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I am a PhD student and I intend to cook in my dorm room. There is a wooden enclosure, I am not sure if it is meant for cooking but I intend to cook there.

https://imgur.com/a/TX8viut

Please take a look at the space. Although the clutter is annoying, but I intend to attract your attention to the closed like wooden space. I plan to make rice, sauted vegetables, grilled chicken on a regular basis and boiling water for eggs, coffee and the like. I don't intend to make any gravy/sauce based dishes. I am worried that cooking for the next 3-4 years there could damage the wood.

If I were to cover the wood with aluminum foil, would it take care of the issue and is it safe to do that?

Edit: I plan to use an electric induction stove.

Tetsujin
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    In the UK I'm pretty sure that would be against every fire & safety regulation in existence. – Tetsujin Jun 05 '19 at 13:06
  • @Tetsujin I have an electric induction stove, does that make any difference? –  Jun 05 '19 at 13:07
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    [truncated heavily] Appliance must be installed a minimum of 50mm from any back wall and a minimum of 150mm away from any adjacent vertical surfaces.This may be reduced to 100mm if the adjacent surface is resistant to fire (tiles or steel, for example). The minimum height of any cabinet immediately above the hob is 900mm. The minimum height of any adjacent units (including light pelmets) is 400mm, unless they are manufactured from a material resistant to fire (steel, for example) [You're also not allowed to have mains sockets in the same space.] – Tetsujin Jun 05 '19 at 13:16
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    Have a look and ask about your dorm rules and regulation about cooking and safety. – Max Jun 05 '19 at 14:08
  • I wouldn't suggest using the cubby area for cooking (although there are some microwaves that are rated for tighter spaces) ... but I might use it for storage of food stuff and food prep. I'd use 'shelf paper' (aka 'shelf liner') or other sort of low-stick contact paper to protect the wood, not aluminum foil. – Joe Jun 05 '19 at 16:13
  • You might consider tiling the inside of the cubby. Wouldn't be very expensive. – Lee Daniel Crocker Jun 05 '19 at 20:02
  • @LeeDanielCrocker Redecorating dorm rooms isn't going to be allowed. – David Richerby Jun 05 '19 at 23:41
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    Are you *allowed* to cook in your dorms? Most US dorms I know of explicitly prohibit cooking equipment like that in the rooms. Usually dorms have a common kitchen area that should be used instead. – David K Jun 06 '19 at 11:47
  • Is that solid wood or laminated? –  Jun 06 '19 at 14:13
  • Check with your college about this and they will point you in the right direction. In the future ask yourself if it is worth risking the lives of hundreds of students for your own convenience. – MonkeyZeus Jun 07 '19 at 12:43
  • What you have there is a desk, not a cooking station. As others have mentioned, your dorm facility certainly has something in place for students like you to cook, but almost certainly not in your dorm room. You're not the first student to want to cook meals... ask them how to go about it! – SnakeDoc Jun 07 '19 at 17:21

3 Answers3

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The steam released by cooking the foods you mentioned, and boiling water outright, would probably damage the wood. Foil might prevent that, if you seal it completely (using some sort of moisture/heat resistant tape). However, that wouldn't eliminate the fire hazard from cooking in an enclosed wooden box--nothing short of adding a layer of fire-retardant insulation would.

Your best bet is to cook on the floor in the middle of your room (open a window if it gets steamy) and then store your cleaned and cooled implements in the wooden enclosure, provided that your floor is not carpeted. If it is, then I would recommend finding someplace else to cook that isn't a tinderbox.

mech
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  • I agree that steaming the shelf above is the main issue; it is unlikely that the induction heater or kettle will be a fire hazard. – Lee Daniel Crocker Jun 05 '19 at 18:10
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    The mention of "sauteed vegetables" and "grilled chicken" implies the use and presence of oils and fats, which can outright catch on fire or accumulate as fuel on surfaces after getting carried away by steam. If they were keeping it to just boiling water I wouldn't be so concerned with heat. I agree that an induction heater or kettle, on their own, are pretty safe fire-wise. – mech Jun 05 '19 at 19:41
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    It is possible to ignite oils without flames or sparks, so that probably is a danger to consider. – Lee Daniel Crocker Jun 05 '19 at 19:58
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    I personally wouldn't recommend cooking in a dorm room at all. If this is anything like the dorms I've lived in, there are smoke detectors in every room, and cooking in your room is prohibited. – TheWanderer Jun 05 '19 at 21:56
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    Also, since this is UK, there is a good probability that the floor has carpet, and that would be another major fire hazard. – Federico Poloni Jun 05 '19 at 22:24
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    Good point about the carpeting, hadn't even considered it (all dorm rooms I have ever seen in real life have had hard flooring to aid in cleaning). Added a sentence about it to the answer. – mech Jun 05 '19 at 22:28
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    That's not wood, but laminate. Basically, it's particle board with a fake wood veneer glued on. Steam tends to make the laminate separate from the board behind, which isn't good. – GdD Jun 06 '19 at 09:16
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First off, if you're living in a dorm room then you've signed a contract saying what you are and aren't allowed to do in that dorm room. Read it. It's very likely that it will include cooking as something you aren't allowed to do, and cooking appliances as something you aren't allowed to own whilst living in that room. The risk of fire from cooking appliances is very real, and if something catches then it can be very hard to put out, especially in larger buildings. (In the UK, Grenfell Tower is still very much on everyone's minds.)

Dorms also usually have cleaners who come in to vacuum/mop the floors regularly, and they'll report something like that to the uni authorities. That'll result in an immediate warning, and being kicked out of the dorm if you don't sort it straight away.

If you don't have a cleaner, and won't get found out immediately... When I was at uni, they had compulsory inspections of every dorm room every term. If they thought it wasn't tidy or clean enough, you had to sort it, or pay for professional cleaning if it was beyond what would normally be expected. If you'd caused any damage, you had to pay for repairs.

So you can reasonably expect your first room inspection to land you in very serious trouble. Sauteeing produces grease fumes which congeal on the walls and ceiling. Steaming/boiling produces water vapour which condenses on the walls and ceiling. This may not only damage the veneer on the "wood" surfaces, but may also damage the drywall walls and ceiling. Kitchens, bathrooms and similar areas use (or should use) drywall and paint which is resistant to water and grease, and which can be cleaned. Regular domestic drywall and paint will not, and cleaning will damage them too. It's perfectly possible that your cooking could land you with a bill for renovating the entire room which involves taking it back to bare concrete/studs and entirely rebuilding. If you're lucky, that bill will "only" be in single-digit thousands, but it could easily be more.

If you don't have regular room inspections, and won't get found out within a few months... You can absolutely guarantee that every surface in your room will be damaged, and there is no way around it. So you'll definitely be faced with that bill. Most universities will not award a degree to anyone who still owes the university money, so if you can't pay up then you've lost your PhD at the end of all this.

TL;DR - just don't.

Graham
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    I *never* had an inspection when at university in the UK (but I dd have a cleaner). – Martin Bonner supports Monica Jun 06 '19 at 14:17
  • I don't think the Grenfell reference is really relevant here. In that case, there were many construction errors (the flammable cladding and poor safety features). Your first advice is good though, just look at the rules. – JJJ Jun 07 '19 at 10:49
  • @JJJ The construction at Grenfell turns out to be common to a large amount of UK multi-storey housing though. Hundreds of buildings with the same problems, and tens of thousands of residents. And even on the good ones, the point remains - it's ridiculously hard to fight a fire in a multi-storey building, and that makes it really dangerous. – Graham Jun 07 '19 at 12:32
  • @Graham I'm not sure if you're right on it being so hard. It's certainly true that there's been poor construction in the UK but when I look at the [Wikipedia page for skyscraper fires](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyscraper_fire), most of them seem to be minor incidents. Others include damage beyond what they were built for (e.g. WTC and Bijlmermeer incidents, things with incendiary shells, etc.) or poor safety standards. I don't think applying nanny-state rules will help much. Instead, it seems better to use common sense (using proper appliances and staying with them when they are running). – JJJ Jun 07 '19 at 12:46
  • Instead, if your building is unsafe, I guess a proactive stance is much more useful. Especially in a student building you should be able to get some attention to make sure they do meet the relevant safety codes (and I think the UK has many of them). With that taken care of, there’s probably some common area where they are allowed to cook something. Regardless of where you’re cooking, you want to get the safety straight too, especially in a country like the UK which has shown to have very strict rules but also a lack of enforcing them properly. – JJJ Jun 07 '19 at 12:46
  • @JJJ I've just gone to that page, and I can't see a single entry there which would qualify as "minor". At best, all you can say is that not too many of them injured too many people; but many of them did. At the very least, just putting a price tag on it, the costs to the owner after a fire run into millions. And from a firefighting PoV, as that page says, *Skyscraper fires are one of the most technical fire-suppression challenges posed to modern fire departments*. Or to put it more bluntly, it's incredibly hard and dangerous for firefighters, as well as for residents evacuating. – Graham Jun 07 '19 at 16:14
  • @Graham like I said, there are many unsafe buildings, so the first step is to make sure that the first doesn't spread. The UK example you mentioned is basically a death trap, of course that's going to be hard to control. And it's the same with other examples from that list, e.g. Trump Tower which doesn't [have sprinklers](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43686271). Maybe *minor* wasn't the right word to use. If safety features are properly implemented I think it's not less safe than other daily things like commuting by car. – JJJ Jun 07 '19 at 16:33
  • I'd second @MartinBonnersupportsMonica's remark; I never had an inspection, and cleaners never entered our rooms. However, my accommodation was available through the holidays; things may have been different if we were expected to vacate the room between terms. (Regardless, this all seems like sensible precautionary advice.) – Jordan Gray Jun 02 '20 at 13:59
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Regardless of the (lack of) fire safety of that specific area, your room will have a smoke detector in it. Any time your cooking produces the slightest whiff of smoke, the entire building will be evacuated and the fire brigade automatically summoned. This will make you extremely unpopular and lead to disciplinary action from your university: cooking in your room is almost certainly forbidden. Have they not provided you with a kitchen area?

Using your kettle to boil water for tea and coffee will probably be fine.

David Richerby
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    I think he can get away with using a hot pot to cook noodles if he does it judiciously (though not on the wooden shelf pictured). But cooking food with oils and stuff is going to be make the room really stinky and he will stink up the entire hall/floor, as the rooms are not designed for cooking. Whether there's smoke or not, the neighbors are not going to be happy. –  Jun 06 '19 at 03:08
  • @aris Nor will the university. – Graham Jun 06 '19 at 11:44