Cooler and freezer frames in Manchester, NH: steel columns and beams around a cooler box, set and welded on site. In 2026 a general contractor brought us in for exactly that at Stop and Shop in Walpole, MA. Call (603) 660-2011, or send the frame drawings so we can price the steel.
A cooler or freezer box is built from insulated panels. Behind a store, that box can stand inside a steel frame of columns and beams. The frame carries what the drawings put on it, such as a roof or the equipment. So the drawings, not the box, decide how heavy the steel is.
It goes up like any other steel frame, only smaller. Columns first, stood on their anchor rods and anchored. Only then do the beams connect them, because a loose column can't take a beam. Once the frame is plumbed and bolted, the welds go in where the drawings call for them.
The OSHA steel erection standard sets how columns are anchored and how beams are secured before the hoist lets go. Those rules don't shrink with the frame. A column doesn't care how big the building is, so we follow them here too. The full sequence, step by step, is on the Beam and Column Installation page.
A freezer box usually sits in the same kind of frame, put up in the same order. If its drawings differ, we set what they show.
We stand the columns and weld the connections ourselves. That way the frame doesn't sit between two trades before it's ready for the box.
Walpole wasn't our only grocery store work. On other supermarket jobs, general contractors brought us in to reinforce joists, set rooftop unit frames or replace a stair.
The schedule on a store job is the general contractor's. We work to it.
Cooler frames sit with the rest of our steel work for stores, next to joist reinforcement and rooftop frames.
The steel is the first trade on a cooler frame, so it has to be right before anyone else starts. Once the frame stands, the cooler supplier or the refrigeration contractor builds the box and sets the equipment.
The general contractor decides that order. Our part is a plumb frame, welded to the drawings, so the box goes onto steel that matches them.
A cooler frame grows with the box.
Size and height decide the columns, the beams and the span, so a bigger box means more steel. The site counts too. The footings have to be ready first, and the steel has to reach the spot by crane or lift.
We price the frame from the GC's drawings, at no cost. Then we work to the general contractor's schedule, so the frame stands before the box goes up.
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Carbon steel structural shapes, sized by the engineer. That usually means A992 wide-flange members, with A36 for angle, plate and connection pieces. Because the frame stands outside, the drawings may also call for a coating. Every member is listed on the drawings, so we install what's on them and nothing that isn't.
That depends on the site and on the plan the owner and the general contractor agree on. Our side doesn't change, because the paperwork comes first. The hot work permit and the site safety plan are settled before the first arc. Then we keep to their hours.
Call (603) 660-2011 as soon as the cooler shows up on the structural drawings.
Then send those drawings with the store's location and your schedule, so we can see where the frame lands. There's no charge for the estimate: on paper for a big job, by phone for a small one.
