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After many uses, garbage disposal blades need sharping. Just a hand full of ice can do the job. Another tip is put the drain plug in the garbage disposal. Fill the kitchen sink full of water. Turn on the garbage disposal and pull the plug.
1. Grease or oil. Just because it is out of sight does not mean the garbage disposal “disposed” of it. Usually, it solidifies and begins to build up in your pipes. Not good.
2. Vegetable peels. You might get away with it from time to time, but odds are, eventually this one will catch up with you–and leave you a soupy backfilled mess in your sink. Garbage disposals do not do too many peels–they’ll spit them up like an unhappy infant.
3. Egg shells. Believe or not, the membrane on the inside of the egg can wrap around the blades and wreak havoc. Better just to compost them.
4. Coffee Grounds. These seem like they go down fine, but over time, the little grounds build up like sediment in the pipes, causing all sorts of trouble.
5. Pits or seeds. Think: peach pits, avocado pits, cherries, etc. I am sure this one goes without mentioning, but it will basically rattle around in there like a pinball of destruction.
6. Bones. I know, again, duh.
7. Anything in bulk. Feed your disposal small meals, let it grind it up, then add more.
8. Garbage. Think: cigarette butts or paper. It is not really designed for those sorts of things and will get testy.
9. Rice and pasta. I did not know this. Basically, every time you turn the water on, the pasta and rice will continue to expand–even after your supposedly ground it up.
10. Stringy veggies. Think: celery, artichokes, carrots, corn husks, or even some types of lettuce. The stringy parts can wrap around the blades, causing resistance on the blades.
11. Potato Peels. These suckers can cause a soupy mess in your disposal down the road—even if you think you can get away with dumping them down the drain from time to time. The same goes for other starchy vegetables and beans.
12. Harsh Chemicals. Do not mistake your kitchen sink for a chemistry laboratory. The grinding components of most garbage disposals are made of galvanized steel which can corrode when contacted with strong chemicals like bleaching powder and such cleaning agents.
13. Onion Skins. The onion skin can get caught in the blades, but the worst thing is the will cause clogs down the pipes.
14. Pumpkins. Anyone who carved a pumpkin for Halloween knows how sticky they are. When thrown down a garbage disposal though they are juicy and slimy they will stick on to the grinding blades and form a clog. The only way to get rid of a pumpkin clog is by dismantling the pipes and cleaning it.
15. Corn Husk. Corn husks are some of the most fibrous items you can find in a kitchen. They are extremely difficult to grind and should never ever end up in a disposal.
16. Seafood. While you may feel confident that seafood like shrimp can be disposed of safely in a garbage disposal that’s not the case. Instead of going down the pipes they will form a white little ball that will clog the disposal. No matter what magical remedies you try dismantling the pipes is the only option that will work.
Tags: Building Maintenance, Management News, Members Articles, Plumbing Articles
When you consider making improvements or additions to your home, it can be tempting to try and skirt the permit process. In some cities and towns, the cost and hassle of getting a permit can seem unnecessary, especially if you are handy and like to make renovations, or you have a friend who offers to do it for you.
Unfortunately, when you go and try to sell your home, the lack of permits can prove to be a real problem. Buyers may balk at purchasing a home that does not have permits – fearing that the additions may be unsafe or not properly done.
In the end, getting the property permits is always a good idea.
Often a home seller will say to me “I’m selling my home do I need permits for work I have done”? Unfortunately, the answer is usually yes you do.
The temptation to avoid getting a permit for home improvements is something every owner faces at one point or another. It is understandable, as the cost of home improvements and additions is already high in many cases.
The permit process – including the inspection to verify the work is up to standards – can seem like a pain. It may take some time to complete the process, time you may not feel like you have.
Those most tempted to avoid permits are homeowners that are interested in actually saving money by doing the work themselves, or bringing in a friend who has experience in home repair and renovation.
The friend – or inexpensive contractor you hire – may even imply that you do not need to worry about getting a permit. This, of course, is WRONG!
