Most urbanites prefer staying in apartments and condos. It is clean, secured and comes with various facilities that you cannot find if you are staying in a terraced house. However, they are problems that these apartment or condo dwellers will have to face after a few years, so it is advisable to check a few things out before deciding.
The sanitary system
I don’t understand why, but there are still many developers that have sanitary pipes like linking every floor before going to the main sewerage pool. If you observe up your bathroom or toilets ceiling, you will see some pipes sticking out. These are sewerage pipes from the floor above you. If your upstairs neighbor’s toilet gets clogged, the repairs will have to be done in YOUR toilet. Just imagine the inconvenience for some problem that is not your own.
On the other hand, if YOUR toilet gets stuck, your will have to beg for your downstairs neighbor’s cooperation to let your plumber in to have it cleared. Either way, it won’t be easy.
Water Proofing the Bathroom
If the bathroom above yours is not properly waterproofed, you will start seeing stalactites appearing after a few years, That’s because of water seeping through slowly from the bathroom upstairs. This will be even a bigger problem to deal with. Your upstairs neighbor will not be too keen to spend a few thousand bucks to re-do his bathroom floor for something that does not effect him one small bit. Even if you are willing to pay for it, he will not be willing to live without a bathroom for one week.
So when deciding to buy a high rise apartment, check this 2 areas and make sure that they are properly done to specifications. It will save you lots of heartaches later on.