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Go With the Flow
Nobody likes that unsettling feeling when you turn on your kitchen tap only to get a stream of cloudy, fizzy water. It's something that's happened to nearly everyone, no matter where you live, and it can't help but make you wonder if your water's clean enough to drink - and just who exactly is monitoring it. Read More
Here Comes the Rain Again
Of all the problems that can befall a residential building over the course of its long, eventful life, perhaps none is more insidious and damaging than water leakage and infiltration. Water leaks are hard to triangulate and hard to stop, and their long-term aftereffects are often hard to remediate. From the stains and mildew caused by a neighbor's flooded bathroom to a building-wide mold problem triggered by a compromised roof, water damage is frustrating, expensive, and can even pose serious health risks to a building's occupants. Read More
To Leak or Not to Leak
Water - one of the great mysteries of life; Life itself isn't possible without it. Yet from the time of Noah and his ark, water has sometimes been a nuisance of great proportion. Read More
A Growing Problem
Mold (microscopic fungi that live on plant or animal matter) isn't a late 20th century plague. Mold has been ubiquitous since the beginnings of life itself. It is a critical part of the ecosystem, providing the enzymes that break down and recycle organic matter. The estimated number of species of fungi ranges from tens of thousands to more than 300,000. Fewer than 200 have been described as agents that can cause or exacerbate a human ailment. Read More
Take a Walk on the Wild Side
Sick of stone? Weary of wood? Not to fear. There are new choices for flooring all the time. Whether any of them "stick" and become mainstream favorites remains to be seen, but they certainly offer some exciting new possibilities. Here is just a sampling: Read More
A Year in the Life
After a winter destined to be remembered for its snowstorms, slush and sub-zero temperatures, you may welcome even spring cleaning with open arms. But every season - not just spring - brings with it a time to take care of specific types of building maintenance. The following are some general tips to keep your building looking good and operating smoothly throughout the year. Read More
I Can See Clearly Now
Quiz most New York City apartment-dwellers on what the primary force keeping undesirable elements out of their apartment is, and chances are they'll say, "the doorman," or their elderly neighbor who keeps a hawk's eye on the street, or maybe they'll briefly flash to a time when their cat took command of some pesky rodent. Few will think to name their windows as the first line of defense against the uninvited entry of dirt, drafts and noise into their home. Read More
Bye-Bye Birdie
When you think of household pests - that's pests, not pets - it's usually bugs and rodents that come to mind. In New York, however, birds are pests too; especially the overabundance of pigeons that congregate on buildings seeking food and shelter and leaving their feathers and droppings behind. Read More
Hot, Hot, Hot
When the weather outside is frightful, a functioning boiler system pumping soothing warmth into each and every apartment in your building is definitely delightful. Keeping boiler systems in tip-top shape is paramount to ensuring that warmth continues all winter long. Happily, that's not too difficult to do with a little regular maintenance and a good thorough cleaning each fall and spring. If your boiler's giving you fits this winter, the following may help you avoid the chill next year. Read More
What in Blazes?
If there was a fire in your building, are you confident that you and your family would be adequately warned, protected and saved? If you're not absolutely certain, consider this: last year, there were 27,788 structural fires in New York City in which 125 people died. Although property owners are required to provide residents with smoke alarms, it is the tenant's responsibility to maintain them. There are no fire extinguisher requirements inside homes, and while newly constructed buildings are now legally required to incorporate a sprinkler system, older buildings are often not upgraded. Read More
Flight or Fancy
In the future, we might have molecular transporters or some other newfangled invention defying the laws of gravity, but for some 150 years, Elisha Graves Otis' method of transport - the elevator - has stood the test of time. Read More
Oh, Chute!
Winter is here, and it's time to shut the doors, seal the windows, and crank up the heat in a quest to stay toasty warm. Unfortunately, while you work hard to thwart the wintry weather on the outside, the air inside your building may be getting more stagnant and - at times - downright smelly. Now is the time to clean your building's ventilation systems and trash chutes to help keep the air smelling fresh and clean. Read More
Smooth Ride
Admit it: We take elevators for granted. Like answering machines or calculators, elevators are one of those conveniences that are so woven into the texture of our lives that we're barely aware of them at all - that is, until they go on the fritz - at which point we're rudely reminded of just how dependant we are. Whether you've got a pre-war manual with open grillwork or a stainless steel box rigged with bleeding-edge technology, it's crucial that you keep things running smoothly. Simply put, nothing will make your building seem worn at the edges faster than a sickly lift. Read More
Whither Your Window?
