It's Easy to Take the Boiler Room for Granted, But Here's Why You Shouldn't
Michael Smart
June 10, 2015 — The 162-unit Tracy Towers at 245 East 24th Street isn't the only co-op that boasts a pristine boiler room. The Columbia, on the Upper West Side, also has a squeaky-clean boiler room, thanks to resident manager Michael Smart.
"It's easy to say, 'Let's worry about how the boiler room looks later,' but if such a simple room is a mess imagine what else you are going to encounter," says Smart, who tends to the building's two boilers. The boilers date back to 1983 and provide heat for 302 units.
"I'm down there every day making sure everything is up to par," he adds. That means spending an hour checking the water levels and steam pressure, cleaning the strainers and air filters either every week or every month, cleaning the sensors, and greasing the pumps and checking the steam traps. Seasonally, an outside company is called in to clean the tubes.
"The philosophy is simple: if you maintain the boiler well, it will run efficiently. I treat it like the heart of the building," says Smart. When he was interviewing for jobs — he's been at the Columbia for seven years — he toured some boiler rooms so dirty that he worried other problems lurked in the building. "The boiler room isn't going to determine whether you take a [job] but it does play a part."
Real estate agents and fire inspectors often show up at boiler rooms unannounced. Smart says he is not worried about surprise visitors.
For property managers, a clean boiler room isn't a bonus, but rather, an essential. "It means the super is on top of his job. He has attention to detail," says Michael Zerka of Blue Woods Management Group, which manages the Columbia. "This is probably the cleanest boiler room I've seen and the best maintained," he adds.
The barons of these boiler rooms have a few things in common: all have immaculate offices, scuff-free work boots, and stain-free shirts. Their commitment to the boilers, they say, stems from a desire to do a great job. And buildings are all the better for it.
Photo by Lorenzo Ciniglio