Hey everyone! I recently committed to UVA, and I am so excited! I have been figuring out the game plan for my dorm, and I was wondering when the fire marshal comes? Everyone says to wait after he is gone to put things up, but I am wondering if he comes the first week, day, month?
What are you planning on bringing that would cause a problem? There are plenty of ways to make a dorm room a happy and comfortable space while being compliant.
Don’t plan on hanging stuff from the ceiling/sprinklers/pipes, don’t bring curtains, don’t plan on covering the majority of the wall with posters (if you frame them, I believe they are okay, but check with housing’s website).
Oh nothing from the ceiling! I was hoping to hang more shelves to maximize room and space in the dorm. I was looking at some of the guideline and they didn’t seem to mention them, but I am concerned that they may still be considered a hazard. Also, I don’t plan on using any nails to hang them. The only thing that I wanted to do that is in violation with the code is hanging a mirror over the door.
I found it very odd that you can’t put up posters without them being framed and covered in glass. I think cork board with pictures is also technically illegal, but nobody that I have even seen complies with those rules.
I just shoved everything in my closet when the email chain started for the fire marshall. I never had curtains until my 4th year but WOW I wish I had done that every year. It makes a huge difference in feeling homey. I used the command velcro strips for my posters so they were easy to take down and put up every year and didn’t use nails. I glued a mirror on the wall with liquid nails and when the door was open you couldn’t see it (wall behind the door basically). I also had the desk with the hutch and I turned it around to face the bed instead of against the wall, so that gave me extra legal poster space. I think you might better maximize your space by lofting your bed than trying to hang up shelves!! Or buy a tall narrow shelving unit that doesn’t get hung up… How would you hang it up without nails?!
I think Hazel’s idea about lofting and adding freestanding shelves makes sense. Regardless, you’ll want to wait until the housing assignments are made since floor plans are different from building to building.
BTW, I’m pretty sure you CAN hang posters…you just have to keep the vast of the majority of the wall free of flammable materials.
Thankfully, I haven’t heard of a dorm fire in a while, but there were really horrible ones at some other schools before res life offices started putting better rules in place. I know lots of people blow fire safety rules off, but having watched a dorm fire at another college, I urge you to take this stuff seriously.
@Dean J is right about the posters and the vast majority of the wall having to be free of flammable materials. Depending on how you define both wall space and combustible material (eg: do books stacked against the wall count), you get a pretty small amount of allowable poster/picture etc material. When I measured my DD’s wall space that was showing it came out to be one large cork board that was legal.
@hazelorb Any tips on how to loft a bed? I was interested in doing that, but I have no idea how to do it or if it is even possible!
I remember that the beds in my DDs room at the UVA owned apt. in Lambeth were made to be lofted. I don’t think the regular rooms in old dorms can do that.
The beds in the New Dorms already are lofted. Some are actually quite high.
Son is in Kellogg this year. He has bureau and storage bins under his bed. The room was already set up this way. I don’t know about the old dorms.
I will be in Balz-Dobie this coming year, so as long as the New Dorm beds are lofted, I should be good to go.
I didn’t realize dorm assignments were made this early. Is that a change from prior years? Just curious.
@robertr Oh no! That is where all the Echols kids live, so I am assuming that I am living there or Tuttle!
I couldn’t loft my bed because I lived in Brown, but it was a captain’s bed with storage built in underneath so I loved those drawers. I made good use of my desk hutch also.
I’m wondering if you need to have certain tools to loft the bed. When I look at the pictures of Balz , the beds seem to be pretty low.
S was in the old dorms last year and the bed was bolted to the floor - it was a captains bed with four large drawers below it. There was a half wall next to the door available for several bookshelves, and a long mirror was already hung up on another wall. He had two poster hung up and so did his roommate . They also both had dry erase boards hanging as well. They didn’t take anything down for the inspections and had no problems.
@fcallicotte The beds in Balz-Dobie are loftable! Ask your RA for a mallet during move-in weekend and that will allow you to adjust the height of your bed frame/mattress. The desks in Balz come with carrels that will still all fit under the bed with a little bit of space above the carrel, enough for a few textbooks across. I have not been in Tuttle, but the furniture should be identical.