{Dan Roberge:}
So today, we will talk to Daniel Monahan from the neighborhood coalition for shelter in New York. He's the maintenance director there, and oddly enough, he makes it work using just paper for his entire team. We're going to find out how that goes.
Hey, Daniel, how are you doing?
{Daniel Monahan:}
Fine, how are you?
{Dan Roberge:}
I'm pretty good. Pretty good. So we talked, um, before, and one of the things that we talked about was a bit about your background. So you could, you know, let me know what, you know, repeat what you told me before about what your background is, where you came from, and how you ended up where you are here today.
{Daniel Monahan:}
A few years back, I was in Pennsylvania in 2017, and I was interviewing. I was in Pennsylvania, desperate for a job. I, uh, took him to respond to a maintenance position at a, uh, nursing home. And about ten minutes into the interview, they said, stop the interview. You're not a maintenance person.
You're more of a supervisor. I'm like, I guess. And they're like, we know, uh, we have a director of facilities here for the nursing home. Would you want to interview for it? I said I had no experience working in nursing homes. And they go, yes, we want a building person.
Everybody who we hire with experience in nursing homes fails. We want somebody who, you know, those buildings, not nursing homes. I'm like, okay. And I excelled in that position. So, yeah, I kind of fell into it, but it was something that was enjoyable to me. I enjoyed the challenge of it.
{Dan Roberge:}
Yeah, I can imagine you've come into all these different, um, you know, different fields to get to this position. But it's a bit by, like you said, circumstance. But I mean, you probably showed, some strengths related to facility management. As you mentioned, there are, you know, many cases of black and white.
And so you like that aspect. And I see that, uh, you know, we're going to get into this a little bit, but, you know, you're, you're paper, uh, heavy where you are currently working. And, uh, it's one of the elements that, you know, some people have that challenge where they have to work through their day-to-day using paper, while others use software or technology of any kind.
And so how's that journey been for you through your different jobs?
{Daniel Monahan:}
I use both. Um, I carry a tablet in my pocket at all times. I have my smartphone. I have a hybrid of a regular calendar, which is like a year and a half ahead of time. Uh, my preventive maintenance is on my paper calendar. It is also on my computer.
It's in a lot of areas, uh, because I've lost how many computers. Okay. Even though there is a wide area network and everything is saved. Uh, I worked with Maintenance Care, uh, and I love that. It was a very easy and convenient program.
{Dan Roberge:}
How do you overcome the obstacles of, let's say, dealing with team members and communicating with them? When you're using, like, let's say, a paper-based method, what's the process for you for getting your team to do certain things e on a regular basis—or even just things that come up on a daily basis, ad-hoc level?
{Daniel Monahan:}
Well, having a regular preventive maintenance schedule. Um, I send out, luckily, preempted, um, emails a year ahead of time, and emails, uh, reminding people we need to do this now. It's time to do this. It's time to do the ancillary inspection. It's time to do whatever the boilers are.
And I bet for a year ahead of time, those emails have already been sent out. Uh, they're just pending. When a certain date comes up, the email is sent automatically. I send those emails to my calendar and work with the staff. One thing I learned from the military and working a long time is that you have porters, and they are great porters.
They clean in a very high-stress environment and they do a very good job. They have absolutely no computer skills or smartphone skills. Um, they can use the phone. That's about it. Um, that's not the case. I don't want to make anything less professional about them. It's just that in their world, they don't really need technology. So I still have to find them, talk to them personally, either call them or leave them messages, or give them a list.
This is what's happening. And like I said with a porter, I don't like a routine list. Uh, because all of a sudden, if there's one thing that's not on that routine list, it doesn't get done. It's a common sense approach. Uh, all my staff and train them. If you're a porter, if it's not dirty, don't waste your time.
Go after what's dirty and clean it. Make sure we're supplied, make sure we're cleaned. Uh, if that window is clean, don't waste your time cleaning it again. Move on to where something is dirty. Uh, it's amazing how many people I've seen in different agencies or when I start a new job clean a clean window.
Uh, why is there a bathroom that's trashed? Uh, and why is that? Because they said I'm following a list. So, I think common sense, instead of a list, outweighs it.
