Heating Common Areas

Any advice/ideas on heating common areas? The 4 family has two separated foyers that lead to the various apartments. DH is afraid to put down baseboard because he believes the tenants will bang into them with their stuff which I totally agree with. He's also thinking about putting an infrared heater above the entrance doors.

WWYD? Again this is the frozen Northeast we are talking about.

--64.246.xxx.xx

Heating Common Areas (by NE [PA]) Posted on: Oct 2, 2025 5:24 PM
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Why bother heating it? --24.152.xxx.xx

Heating Common Areas (by Ken [NY]) Posted on: Oct 2, 2025 5:43 PM
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wht heat it as NE said? also i would consider selling --167.172.xx.xx

Heating Common Areas (by mapleaf18 [NY]) Posted on: Oct 2, 2025 6:20 PM
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Aren't common areas heated in the north? I seem to recall living in an apartment and there was a house meter with baseboard heating.

Not selling because it's under rehab and we just bought it. --64.246.xxx.xx

Heating Common Areas (by Ken [NY]) Posted on: Oct 2, 2025 6:38 PM
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if there isnt heat in it now i would assume it wasnt heated before you bought it. if you are getting permits it might be worth asking the inspector

--167.172.xx.xx

Heating Common Areas (by Jason [VA]) Posted on: Oct 2, 2025 7:23 PM
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I would just put in baseboard heaters and call it good. They’re cheap and easy to replace when they get banged up. --216.234.xxx.xx

Heating Common Areas (by NE [PA]) Posted on: Oct 2, 2025 7:38 PM
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Why would you heat a stairwell or foyer? There’s no plumbing there. Are you air conditioning it in the summer? --24.152.xxx.xx

Heating Common Areas (by GKARL [PA]) Posted on: Oct 2, 2025 8:05 PM
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No need heat common area hallways --172.56.xxx.xxx

Heating Common Areas (by GKARL [PA]) Posted on: Oct 2, 2025 8:05 PM
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No need to heat common area hallways --172.56.xxx.xxx

Heating Common Areas (by plenty [MO]) Posted on: Oct 2, 2025 8:32 PM
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Can you ask for a little heat from each unit with a small vent up near the ceiling or on the ceiling into the common area? --172.59.xxx.xx

Heating Common Areas (by plenty [MO]) Posted on: Oct 2, 2025 8:33 PM
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Otherwise a mini split or a heater like they put in garages that blows hot air and hanges from the ceiling. --172.59.xxx.xx

Heating Common Areas (by NE [PA]) Posted on: Oct 2, 2025 8:41 PM
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Code won’t allow you to rob heat out of tenants units with vents near the ceiling. They have to be insulated units. Individually insulated if the tenants are paying for their own heat. Come on. --24.152.xxx.xx

Heating Common Areas (by Robert J [CA]) Posted on: Oct 2, 2025 10:05 PM
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A friend of mine owns a large apartment building near to the Santa Monica beach, where it gets cold. Like the blind leading the blind, with each tenant move-out, they do a complete remodeling and "Test" out a new theory when it comes to heating.

Did you read my working, a "TEST" doing a complete different method to heat units between 2 to 3 bedrooms. They asked me, if I was so smart, what would I do different.

I posted notices to all other tenants that we would be going into their units to install temporary wi-fi thermometers.

Some units had old wall gas heaters with front and rear discharge to heat the living room and a bedroom or common hallway. Other unit had upgraded energy consuming baseboard heaters, using convection without a booster fan. While other units had a/c units with reverse flow for heat.

For $1,000, I had my automatic set up record the amount to power consumed and the resulting heat -- per unit.

The results were shocking. Some tenants kept windows open while running the heat. Others had doors closed in the unit to limit the heat flow. This is operator error.

So in the end, depending on the size and flow of each unit, one of three heaters were recommended for efficiency and cost of operation.

In the vacant unit, we installed a 3 zone a/c ductless system with a reverse flow for heat. You can turn on any of the 3 zones or all of them at any time. Since 1 was a guest bedroom, that zone was off 80% of the time. The living room, master bedroom were on most of the time. The second bedroom was for kids who are never home, way at college UCLA or staying with friends. So this complete system was on sale 1/2 price... $1,400 for A/C and Heat -- three zones and a 19 SEER. --47.143.xx.xx

Heating Common Areas (by zero [IN]) Posted on: Oct 3, 2025 7:28 AM
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Map, in your area I would worry about making the common areas too nice and thus attracting squatters.

With doors closed to the outside it will be warmer. I would let it be.

But then again I am not located up there where the cold gets that bad. It gets cold here, but nothing like it did in the past. --47.248.xxx.xxx

Heating Common Areas (by WMH [NC]) Posted on: Oct 3, 2025 8:30 AM
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Zero is right, heated open areas like that attract the homeless. My sister had a condo in CO where it was a nightmare - constant tenant complaints. They tried locks of course but everyone kept leaving the common area unlocked and too many tenants to blame.

They sold. --173.28.xx.xxx

Heating Common Areas (by jonny [NY]) Posted on: Oct 3, 2025 9:30 AM
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It depends on where the waterlines are and if you've been having issues with it. I have some that the hallway does have heaters but it's connected to only one furnace for the building.

