There are a lot of you that are apartment dwellers, and let’s face it: a lot of people living in apartments just aren’t terribly handy. I realized that I enjoy answering questions about my job (makes me feel all useful), and I haven’t noticed too many folks here sharing general handy-man knowledge.
I’ve got close to 3 years experience doing apartment/facilities maintenance, with a year of that being part of a trade school program. That doesn’t sound like much, but you learn fast in this industry, or find yourself out of a job.
Currently I’m working at a property with 400 apartments, with 3 other maintenance techs, which is nearly twice the industry standard (we keep busy), and we’re about 7 months into a renovation.
Washing machine not working? Garbage disposal making a funny buzzing sound? Dryer not turning off?
Ask nicely and maybe you’ll get a cute handy-woman to fix you up
Can you get me a date? I think I love you already…
Can the “honey-do” lists go to Thorny Platypus. Mrs Cabin_Fever is on my case this week.
Something about cleaning the fridge.
Don’t thank me, I’m just now finishing my beer.
Run, ducks and gets ass kicked by Thorny and Mrs Fever
I am very busy, yes. No, I’m not on call. To be on call with my company, you have to get to the apartment within 15 minutes, and I live too far away for that.
Two of my co-workers live on site and share the pager. Lucky devils.
Units are free to a certain number of people per property. It’s two for my place, and that’s for the guys sharing the pager (and they get paid less than they would if they lived off site). Every one else gets a 20% discount, which is nothing considering how much the rent is
Plumbing is always an adventure, full of “ewww, gah!” and “turn the water off! Turn it off!”
The most common plumbing problem is clogged drains. We don’t use chemicals or anything like that to clear them, either; we do it manually.
So here’s my first tip for this thread: This works best for tubs, but can also be useful with bathroom sinks.
Take a long, thin wire (like a wire hanger), and straighten it out.
Put a little hook on the end of it, and stick that sucker as far into the drain as you can.
Twist and turn it around and continue to do so as you pull it out slowly.
Take your slimy hair-snake and gross out the kids.
Pull out anything left at the top of the drain; needle-nose pliars work best.
Residents are always amazed at what we pull out, and a little shocked at our methods. They expect us to come in with some gnarly chemical, but instead we bust out a wire and proceed to gross them out.
During the winter a lot of pipes burst, since our washers are mostly outside. The floods that follow are about as unpleasant as it gets, really. Not gross, but a huge hassle.
You’re probably looking for toilet stories (which by and large aren’t that bad, unless people don’t clean them), but toilets are easy. Leaks are the worst, especially under sinks. Left unnoticed, they make the walls moldy, the cabinet bottoms rotten, downstairs neighbors suddenly have water dripping from their ceilings… Nasty, nasty.
Some do. What I’ve noticed is the dirtier the resident, the more likely it is that they’ll leave crap for us to clean up.
What we find varies; sometimes it’s just some cleaning supplies (that look brand new. Shocking!), sometimes it’s furniture, or food, or enormous boxes of matches.
One notable fellow moved out, leaving pots full of rotting food, 11 of our coffee mugs (I counted as I threw them out), clothing, a lawn chair, beer bottles full of ciggy butts, a demolished table, children’s books (though he didn’t have a child), cleaning supplies. All in all it took me 6 huge garbage cans full of trash, plus the demolished furniture. Oh, and there were fleas.
If you do rent, I highly recommend taking everything with you. Sometimes we start to take it personally, and may decide not to cut you any slack during the inspection
I don’t know about other places, but for us, maintenance tends to decide what the final charges will be when people move out; it pays to treat us with respect.
Funny you should mention that. I inspected an apartment yesterday morning and thought, “I don’t want to go back in there without a HAZMAT suit.”
Very few people clean everything, a few people don’t bother at all (and we don’t bother to help them out, either). Most people fall in between, cleaning the main things, but skipping some details.
I’ve learned a few valuable cleaning tips, though. For instance, oven cleaner (Mr. Muscle being my favorite), works wonders on tubs.
