What gets the Pool dirty?

Simply put, the pool gets dirtied mainly by the following: 1)  dust, dry leaves, bird feathers that come by air,  2) hair and body oils from swimmers,  3) bacteria that breed in the water, 4) algae that breed on the tiles.

The Pool Filtration

To get rid of 1) and 2) the filtration unit of the Pool works continuously. There are drains at the bottom of the deepest end of the pool that sucks in the water continuously and sends to the filtration system. There are also drains at the top sides of the pool that sucks the surface water of the pool (where lighter debri oil, hair float) and sends to the filtration system.  Most filters in Apartment Complexes are high-rate sand filters, which are large tanks with containing thick bed of special grade sand with a squarish shape.  The water first goes through a strainer that catches larger debris like dry leaves, and then goes through this sand filter where rest of the debris are caught.

Pool Filter Sand

Water is then fed back into the pool.

To dislodge and clean up the fine dust settled on the pool floor, the Pool Vaccum Cleaner is used that can be pointed to specific areas to suck the water in that area and send to the filtration system. Pool vacuuming must be done at least once a week during the Pool season.

To get rid of 4) bacteria and other pathogen that breed in water, the pool is ‘treated’ with chlorine – the pool disinfectant.   Chlorine in its granular  (calcium hypochlorite) form or liquid form (sodium hypochlorite) is added at the point the water comes out from the filtration system, and into the pool.  Chlorine in water forms hypochlorous acid which kills bacteria and other pathogens.

Did you Know: The strong ‘chlorine smell’ you get in a pool at times, does not mean it has too much chlorine, but too little ‘free chlorine’. The chlorine in the pool combines with other chemicals naturally available in the pool e.g., ammonia to form chloramines. These chloramines cause the distinct smell and eye irritation.  This means, the chlorine is used up in these compounds and not available to attack the bacteria in the pool.

Shocking the Pool

To get rid of Chloramines the pool needs to be “Shock Treated”, once a week. This is done by adding unusually high amount of chlorine to the water while the filtration system is on. This “Super Chlorination” completely removes any bacteria or other unhelpful chemicals present in the pool water.

Shock Treating should be done after rains, and the pool should not be used for 12-24 hours after shock treating. This is the reason why most Swimming Pools in Apartment Complexes are closed once a week. This is also the day that any algae found breeding on the pool tiles is dislodged by scrubbing with a brush.

With all these practices in place by a adept pool Custodian, you splash through this summer!

Credits: howstuffworks.com, about.com, ehow.com, caudata.org, wikihow.com. Photo credit: Jennifer Macke

Related posts

• Water Survey for Apartments
• Water Supply in Apartments – Checklist for Associations
• The Water Workshop for Apartment Communities
• Testing Water Quality

Imagine this. You are driving into the basement after a tiring workday and you notice an exposed cable come loose from the ceiling. Would you remember to lodge this complaint after getting home and logging into you computer?

Now you don’t have to!

While walking to the elevator, take your Cellphone and send SMS to a dedicated number! Your complaint will be lodged into your ADDA, and you will receive the Ticket number!

On the Admin side, the same process will be triggered as if the Complaint was lodged by logging into your ADDA.

Now you need not ignore any little gap in your beautiful home, just SMS!

Other useful uses:

1. Senior citizens who may not be connected to Internet often, can lodge a ticket without having to depend on anyone.

2. Your Estate Manager / Security Supervisor can record each incident easily while on regular rounds.

To know the dedicated number of your ADDA, please log in to your ADDA, the number is right on the “HelpDesk” widget on Resident’s Dashboard*.  You could also send out an Admin Notice/SMS Broadcast/Physical Notice on your Notice Board, informing all Residents of this Number.

Credits: Yesterday evening we sent a frantic request to a few power users to do some beta testing. Almost everyone did and provided us their valuable feedback! Thanks to Anil Danti of Brigade Metropolis, Bhupesh Pant of Shriram Spandhana, Sajin K of Oasis Breeze, Jayanti Prasad of Brigade Gateway and Somesh Agarwal of Purva Fountainsquare!

Raise-a-ticket-by-SMS

* – This enhancement comes free of any additional cost to ADDAs that has HelpDesk. (part of Premium PRO or Premium LITE – Management packages).

Related posts

• Testimonial-Janhavi Nivas ADDA
• SMS Broadcast to SubGroups
• Great News – Essential SMS Reach All

Our office in Mumbai – Kandivali East, will work in coordination with the Bangalore office for Sales and Support to Mumbai and Pune.