The eyes may be the windows of the soul, but windows are the eyes of your home, looking out onto the world and letting in air and light. More than just plain old sheets of ordinary glass, today's windows are loaded with features designed to increase fuel efficiency, block noise, cut down on cleaning time, and improve your view. Read More
The Creeping Horror
In 1999, after her four-year-old son began coughing up blood and her husband started suffering respiratory complaints and memory loss, Melinda Ballard and her husband Ron Allison were told by their family physician to evacuate their Austin, Texas home immediately. They left in fear, with just the clothes on their backs. The force that drove the Allison-Ballard family from their home was not a malicious landlord or a tragic fire, but rather a toxic mold called stachybotrys that had infiltrated the walls of the house and taken root, spreading dangerous spores and triggering a host of health problems for the family. Read More
A Dry White Season
On April 5, David Letterman joked that the drought threatening the Northeast is so severe that New Yorkers can't even get a moist towelette at Kentucky Fried Chicken. While the water shortage hasn't yet impacted the city's population to quite that extent, co-op and condo residents are being called upon to conserve water in preparation for a summer that will likely be characterized by a sustained drought. Read More
A Bug's Life
Although spring ushers in a host of good things–like warm weather, longer days, and lower heating bills–the season also brings with it a proliferation of critters, not all of them welcome. Read More
Realizing the Dream
Suppose you want to give new life to your dingy old kitchen, enlarge your living room or convert a bedroom loft into a cozy, office study. You have to choose a professional who can best turn that dream into reality, and choosing the right professional who can act as both a designer and advisor over the course of the project is certainly not an easy task. Whether you are looking to make a design statement or just a modest reorganization, you may need to hire an architect or other design professional to achieve your desired goal. It’s crucial that your chosen professional be sympathetic to your personality, aesthetic tastes, and budget constraints. Read More
On the Home Front
Anyone who’s lived in a co-op or condo building for a number of years usually has at least a passing understanding of what happens when their building’s lobby needs repainting, or when the board meets to decide what style of new wainscoting to go with in the hallways. Votes are taken, contractors contacted, and then the project is under way. After a (hopefully) brief period where halls are cluttered with equipment and workmen come and go at what seems like all hours, the project is finished. There may be a few who object to the new color of paint, or would have preferred burled oak for the wainscoting, but for the most part, these things are routine. Read More
The Sound and the Fury
New York City is famous the world over for being "The City That Never Sleeps", but perhaps, as one sardonic resident put it, "They should call it ‘The City That Never Lets You Sleep’!" Thanks to honking cabs, shrieking trains, hypersensitive car alarms, and the tromping of several million pairs of feet on several thousand miles of concrete sidewalk, the din of the City often takes on a malevolent, almost-sentient character. Read More
Pushing the Right Button
In New York City, elevators are to vertical transportation what taxis and the subways are to horizontal transportation: ubiquitous and necessary, but not always safe. While newspapers eagerly report on subways that derail or on the latest taxi-jacking, elevator accidents don’t seem to grab as many headlines. Consequently, we ride assuming that this particular mode of transport, now nearly 150 years old, will take us safely from point A to point B. Read More
Preparing for the Big Chill
In the midst of all the sunshine and warm temperatures of late summer, it seems cruel to have to acknowledge the coming of winter. In a city where our warm days are limited to a precious few months of the year, it’s tempting to ignore winter until it comes up and bites you. Read More
RATS!