The real reason that many homeowners don’t pull permits isn’t that of paying a few hundred bucks to the town hall or the inconvenience that comes with it. Nearly every city and town in America collects taxes bases upon the assessed value of a home. Assessed value is calculated by looking at the size and characteristics of property.
What is the gross living area? How many bedrooms does it have? How many bathrooms? These are all factors in determining an appropriate assessed value.
Guess what happens when the tax assessor knows about the luxurious new finished basement with home theater, wet bar, home gym and beautiful bath you just added. If you guessed your taxes are going up, then you are 100 percent correct.
When no permits have pulled the town most likely will not find out, and your taxes will not take the upward climb, they would have otherwise.
Homeowners can save thousands of dollars over the course of owning a home when permits are not pulled. When selling a home, this becomes very problematic. If and when the town or city finds out about it, the new owner is the one who will bear the brunt of the increased taxes paid.
This will often lead to disputing high property taxes. In the case where the town has not collected taxes in years, it may be harder to get a justified abatement.
When you go to sell your home, there will always be a home inspection and an appraisal conducted by certified professionals. This is just part of the selling process, and it helps buyers know what they are getting into before they buy the home.
The inspector and appraiser will likely go over your house with a fine-toothed comb, looking over every area to verify that the home is in good working order – sometimes even checking all public records on the home.
There are no requirements for the home inspector or appraiser to check on permits for improvements to the home, but this does not mean someone will not ask about them. The inspector, the appraiser, the buyer and the bank that is doing the lending, all have the ability to request public records from your home, which will include the permits that have been acquired for the home.
A good buyers agent should always ask if there were permits pulled when a significant addition or finished basement has been added. These types of improvements can have a significant impact financially for a new owner.
You can run into major problems when someone discovers that renovations were done to the home without permits. This can, in fact, stop a home sale. There is an especially high risk of getting found out if the improvements were made recently.
The appraiser can see what the house consisted of when you bought it, and will notice if there is not an extra bathroom, deck or finished basement. The bigger the addition or improvement to the home, the more likely that someone will notice that something is off.
Unless you are in an extremely tight housing market, where buyers are desperate and will take anything, you can expect people to be concerned with any improvements that do not have the proper permits.
A lack of permits implies several problems to potential buyers, including safety and quality issues.
Safety Concerns
Customers want to move into a safe home. They may be planning to start a family, or already have children. They may just be uneasy about any work that was not done by a certified professional.
Part of the permit process is intended to verify that the improvements to a home were made properly, according to regulations, by someone who knows what he or she is doing.
Knowing that all safety rules and standard building practices were observed gives buyers peace of mind. Another would be hiring the local handyman to do electrical wiring a licensed electrician should have done.
In some cases, it is even possible that you may not have insurance coverage if there was a major catastrophe like a fire. The perfect example is the owner who goes out and buys a wood stove for the fireplace and doesn’t bother to pull an installation permit with the fire department.
Good luck getting an insurance claim if the insurance company finds out there are no permits, and the stove was the cause of the fire.
Quality Concerns
Safety may be the first thing buyers think about when they see you lack permits, but questions about the quality of the work will come quickly after.
The fact that you do not have a permit makes buyers think that you were trying to cut corners. You may have hired someone that was not fully qualified to do the work, or you may have done the work yourself and not known what you were doing.
Whatever the truth is, buyers will suspect shoddy craftsmanship when there is a missing permit. No one wants to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into a home with poorly crafted improvements.
A good example here is all the homeowners who had to deal with removing ice dams this past winter. There are a lot of negative things ice dams can do to a home including mold. In cases where mold is bad walls may need to be removed and rebuilt.
If it is bad enough, you may even need to relocate or replace the electrical wiring. Could a homeowner fix this themselves? I am sure many have. That doesn’t mean hiring a professional who pulls a permit for this kind of work is not the right way to go.
One of the questions I am often asked by homeowners when they are considering selling is what will happen if I don’t have a building permit for work done on my home. There is no clear cut and dry answer on this but in my experience, the local city or town will ask the homeowner to go through the permitting process.
The owner will, of course, have to pay all necessary fees involved with the construction. Each of the applicable inspectors will also need to come through and inspect the work.
