2 replies to this topic

[Scotty_SQF]

Our facility is exposed warehouse ceiling throughout our building except in the offices.  Long before any of us that are currently here, someone had the bright idea to get this ceiling painted white.  Flash forward to now and we have had a few patches peeling/flaking, and we all know that in 2-3 years we will have a serious problem.  A short term fix we are pricing out is plexi-glass like panels to suspend on the ceiling over the machines.  That will protect our equipment and product as it's running, but won't fix the ceiling from continuing to peel.  Super proud of my management team for looking to tackle this honestly.  We are a small company so a huge overhaul would not be cost effective for us.

 

Question is, has everyone else used some other options they could suggest looking into?  Right now we are thinking on the possibility of a durable drop ceiling (understand we would have to institute a check for pests up there if we would do this) and another option purposed was a durable spray foam insulation that have been seen in restaurants and stuff over the years.  (here is a link: https://www.spray-on...chanical-rooms/) Any thoughts or experiences with how we could start to work ahead to mitigate the issue?  We have scraped off a large area so far and have been managing the smaller areas.  We only slit flexible films at our facility.  Appreciate any feedback or experiences!

[SQFconsultant]

From the link I have personal experience witnessing the application of K13, good stuff - just DO NOT get it on any other surface like metal cross beams or pipes, because it will cause another flaking issue for you.

 

I am not sure if URE is safe for installation in packaging facility that is making food contact packaging.

 

The last ceiling I saw in a packaging company that had a similar issue - they scraped what they could, applied a sealer and then installed vinyl faced batting without the insulation so the vinyl (technically not vinyl, but using it to show the appearance in my head - your head may work differently and some would say that's a good thing) facing was adherred directly on the sealer -- it has held up for over 10 years now and it was a do-it-yourself with the maintenance crew instead of contracting out.

[jfrey123]

Spice plant I started in was a converted warehouse space with exposed warehouse ceilings and small built in office spaces.  Their fix was to sheetrock the warehouse ceilings directly above the active production lines, correlated with painted stripes on the floor to indicate no exposed product should be open outside these sheetrocked zones.  We couldn't afford to sheetrock the whole ceiling, but having it above production lines was sufficient for all auditors.

 

Having suspended drops above your production lines will work, so long as there's a sanitation schedule for going above to get rid of the dust and whatever, and also that the drops are built in such a way that nothing can drop from them.  One year we had a finding for the area above those built in offices, as we didn't have a master sanitation schedule for cleaning the space above the offices.  We added a 6-month frequency to go above the office and vacuum around what were basically exposed studs, electrical wiring, and the top of the drop tile ceiling.