Inside this Newsletter
- Important Dates to Remember
- Updates at Hales Property Management
-
Keeping Pests Away In the Hot Summer Months
- Best of the Blog
- Maintenance Tip: Changing the Battery in Your Smoke Alarm
- From the Desk of Keith Hales
Important Dates to Remember:
July 15-17: Windy City Smokeout
July 15-17: Pitchfork Music Festival
July 23-24: Chicago Craft Beer Festival
July 28-31: Lollapalooza (25th Annual)
July 15-17: Pitchfork Music Festival
July 23-24: Chicago Craft Beer Festival
July 28-31: Lollapalooza (25th Annual)
Did You Know?
Grilling Safety Starts and Ends with Common Sense
As July gets underway and the mercury rises, summer grilling season in Chicago is in full swing. July is actually the peak month for grill fires, accounting for 17% of all structure, outdoor, and unclassified fires. No one starts up their grill expecting to create a major fire hazard, but accidents do happen.
That’s why it is important to always keep safety in the back of your mind when using your grill. Common safety tips include keeping the grill at least 5 feet from any building wall or deck surface, removing grease buildup to avoid flare-ups, and ensuring children stay away from the grill. However, the most important safety tip is to always use common sense and to never leave a working grill unattended.
For more tips, visit the National Fire Protection Association website.
For more tips, visit the National Fire Protection Association website.
Updates at Hales Property Management
As a reminder, Hales summer hours are Monday through Thursday, 8:30AM until 5:00PM and Fridays, 8:30AM until 1PM. Our online web portal will continue to be available for any non-emergency requests.
We would like to welcome our summer intern Brock Duhon to the property management team!
Hales Online Web Portal
Have a question regarding your ledger or have a maintenance request for the common areas of your building? Simply log on to the online web portalto submit requests directly to our property management team. The site is mobile friendly and allows for a photo to be attached as well!Keeping Pests Away in the Hot Summer Months
During summer, it’s easier than ever to attract unwanted pests such as ants, flies, or worse, to your condo. In a building with many units, a pest problem doesn’t only affect you, but also your neighbors. Follow these three simple tips to avoid a pest problem in your condo this summer:
1. Put food away.
A large portion of the time, pests find a way to sneak into your home because they sense that there is food for the taking. Putting food away is the simplest way to avoid this problem.
2. Keep a clean home.
For pests, things you may not necessarily consider food, such as crumbs or that sticky spot near the garbage can are also attractive. Increasing the standard of cleanliness around your home will reduce your chances of an infestation.
3. Seal any entry points.
Bugs come from somewhere, and often it is easy to spot the window or door crack that is letting them in (for one, you can usually follow the trail of bugs). If you notice such an entry point, seal it right away even if you don’t see any bugs near it. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Following these three basic steps should deter pesky visitors from setting up camp in your condo this summer.
Best of the Blog
Caulk gets into those nooks and crannies to provide a better overall seal. But what type should you use?
Move in and move out fees are different from a security deposit. Why do homeowners associations have them? Find out in this post.
You don’t have to travel to exotic lands to have a great vacation. Here are some ideas to have a staycation in Chicago.
Be sure to get all the details of your condo unit before you buy.
Maintenance Tip
Changing the Battery in Your Smoke Alarm
We’ve all had the moment when a smoke alarm will start beeping in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. Usually, a simple battery change is enough to resolve the issue. Remember: the U.S. Fire Administration recommends that smoke alarms should be tested at least once a month and their batteries should be replaced at least twice a year.