Many homeowners are asking this question because they want to know if the town will make them rip out everything they have built and start from scratch. In my twenty-nice years of selling real estate I have not experienced this.
That, however, does not mean it is not possible. Homeowners should be very apologetic to the local building department when it has been discovered there are no permits pulled.
One of the other risks of not pulling permits is getting sued later on down the road by the buyer who purchases your home. Unfortunately, we live in a sue-happy society where people are always looking for someone to blame.
When you don’t pull a permit, and something tragic happens years down the road, who do you think they are going to come after?
In Massachusetts when selling a home, it is standard practice that homeowners fill out a form called the “sellers statement of property condition.” Lots of states use these forms.
They are primarily a disclosure of what the seller knows and doesn’t know about the home. One of the first questions on this form asks “have you done any work on the home in which a permit was required.” You better answer this one honestly folks for the reason above I just mentioned!
There is no clear cut and dry answer on when you will need to pull a building permit for an improvement to your home. The best way to find out is to pick up the phone and call the local building department or stop in for a face to face.
The building inspector should be able to quickly tell you if you will need a permit for your project or not.
It is safe to assume that anything safety related will require a permit. You can also expect that a permit will be necessary when you are doing something that will significantly alter your home.
One important reminder – When all the work has been completed don’t forget to have a final inspection and get the permit closed out! Over the years I have had several clients who have done the right thing and pulled a building permit but never closed it out once all the work was completed.
Closing out a permit is often called getting a certificate of occupancy. Recently while selling a home, I ran into this exact situation.
The owner pulled an original building permit but never asked for a final inspection, so the project was never filed as completed. Luckily, the building department did not make them do anything special other than getting a final inspection.
You could, however, find yourself in a situation where you are not so lucky if there are code changes between the time the permit is pulled and when you are selling your home. So make sure when the project is completed a final inspection is done, and certificate of occupancy is issued.
Here are some examples of items you will more than likely need a permit for:
These are just a few quick examples. There are many other items for which you will need to pull a permit.
Tags: Building Maintenance, Florida Rising Magazine, Management News, Members Articles
As your fellow neighbor, we understand recent shifts in society have greatly impacted communities all over the world. We’ve laughed together. We’ve overcome challenges together. Most importantly, we’ve learned individuals can adapt when hard times call for innovation. You’ve been through a lot, and ZUUL Systems recognizes the changes you’ve made to safely navigate daily life.
You, yes you, have made great strides to help our community stay healthy and flourish. You, along with other compassionate individuals, have adopted preventative tactics, like social distancing and contact-free communication, to maintain a safe quality of life until society finds its way back to a stable form of normalcy. Although the future is unknown, we can continue on this path of prevention to ensure our neighborhood’s well-being is preserved.
Our team at ZUUL Systems is taking note of seamless, no-contact living and its important contribution to society. Officials have encouraged individuals to avoid contact with frequently touched surfaces while performing necessary tasks outside of a home, as the virus affecting our community can survive stably on a hard surface or object for up to 72 hours. Now, there is a way to carry out day-to-day tasks and even commute while reducing the risk of virus transmission through touching surfaces or objects.
More specifically, ZUUL Systems facilitates no-contact entry to a gated community through its safe neighborhood access system. This completely digital platform allows users entry and exit into a gated community without the need for physical contact with strange gate guards, unfamiliar security personnel, and frequently touched objects. How exactly does ZUUL Systems pull this off? It’s simple.
Approved guests and community residents will use this no-touch system to filter in and out of the community, avoiding the need to touch a potentially contaminated call box, keypad, or identification card. All users need to complete a safe, streamlined entry would be a personal mobile device. For guests to enter, residents of a gated community will send a private QR code to an approved visitor via the ZUUL Systems app. This QR code will allow the visitor to easily enter and pass the security perimeter. The code can be issued as a single, one-time pass or a recurring pass. As the guest approaches the neighborhood entry gate, they will extend their mobile device to a ZUUL Systems scanner, and voilà. The approved guest is in.
