Category: Maintenance

Warranties for products are simple to understand, most people might think. You go to the store, buy a computer or a DVD player or a TV, or even a larger appliance like a refrigerator, and you get a piece of paper describing a one-year …

 What could be nicer than being safely home on a winter’s day, enjoying a cup of hot chocolate while snow falls outside your window?  That is until you hear the drip, drip, drip more often associated with a rain  event and find that the pr…

 As the last few years have demonstrated, winter can be an unpredictable time in  New York City. Some years, temperatures remain fairly mild and we barely get  any snow, while other years are bitterly cold, with howling winds and epic  sno…

 Keeping the trash chutes and collection rooms of multifamily buildings clean,  sanitary and stench-free is a big job, and an important one. Poorly-maintained  chutes are not just gross—they're breeding grounds for pests, bacteria, and oth…

 As any good co-op or condo building administrator knows—either through common sense or painful experience—failing to clean up snow or ice promptly can result in injuries, acrimony, and  expensive lawsuits. Any one of those is reason enoug…

 Blizzards. Ice Storms. Hurricanes. Floods. New Yorkers are used to being  buffeted by Mother Nature. But increasingly, it seems, the impact of such  storms has lingered long after the weather front blows through, with hundreds  or thousan…

 Noise is a key quality-of-life problem for almost anyone living in a  densely-packed urban environment. Many urban dwellers are immune to it as a  result of having lived all their lives in the city—maybe you even grew up next to an elevat…

 Next to fire, perhaps nothing is more damaging to residential buildings and  their occupants' property then leaks. Whether it’s a torrential deluge from the upstairs neighbor’s overflowing bathtub or a slow, seeping leak around the window…

 Given our chilly winters and blistering hot summers, those living in New York  co-ops and condos are keenly aware of the importance of properly working  heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.  That’s why it’s im…

For years, the hospitality industry has been fighting a chemical war against bed bugs. Now, with the growing menace of pesticide-resistant bed bugs and increasing documentation of human injury from harsh chemicals, the question to consi…