The rarely stated—but all too well understood—Murphy’s Law for Boilers—asserts that if your boiler quits working, it will do so on Christmas or New Year’s Eve, or at 4:45 p.m. on the coldest day of the year. With some planning, though, tha…
From the outside, the structure of a condo or co-op building may appear to be monolithic; just one big piece of brick and steel, punctuated with some glass here and there. That's an oversimplification, however. A multifamily building is pe…
In terms of wear and tear on buildings, winter is the harshest season of the year. Snow accumulation and ice damming on roofs can be a major headache, pipes freezing and bursting could spell disaster, and just about any accumulation of wat…
Flanked by two major cities, New Jersey has just about every type of housing stock there is. Many suburban homeowners have dreams of that legendary white picket fence, but those who live in urban areas can also definitely appreciate the im…
While it was a trying winter with more snow and ice than usual, there is always the promise of springtime and all it entails—blossoming trees, the return of singing birds and green grass. But just like the maintenance and care necessary to…
In New Jersey, it's common for luxury condos to install recreational facilities on their rooftops—pools, hot tubs, decks and similar areas for socializing. You are also likely to find heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system…
Walk down any street in any of New Jersey’s major cities and you may have to step around or go under one of the ubiquitous steel-and-plywood structures that shade urban sidewalks, more often than not festooned with wheat-pasted posters for…
Remember the old jingle, ‘it takes a licking and keeps on ticking’? It was the famous tagline from the Timex watch advertisements. The gist of the ad is that no matter what you threw at it, a Timex watch kept working. If you think ab…
Living in New Jersey can be something of a dirty job. And because of the task of cleaning off months (or years) of accumulated grime and dirt from the exterior of a building takes much more than a scrub-brush and a bottle of Windex; it req…
As readers of this publication surely know, well-run condo buildings and HOAs need to have adequate amounts of money in both their operating funds and their reserve funds. The operating fund covers most of the day-to-day costs of run…