This type of zero-touch entry system is particularly helpful for essential workers, like home improvement service providers and delivery people. They are the individuals navigating neighborhoods to complete essential services that propel our society.Can you imagine all the frequently touched surfaces and objects they encounter each day? By keeping essential workers and community guests at a safe distance, we can sustain a healthier lifestyle for all.
Alas, there’s always light at the end of the tunnel; or rather, at the end of the guard gate. With ZUUL Systems, you are in control of the distance you keep at all times, ultimately leading our society to a safer tomorrow. Learn more about the benefits of this contact-free access system by visiting ZUUL Systems.
Tags: Business Articles, Management News, Member Highlights, Security and Safety Articles
Ronnie Giles 561-602-8660
Sr. Account Manager Florida East Coast
CAI Business Partner Certified
#CGC 1517755 / #CFC 1429221
Gyms in your Building: Clean the Equipment in your Fitness Centers!
Will owners use it? Funding it with condo funds? What you will need with Development? Expert advice? upkeep and questions?
We spoke with Commercial Fitness Products, and its
Owner Richard Wasserlauf
5034 Hiatus Road
Sunrise, Florida 33351
I can think of a building we worked on a short time ago bringing a new designed fitness facility in their condo.
The committee figured they’d be able to pay that money back to the reserve in five years, assuming 25 percent of the building’s residents would join. (“It was guesswork,” says Richard.) They charged a one-time sign-up fee of $300 and $250 per year for the first person in a unit and $150 for each additional unit resident.
“They paid it back in less than two years,” says Richard. Sixty-five of the building’s 100 units belong to the gym—84 residents altogether. The early success enabled the committee to cut the yearly fee in half, to $125. “They still covered operating costs,” says Richard, “and allocate about $3,000 a year for equipment replacement—which hasn’t been necessary yet—and continue to contribute $2,000 to $3,000 a year to the reserve fund.”
The Building, a 27-story, 156-unit cooperative in Manhattan is a success story. working with developers and board members, helped get the gym project done, converting a 500-square-foot room in the basement into a gym with a budget of a mere $30,000 taken from the reserve fund. Residents pay $225 per year for membership.
“The gym has about 100 members today,” says Richard. “We’re well ahead of the game. The membership dues more than replenishes the reserve that we took out for it, and pays for the upkeep.” he adds that, “The building has a healthy turnover of apartments and 90 percent of new buyers join the gym.”
Building the Gym
Buying workout equipment is the easiest part of the build-out. “A lot of people think they are going to take the bike room, put equipment in it, paint the walls, and call it a day,” observes Richard Wasserlauf, Owner of Commercial Fitness Products, a leading gym equipment retailer. “In Sunrise Florida, that is not going to cut it.”
The first thing you need to need to consider, advises Richard, “is what construction and code obstacles you might need to overcome to pull the project off.” Potential problems include open asbestos, lead paint on the walls, mold or fungus problems, and particularly in basement spaces, pipes that sweat in the summer. Basement spaces also have the issue of exposed pipes, conduits and drain lines. As older buildings replace systems, they often leave old piping, electrical conduits and phone lines in place. Each should be tested and removed if inactive.
HVAC is perhaps the most important system in the facility. To meet city code, the gym space must have 15 percent fresh air flowing into the space. If the proposed space for the gym is not already equipped with central air conditioning, ducting will need to be installed if the room does not have a window. If there is a window, you need to install a unit with adequate power.
“You’re looking to maintain 68° year round—that often means running a cooling system practically year round,” says Richard, both for safety and comfort—to keep members coming back to the club. If there is any sort of landing or ledge outside the window on which to set a compressor, Heidings recommends a split system, available for around $2,000.
Another important code issue with which the gym room must conform is egress—providing a clear and unencumbered path out of the room if there is an emergency such as a fire or loss of power.
Bring in a Pro
To get a clear and objective evaluation of the condition of the room, and to get an idea of the construction costs entailed, it’s best to consult an architect right up front, says Richard. “If you find that your construction costs are very high, you may just say this is just something we cannot afford right now—or ever,” unless or until there is a more suitable space available in the building.