{Dan Roberge:}
Yeah, I mean, 100%. I mean, that's kind of funny, uh, to hear. And at the same time, what's interesting is that we've seen that time and time again. I mean, in the 20 years that we've been doing this, that is where you have really great maintenance, people who don't understand technology well.
So it's hard, you know, you don't want that person to leave or that person to be intimidated and not do their job just as effectively because of this one element of their job. Right. And the rest they're experts at. So you have to have that balance.
{Daniel Monahan:}
Well, even our time roll and our timesheets. There are no timesheets anymore. It's done. Um, we use a thing called paycom.
My porters can't handle that, but we, everybody, have to use it. So, you know, I have to put the time in for them. But that's me documenting their time. But they document their time on paper. I put it in at the end of the week, but people say you have to do that.
I said, you know how much time it saves me having a porter who knows how to do his job?
Uh, do you know how much time it's taken away from me when I have a porter who doesn't clean properly and I'm dealing with complaints? So, having a porter who can do a fantastic job, and it takes me, I lose five minutes a week because I have to do their electronic stuff for them.
It's worth it. It's worth the exchange.
{Dan Roberge:}
Have you had any challenges finding people, especially in the last few years? What kind of training did they typically need when they come to you? Like, what do you like to see?
{Daneil Monahan:}
Well, if a maintenance person has to have maintenance training, uh, that I'm not a teacher, I'm not a training program. Uh, that's what a lot of people say. Can you train this person for this position? I'm like, no. Uh, do you want to hire a case manager and train them?
No, I need to hire a case manager with experience. Well, I need to hire a maintenance person or porter for experience. Everybody thinks a port of position or maintenance experience is something that you can get on the job. Uh, I want somebody who already has that, and I just teach them the routine of the agency, whether, you know, the politics or, uh, the clientele that we have, you have to learn.
We, uh, have people who are mentally ill, chemically addicted. We have people who can be volatile.
If you can't clean that area because somebody's having an episode, so what? Don't clean that area. It's not your job to deal with a mentally ill person. It's not your job to risk yourself. It's your job to leave and report it and go someplace else and clean. You can always come back at the end of the day to clean that.
You can always come back in 2 hours when the incident is over. Uh, a lot of people have to learn how to be flexible and clean. Uh, there are a lot of people who start and go. I cleaned this floor. These said, no if you're going to be working here, you got to be flexible.
If there's something going on, you bypass it; you come back 3 hours later. That's what I have to teach. I'm not going to teach people how to use the broom. You should already know that before you get here.
{Dan Roberge:}
We found, like, it's been kind of a change in the marketplace for finding people. Like, you're in the New York area. Has it been the same for you, or has it been a constant kind of the same thing forever?
{Daniel Monahan:}
We can't get stuff for an agency or the clinical part. Uh, we have one site that has four openings, and we cannot get clinical staff. Uh, we can't get case management staff. We have a hard time with every type of staff member except for maintenance and borders. I've had, uh, um, not a difficult time.
One thing that the phenomenon that's going on right now is ghosting your interview. Uh, you call somebody, have a position open. You do? I do pre-screening. I tell them the salary because I don't want to sell New York. You don't come in without knowing what the salary is.
Um, if they're good with the salary, you describe the job in detail and you get ghosted. But with the people who come in and make the interview, that's if they make the interview, you know, they're interested in. But I haven't had positions open for months. I have positions open for weeks because, uh, we have guidelines where people have to go through a background check and fingerprinting, um, before they can start working here because of the population we work with.
Um, and that's the most time-consuming part: the background check and whatnot. But I haven't had a too horrible time getting staffing since, uh, the beginning of COVID. Now, that doesn't count for the agency. Can't get clinical people, can't get accountants, can't get anybody else. But we're okay with the maintenance.
We've always had a full, uh, department.
{Dan Roberge:}
Wow. That's great. That's amazing. Um, I wonder why that is. Like, people are ghosting you. So what does that mean? Like, they just book the interview, and then they know all the facts, and they just don't show up.
{Daneil Monahan:}
Correct.
{Dan Roberge:}
So they wouldn't, they don't give you ever a reason. They just disappear.
