When is the last time you priced drywall repair costs for your multi-story, residential high-rise in Chicago? If you haven’t you may be in for a shock. Many property managers, superintendents and condo and co-op board members often feel sticker shock when they start the process of assembling drywall bids after getting their pipe replacement bids. This is because the cost of installing and repairing drywall after a total pipe replacement can be more than the cost of the plumbing system replacement.
When it comes to correctly repairing your plumbing probems and determining if epoxy pipe lining or epoxy coatings would help restore your potable water and drain lines, the best way to start the process is by performing a camera inspection. Camera inspections allow plumbers to view the insides of the plumbing pipes in your Chicago multi-unit residential building and locate those problems before any of your fixtures and finishes are damaged, which can reduce the cost of the repair or pipe restoration and decrease the time it takes to repair the issue.
If you’ve been watching the news coverage of Flint, Michigan’s water crisis, you probably have heard that the corrosion in the city’s water pipes is leading to an increase in the number of individuals contracting Legionnaires’ disease. As a property manager or facility manager in Chicago, it is up to you to prevent severely corroded pipes through regular maintenance of your plumbing system.
Does your Chicago multi-family residential building have a waterbug problem in spite of regular pest control treatments? If you answered yes to this question, you may have cracked vent and/or drain pipes that are allowing waterbugs in plumbing pipes to enter your apartment building, condo or co-op.
When plumbing pipes start to corrode and degrade, they form pinholes, which leak. As the pipes continue to age, those leaks get bigger and start damaging the internal structure of your building. One solution to leaking pipes is to coat them or line them with a specialized material, like epoxy, polyurethane or polyethylene. This prevents leaks and extends the useful life of your plumbing pipes, but which pipe liner method is right for your Chicago building?
How robust is your reserve fund when it comes to unplanned expenses and capital improvements on your Chicago residential building? A reserve study can help you determine if the money set aside for the emergency repairs and capital improvements of your building is adequate or if it needs to be increased.
During the course of operating a residential building in Chicago as a property manager, you may be faced with the question of who is responsibility for ensuring the water you and your residents drink is safe. The short answer is that it is your responsibility to provide your residents with clean, safe, contaminant-free drinking water and to ensure the water stays clean and readily available.
When you manage a condo in Chicago, you want your building’s systems to run reliably, but what happens when a plumbers pipe assessment reveals that your plumbing system is severely corroded and at risk of flooding your condo? As a responsible property manager or superintendent, you presented this information to your board members. Unfortunately, your board members may believe that the plumbing repairs can wait, or that your pipes are not as severely damaged as the report suggests. In this instance, you will need to dig deeper in order to convince your board that creating a timeline for the restoration of your plumbing pipes are in the best interest of your building and its residents.
Do you have polybutylene piping in your Chicago residential building? If you do, you may want to schedule an inspection and start making a plan for its replacement. Polybutylene water pipes are extremely susceptible to chlorine corrosion. Over time, the pipes degrade from the inside out, leading to leaks and catastrophic failures.
When it comes to maintaining the pipes in your high-rise residential building, should you choose a plumbing predictive maintenance plan or a preventative maintenance plan? If you already have a preventative maintenance plan, you are doing good, but taking that plan up a notch and turning it into a predictive maintenance plan can further help you avoid unexpected major repairs.