Periodic Building Inspections

Posted by Thomas Spear on May 7, 2012 in Articles, Blog | 0 comments

Periodic Building Inspections

Once a property is fully occupied and stabilized it is easy to simply lose focus or ignore the occupied units. That, unfortunately, is a practice which is not in the best interest of a property owner. In Los Angeles it is necessary to physically inspect for smoke detectors every six months. This inspection is a great opportunity to do a more thorough inspection, thereby protecting the property and addressing any potential liability issues. It is an opportunity to assess parts of physical property often ignored. While the periodic inspection requirements from other municipalities may be different, the discipline of a six-month inspection is a very good idea.

During the inspection process an owner or property manager can look beyond the smoke detectors at other aspects of the property to ensure that each tenant is taking care of the property and that there are no situations which require the owner’s attention, such as illegal roommates or the tenants doing excessive damage to the property. The six-month inspection can also be used to check all the plumbing fixtures to make sure that they are working properly and to make sure that, even more importantly, they are not leaking thereby causing excessive utility charges to the owner.

This inspection also presents a very good opportunity to look for mildew or mold in a unit. An owner can easily take the time to look at the likely places, under the sinks and in the bathrooms where there’s plumbing and moisture gathering. The early detection of mildew is a huge benefit as it allows the owner to address the situation before it becomes problematic and before it becomes a problem with the tenant. During an inspection an owner can also look at the door locks to make sure they’re secure, as well as the latches and locks on the screens and windows to ensure the safety of the tenant and also address potential landlord liability.

Finally on owner can look for any damages or potential damages, which will have to be addressed either immediately or in the future when the tenant leaves. At a minimum, the owner has advance notice of a potential situation and can address it appropriately. Whether or not an inspection is required by the municipality it is a good idea to do inspections every six months to review the operating systems within occupied spaces and to ensure that the owners’ liability and the premises are well taken care of and all problems are viewed advance.

Ways to Improve Your Google Experience

Posted by Thomas Spear on May 3, 2012 in Articles, Blog | 0 comments

Recently the LA Times ran an article that can help your use and searching in Google, immensely. Here is a summary:

1. To simply find the definition of any word, simple type “define” before the word in the search box and the definition will be the first at the top of the results given.
2. Type “weather” or “movies” and a Zip Code and the information as requested will be given in Google.
3. Looking for a fact or song lyric, simple use the asterisk when typing in missing search information. For example “San Diego is in * county” or “There is a house in New Orleans they call the * Sun”.
4. Use the minus to exclude terms that may be related, but not a part of your desired search. For example if your interest in birds than you might try “Ravens – Baltimore”.
5. If you know your search subject’s web site you can limit your search to that site using  “site:” in your search box. For example to look up baseball in the Los Angeles Times, the search box would appear like this “site:latimes.com baseball” This will go straight to the Los Angeles Times website and search for baseball related articles.
6. Google also assists in mathematic conversion for currency and temperatures. For example if you type “22.5 Celsius in Fahrenheit” you’ll get the converted temperature. Same is true for currency. For example, “$100 is euros” will give you the proper conversion.

Asphalt vs Coal Tar Pitch Roofing

Posted by Thomas Spear on Mar 28, 2012 in Articles, Blog | 0 comments

The following article is a very good discussion of the most popular and utilized roofing systems used since WWII  in the US.

 How the two popular bitumens measure up across the years

 What’s simple, durable, expensive, and welcomed by a wide swath of the roofing industry?

If this item existed, we probably would have favored it for decades. But who would have been conscious of ozone depletion, sources of smog, global warming, urban climate change, LEED, OSHA, asbestosis, mesothelioma, toxicity of arsenic, lead, and chromium, recycling, emissivity, and albedo a few decades ago?

Actually, that material does exist – and it’s still in use today. For low slope bituminous roofing systems, what goes around really does come around.

Bituminous Roofing Hits the Market
Back in the pre-World War II years, there were two bituminous substances (bitumens) that dominated the roofing industry. Coal tar pitch was a by-product of processing coal to make coke, which in turn was used in making carbon steel and electrodes for the aluminum industry. Asphalt, a by-product of processing petroleum to make gasoline, fuel oil, and various hydrocarbon polymers, was also popular.

Roofing systems originally consisted of alternate layers of hot bitumen and reinforcement. The original reinforcement was called “organic felt,” a paper-like product consisting of waste paper, cotton linters, and asplund wood fibers.

Was the system simple, durable, inexpensive and welcomed by all? Actually, it was and still is. Since bitumens are vulnerable to ultra-violet imbrittlement, these membranes were surfaced with a flood coat of bitumen into which gravel or slag was embedded. This screened UV light and greatly improved fire resistance.

By the 1950s, a coated base felt was introduced, replacing the “two dry, three mopped” roof systems over wood decks. Where the flood coat and gravel surface was inconvenient, substitution of asbestos or fiber glass reinforcements permitted the omission of gravel, with asphalt-aluminum roof coatings or clay-stabilized asphalt emulsions used for UV protection.