{Daniel Monahan:}
They disappear, yes.
{Dan Roberge:}
Wow. Wow. That's crazy. Um, so now you've must, you've, like you said, you were, uh, in senior care, and now you're in a mental health facility. Do you have any stories in either one of those where, you know, maybe your knowledge or things that have happened, uh, on a maintenance level that you have to deal with that are interesting and relevant, you know, uh, related to, um, kind of some of the things that we've been talking about?
Uh, what comes to mind? Anything for you?
{Daniel Monahan:}
Well, we get a lot of vandalism.
{Dan Roberge:}
Okay.
{Daniel Monahan:}
Okay. Like this past weekend at our site in Manhattan, we had a shower stall. Uh, the wall kicked in. Uh, the amount of damage is phenomenal. We were still trying to figure out how they were able to do that. The toilet, uh, tank cover was broken, and somebody in the shower turned on full blast and decided to leave for about 2 hours, leaving it on full blast, with heat damaging the walls.
Okay. Um, this is normal. This is the name of our population and our job. For example, the building we have in Manhattan and the site we have in Manhattan. If it was a normal residential, multiple-dwelling residence of 65 units, you'd probably need one part-time maintenance worker and one part-time porter.
That's probably all you would need to maintain the building. Uh, easy. And they would probably be also covering. Other buildings as well. Uh, the problem is the population is challenging. And this one building just has to have a full-time maintenance person. I mean, a full-time maintenance supervisor, a full-time maintenance person, two full-time porters.
Um, because of everything, like I just said, the past weekend. Oh, the kitchen was flooded as well. Okay. Uh, because this person clogged up the sink on purpose. And, uh, we have to find jeans in the toilets. We find, um, we don't think it's like, the prison mentality of doing it on purpose.
It's just that it's not knowing that you should not flush jeans down the toilet. That's what it comes down to.
{Dan Roberge:}
So that must get quite expensive.
Um. Oh, yeah. How do you structure your budgets on a yearly basis? And, you know, I'm assuming you get funding or maybe, you know, there's some. There's some.
{Daneil Monahan:}
We get funding from the city and the state, and it's a rent-generating income for the building. It's subsidized, and the tenants have to pay. Pay rent. So we're actually doing our local law. Ah. Eleven. Right? Now, that's our facade, uh, maintenance work. And that's running less, about 350,000. You know, when it's over. And we're paying this through either grants or general income from the building. Uh, how do you plan this out? You know, you try to look at the year before, and you try to make a guess on what's going to happen. Uh, it's like when I work in an older building that's over 100 years old, and you use live steam, uh, at a building that you had steam coming in, and you can fail.
I'm gonna have three steam failures. You know, when it goes 15 degrees, if we get a period, it's gonna be the 15 degrees. We haven't gotten that. We have not been getting that cold lately. But I was expecting three leaks a year, and one of those is going to cost about $1,500. So that's how you budget it out, because you know, from your history.
But when we have a warmer winter, everybody says, oh, let's change the budget. I said, no because if we get another cold winter, you're going to get those, uh, believe it or not, we had incredibly mild winters. That saved us on snow removal, that saved us on ice melt.
We've had, uh, really, really mild winters. And you have the accountants going, oh, you know, let's change your budget. I'm like, no, don't touch that budget. Okay? Because we've had abnormally warm winters, we're going to get cold winters again, and then we're going to get the snot knocked out of its own costs.
[Dan Roberge:}
And you're probably going to get other problems because it was a warm winter, and you're going to get other issues like it could be anything from mold to other issues that happened just because of the scenario. So you can't, that's hard to predict, all these changes that happen.
{Daniel Monahan:}
If it's a newer building, we're going.
Mold.
If it's an older building, we're not getting mold. Older buildings can breathe. They've been around for 100 years. They have been breathing for 100 years. They have not been getting mold for 100 years. Newer buildings, or if you get an older building and you get all, uh, winterized and insulated, then you get mold.
I just made a mold of a newer building from 2006. Just, uh, a mold remediation, uh, already. Major, major. You have to have the, you know, file it with the Department of Environmental Protection for the city. You know, get your certificates that was cleaned, and then, um, now I'm doing the gut rehab of the unit.
{Dan Roberge:}
So it blows my mind that you're doing all of this. How many locations is it for you? Like, are you overseeing?
{Daniel Monahan:}
Just the one at this point? One, uh, 2345. Wow. Um, before the height of COVID, it was like 20.
{Dan Roberge:}
So what happened after that? Like, it just divested?
{Daneil Monahan:}
Well, just before. Just before COVID like, just before COVID I was at a job, this job where I'm at right now, and I was offered another job, and I, uh, went and they offered good money, so I turned my resignation for the job I'm currently at. Ah, and saying, I'm going to accept another job.
And the job I'm currently at is saying, well, we'll match you. I said you can't match me. And they're like, why? I told them the amount, and they said, we can't match you. Uh, but we're not going to let you leave. I'm like, why? Well, we'll keep you any way you want at the same pay as long as you continue working for us.
So I worked both places at the same time, and then, uh, my wife passed away, uh, about a little over a year ago. I'm a single parent, and working two jobs at the same time was just too stressful and really killing me. I love the pay, but I just couldn't do it physically and mentally any more.
So I said to this job, I was just telling, I got to make a decision. I have to choose one job. And they go, we're going to offer you this if you stay with us. And I'm like, sure. So I stayed here.
{Dan Roberge:}
So at this point, you know what you're doing. And even though there's a lot of variety, uh, as far as what your expenses could be from a year-to-year basis, you've got those years of experience to understand what's likely going to happen over time. So that's how you can.
It just still blows my mind that you're doing all this on paper. I mean, I know you say you do a combination, but you're tracking all of these and able to maintain, uh, that effectiveness. And it's just like every maintenance department used to do, but now you're still maintaining it that way.
That's pretty easy, I guess.
{Daniel Monahan:}
When I was growing up, everybody had black and white TV. Nobody had an answering machine. I saw the development of answering machines. I saw the development of VCRs, and then it was like, oh, you know, a computer. My friend has a computer. How much? It costs thousands. I'll never afford a computer.
Okay. I evolved with everything, so I was doing everything without computers beforehand. So, that's why I am doing hybridization. Um. Um, because I still like coming in and seeing it. Okay.
{Dan Roberge:}
Yeah, no, that's amazing. And I think you could probably give a course on it.
{Daniel Monahan:}
But let me. This is. This is. I don't know. I'm going to show you something.
{Dan Roberge:}
Yeah?
{Daniel Monahan:}
Yeah.
I get a lot of, uh, apartment buildings, fire, uh, department inspections, housing, uh, preservation, development services inspections. And the worst ones are the fire department. Okay? They can be a lot of fun. After you click with the inspector, you realize you're professional. You both know what you're talking about.
All right? I just show them this. This is everything. And it's paper. But you know what helps you get through an inspection with no violations? Having this paper not. I'll go look for that on the computer. When the inspector comes into the city, they just want to get there and get out because they have ten more places to go to.
So, if I can pull up my letter of approval for the fire alarm system right now, that's great. Suppose I can pull up all my other permits for my Ansel system from h vac. It's right here, right now. Uh, Bill, go. I don't feel like looking at that. I believe you.
I'm leaving.
Dan Roberge:}
It's funny you say that because I've seen it time and time again. That is, um, the biggest obstacle has been with the fire marshals, as far as them still, uh, wanting, like you said, to just go through paper. A lot of the stuff requires a signature, so you actually.
These are the people who executed this particular task that they need to see. So you require that process. And like you said, building that relationship with your fire, uh, Marshal inspector is the key so that you develop that mutual relationship together. So, how often do you get a new person?
{Daniel Monahan:}
I like the old-timers. They know exactly what they're doing. The newer inspectors are not as savvy. Uh, you get one a year. I like the older ones. I pretty much know everybody on site. But when someone you know comes in, you try to nurture them through it. But you also have to learn to say no.
Okay. I had one come in for the, um, rangehood permit. That's the, um, in the kitchen. Your range hood for the stove has to have a permit. They inspect the ansel system. They inspect the range hood and make sure it's cleaned every three months. And you have to have a permit.
