Tilt-Up for Central Washington Ag and Cold Storage

Why tilt-up fits this work

Tilt-up is a way of building walls out of the floor. Crews pour the slab, form and cast each wall panel flat on top of it, let the concrete cure, and then a crane lifts the panels upright and sets them on their footings. Braces hold the panels in place until the roof structure ties everything together. For big, boxy buildings with few windows, such as packing houses, cold storage and distribution centers, it is what Poppoff calls "one of the most consistent ways to build large-scale concrete structures."

Because the panels are cast on the slab, the slab does double duty as floor and casting bed. A contractor who pours the slab, forms the panels and lifts them is working on one continuous system instead of passing the building from trade to trade.

Controlled atmosphere rooms

Controlled atmosphere (CA) storage holds fruit, with apples and pears the common crops in Central Washington, in a sealed room with a low-oxygen atmosphere so it keeps for months. The room has to hold that atmosphere, which makes the walls, floor and every joint and penetration part of the seal. The details are set by the engineer and the storage system supplier. The concrete contractor's part is to deliver panels, panel joints and floors built to those details.

Cold rooms often use insulated panels, typically cast as a sandwich of two layers of concrete with insulation between them, so the wall carries load and holds temperature at the same time. They take more coordination than a plain panel because the insulation, embeds and openings have to be settled before anyone places concrete.

Poppoff's record in the packing sheds

The OSF project in Moses Lake, completed in 2023, is the clearest example. Poppoff placed 255 tilt-up panels for 30 individual controlled atmosphere rooms, including 96 insulated panels, along with 110,000 SF of slab on grade and 80,000 SF of paving.

Columbia Reach in Yakima has been a repeat client since 2009: four expansions, a 30,000 SF packing line, 37 CA rooms, 427,000 SF of slab, 354,000 SF of tilt-up and 183,000 SF of paving. Poppoff's project page calls one of those slabs "the first Ductilcrete slab in the valley."

Zirkle Fruit in Selah goes back to the 1980s, with more than 100 CA rooms. In 2015 Poppoff completed a cherry facility for Zirkle in 9 months of downtime. The project page says "Poppoff has been Zirkle's preferred concrete contractor throughout each project."

Washington Fruit in Yakima, also since 2009, covers two apple plants, a cherry plant and a home office: 630,000 SF of slab, 311,000 SF of tilt-up, 93,000 SF of deck slab and 225,000 SF of paving, with densifier on all the slabs. A densifier is a chemical treatment that hardens the surface, which cuts dusting and wear on floors that get heavy traffic and regular wash-downs.

The downtime window drives the plan

A packing house has a season, and the construction window is the stretch between one harvest and the next. That is why Zirkle's nine months matters. When the work has to be done before the fruit arrives, every handoff between trades is a place to lose days.

Poppoff's own account of tilt-up work is that it can "form, pour, and lift panels of any size." Its 2023 turnkey package of 253 tilt-up panels shows the scale it handles when it is also doing the site concrete around the building. For an owner on a tight window, having the floor, the panels and the paving under one contractor removes some of the coordination risk.

Questions to settle before the panels are cast

• What is the downtime window, and what must be placed, cured and inspected before refrigeration and CA equipment can come in?
• Which panels are insulated, and who coordinates embeds, openings and penetrations before casting?
• How will the floor be washed down and drained, and will it be densified or sealed?
• Where will the panels be cast, and does the pour sequence leave the crane access to every wall?
• How many contractors touch the slab, the panels and the paving, and how many handoffs does that mean?

Poppoff Inc. is based in Moxee, Washington, and has worked on packing and storage sites in Yakima, Selah and Moses Lake. If you are planning a CA room, a cold storage expansion or a new packing line, call (509) 575-8353.