a compressor or evaporator is a bigger one. We diagnose the fault first and agree the price with you before any repair work starts, so there are no surprises on the invoice.

Yes. Display refrigeration is a large part of our repair work: multideck chillers, serve over counters, glass-door freezers, cake and patisserie displays and drinks chillers, both plug-in cabinets and remote cabinets fed from a condensing unit. Typical faults are failed fans, iced evaporators, lighting, door and night-blind problems and controller errors. Where a cabinet is beyond economic repair we can supply and install a replacement.

We repair all the makes commonly installed in UK shops, kitchens and cold stores, whether or not we installed the equipment. Most parts, such as fans, controllers, gaskets, heaters and compressors, are generic or can usually be ordered from the manufacturer. Tell us the make and model number when you call, usually on a plate inside the door or on the condensing unit, and we can bring the likely parts with us.

A visit covers the whole system: cleaning the condenser and evaporator coils, checking refrigerant pressures and testing for leaks, inspecting door seals, hinges and heaters, checking the defrost cycle and drain, calibrating the controller and temperature probes, checking fans, wiring and the electrical supply, and running the room back to temperature. You get a written report with anything that needs attention and an F-Gas leak-check record where the regulations require one.

At least once a year for a single chilled cold room, and twice a year for freezer rooms, busy kitchens and shops with display refrigeration. Larger systems with a refrigerant charge of 5 tonnes of CO2 equivalent or more must have an F-Gas leak check at least annually, and of 50 tonnes or more every six months, so those checks set the minimum. Between visits, check door seals and condenser airflow monthly and keep a daily temperature log.

A contract is priced on how many pieces of equipment you have, how many visits a year they need, the refrigerant charge (which sets the F-Gas leak-check interval), whether the cabinets are plug-in or remote, and how far you are from central London. A single cold room in a restaurant needs a small annual contract; a supermarket with remote refrigeration needs quarterly visits. We quote per site after a free survey, with the visits, response times and call-out rates written down.

We clean the parts of a cold room that affect its performance, the condenser and evaporator coils, fan blades and guards, drains and door seals, as part of every maintenance visit. Day-to-day cleaning of the floor, walls and shelving stays with your team, and we show them what to use so panels and seals are not damaged. Between visits, wipe the door seals weekly, check the condenser airflow monthly and keep a daily temperature log.

Yes. A freezer room works harder than a chiller, and the common failures, iced evaporators, failed defrost heaters, worn door seals and blocked condensers, all build up slowly. Caught at a service visit they are small jobs; left alone they overload the compressor, the most expensive part to replace. A maintained freezer room also uses less electricity, because clean coils and a tight door mean the compressor runs for less of the day.

Yes. We service industrial cold rooms, freezer rooms and cold stores in warehouses, cash and carry sites and food production units, including plant with several evaporators, remote condensing units and racking inside the room. Visits are scheduled out of hours or around your deliveries, and multi-site contracts get one report format and one contact for every location. See our industrial cold rooms page for what we install.

Yes. Maintenance contracts cover display refrigeration as well as cold rooms: multideck chillers, serve over counters, glass-door freezers, cake displays and drinks chillers, plug-in or remote. Counters and cabinets are cleaned, checked for temperature, airflow, lighting and door problems, and leak tested where they have their own refrigerant charge. For a shop this is usually done early in the morning, before trading starts.

A chilled room at 0 to +2 °C sized for your weekly intake, with hanging rails for carcasses and primals, stainless steel shelving for boxed meat, and a washable floor that drains. Most high street butchers need 6 to 20 m², and many add a small freezer room at -18 °C for frozen lines. If you handle raw and cooked meat, keep them in separate rooms or clearly separated zones under your HACCP plan.

A serve over counter with gravity (static) cooling, where cold air falls gently from a coil above the display rather than being blown over the meat, so cuts keep their colour and do not dry out. Choose a length to match your range, 1.5 to 3.75 m is typical, with lighting that shows red meat honestly and a well held at 0 to +2 °C. Ventilated counters suit cooked meats, pies and packed products better than raw meat.

Yes. We fit out butchers' shops from the counters and back counters to the cutting room, wash-down areas, flooring that drains, and the cold room and freezer room behind the shop. The refrigeration, the shop fitting and the electrics are planned together, and we phase the work so an existing shop keeps trading. See our shop fitting page for how a fit out runs.

Yes. We supply and install straight and curved serve over counters in standard and made-to-measure lengths, with gravity cooling for raw meat, ventilated models for cooked and packed goods, and matching back counters and preparation tables. Counters can be plug-in or run from a remote condensing unit so the shop stays quieter and cooler.

