First Floor Folks & Tonight’s Temp

I only just thought of this, and it’s after office hours so I may not be able to consult with management and see if they think an email blast is warranted, but please be aware, there is currently no heat and no insulation in the basement garage and the temps are supposed to be in the low 20s tonight. Yes, the garage door should be staying closed all night which should keep some/most of the cold out, but it was already pretty cold down there. If I lived on the first floor, I’d consider leaving any under-sink cabinets open, keeping my heat above 65 for the night, and leaving the taps dripping a tad.

Perhaps I’m being over-cautious suggesting all this, but as they say, “once burned, twice shy.”

2 thoughts on “First Floor Folks & Tonight’s Temp”

  1. Keep in mind the garage has open air flow from the outside, front to back, to handle exhaust fumes. So, it will get very cold even with the door closed. I would add that you should keep all faucets dripping and doors open to bathrooms and laundry and under cabinets.

    Also, the plumbing stacks are open from garage to top floor without insulation or fire breaks anywhere. Therefor cold may even cause issue beyond the first floor. This is in violation of building codes set before this building was remodeled.

  2. With the furnace broken during the subzero temps this weekend, our (unit 105) pipes were frozen from very late Friday night until early last night. This was with heat set to 72 (though we couldn’t keep get the living room above 55) all cupboards open, all faucets dripping. It was only after a full day of above freezing temps was the plumber able to identify 4 burst pipes-and told us we might find more with continued thawing through today. The first busted pipe found still contained rock solid ice on Saturday night.
    The draft from the freezing, unheated garage was not able to be mitigated on the first floor, which is why it took days to thaw -even after cuts were made into the walls by the plumber and space heaters applied. Even before this freeze, the drafty garage and temps in the common area outside have been a problem inside our units-my electric bill runs upwards of $700 per month in the winter months, and it’s still chilly downstairs.
    We will be doing everything we did last time and hoping for a better outcome, but I hope we will soon be able to address what options exist for all of us on the first floor who have no control over insulation and heating efforts below us, as well as addressing what precautions will be taken to prevent the exhaust that was flowing into our units from the vehicles working in the garage today. A number of us were lightheaded and dizzy before the fire alarms went off, we could smell the fumes coming in through multiple areas of our units.
    No doubt there are many considerations and competing demands for the board and property management to prioritize, but communication about whether it’s safe for us to remain in our homes while work is happening has got to be one of them. When the fire department arrived and we reported the fumes coming from the work, we were advised to contact property management about it and told “good luck”. We didn’t get any follow up about that at all, nor do we know what tomorrow brings on that front.
    When Ron is telling us that the furnace below us was broken and pulling cold air into our walls, and the “house plumber” says there’s nothing we could have done to get warm air to our main plumbing lines, we also need more than just generic emails to file claims with our individual insurance policies, as this will continue to happen if the underlying (literally) issue isn’t addressed.
    So while I agree that this advice can’t hurt, it unfortunately wasn’t enough to help us, and my hope is that the other residents who may not have learned what we did about the garage furnace will read this and understand some of the reasons why. The garage problem is more than just a parking issue. I hope the fix will be inclusive of the people living above it and that the communication about why these things are happening will be communicated honestly and with transparency by property management.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *