Revealed: University of Manchester halls replace mattresses every five to seven years

Student living is dire at the best of times – you may think that your days in first year halls were luxury compared to the horrors of second and third year housing, but think again.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that literally hundreds of students have lived in your first year cell before you – unless someone used the vac to hoover up sick, and then it’s pretty hard to forget.

But an FOI send by The Manchester Tab revealed just how many times the mattresses had been changed in University of Manchester owned accommodations – and it’s juicy.

The university confirmed that the average lifecycle of a mattress is “five to seven years”, depending on the warranties supplied.

Oak House, via YouTube

However, that totally depends on the quality of the item and whether it’s subject to wear and tear or other quality issues. So worst case scenario, six other people have kipped on your very own mattress.

There are exceptions of course – for example, when the University of Manchester refurbs a building, all mattresses are replaced. The frequency of replacement also does not related to the type of halls, including whether they are self catered or of a higher price point per week.

The university explained: “There is not a defined number procured each cycle as this sits alongside the refurbishment programme, so numbers do vary across academic years.”

According to the data, mattresses are checked each year during summer, with replacements being made where needed: “These may be out of cycle replacements if it is determined that they are not of an acceptable standard either through student damage or due to quality issues.”

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What’s more, students are able to “raise jobs and request a replacement mattress if they have specific issues”, meaning that if you’ve got a dodgy spring digging into your back, you can get a new mattress through the uni if they “meet criteria on quality eg. Broken springs collapsed frames etc.”

It also confirmed that any new mattresses left in Oak House were recycled when it closed.

Featured image via Canva