I had one guy come in and do all the paperwork, and he was. I need to see your Department of Health license. I said, no, no, you don't. You don't have. This is for the fire department. You don't need a Department of Health license for you to give me a permit.
And I held my ground. There was no point for him even to see that it was not part of the fire code. As part of. Department of Health. And he finally accepted it, that he wasn't going to get it, and gave us a permit.
{Dan Roberge:}
It's a good thing you knew what you were doing. You were talking about it, so you were able to know when to say no. Some of the younger, like, what would you say to a younger director dealing with, um, you know, the fire marshal that's asking for stuff like that? How would they know what to do?
{Dan Monahan:}
In New York City, an FDNY inspector can create his own code on-site. So if he insisted on seeing it and was going to give me a violation, I'd have to show it to him. They always win. The fire inspectors always win. Uh uh. But it's nice to give a little pushback.
If he said, I'm going to give you a violation, I would have shown it to him, but I made a point that he didn't need it, so. But, yeah, you'll never win. You will never, ever win with a fire inspector.
{Dan Roberge:}
Here's an odd question. If you had the choice, would you prefer dealing with an older building or a young one, or, like, a brand new building?
{Daniel Monahan:}
Older building, absolutely. Yes. You already have a history of it. You already know what's going on. Uh, fewer issues of mold because they breathe. As I said earlier, a newer building does not breathe. In a newer building, you're going to have staff and tech tenants who get sick building syndrome.
In an older building, you're not going to get mold. In an older building, you're not going to get the issues that you get with a newer building. Uh, it's whatever leaks have had; it's run its course. Uh, how do I want to say this? When you have a building that's over 100 years old, you have the old timers who tell you the history of that building.
So you already know what's going to be going on. Usually, uh, they have a really good old Dunkirk boiler or something like that. It's already 25 years old, and you're gonna get another 10 out of it. In a newer building, you're gonna have some type of high-efficiency gas boiler that's gonna last five to ten years and be problematic.
Uh, the HVAC systems are not going to be balanced. Um, like I said, you're gonna just have issues. In older buildings, when you do work, you have to be wary of mold and lead paint. You gotta get that encapsulated. Uh, but I prefer an older building. They're more fun.
Newer buildings are just like. I get angry. I'm like, what? There's a special place in hell for architects who make a conduit that big. It's like, what do they think? Oh, they're going to only need cable, you know? No, make a big ass conduit. Okay? I mean, it's like they don't plan.
There's going to be something five years from now. They just, uh, think architects just look now, not thinking that this building is going to evolve. Like the tenants are going to evolve. Okay. Put big conduits in there. Okay?
{Dan Roberge:}
That's crazy.
{Daniel Monahan:}
Make the HVAC systems easy to get to. All right.
{Dan Roberge:}
So now, we were going to have our talk, uh, last week, but you had something come up, and you told me that I should ask you about that. Ah. What happened?
{Daniel Monahan:}
Okay, well, um. In a nutshell, we have a site in the Bronx that was built around 2006. Okay. The building next to our building was built at the exact same time by the exact same contractor, by the exact same engineer, and the exact same architect. So they built both buildings at the same time.
Our building is not subject to local law eleven. Local, uh, law eleven is the facade inspection. Our building is four stories tall. You have to do a facade inspection every five years. In New York City, if your building is six stories and above that building is eight, they're doing their local law eleven work, a lot of issues, and they decided to start doing some probes into their building.
And they're finding out that the contractor did not, uh, tie in the facade properly. They did not support the parapets properly, according to the blueprints. So, you have issues with the parapets and the facade. New m correction work is going to be millions of dollars. Okay, so what about the building that did the probes?
Their director said we should tell our neighbor because they are the exact same contractors, engineers, and architects. So they sent us the probes. I needed to get there with an engineer to take a look at our building to find out if we would have these same issues. None of the same issues are showing, uh, that they're having, uh, because there are some differences, but we still wanted to get it checked out to make sure that we don't have issues.
So, uh, we don't have any issues with our facade or parapet, but it's a, uh, smaller building with fewer stressors. But we want to make sure that we don't get these issues five years from now, ten years from now.