If you happen to be around Kandivali, please drop in!  Here are the Addresses:

Mumbai Office:

3Five8 Technologies Pvt. Ltd.,
#37, 1st Floor, Centrium Mall,
Lokhandwala Complex,
Akurli Road,
Kandivali East,
Mumbai – 400101

ADDA in Mumbai

Bangalore Office:

3Five8 Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Office #208,
Evoma Serviced Offices,
#82/83 Borewell Road,
Whitefield,
Bangalore – 560066

ADDA in Bangalore

The deployment of the Amarisa ADDA happened in 2011,  under the leadership of Mr. Kanti Memani (President), Mr. Ravickumar M (Secretary) and Mr. Srihari G (Treasurer).  Mr. Srihari who is also a Chartered Accountant did the migration of existing Accounting data to ApartmentADDA and bursted the myth that Indian Chartered Accountants can’t use software that is not Tally

Asvini Amarisa Executive Committee 2011-2012. (L to R) Mr. Kanti, Mr. Ravi (magicravi), Mr. SriHari.

Here is a Testimonial from Mr. Srihari:

ApartmentAdda is really an efficient tool for Association management activities, and it really makes life easy for all the management committee Members in all areas including treasury management.

ADDA really changed the environment in a very positive manner and created credibility among the members about treasury related areas. It helped in realizing the arrears of maintenance collections from many residents. Major amount has been realized in Asvini Amarisa after we got onto “ApartmentAdda” as many non resident owners are able to see their Due details online and are also clearing the due via “payment gateway” integrated with our accounting system maintained in Apartment Adda.

The Apartment Adda team is very good and supportive and always helpful to address the issues in a timely manner.

Wishing many happy Management Committees to the Amarisa ADDA!

Related posts

• Testimonial – Skylark Greens ADDA
• Team HSOA
• Running the Association Affairs

EVALUATION of M&P COMPANY

• While evaluating the Packers, ensure they see all articles to be moved, which helps them judge the height of the Truck/Container required.
• If possible insist on a dedicated truck for your goods, so point-to-point delivery can happen. This reduces delays as well as  mix-up of your goods with other consignments.
• Typical components of the Cost Sheet:

Packing
Loading
Transportation
Unloading
UnPacking

Insurance (optional)

Service Tax

• Insurance claims are entertained only in case of extreme unforeseen damages, e.g., the truck getting into an accident. Insurance claims are not entertained in case damage happens during regular loading/unloading. So don’t compromise on the quality of the packer, by buying insurance for the goods.
• Discuss about how much advance to be paid before delivery. The negotiated split needs to be written down on the Estimate sheet which is the only Document until loading of your goods.
• If you are moving to Maharashtra get complete clarification about Octroi. If they do not give you Octroi challan good chances they won’t be paying it and will pay a bribe instead. Learn about the Octroi rates here: http://www.lawyersclubindia.com/forum/Octroi-1352.asp  Octroi is not levied on household goods.

BEFORE THE DAY OF PACKING

• Pack personal articles like Clothes, cosmetics, and other delicate items by yourself.
• Pack the bag that you would carry with yourself. Consider placing below valuables in the bag that must travel with you:

1. Jewellery

2. Cash

3. Certificates, Passports, Keys, Licenses etc.

4. Any other lightweight material of high value or high cost of replacing.

• Dispose all items that you wish to discard. Otherwise on the day of frantic packing, they will all get packed.

Flag it off!

ON THE DAY OF PACKING

• Consider 7-8 hours of total packing and loading time for a typical 3BHK, using 4-5 personnel.
• The Packers will bring along with them: Boxes, Brownpaper rolls, Bubblewrap rolls, Sticky Tapes, screwdrivers etc.
• If you have the original box for the TV or the Fridge, they may not be of much use. But if you have the original thermocol packing of these items, they are useful.
• Designate an area in your house for junk that you want to dispose – Instruct the Packers clearly not to pack articles kept in that area.
• Designate a separate area for articles that you want to carry along with yourself -  Instruct the Packers clearly not to pack articles kept in that area.
• Keep colored stickers to be pasted on the boxes. Color code each room in the destination. E.g., all boxes to go into kitchen, to have green sticker.
• For furniture that are being dissembled, create a single small plastic box to hold all the nuts and bolts. If the packer has a method of storing it (e.g., in the last box that is packed), make note of it.
• The packers will be very energetic with the first hour of packing, their stamina going down gradually. Plan for some Chai/Snacks/Cool Drinks for them.
• Towards the end, they may try to load some articles without wrapping them up (e.g., a coffee table). Do not allow this, insist on wrapping or packing everything.

IN TRANSIT

• Take the phone number of the Trucker. The trucker may not be an employee of the M&P company and may contact you directly for any queries in transit.
• If you are moving to Maharashtra, you may get a call from the nearest Octroi checkpost that more Octroi is being asked. The personnel from the M&P company would ask you to agree to the higher amount (in thousands) or want you to run down to the naka with the letter declaring the value of goods etc.
• In case they threaten delaying of delivery, do not succumb. The Mover loses Thousands of rupees each day that he holds a delivery since the truck goes unused or godown space is taken up. they would like to drop the goods at the destination as quickly as possible.

ON DELIVERY

• If the unpacking of goods, assembling of furnitures was included in the Estimate, do not let the Movers go until they do it. Do not agree to “we will come tomorrow and do it”. Give them an espresso shot and get the job done, with Movers, tomorrow never comes.
• It is possible that the Truck Driver may collect all of the remaining amount. Try to hold some payment until all the unpacking and assembling of furniture is done.
• Tip reasonably on a job well done.

What is your experience with Moving?

Here is an extract from Times News:

” Justice BS Patil set aside the differential rates of improvement (betterment) charges fixed by the civic body by terming them ‘arbitrary and unreasonable’.
Disposing of 300 petitions challenging the Karnataka Municipal Corporations (Recovery of Improvement Expenses) Rules, 2009, the judge directed BBMP to register khata in the event land owners have satisfied all other legal requirements.”

Full article here: Give Khata, don’t insist on Betterment Fee

Related posts

• Bangalore Property Registration made easy
• Testimonial-Janhavi Nivas ADDA
• Khata Transfer – What and How
• Is Bribe a mandatory part of Khata Transfer in Bangalore?
• Associations helping in Khata Registration

The Online Process is very easy, here is a 5 step guide to paying Property Tax Online for 2012-2013.

Please note Online Payment is available only for Form-IV, i.e., for cases where there are no changes in the Property compared to last year – in the built up area, occupancy type etc.  For the rest of the cases, you may have to pay at the BBMP Property Tax collection centers.

To start with the Property Tax payment,

1. Go to this link: http://1113.sasbbmp.com/InternetPayment/frmForm4Internet1213.aspx

In this page you have to fill either  the Application Number of 2008-2009 filing or the PID number.  On clicking on “Click Here”, the Property Owner’s Name will show up.

Click on Continue.

2. The next screen will come completely pre-populated. You only have to fill your Phone Number.

The Tax Amount will be same as last year PLUS Solid Waste Management cess, which will be extra.

Click on “Online Payment”.

3. At this point you will see your Application Number.

4. In the Next Screen you can see the IDBI Payment Gateway

Enter your Card Details, enter your Secure Code in the next screen, and you are done!

Your Acknowledgement and Receipt is ready!

Here is a Property Tax FAQ: http://1113.sasbbmp.com/InternetPayment/FAQ_1213.htm

Related posts

• Bangalore Property Registration made easy

It started 3 years back as one ADDA but had to be split midway into two ADDAs due to change in Governance Model of the Community – for us this was like changing the tyres of a running car! Both ADDAs have just renewed their subscription.

Wishing many years of happy neighbourhood to Greenwood Regency!

Some of you have written to us about when to start charging the Service Tax of 12.36%.

The answer is: from 01-April-2012.

While the Parliamentary approval on the Budget Proposal is pending, the budget document states the date from which various changes are applicable.

The budget document is available here:

http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2012-13/mem/mem2.pdf

Page 45 has the required clarity. Please see excerpt below:

I. RATE OF SERVICE TAX:
1) The rate of service tax is being increased from ten per cent. to twelve per cent.
2) Consequent to change in the rate of service tax, changes are also being made in specific and compounding rates of tax
for the following:
<…….>
[The above changes will be applicable from 01.04.2012]

Thanks to CA Navaneeth N. Kini & Co. for providing the clarity.

Related posts

• Service Tax for Apartment Purchase

Some of you had a hearty laugh, some sent across detailed questions about its functionality, some requested a Demo, some asked if there are Solar Powered versions,  and some thought we were a much younger team than we actually are!

Thank you for allowing us to humor you for a day. The Weekly Digest was postponed from Friday to Sunday, just for the privilege of laughing & dreaming together with you – our dear customers.

Now it’s time to get back to the seriousness of April – Happy New Fiscal Year!

Team ApartmentADDA.