Category: Maintenance

There are potential dangers all around a condo or co-op that no resident wants to consider a realistic concern: a chunk of hanging concrete above a pool deck can be life-threatening; a section of delaminated stucco—cracked all around—can s…

Walk down any street in any of South Florida’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 …

Of all the modern conveniences we take for granted, perhaps none is as profoundly basic —and indispensable—as indoor plumbing. Carrying fresh water into our homes and taking waste water away, the pipes in our condo or co-op buildings are t…

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…

Any building in South Florida that is taller than, say, five stories usually has an elevator—and often, new buildings of even three stories have an elevator. If you live in a high rise co-op or condo building on Collins Avenue in Miami Bea…

Remember the old Timex watch jingle, ‘it takes a licking and keeps on ticking’? The gist of the ad is that no matter what you threw at it, a Timex watch kept working. If you think about it, a building’s exterior is almost like a Time…

The old expression says, ‘put your best face forward,’ and a building façade is more than just the face it shows to the street—it’s a protective barrier against the elements and an integral part of any building’s structure. But just …

Ask any realtor what their customers are looking for in a condo or HOA and they will quickly point out the importance of the latest and greatest 21st Century technology as one of the top requests. With the ever-expanding array of consumer …

This country was founded over two hundred years ago with a heavy dose of independence and a strong “Do-It-Yourself” attitude. The DIY mindset, with roots in Europe and European culture, crossed the Atlantic Ocean with the earliest immigran…

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…