Yes. Fish needs 0 to +2 °C, high humidity and ice. Fish display counters with a stainless steel ice bed and drainage keep fillets and whole fish in condition through the day, and a flake ice machine with a chilled room that drains well covers storage. We supply counters and cold rooms for fishmongers and for butchers who add a fish counter.

Start with sales: how many metres of chilled aisle for dairy, meat, ready meals and sandwiches; how many glass-door freezers for frozen food and ice cream; a produce display if you sell fruit and veg; a drinks chiller near the till; and a cold room and freezer room in the stockroom sized to your deliveries. A small convenience store might need 5 to 8 m of multidecks and two freezers; a supermarket needs runs of remote cabinets fed from a plant room. We work it out from your floor plan and sales mix at the survey.

Produce needs a warmer, more humid display than dairy: an open multideck or tiered fruit and veg display running at +8 to +12 °C, often with misting or humidity control to stop leaves wilting and skins shrivelling. Bananas and some tropical fruit are kept out of the chiller altogether. Keep produce cabinets away from freezers and doors so they do not run too cold. Our fruit and veg display guide covers sizes and layouts.

Standard multideck chillers with glass doors fitted across the open front. The doors keep the cold air inside, so the cabinet uses a third or more less electricity, the aisle is warmer for shoppers and products hold temperature more evenly. Most new supermarket installations now specify doors, and many existing open cabinets can be retrofitted. The trade-off is slightly slower browsing, so some stores keep doors on dairy and ready meals and leave drinks or promotions open.

Yes. Drinks chillers, single and double glass-door uprights and open impulse coolers for the till area, milk and dairy multidecks for the highest turnover lines, and beer and wine chillers for off licences. For high-volume milk and drinks we size the cabinet for restocking twice a day rather than once, and position it so the chilled aisle flows towards the tills.

Yes. Refrigeration is often the largest part of a food shop's electricity bill, and a cold room runs around the clock. Thicker panels, a well-sealed door with a closer, LED lighting, an efficient condensing unit with inverter control and defrost on demand each trim the bill, and together they usually pay for themselves well within the life of the room. Doors on display cabinets and night blinds do the same on the shop floor. We show the options and their payback in the quotation.

An industrial cold room is a cold store built for volume and movement rather than for a kitchen: large enough for pallet racking and forklifts, with an insulated floor that takes the load, doors sized for a loaded pallet truck or forklift, and refrigeration plant sized for goods going in and out all day. They run chilled at 0 to +4 °C or frozen at -18 to -25 °C, often with several chambers at different temperatures behind a shared ante room.

Yes. We design and install cold stores from around 100 m² to several thousand square metres, with pallet racking, forklift aisles, dock doors and remote refrigeration plant, for cash and carry warehouses, wholesalers and distribution centres. The project starts with a design stage covering pallet count, racking type, throughput, temperature zones and energy, and we phase the build around a site that is already trading. See our commercial cold storage page for the construction, doors and plant.

Yes. Industrial freezer rooms and frozen stores at -18 to -25 °C, with 150 to 200 mm panels, heated floors or ventilated sub-floors to stop frost heave, heated sliding doors, electric defrost on every evaporator and low-temperature plant sized for the daily intake. Where product arrives warm we add a blast freezer or blast tunnel, so the store only has to hold temperature rather than pull it down. See our freezer rooms page.

It depends on floor area and height, the number of chambers and their temperatures, the floor construction, the doors and the refrigeration plant, which is usually the largest single item. A 100 m² chill store and a 1,000 m² frozen store with a plant room are very different projects. We price from a drawn design in a written, itemised quotation and show where inverter plant, doors and heat recovery pay back in running costs. Our cold room cost guide explains the factors.

Yes. Food producers and packers need a chain of rooms rather than one: a chilled intake store, process rooms held at +8 to +12 °C where people work, blast chillers or freezers, a finished goods store and a despatch chill, all with hygienic panel finishes, washable floors with drainage and separation between raw and cooked areas. We design and install the rooms and the plant, and the temperature records support your HACCP plan and your BRC or retailer audits.

Most restaurant kitchens need a walk-in fridge of 4 to 12 m² at 0 to +4 °C, with shelving on two or three sides, a door wide enough for a trolley and a zone or separate room for raw meat, plus a freezer at -18 °C. Size it for your busiest delivery day, not the quietest. In a hot kitchen we put the condensing unit outside or in a plant area so the room does not fight the ovens.

