Rental Guide: Students find creative ways to keep warm in winter months

Pitt students resorted to footie pajamas and space heaters last week when the Pittsburgh area entered a polar vortex and temperatures dropped below zero.

The weather, negative wind chills, frozen pipes and broken heaters, forced students to fix the issues while trying to stay warm.

Leah DiGiacobbe, a Pitt sophomore majoring in chemistry, found warmth despite her broken heater and a lack of hot water in her two-story Centre Avenue apartment. 

On the apartment’s first floor, temperatures dipped to 30 degrees, according to DiGiacobbe. 

Nate Morgan Properties, which owns DiGiacobbe’s apartment, gave her a space heater to warm the first floor of her apartment until the heater could be fixed. In addition to the faulty heater, the hot water suddenly stopped working, as well.

According to Eric Morgan, a construction manager for Nate Morgan Properties, which is a subdivision of A.M.O. Management, tenants can take several steps to keep a house warm and insulated in brutally cold temperatures. 

Morgan suggested residents contact a plumbing company to hook up a heat-thawing machine to the pipes to heat up the line.

Among other, more unconventional, methods, Morgan suggested the use of electronic appliances.

“You can use a hair dryer on [pipes] to thaw [them] out and then insulate [the pipe] after you’re done,” Morgan said. “Or put a space heater in front of [them] to let it thaw out.”

Morgan recommended the prevention of future incidents by insulating the building with materials that can be found at hardware stores, such as fiberglass wrap or rubber plastic. 

Morgan said that Nate Morgan Properties has had about 11 buildings around the greater Pittsburgh area with pipe freezes since the temperature dropped last week. The company is still currently trying to fix the problems.

“We seldom run into pipe freezes here, so when it drops down to zero with wind chills like that, it takes a day and you really find out where your problem areas are,” Morgan said. “We haven’t had freezes for years until last week.”

As of Jan. 16, Nate Morgan Properties’ affected buildings have been fixed in problematic areas by accessing the heart of the pipe freezes, but the rental company still needs to undergo building repairs, which will involve the installation of the insulation parts.

“The shower wasn’t working, but my roommates were lucky because they could go home and shower since they live 20 minutes away,” DiGiacobbe said. “But I had to go to Trees Hall.”

One of DiGiacobbe’s roommates, Sara Mascaro, a sophomore majoring in biology, found out about the lack of hot water while preparing for school on the morning of Wednesday, Jan. 8.

“The hardest part was planning around things, like when you can shower, when you can do the dishes or when you can cook in the kitchen without seeing your breath,” Mascaro said.

While the hot water returned on Thursday, Jan. 9, the heat was still out of commission on Thursday, Jan. 16. Nate Morgan Properties is still working on a solution while the roommates rely on a space heater, according to DiGiacobbe.

Shannon Renninger, a Pitt sophomore majoring in athletic training, also dealt with a broken heater at her apartment on Mckee Place midday Friday, Jan. 3 until the following Monday, Jan. 6.

One of Renninger’s roommates called her the day it broke, as she was the last one to return from winter break.

“The only thing I could think of was to get a lot of blankets,” Renninger said. “I had one space heater, and the landlord gave us two others.”

The freezing temperatures, Renninger said, posed an obstacle to simply sit down and relax without freezing. Siebert even wore footie pajamas one day.

Renninger added that she and her roommates dressed in bundles, gathered around the space heater stationed in the living room and lit candles.

“We slept close to our space heater, which actually was kind of nice,” Renninger said.

At Pitt, on-campus dormitories have to go through protocol when freezing temperatures roll in and threaten the water and heating systems.

According to Pitt spokesman John Fedele, the University buildings rarely experience a problem with frozen pipes because they maintain a constant, warm temperature in all parts of the buildings. Periodic service schedules monitor the temperatures of pipes, which are more closely monitored during cold spells.

“We have had pipes burst in all types of buildings, including three in residence halls during last week’s abnormally cold streak,” Fedele said. “There are contingency plans that would be enacted depending on the severity of the situation, but they could include temporarily housing students in other facilities.”

Luckily, none of last week’s issues required student relocation because the problem areas were contained in the common areas or mechanical rooms, according to Fedele.

Rich Navari, the owner of Sembower Mikesell Plumbing, said he received hundreds of reports from the freezing temperatures last week. 

“Some people didn’t even know their lines were frozen, and after it warmed up, the lines split and people had leaks everywhere,” Navari said.

Navari explained that pipes will freeze when water freezes, at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. The best way to keep pipes from freezing is to make sure that the water running through them is continuously moving, as water is harder to freeze while it’s in motion.

To do that, the best thing is to leave the faucet on a constant drip, both on the hot and cold water sides. That way, Navari explained, the likelihood of the water freezing is lower.

According to Navari, another approach when finding out that temperatures are going to drop is to open up doors in the house and allow heat to get to places where it usually doesn’t get.

“If you set your thermostat into energy saving mode, don’t do that,” Navari added. “Instead, raise it up a few degrees to make the house warmer than what you normally keep it.”

Additionally, older homes have more of a chance that their pipes will freeze than newer homes.

“When [older homes] were built, energy wasn’t as costly, so insulation standards may have not been as good,” Navari said. “And because of that, a plumbing freeze-up is more likely.”

In multi-level apartments, which many off-campus houses are, a frozen pipe bursting may cause damage to the floor below.

“The more you do to protect [the pipe], the more safe it will be,” Navari said.