There’s no need to dirty up an nice pair of pliers like that. Take a bamboo skewer and break the sharp tip off. Insert the now ragged end into the drain and twist and pull a couple of times. Take it out, gross out the kids and/or tenants with the hair and gunk entangled on it and then drop it in the trash. Works great for the top of the tub drain and for the sink if you have one of those plugs that raises and lowers and attaches to that little peg thing about five inches down that hair loves to wrap around.
Now I have a question. Do you ever have to deal with windows that simply won’t come clean using normal methods? Do you have a secret weapon? I don’t know what the previous tenants did to my windows (Or maybe it was from the time I tried to use straight vinegar on them. D’oh!) but I have never been able to get them completely clean. There’s a fine layer of gunk on the outside that refuses to come off. I’ve made a lot of progress. You can only really tell it’s there when the sun shines directly on them, which is only in the winter for a short time. I’m considering using CLR or Goo-Off but am concerned about discoloring the aluminum frames. Do you have any ideas, Thorny Platypus? Thanks ahead of time and for starting this interesting thread. And welcome to the Dope!
In general, I’d say attic spaces for apartment buildings aren’t really designed for residents to store things. Many of them don’t have floors, which makes it tricky and dangerous to navigate.
Sometimes the attics are mainly there for venting and insulation.
If you have the sort of attic that you can get to (like a ladder that pulls down) and it has a floor, then the best thing would be to talk to your landlord and ask for permission first. Even though it is above your apartment, most landlords probably don’t consider it part of your leased space.
The pliars always come clean, and I just use them for the last remnants in the drain
I haven’t had much trouble with windows, no. For the outside I like to use something like this, since it has a scrubby side, and either windex or vinegar & water.
CLR or Goof-Off might work, and you could just soak a rag with it if you’re worried about the frames, instead of spraying. Or spray in small sections and cover the frames with something while you do.
Yes! How do I fix this? The landlords were aware this was a problem when I moved in, so I haven’t complained about it, figuring there was no easy fix short of replacing the stupid thing. Is there?
I have little to no handy-woman experience, but I did replace a socket in my lamp the other day - I can generally figure things out given some instructions. If it’s relatively simple, I’d love to give it a go.
Okay, the most likely problem is the dryer timer. It is very easy to fix, but the tricky part is getting your hands on the correct part. There are different models for dryers, so there are also different models for the timers. Also, they tend to cost $50+.
It would be cheaper to have your maintenance techs fix it, since they won’t charge you for a broken timer. Honestly I’m surprised they didn’t fix that before you moved in.
We order ours from the manufacturer by giving them the model number for the dryer (frequently located just inside the door) and they ship it out to us. If you have a GE dryer, you can order from their website. Other manufacturers should have phone numbers to call for ordering parts, and they’ll know which one you need.
What brand of dryer do you have? I’ve worked mostly with GE, but a lot of brands are very similar when it comes to part replacement. If you wanted to give it a shot, I could walk you through it.
It’s a Kenmore 70 series, model 110.62722101 (if that’s the right number, according to the door). Confusingly, there’s a sticker that says to call Maytag if there are any problems. Is Kenmore owned by Maytag?
I, too, was surprised it wasn’t fixed when I moved in. Then again, I think my landlords are pretty new to the whole landlording thing, and they only own a few buildings. My place is a two-flat, not a complex. The husband does all the maintenance himself. Frankly, I was just thrilled to be getting an apartment with its own laundry room.
If the part ends up being too expensive, I think I’ll probably just call my landlord. I’m willing to spend a little to fix it myself, but not $50. At first, I wasn’t too annoyed that the dryer didn’t shut off itself, but my roommates and I sometimes forget we’ve thrown a load in and leave it on way too long. The gas bill is accordingly high. Plus, you know, fire hazard.
I’m not sure if Kenmore is owned by Maytag. As far as I know, they’re separate.
I was looking on Kenmore’s website and couldn’t find a way to order parts, but apparently you can buy them from Sears. News to me
Sears Parts Store sells the timers for $77.49, but also has a link to search for nearby Parts and Repair Centers, where you’d be able to pick one up.
Since you aren’t in a complex with on-site maintenance, you might not have much luck getting your landlord to repair it. It’d be worth a try, though, for that price.