Yes. We fit out takeaways, fast food shops and kebab and chicken shops: the servery counter, kebab and meat display fridges at 0 to +4 °C, drinks chillers, refrigerated prep counters, a walk-in fridge and freezer behind the kitchen, and the shop fittings around them. The work is planned so you open on time, and we service the equipment afterwards. See our shop fitting page for how a fit out runs.

A counter-top or free-standing cake display fridge at +2 to +4 °C for cakes and pastries, a grab-and-go multideck for sandwiches, salads and drinks, and a small under-counter fridge for milk at the coffee machine. Choose displays with good lighting and humidity control so cream cakes do not dry out, and glass that is easy to clean. Our cake display fridge guide explains sizes, types and what affects the price.

Yes. Hotels and event caterers run several kitchens from a central store, so they need larger walk-in fridges and freezer rooms, blast chillers for batch cooking, and dependable maintenance, because breakfast still happens when a fridge fails. We design the cold rooms around the production kitchen, banqueting and bars, install in phases around service, and cover the equipment with a maintenance contract and 24/7 repairs.

Call the emergency line, +44 7879 685742, and we will tell you when an engineer can attend; the line is answered 24 hours a day. Many common faults, such as a failed fan, a controller or a door seal, can be fixed on the first visit. While you wait, keep the door shut, check the plug and breaker and move high-risk stock to another fridge. Restaurants on a maintenance contract get priority response. See our repair page.

A static (gravity-cooled) display at +2 to +4 °C with humidity control, so cream, mousse and unwrapped tarts stay moist instead of drying under a fan. Choose tiered shelves for height, curved or square glass, warm LED lighting that flatters pastry, and rear sliding doors so staff serve without reaching over the glass. Units run from about 0.9 to 2 m wide and join into a run. Our cake display fridge guide covers types, sizes and prices.

A refrigerated display counter built for delicate pastry: static cooling so there is no drying airflow, humidity held around 60 to 70 per cent, a temperature of +2 to +4 °C, tiered glass shelves and lighting chosen to show glazes and colours honestly. Many have a neutral (unrefrigerated) section for croissants and bread and a heated section for savouries, so one run of counter covers the whole range.

Yes. We fit out bakeries, patisseries and cake shops: the display run with refrigerated, ambient and heated sections, made-to-measure counters, the bread wall and back counter, a coffee station, and the retarder, cold room and freezer in the bakehouse. The display refrigeration and the counters are planned together so the glass lines up and the compressors are out of the way. See our shop fitting page for how a fit out runs.

Yes. Counters can be made to a length, a corner angle or a curve to fit the shop, with the cladding, worktop and glass style you choose, and refrigerated, ambient and heated sections in one run. Made-to-measure counters take longer than stock models, usually four to eight weeks, so they are ordered early in a fit out. Our serve over counter guide explains what to specify.

Usually all three. A chilled room or large upright fridges at 0 to +4 °C hold dairy, fruit, fillings and finished cakes; a dough retarder (or retarder-prover) holds shaped dough at +2 to +5 °C overnight so it can be baked first thing; and a freezer at -18 °C holds frozen dough, pastry and cakes for decorating later. Larger bakeries add a blast freezer. A walk-in room costs less per litre than several uprights once you need more than about four of them.

Six things. Uniformity: the whole room must sit within +2 to +8 °C, proved by temperature mapping with no hot or cold spots at the shelves. Resilience: two refrigeration systems or a standby unit, and an alarm if the power fails. Monitoring: calibrated probes, continuous logging and alarms that reach someone out of hours. Door discipline: an air curtain or ante room so openings do not push the temperature out of range. Validation: IQ, OQ and PQ documents for your GDP file. Layout: shelving that lets air circulate, space for quarantined stock and room to grow.

Cold chain medicines and vaccines are stored at +2 to +8 °C and must never freeze; a vaccine that has frozen is discarded. Most other medicines are kept below +25 °C in controlled ambient storage, and some products need a freezer at -20 °C. Stock is kept off the floor, away from walls and the cooling unit, rotated by expiry date, with quarantine and returns segregated. Temperatures are checked and recorded at least daily by hand, or continuously by a logger, as the MHRA expects.

Yes. Good Distribution Practice requires continuous temperature monitoring with calibrated probes, records you can produce at inspection and alarms when the room drifts out of +2 to +8 °C. Probes sit at the points mapping showed to be warmest and coldest, not next to the evaporator. Alarms should reach a phone out of hours, and the room is mapped before use and again when the layout or the seasons change. We install the monitoring with the room.