Otherwise, I wouldn't heat the common area unless it is big enough and used for something other than just a walkway to their apartment. Typically, they would just walk in, shut the door and go to their apartment. Unless you are really worried about it freezing something (ie water lines) then I would just put heat tape or something over the lines to ensure they don't freeze. Outside of that as others have said, if it wasn't heated before and there aren't (or weren't) any issues, leave it be. --67.253.xxx.xxx

Heating Common Areas (by plenty [MO]) Posted on: Oct 3, 2025 9:39 AM
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True that. It's a walk thru area, does it need to be heated and why? --172.59.xxx.xxx

Heating Common Areas (by mapleaf18 [NY]) Posted on: Oct 3, 2025 12:11 PM
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Apparently there will be plumbing lines in the ceilings through the common areas. No we won't be A/Cing the area. DH is worried about pipes freezing. He wants to do a hanger over the door with a tstat set to 50F --64.246.xxx.xx

Heating Common Areas (by NE [PA]) Posted on: Oct 3, 2025 12:21 PM
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There will be or there already are plumbing lines? --24.152.xxx.xx

Heating Common Areas (by Busy [WI]) Posted on: Oct 3, 2025 1:25 PM
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My kid lives where it is REALLY cold; last winter they had a week where daytime temps didn’t rise above 40 below…. His house is built over a large crawlspace. Any at-risk plumbing lines have heat tape. Not sure if the crawl space is lightly heated or not, but the garage is heated to about 60-63 degrees F. I was up there in September , so I couldn’t say if crawl space was heated , or just comfortable cuz I love cold weather. (And you know a landlord has to see her kid’s whole new house, including crawl space.)

His crawl space has electrical outlets for the heat tape, or to run tools, additional lights, but the outlets are open to the crawl space. If you were to run heat tape in the enclosed ceiling, I don’t know if you could put outlets up there, or if it needs to be hard-wired and controlled with a switch. If electrical code requires a switch, of course, located that where access is controlled, so tenants don’t flip the switch.

Heating a vestibule, breezeway, common hallway just for tenant comfort would be a waste, in my opinion. AND, as the hottest ( ahem, temp wise) person of this group, I vote no for making places over-heated. We lived in temporary apartment when we relocated for the military way back in the day. Apartment heat was provided, set at 72. I was about four months pregnant, and thought I was gonna die. If I am working, even just housework, I start to perspire at about 65 degrees, even now, as an old grandma.

So, for all of us hot-blooded types, kindly just heat the pipes. --172.59.xx.xxx

Heating Common Areas (by Busy [WI]) Posted on: Oct 3, 2025 1:46 PM
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Another random thought- if tenants pay for their iwn heat, and landlord heats the hallway, might a tenant who is tight on funds just keep their door open, so landlord can heat their space? --172.59.xx.xx

Heating Common Areas (by zero [IN]) Posted on: Oct 3, 2025 4:27 PM
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I don't see code allowing you to run heat tape inside an enclosed ceiling. Same with the box for the plug, even hard wired. You need to be able to access it.

Interesting dilemma.

Do the pipes supply a specific unit? Can you pull the ceiling out and insulate it really well underneath and then the unit above supplies a little heat thru convection?

If it did not have a heat source before what did they do? --47.248.xxx.xxx

Heating Common Areas (by Dodge [PA]) Posted on: Oct 3, 2025 4:30 PM
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Spend your money of extra insulation to keep the pipes warm from residual heat that comes from the occupied units.

AI data centers may drive up the electric costs over the future, I'd avoid electric baseboard heaters. --174.59.xxx.xxx

Heating Common Areas (by mapleaf18 [NY]) Posted on: Oct 3, 2025 6:55 PM
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DH says there will be plumbing going across the ceiling (non exposed) in the common areas. He's thinking of just hanging a couple of heaters and then setting them to 50F --64.246.xxx.xx

Heating Common Areas (by Robert,OntarioCanada [ON]) Posted on: Oct 3, 2025 11:35 PM
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If using a boiler system can install Uponor heating pex piping in the floor then commercial porcelain tiles. Another option is to install a wall mounted electric boiler then install pex in floor heating pipe. Slant fin makes heavy duty copper finned baseboards which they use in prisons. Expensive is to a wall mounted high efficiency gas boiler than decide what type of radiant heating required. Electric baseboards are dangerous as if blocked with towel can cause fire. Another option is to buy a natural gas heater which power vents directly through the wall. Another option is radiant electric floor heating where than install commercial porcelain tiles which is more efficient than wall baseboards as heat is spread over a greater area at lower temperature. Schluter ditra membranes make special membranes for electric or radiant hot water heating. What is the floor is the most durable as anything mounted on walls can be damaged. If the hydro electric is separated out then electric boiler or electric radiant floor heating is best option but very labour intensive to install and wire. --216.110.xxx.xxx

Heating Common Areas (by Robert,OntarioCanada [ON]) Posted on: Oct 3, 2025 11:36 PM
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The advantage of radiant floor heating is the heat will always keep the floors dry no matter which system used. --216.110.xxx.xxx

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Heating Common Areas

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