{Dan Roberge:}
That's actually quite interesting. You think how many times that happens that you have, um, two buildings exactly kind of the same, like you're mentioning, and that you can. One, one's wearing faster than the other for one reason or another, or whatever it is, and you can use the information you gain from that building to start to look ahead and what you need to look at before something happens.
I wonder how often you can use that type of information.
{Daneil Monahan:}
It's interesting, uh, but the engineer that I hired to take a look at their probe results and take, uh, essentially a gander at our building said, you know what? He's working on the exact same project where they didn't tie in the facade properly, they didn't do the parapets properly.
That was built at the exact same time, around 2006, and they're doing all the corrective actions on that building. So I luckily got an engineer who has that sort of experience where, uh, there was no oversight. I am a firm believer that if you're doing a project, you don't have your facilities manager be the project manager.
They don't have the time. You hire a specific project manager to keep an eye on everything, uh. I inherited this building after it was built. I was kind of angry. I said I wanted to be more involved in why it was being built. Uh, especially since they dropped all the data cable cables.
Uh, they missed the file server room and dropped everything into the sewage ejector room.
Uh.
You heard me. Uh, because they didn't hire a project manager. They wanted to save $20, you know, and they ended up spending a million. You know what I mean? Um, I see so many non-profits thinking, oh, we can do it ourselves, and they can't, or they're paying for it years down the line.
Here's an example of a nursing home I worked at. I was hired, and they said, we're doing these renovations to the bistro. They're enlarging it and making a new kitchen. Oh. I said that's interesting. They're like, no, no, no. You're not going to be involved. You're going to be learning about the building, the facilities, and your staff.
Don't get involved with this construction project. I'm like, okay. I asked who your project manager was. Oh, the chief financial officer. I'm like, oh. I kept my mouth shut. But, you know, like, well, that's a bad idea. Um, so the first day of construction is like my first week of work, and I meet the contractor.
How are you doing? We're all gathered together in the bistro, which was shut down because they're going to tear down a wall. And I clap my hands together. I go, this is exciting. Who has the permits? The contractor looks at me and shakes it. I didn't, uh, contract it out to get permits.
The chief financial officer standing there, he goes, that was me. I'll be back. Okay. He didn't get the permits for the job because he's not a project manager. He's a chief financial officer.
And I'm sure you've heard this, uh, a million times.
{Dan Roberge:}
You have to know what you're doing, and you have to have the right people doing the job that they're supposed to be doing. And sometimes the person at the top wants to have some more control over things, but they have to realize that there are people with expertise that will actually get the job done more effectively than they could, uh, they could participate.
{Daniel Monahan:}
It's, um, one thing that I always have very easy things saying is, especially when I'm working, to stop a contract and say, I don't know what you're saying. You're making. You're just one over my head. I don't understand anything. Most people can't do that. They just thought they were heading okay, and then the person leaves, and they don't know what's going on.
I go, but I have no idea, especially about some new Simplex fire alarms. He starts talking about English, like, wait a minute, I don't know. And all the maintenance guys are nodding their heads like they're pretending they're understanding it, and then they go, but we don't understand either. You're nodding your head.
You do. Just tell them you don't understand. Does it reflect on you?
{Dan Roberge:}
Well, when you have the confidence of the stuff you do know, and you know that it's correct, then when you hear something that you don't understand, it's not a big deal to say, well, you know, you have to. You can't just wow me with marketing terms here. I don't speak the same language as you, and you've been selling this product forever.
So now give it to me like. I don't know anything. This is the way they should be talking to you about it because it's new to you. Right?
{Daniel Monahan:}
So, yeah, it's also, um, I was in a meeting, and there was a pottery school going under. Ah. Gut rehabilitation. Big. And executive directors start looking at me, and he starts talking like. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. You're talking to me like I'm a project, um, manager. I'm a facilities manager.
You have to hire a project. You're not paying me nearly enough to be a facilities manager. The project manager said you don't look at it. You don't ask this stuff from a facilities manager. You ask this stuff from a project manager. He's like, okay, okay, okay. Um, but yeah, you have to also put your foot down and say, you can't do everything.