Yes. Laboratory cold rooms hold samples and reagents at +4 °C, often with people working inside, so they need lighting, benching, ventilation, an internal release and an alarm. Mortuary body stores are held at +2 to +4 °C, with deep-freeze storage at -20 °C for longer-term holding, built with racking, stainless steel finishes and the discretion the setting needs, in line with Human Tissue Authority guidance.

The Human Medicines Regulations 2012 and the MHRA's Good Distribution Practice guidelines for wholesalers holding a WDA(H) licence; General Pharmaceutical Council standards for pharmacies; Human Tissue Authority codes of practice for mortuaries; the F-Gas Regulations for the refrigerant; and health and safety rules for anyone working inside a cold room. In practice they mean a mapped, monitored, alarmed room with calibrated probes and records, maintained by certified engineers.

Greater London every day, from our base on Great Portland Street, and Essex, Kent, Surrey and Hertfordshire for installations, repairs and maintenance. Beyond that we take on larger installations, supermarket fit outs and multi-site maintenance contracts across the UK. If you are not sure, call +44 7879 685742 or send a quote request with your postcode and we will tell you straight away.

Yes. We install across the Home Counties as a matter of course, and larger cold rooms, cold stores and shop fit outs anywhere in the UK where the size of the project justifies the travel. A single small cold room in the north of England is usually better served by a local installer, and we will say so; a cold store, a supermarket refit or a group of sites is not.

Yes. Essex (Romford, Ilford, Chelmsford, Southend, Colchester), Kent (Dartford, Bromley, Medway, Maidstone, Canterbury), Surrey (Croydon, Kingston, Epsom, Guildford, Woking) and Hertfordshire (Watford, St Albans, Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage) are all within our normal working area for installation, repair and maintenance. Each county has its own page except Hertfordshire, which we cover from London.

For the right project, yes: cold stores, supermarket and cash and carry fit outs, food production facilities and multi-site maintenance contracts. We quote for projects of that size anywhere in England. For a single small cold room or a one-off repair in the Midlands or the North, a local company will usually be quicker and cheaper, and we will tell you that.

For larger installations and contracts, yes, on the same basis as the north of England: we quote for cold stores, fit outs and multi-site maintenance across Great Britain, and we are honest when a local firm would serve you better for a small job. Emergency repairs outside London and the Home Counties are provided to maintenance contract customers.

Alaska Cold does, from our base at 167-169 Great Portland Street in central London. We design, supply and install walk-in cold rooms and freezer rooms for restaurants, shops, butchers, bakeries, wholesalers and warehouses across all 32 boroughs, and the same engineers repair and maintain them afterwards. Every installation starts with a free site survey and a written, itemised quotation.

All of them, from East London (Walthamstow, Stratford, East Ham, Whitechapel, Ilford, Romford), North London (Islington, Tottenham, Edmonton, Palmers Green, Enfield) and North West London (Camden, Wembley, Harrow, Edgware) to Southwark, Croydon, Southall, Hayes, Hounslow and central and West London.

Yes. London freezer rooms are usually built into tight spaces: a basement, a rear store or a yard under a canopy. We design the room to fit, with panels sized to pass through the doors and stairwells on the route in, a heated door frame, an insulated floor and a low-temperature condensing unit placed where its noise and heat will not trouble neighbours. See our freezer rooms page.

Yes, 24 hours a day. The emergency line, +44 7879 685742, is answered day and night and our engineers cover the whole of Greater London. If stock is at risk, keep the door shut and call; we can usually advise on the phone while an engineer is on the way. See our repair page.

Yes. We fit out convenience stores, supermarkets, butchers, bakeries, takeaways and cafes across London: shelving, counters, display fridges and the cold room behind the shop, planned on one layout and installed in phases so an existing shop keeps trading. Work inside the Congestion Charge zone is often done early or overnight. See our shop fitting page.

If you mean a cold store for your own business, yes: we design and install cold stores with racking and plant for London's wholesalers, importers and distributors, from Park Royal to the Lea Valley and Barking. If you mean renting pallet space in someone else's cold store, that is not a service we offer, though we can point you towards operators who do. See our commercial cold storage page.

Yes. We design, supply and install walk-in cold rooms and freezer rooms across Essex, from the London border at Romford and Ilford to Chelmsford, Southend and Colchester, for restaurants, shops, butchers, bakeries, farm shops and wholesalers. Every job starts with a free site survey and a written quotation, and the same engineers maintain the room afterwards.

