It was January 1977 when the Center for Disease Control (CDC) first identified and isolated a previously unknown strain of bacteria found breeding in the cooling tower of a hotel air conditioning system. The bacteria, subsequently named Le…
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…
Ask people to list the household chores they dislike most, and chances are, doing laundry will consistently rank among the top ten. The need and appreciation for clean clothes gets overshadowed by the hassle of having to constantly wash an…
Chicago is a city known for its harsh weather, but this winter was extremely trying, complete with a 'polar vortex' and more snow and ice than usual. But there is always the promise of springtime and all it entails—blossoming trees, the re…
Walk down any street in Chicago and you’re likely to go under or around one of the ubiquitous steel-and-plywood structures that shade the city’s sidewalks, more often than not festooned with wheat-pasted posters for everything from the hot…
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 a dense urban area like Chicagoland can be something of a dirty job. And 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 …
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…
Nothing lasts forever, and though you can’t predict the moment a piece of building equipment will break down, you can prepare for it. Even the toughest boiler, HVAC unit, or elevator will eventually tucker out and need major repairs, or ju…