Repairs made to Craige Hall, leaving building without heat Friday

With temperatures just above freezing, students who lived in Craige Residence Hall had to also deal with their building being without heat for a bulk of Friday.

The heat was shut off on Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the building due to necessary maintenance to fix a radiator leak on the fifth floor.

Rick Bradley, associate director of Housing and Residential Education, said though they are usually able to stop smaller leaks without turning off the heat for the entire building, due to the size of the water leak, this was a necessary action.

“This is a pretty steady stream leak that would need to have the entire system shut down to repair it,” he said.

Mark Bristol, building services director within the University’s facilities services department, said there was no way to isolate the specific location of the leak without turning off the whole system.

Bradley said the leak was not due to resident misuses.

“It’s likely more related to the age of the system, the age of the building,” Bradley said of the 53-year-old building.

Bristol said in an email they chose to postpone the repairs until Friday due to the cold temperatures Chapel Hill experienced Thursday.

He also said the residual heat in the building should keep things warm for a while, and the repairs would only take a few hours.

“Hopefully we’ll get this thing fixed and back on line before the building starts cooling down,” Bristol said.

Most students said they did not feel any difference in temperature in the building.

Freshman Adam Sheinhaus said it is so hot in the building anyway that it would not matter if the heat was turned off.

“I’d rather have it fixed now than have it be broken the rest of the year,” Sheinhaus said.

Freshman Leslie Arroyo said she assumed there would be a difference in the temperature when she went back in the building.

“I’m not mad at Craige, but just like, oh my God, with everything else we have to deal with — like school, work — it’s going to be cold anyway,” said Arroyo.

But sophomore Jeffrey Young said he does not understand why the heat was turned off on one of the coldest days of the year, and he said he did perceive a drop in temperature in the building.

“Maintenance has to happen, I understand that, but it just as easily could have been done two weeks ago,” he said.

Bradley said this is a very uncommon situation where they have to turn off an entire building’s heat, but they have had to do it in past years.

“It doesn’t cause any problems.”

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