All of it. Most often: Romford, Hornchurch, Ilford, Barking and Dagenham on the London side; Brentwood, Epping, Harlow and Chelmsford in the centre; Basildon, Grays, Thurrock and Tilbury along the Thames; Southend-on-Sea, Rayleigh and Leigh-on-Sea on the coast; and Colchester, Braintree, Clacton and Harwich in the north and east of the county.

The emergency line is answered 24 hours a day, and when you call we tell you when an engineer can be with you. From central London, Romford, Ilford and the Essex-side London boroughs are around 45 minutes outside the rush hour, Chelmsford about an hour and Southend or Colchester about an hour and a half. Businesses on a maintenance contract get priority.

Yes. Convenience stores, supermarkets, butchers, bakeries and takeaways across Essex: shelving, counters, display fridges and the stockroom cold room, planned together and installed in phases so an existing shop keeps trading. See our shop fitting page for how a fit out runs.

Yes. Planned maintenance visits, usually two to four a year, with F-Gas leak checks and a written report, and priority emergency response, for single sites and for groups of shops or kitchens across the county. See our maintenance page for what a visit includes.

Yes. We design, supply and install walk-in cold rooms and freezer rooms across Kent, from Dartford and Bromley on the London border to Maidstone, Canterbury and the Channel ports, for restaurants, pubs, farm shops, butchers, fishmongers, convenience stores and food importers. Every job starts with a free site survey and a written quotation, and the same engineers maintain the room afterwards.

All of it. Dartford, Gravesend, Swanley, Bromley, Orpington and Beckenham on the London side; Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham, Maidstone, Sittingbourne and Sheerness in Medway and mid Kent; Sevenoaks, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells, Ashford and Tenterden in the west; and Canterbury, Whitstable, Herne Bay, Margate, Ramsgate, Deal, Dover and Folkestone in the east and on the coast.

The emergency line is answered 24 hours a day, and when you call we tell you when an engineer can be with you. From central London, Dartford, Bromley and the London-border towns are around 45 minutes outside the rush hour, the Medway towns and Maidstone about an hour, Canterbury about an hour and a half, and Dover and Folkestone about an hour and three quarters. Businesses on a maintenance contract get priority.

Yes. Farm shops need a chilled room at 0 to +4 °C for meat, dairy and produce behind the shop and often a display chiller in it; growers need produce stores at +1 to +4 °C with high humidity, sized by the tonnes picked at the peak of the season. Controlled-atmosphere stores for long-term apple storage are specialist plant; ask us and we will tell you whether a standard chilled store will do what you need.

Yes. Planned maintenance visits, usually two to four a year, with F-Gas leak checks and a written report, and priority emergency response, for single sites and for groups of shops, kitchens or stores across the county. See our maintenance page for what a visit includes.

Yes. We design, supply and install walk-in cold rooms and freezer rooms across Surrey, from Croydon and Kingston inside the M25 to Epsom, Woking, Guildford, Redhill and the Heathrow corridor, for restaurants, pubs, hotels, schools, garden centres, convenience stores and logistics operators. Every job starts with a free site survey and a written quotation, and the same engineers maintain the room afterwards.

All of it. Croydon, Purley, Sutton, Kingston, Surbiton, Richmond, Twickenham and Feltham inside the M25; Epsom, Esher, Cobham, Weybridge, Walton-on-Thames, Staines and Egham in the north; Woking, Guildford, Godalming, Farnham, Camberley and Haslemere in the west; and Redhill, Reigate, Dorking, Horley, Oxted and Caterham in the east.

The emergency line is answered 24 hours a day, and when you call we tell you when an engineer can be with you. From central London, Croydon, Sutton, Kingston and the towns inside the M25 are around 45 minutes outside the rush hour, Epsom and Woking about an hour, and Guildford and Redhill about an hour and a quarter. Businesses on a maintenance contract get priority.

Yes. Gastropubs and hotel kitchens usually need a 4 to 10 m² walk-in fridge and a freezer, sized for weekend service; school and college kitchens need the same, with maintenance visits scheduled in the holidays; wedding and event venues often add a blast chiller for batch cooking. We install around service dates and term dates and maintain the equipment afterwards.

Yes. Planned maintenance visits, usually two to four a year, with F-Gas leak checks and a written report, and priority emergency response, for single sites and for groups of pubs, hotels, schools or shops across the county. See our maintenance page for what a visit includes.