Over the past three years, bedbug infestations have increased exponentially in New York City, causing panic among homeowners, co-op/condo boards and property managers. In 2004, there were 1,800 bedbug complaints recorded by the city. By …
The snow is gone, the thermometer is inching higher, flowers are blooming and you’re ready for springtime. Unfortunately, your building may not be. Thanks to winter’s sand, snow, grit and lack of attention, things may be in less-than-gor…
Now that winter is drawing to a close, residential and commercial buildings will soon be switching their heating systems off and their air conditioning systems on. This is the ideal time of year to begin preparing your boiler for the nex…
As presidential candidates on the national scale rally around the idea of "it's time for a change," so too is the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB), rolling out its first major set of changes to the city's building code in 40 y…
Water damage can wreak havoc on any co-op or condo. When it leads to serious problems like mold and structural damage, it can be a costly problem to address. To avoid the cost and hassle of dealing with water damage after the fact, …
As a child, we tried diligently to avoid stepping on the cracks in the sidewalk, because, after all, our mother's backs were hanging in the balance. As adults, we simply take sidewalks for granted, often not looking down and watching whe…
To paraphrase the 1948 film, and later, television series of the same name, The Naked City, there are eight million stories in the naked city. And probably ten times that many signs. They are everywhere, all asking for our attenti…
When you walk around busy areas of Manhattan, Brooklyn and elsewhere in the city these days, it's hard to miss the large number of structures stretching above the sidewalk, made up of huge sheets of wood resting on thin metal poles.…
Being a co-op or condo owner often means multi-tasking—especially if you happen to serve on your building's board. To keep your home in good repair and to comply with Local Law 11 and other city building codes governing façade repai…
You've got to hand it to city plants. They squeeze themselves into the tightest of spaces, and each day they battle pollution and smog, get stepped on (or worse, thanks to the city's dog owners) more times than they'd like to count.…