Some of the major design challenges is inclusion of light. Most often spaces designed for this purpose are in basements or underutilized rooms, and may not have natural light to make the space breathable. Lighting design, therefore, becomes very important. Many gyms find that fluorescent in fixtures aimed upward to soften the light are an effective and inexpensive alternative to high-end lighting.
You should also note if the floor has adequate space and structural capacity for both the equipment and the occupants, he says.
Another element to consider, say the designers, is noise—both kinds: vibration caused by things like treadmills, which primarily travels vertically downward; and audible, like the clanging and dropping of weights or the thumping of runners. A thick rubber floor like the ones commonly used in commercial gyms addresses both. Rubber flooring for a 600-square-foot gym costs around $5,000, say the pros.
A particularly pernicious vibration problem can be solved by laying a floating floor on top of the existing and then putting rubber over that, plus sealing and caulking every edge of the space as well as every pipe intrusion and structural column. A dropped ceiling filled with insulation will keep noise from traveling upward. In luxury condominiums, “Rubber flooring comes at different price points. some have the capability to deliver custom colors and complement the upholstery on the equipment.
The gym must have mirrors on approximately half the wall space in the gym, corresponding to the placement of the stretching/ab area and the apparatus. The price range for mirror panelling is typically from $3,000 to $5,000. Lastly, a computerized electronic lock on the door not only keeps the room secure, but keeps track of who is in the room and when, in case anything is damaged or stolen. Plastic keycards, which can easily be passed around to non-member residents, have been replaced by palm or fingerprint scanners, available for under $1,000.
Layout and Design
A well thought-out private gym provides a full-body workout, which includes warm-up, stretch, cardio, strength training and cool-down. According to Commercial Fitness Products, cardio equipment will generally be the most used. A 500-600-square-foot gym will typically have two treadmills (approximately $2,000 each), two elliptical machines ($1,500 each), a recumbent bike ($2,000), an upright bike (under $2,000), a multi-station weight apparatus (around $5,000) and at least two racks of free weights and two benches (under $1,000). A popular, fabulously versatile new apparatus is the functional trainer (around $3,500), which uses two adjustable-height and width pulleys attached to individual weight stacks and offers a wide range of exercises.
The gym above, containing all commercial grade brand-name equipment, including delivery and installation, should come to about $30,000 plus tax. .
It’s important, says Richard, to decide what’s necessary and what’s not. For example, consider whether adding a shower/locker room is essential. Perhaps residents would prefer using their own apartments for that function rather than the in-house gym, where maintenance could prove expensive or difficult. Other concerns are consulting with an attorney and insurer on liability issues, and making sure the facility is secure using safety-conscious materials and products.
Building insurance almost always covers injury and mishaps in the gym (just as it does in the laundry room), as long as no one under 16 is allowed admission. No additional policy is usually required—though of course it’s wise to double-check with your building’s insurance carrier to make absolutely sure.
The life span of equipment in a gym varies from piece to piece in a co-op or condo gym, conservatively, treadmills can be counted on to last about five years, elliptical machines about seven and bikes about 10. Weight machines last indefinitely, requiring only occasional reupholstering and replacement of pulleys and cams. Regular professional maintenance will help extend the life of all the equipment. Contracts, usually costing around $1,200 a year, include inspection, adjustment and lubrication of all moving and mechanical parts.
In addition to quarterly maintenance visits, the room has to be cleaned every day. This is typically done by existing building staff, the chore includes wiping down all the equipment with disinfectant, vacuuming the floor, emptying the garbage and cleaning the bathroom if there is one.
Adding TV screens to each of the six cardio pieces above would add at least $6,000 to the cost of the package. Richard says about half the gyms he equips go without any TVs at all to save on cable bills, figuring people bring their iPods for entertainment. Some have just two BestBuy or Costco-bought flat screens on the wall, using their speakers to produce the sound. Other more extravagant buildings spend tens of thousands on individual touchscreens with wireless internet as well as cable TV.