Then I don't want that liability. I said, I'll be the project manager, but that's all I'm going to be for this one project. I can't do all this other stuff, supervise the staff, and make sure the toilets are clean and working. I got to focus over here.
{Dan Roberge:}
Absolutely. So, uh, we're just reaching the end a little bit, but I wanted to ask you just a couple of questions related to, um, some shortcuts you might have found throughout your career or things that have been really useful or, um, tricks that you find are. Might be little things I've had somebody say to me, uh, well, I like to keep my boiler room floor painted.
That way, I can see when there are leaks right away and things like that. So, just any types of tips? I mean, can you think of anything? You deal with so many things on a daily basis.
{Daniel Monahan:}
I think, uh, the most time-saving thing for me is having a good, clear rapport with your chief financial officer and being able to clearly describe why you need to spend this money. Before you even go to your chief financial officer, get the three proposals and a clear explanation of why it needs to be done.
And you will compress your time so fast because I have so many people saying that it was approved already. Well, in your eyes, it was approved already, but I've been playing it together for about a month. Okay. Um, you just found out about it. Okay. Um, don't go taking stuff prematurely to your supervisors, because you just pitch them all and then make them ask questions that they shouldn't have to ask.
If you're a facilities manager, you know what your chief financial officer needs even before you get to them, you don't go say, oh, this is broken. I'm like. No. Who, what, when, where, why, how, and how much is it going to cost? Uh, because it's either broken or not broken.
Uh, but little, little things, uh, see, everything we have is usually neglect or vandalism. Uh, I would say about 90%. Windows, uh, don't break themselves from the inside. A coffee cup flying through that window is what broke. Uh, that's why when I, every time I go up to a building, I do a walk around, I look at the windows last, um, week, I found m one broken, uh, from the inside. So they're double panes. So you know everything. So you pay attention to your properties. Get a feel for your properties. Know your properties. I can walk. I walked into the building one time. I immediately knew the water booster pump was going because I could hear them feel that little vibration.
Know your properties. Um, yes. Painting the floor will give you a big heads-up. But also hearing. When I go into a basement, I hear everything. If I hear everything, that's a little bit odd. Investigate it. That's how you usually find steam leaks. Uh, pay attention to your doors closing.
That means your, uh, h vacs are not balanced properly. If all of a sudden the door isn't closing properly.
Also, uh.
Um, pay attention to your doors when the door doesn't work properly. Why is that door not closing properly? I, uh, had a door not closing properly, and it turned out there was a broken steam line. It was making the wood swell. Nobody, uh, could figure that out. I went over there and said it was too humid here.
Went below the floor and found a broken steam line. Okay. Uh, just common sense. Observe your facilities.
{Dan Roberge:}
Well, I mean, you could teach a course on this. Uh, you know, that's, um, it's a very fun, I think, and interesting, uh, job to do on a regular basis because, as you said, you have different puzzles to solve every day. So, um, it's been great talking to you.
I appreciate your time. Uh, you know, and I think we should eventually do this again, you know, in a few months or a year, and we can talk again and see how things are going with you. And, uh, you know, it's been, it's been great to get to learn about what you've been doing.
And if you have anything else you want to say, go ahead.
{Daniel Monahan:}
Well, if we talk in a year or so now, we're going to still talk about the same things because, oh, guess what? Somebody kicked in a shower wall again. Okay. Somebody broke a toilet tank again. Um, in my little world, we have, um, already pre-cut plywood to put over outside and on the door windows for when they get broken.
My glass vendors can usually come on the same day. Uh, but, yeah, I mean, you prepare for the disaster, which is your facilities, um, your population.
{Dan Roberge:}
Yeah, that's smart to do. That's smart to do. You find those shortcuts when you get repetitive things like that. So there's no preventative maintenance other than preparing for it that can, uh, prevent the situation.
{Daniel Monahan:}
Preventive maintenance is like a no-brainer. Your boilers, your h vacs. I mean, if you have good contractors, they're reminding you. If my contractor is not reminding me, and I have to remind them, they're not a good contractor, uh, I mean, they want my business.
{Dan Roberge:}
Well, thanks, Daniel. It's been great. Appreciate it.
{Daniel Monahan:}
Thank you.
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