Cut-back coatings such as solvent-asphalt-fiber systems were incorporated. Water-based white coatings such as White-Gard and Star-White were offered as a substitute for the aluminum coatings, but these were stained by migration of the bitumen into the coating and were not elastic enough to accommodate movement of the bitumen sub-surface.

In 1973-1974, we were faced with an oil embargo. Two-ply coated asphalt felts were introduced since there were less moppings of bitumen to be applied and less labor to install. Unfortunately, these two-ply roofs were troubled by blistering between the two coated sheets and lacked the proven durability of their 4- and 5-ply predecessors.

Meanwhile, some light-weight roof systems were having success in mild climate regions such as much of the West Coast and Arizona. They might be 2- or 3-ply systems with a mineral-surfaced cap sheet. At low slopes, inorganic roofing felts such as asbestos or glass fiber were used, since the organic-based materials would absorb water at side and end-laps if the roof ponded water.

Asphalt Emulsions Step into the Spotlight
We mentioned clay-stabilized asphalt emulsions earlier in this column. While asphalt is hydrophobic, it can be dispersed in water as long as an emulsifying agent is used, such as extremely fine particles of bentonite clay. This system provides a stable base for reflective roof coatings, and the cured coating has excellent fire resistance without needing gravel surfacing. The emulsions were so good that some roof systems marketed used a one-ply base sheet, followed by a generous application of emulsion and chopped glass fibers roving as reinforcing. The emulsions also proved useful when re-surfacing existing bituminous roofs and served as a base for reflective roof coatings.

Emulsion systems must be protected against freezing during storage, something that is true of acrylic systems as well. Many new roof systems, such as self-adhering modified bituminous membranes, aluminum roof coatings, and water-based insulation adhesives also require ambient and substrate temperatures during application of 50 degrees F. or higher.

Emulsion systems also contain no flammable solvents (no red label), they are permeable to water vapor, but not liquid water, which is very useful in damp-proofing and resurfacing. They contain few or no VOCs that contribute to the formation of smog. Also notable is that these systems are quick to apply. Because these emulsions do not flow when subjected to high temperatures, they make a stable base for the current generation of reflective acrylic roof coatings.

You might agree they are simple, durable, inexpensive, and welcomed by all!

Richard (Dick) L. Fricklas was technical director emeritus of the Roofing Industry Educational Institute prior to his retirement. He is co-author of The Manual of Low Slope Roofing Systems and continues to participate in seminars for the University of Wisconsin and RCI Inc., the Institute of Roofing, Waterproofing, and Building Envelope Professionals. His honors include the William C. Cullen Award and Walter C. Voss Award from ASTM, the J. A. Piper Award from NRCA, the William C. Correll award from RCI, and the James Q. McCawley Award from the MRCA. Dick holds honorary memberships in both ASTM and RCI Inc.

Selecting a Property Management Company

Posted by Thomas Spear on Mar 19, 2012 in Articles, Blog | 0 comments

The selection of a quality management company is very critical to the success of the property overall. The question is how does one select a management company? First of all, like any company, a number of questions need to be asked. How long has the management company been in business? Do they handle the type and size of property you have in your portfolio? It makes little sense for a company that primarily manages small apartment buildings to be hired to run a 200,000 square foot office building. Does the company have similar product? Where, in relationship to your project, does the management company have other properties? If a property management company has mostly properties in San Bernardino and Riverside, they may not be the appropriate company to handle Santa Monica property. The size of company is also critical. If a company has 300 properties under management, how much attention does your property warrant in their organization? Conversely, if the company is too small and has only one principal perhaps the risk of not having a deep company is too great.

While all these factors are important, additionally the management company should be able to present how they will professionally market your property, thereby maximizing the income. They should also illustrate how they will minimize your expenses, thereby increasing the cash flow to the owner. Equally important, a professional management company should have a clear vision of the risks and minimizing those for your product type. Finally, the efficacy of a property management company is really a function of the quality of person employed by that management company. As a service business, the quality of the service is always defined by the employee. Ask to meet who will handle your property, directly, not just the sales force. Ask how people are hired and trained and, most importantly, ask for references. What are your experiences with property management companies?

Security Deposits

Posted by Thomas Spear on Feb 27, 2012 in Articles, Blog | 0 comments

In assessing a security deposit, how do you know how much to return (Landlord) and/or expect (Tenant)? While there are laws and guidelines concerning the return and application, many of the issues are a matter of opinion. A Landlord must allow for reasonable “wear and tear” and a tenant must pay for ‘damages’. What a professional property management company should do is to begin the tenancy with a detailed inspection with the tenant. This inspection should be comprehensive and in writing. Before a tenant moves out, this document should be reviewed with another physical inspection wherein both the Tenant and Landlord are present. This will help eliminate many of the dissention that often occurs in this process. There are many other questions surrounding this most sensitive issue that will be the addressed in later blogs.

How do you handle this process? What are your experiences with Landlords and Tenants? Please share your experiences and thoughts.