You’ve Built It: Now Make Sure They Come
In order to let residents know that their new gym is open and fully operational, “Do as many kickoff events as you can,” Richard advises. “You’ve got to get a lot of energy down there.” As soon as the gym is finished, do a wine and cheese ribbon-cutting ceremony. Later on, bring in a trainer to lead several training sessions for four or five shareholders at a time.
“The building can offer regularly scheduled yoga, stretch and pilates mat classes, because while yoga studios that offer classes without membership abound in Florida, “there are very few places people can go to take pilates classes without joining an expensive gym.
Yoga and pilates classes can generate a modest extra income for the building—and at the same time help keep shareholders and tenants healthy. we’ve just begun a Fitness After Fifty program that seems to be going well.” geared to the older owners.
The bottom line is that not only can a well-designed, well-maintained gym facility add value to your building, it can help boost community spirit as residents bond over the iron, and it helps keep your owners and shareholders healthy. And that’s a winning equation.
Call for all of your Fitness needs, Throughout South Florida.
Find out more about:
Commercial Fitness Products
Richard Wasserlauf
Address: 5034 Hiatus Road
Sunrise, Florida 33351
Phone: 954-747-5128
Fax: 239-938-1462
E-Mail: SALES@COMMFITNESSPRODUCTS.COM
Web: http://www.commfitnessproducts.com
And Find us on the
Find-A-Service Directory on SFPMA.COM
https://sfpma.com/listing/commercial-fitness-products/
Tags: Building Maintenance, Fitness Rooms Articles, Management News, Member Highlights(For example) a members business could write an article tell us what you offer or that they’re temporarily closed or Let us know that you are OPEN and ready to help Condo’s and HOA’s. We will repost these members articles and send these out to our Industry.
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Tags: Management News, Member Highlights
Lakes, ponds and wetlands are valuable resources for boating and recreation, fishing, drinking water, stormwater collection, aesthetic beauty and wildlife habitat. But they also serve as common breeding grounds for pesky insects like aquatic midge flies, often referred to as “midge bugs” or “blind mosquitoes.” Midge flies belong to a very large and diverse family of aquatic insects. While often thought of as the “cousin” of mosquitoes, midges don’t bite, sting, suck blood or transmit disease. They can, however, become a terrible nuisance and trigger allergies or respiratory issues.
Midges thrive near aquatic resources because their egg, larvae and pupae stages must occur in water. They have evolved to populate and prosper under difficult environmental conditions commonly occurring in many of our community lakes and ponds that have excessive nutrient loading, murky water, organic muck accumulation and low dissolved oxygen levels. These same water quality problems that favor midges also prevent midge predators such as fish and other aquatic insects from preying on them. This allows midges to form monocultures across a lake’s bottom and reproduce in extremely large numbers often exceeding 40,000 larvae per square meter. 1,000 larvae per square meter is considered the threshold for nuisance levels. Out-of-control midge larvae populations can become a terrible annoyance, inconvenience and even a health hazard to waterside residents when they metamorphose into adult flies.
Managing midge fly populations below nuisance levels requires an integrated approach to achieve successful long-term control—starting with bathymetric mapping of the habitat and a professional larvae assessment. Midge larvae surveys are crucial tools to determine which midge species are present and how to effectively manage them.
Blood midge larvae, for example, thrive in bottom sediments and must be targeted with an ingestible larvicide. On the other hand, phantom or ‘ghost’ midge larvae flow freely throughout the water column and are targeted with a growth-regulating hormone that prevents them from becoming healthy adults.
Balance water quality:
Introduce aeration:
Manage fish populations:
Cultivate a healthy shoreline:
Looking for sustainable long-term control of your algae or aquatic weed problems? Considering fisheries management assistance? Need help with water quality testing? Trying to find the perfect pond aeration system for your aquatic ecosystem?
Whatever your lake and pond management needs may be, SOLitude Lake Management has the answer. Simply fill out the form ( Click Find Your Solution ) and let us know how we can help. We look forward to helping you find your lake or pond management solution.
Tags: Building Maintenance, Condo and HOA Common Area Issues, Landscaping Articles, Management News, Members Articles
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