Once again newspapers are headlined with the word "Rats," and the questions on every resident’s mind are, "Where did they come from this time?" and "How do we get rid of them?" Like many other problems that face large groups of people trying to live together in small spaces, a solution requires a team effort. But, before we can begin an effective program to exterminate the rodents, it is necessary to understand why they infest our homes and neighborhoods, what we can personally do about it, and where we need professional help. Read More
Water Bill Anguish
The following article contains excerpts from a series of statements submitted by Michael Lockhart, president of American Telephone and Utility Consultants and founder of The Coalition for Water Bill Justice, and Lawrence Schatt, deputy commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Customer & Conservation Services. Read More
Swimming Pool Management
There’s almost nothing that sounds more luxurious to potential co-op and condo buyers than an on-site swimming pool. Apartment prices are often higher in buildings with pools because they are viewed as a fun and relaxing amenity. However, managing and maintaining a building’s pool can be anything but relaxing. Swimming pools demand a great deal of time, energy and money. Joyce Siegel, board president at the Vanderbilt, a 369-unit condo at 240 East 41st Street in Manhattan, says in reference to her building’s pool, "A lot of people love pools, but when you start looking at the bottom line, you start to think, ‘oh no.’" For a building to successfully manage a swimming pool, it must address many issues including liability, usage regulations and maintenance. Proper management insures that the pool will be safe and enjoyable for everyone–this is no small task. Read More
Floor and Wall Coverings
The lobby of the SoHo building where Stephen DeCordova, an actor, owns a co-op is almost too small to be noticed. A tiny vestibule leads to a narrow hallway where you’ll find the stairs and elevator. Four years ago, this entryway was dark and dingy with broken-down floors. Now, a few wise decisions later, the space has an impact that is far from small. A new slate floor; walls of marble, fresco and brick; stripped steel trim and a glass wall dividing the vestibule from the hall give it a contemporary feeling. It also has something of the flavor of an old train station. On entering, you immediately feel like you’re on your way to somewhere–somewhere interesting, somewhere fun. Happily for the co-op, the stone, metal and unpainted polished plaster make the space practically maintenance-free. As designer William Fares says, "It won’t wear out, it will age." Read More
Spring Cleaning
Spring: Glimpses of forsythia overhanging the walls of the Central Park transverses, dogwoods and magnolias blossoming in the Strawberry Fields and crocuses sprouting from sidewalk planters. For many, spring is a rebirth, a reaffirmation of life, a season of optimism. For apartment dwellers, spring may simply mean changing the clothes in the closet, having the windows cleaned and planting flowers in the window box. For co-op and condo buildings, spring means painting the hallways and lobby, cleaning the awnings and polishing the brass and planting trees, shrubs and flowers on the grounds. In general, spring is a time to repair damages inflicted by the harsh winter. Read More
Can I Knock Down This Wall?
Imagine living in a building where your neighbors do whatever renovation work they want with no restrictions. Some believe they are do-it-yourself electricians and they move wiring within the apartment. Others put kitchens in the basement. Some decide to open the living room by knocking down a partition. Others want more modern picture windows. While they all may be well-intended, this scenario can lead to chaos and dangerous conditions in the building. The home wiring by an unlicensed electrician can lead to a fire. The wall that was taken down may be a load-bearing one. The picture window may make the whole building look "strange." Building alteration agreements are a vehicle for the building to have uniform rules and regulations to prevent unnecessary problems. Read More
Avoid Building Catastrophes
It’s three o’clock in the morning and your building’s boiler has just broken down. Your property manager is woken from his sleep by a phone call from the superintendent telling him that there’s a catastrophe at hand. You’re left shivering in your apartment while those hired to protect your home scurry to manage the crisis. Could this have been avoided? Read More
Prioritizing Projects to Avoid Trouble Later
With the economy still in the weeds and building administrators looking for
creative ways to save money and build up their bottom line, it’s no surprise to hear that co-ops and condos are taking a hard look at their
maintenance and building improvement wish lists and making some tough
decisions. They’re reassessing which projects they can afford to undertake and which ones they
need to put off until later.
Read More
Intelligent Buildings Technology
Technological applications to residential building life are becoming more prevalent, and in some cases, they’ve even become more affordable than in the past. An “intelligent” building is able to monitor its environmental, mechanical, and lighting (among other) systems, through a computerized network of electronic devices. Maintenance, communications, security, and other residential building functions are now being handled by these new systems, whose upgraded operations are helping building personnel do their jobs more effectively. Read More
Restoring Buildings After Emergencies
Apartment buildings, whether cooperatives or condos, are inherently fragile. When that many units share the same plot of land, and the same walls, the same floors, the same elevators and stairways, standpipes and boilers, lobbies and roofs, disasters—whether broken water pipes or the tragic in the case of decomposing bodies, fatal fires or building explosions—have the potential to spread quickly. Thus, when something nasty befalls a building, the first order of business is to contain the problem. Read More
