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RECORD   AND   GUIDE





April 12, 1913





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BUILDING  MANAGEMENT





Conducted   by   Raymond   P.  Roberts,   Building
Manager for the American Real Estate Company.





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JANITOR'S   WORK.

Its Weil-Doing Essential to the Success

of a Building.

BY  JOHN  L.   PARISH.

ONE of the indispensable requisites
of the successful management of an
investment property of the apartment
house order, is a good janitor. -And it
may as well be recorded here as else¬
where, that a really good janitor is one
of the rarest among the phenomena of
human nature.

If the building is big enough and the
social and financial grade of the ten¬
antry seems to justify the distinction,
the janitor is called "Superintendent."
This often inspires a generally reluc¬
tant flame of personal pride and
prompts the superintendent to dress the
part a little better than if he were a
plain janitor. But whether it has any
effect upon the question of effici¬
ency and fidelity is still an undeter¬
mined  issue.

His  Large  Responsibility.

From every point of observation the
office is seen to be one of much respon¬
sibility and of unusual opportunity. The
janitor (or superintendent) stands in a
peculiarly intimate relation to both the
landlord and his tenants. It is not too
much to say that he has it within his
power, in nearly every case, to make
the property successful or unsuccessful
as an investment.

But, speaking generally, the janitor
seldom appears to appreciate either his
opportunity or his responsibility. Sel¬
dom does he appear to realize that there
is any harmony of interest between him¬
self and his employer. Because of this
the janitor has to be closely supervised
by the owner, if the latter is to make
the best out of his investment.

For to the owner the proper manage¬
ment and upkeep of his property is vital
to its financial success. And it appears
to be fully demonstrated in practice that
the degree of financial success is in ex¬
act proportion to the showing made by
the janitor, or superintendent. And the
scale of efficiency of these gentry ranges
between conspicuous success and
equally  conspicuous  failure.

Uses  Too  Much  Coal.

Vp in the Bron.x there is a janitor
who is burning two tons of furnace coal
a day in the heating of two 50-foot 5-
story flats. His furnace room is like a
Turkish bath in temperature, but there
is no excess of heat above the basement.
And dirt and debris lie heaped in every
corner. He is paid $60 a month for this
and has his rent, fuel and light free. His
opportunities for earning from the ten¬
ants are not so good as they are in the
batter class of apartments, but they
make a substantial addition to his sal¬
ary. He carries the odor of liquor on
his breath nearly always and is untidy
and slovenly in appearance, and offen¬
sive in his manner toward the tenants.
He is so conspicuous a failure that the
l.iuildings, though fully rented, are being
carried through the winter months at a
deficit. When asked why he kept this
janitor tlic owner replied that he would





"fire" him in a minute if he knew where
to get a better one.

In another instance a broker brought
a prospective buyer to inspect a large
apartment house situated in one of the
better residential neighborhoods in Har¬
lem. The building was of better than
average construction and finish, but its
condition was beyond description for
filthiness and neglect.

.■\nd this was its appearance after the
janitor had been notified by the owner
that a possible customer was coming
up for an inspection and he wanted the
premises thoroughly cleaned up and
made presentable. This janitor was a
spruced up dandy of about 28, and un¬
married, and a famous favorite of most
of the domestics in the vicinity. He
neither knew nor cared the first thing
about the care of property and when re¬
proached for his laziness and neglect,
placidly advised his employer to get
somebody else to take his place.

Good Janitors are Rewarded.

But there are good janitors in many
of the better classes of apartment
houses. Indeed, the good janitors soon
or late all attain to the command of the
b'utler positions, and these are, of
course, found in the larger and finer
buildings. Yet even in these buildings
there are wide gradations in the quality
of service obtainable from the superin¬
tendents. The price of satisfactory effi¬
ciency is eternal vigilance on the part
of the owner. For there is no other
school for the training of janitors and
superintendents than the school of ex¬
perience. And the recruits for this sort
of service are often of so poor quality
that they cannot or will not learn even
in that school.

An owner whose properties show up
so well that they are the subject of re¬
mark by all who have inspected them
was asked how he managed to get such
uniformly excellent service out of his
superintendents. He said: "I never fail
to visit and inspect thoroughly my
properties at least twice a week, and
often three or four times. It is an aw¬
ful nuisance, but it is the only way to
keep up the efficiency of these men. I
pay them good salaries and I feel then
that I have the right to exact good ser¬
vice.

No   Drinking   Men   Employed.

"I will not, for instance, have a drink¬
ing man in my employ in such a posi¬
tion. I have only recently made a
change on that account. I detected the
odor of liquor on the breath of a man,
a young man who had his wife and two
nice children living in the house, and
who was otherwise attending to his
work quite properly; I spoke to him
about it, telling him I did not like it.
Shortly after that he repeated the of¬
fence and then I warned him. On the
third offense I fired him. Tenants of
the class we cater to are entitled to
prompt and efficient service from the
house staff, and to decent appearance
and courteous behavior also. And it
means money in my pocket for me to
see that they get it. So it pays to be
constantly attentive to this branch of
my service."





Brokers whose business requires them
to show properties of this class to their
clients have often been embarrassed by
defects in their appearance that could
be cured by timely applications of soap
and water, and have often wished that
owners could realize how important it
is to their own interest that their prop¬
erties should in every part, in the boil¬
er-room no less than in the entrance
hall, make a favorable impression on
first view.





HELPFUL   MANAGERIAL   HINTS.

How   to   Clean   Battery   Jars.—Keeping
Doors in True.

By the use of slender strain bars or
wires, which are tightened at will, a
large factory has practically done away
with delays resulting from doors, screens
and gates that drag. The bar runs from
the outer lower corner to the inside
upper corner of the door, and tightens
by a double-threaded nut, or turn buck¬
le, exactly atfer the manner of the strain
bar under a freight car.





Cleaning Battery Jars.

Wipe off the jars inside and out,
with a piece of waste soaked in kero¬
sene. The oil softens the dirt and re¬
moves the saline deposits on the walls
of the jars and leaves the jars with a
greasy surface, which will not allow
them to form again. Care should be
taken to remove all superfluous oil, as
it gathers dust; also be careful to keep
oil from connecting joints, as this tends
to destroy electric contact.





QUESTIONS

and ANSWERS





Correcting   Hot-Water  Troubles.

With reference to Mr. Joseph H.
Booth's article "Correcting Hot-Water
Troubles" in your issue of January 25th,
would say, that I reside on the top floor
of a five-story apartment. When a ten¬
ant on a lower floor draws the water,
not a drop reaches me until he turns
the water off. Perhaps you can suggest
a   remedy.

.\nswer.—The trouble you complain of
may be caused by insufficient pressure,
especially if the water supply of the
apartment house is taken from the street
mains. Very often this pressure is not
sufficient to raise the water to your
apartments when anybody else draws it
on a floor below. The remedy for this
condition is the installation of a pressure
tank in the cellar or a storage roof
tank of sufficient capacity to supply the
demand per hour in your building,
which probably would not require extra
pumping facilities. It very often hap¬
pens that the water pressure is lower
in the day time than it is at night, and
if such is the case the street pressure
may be sufficient to fill the reserve tank
over night so that an adequate supply
of water can be obtained on every floor
of the building simultaneously at any
time. This change could be effected at
slight cost.