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About Building by Building
Building by Building is a publication about heat, hot water and plumbing in New York City buildings, organized by the type of building you live in and the borough it stands in.
This site explains the rules and the people behind the radiator, the water heater and the pipes in a New York home. It starts from one question, which building do you live in, because the answer decides who controls the boiler, which city rules apply and who you should call first.
What this site is, and what it is not
It is a publication: pages to read, built from city, state, federal and utility sources. It is not a plumber, a heating company or a building manager. It takes no calls, books no work, sends no one to your door and gives no quotes. It is not linked to any New York firm with a similar name.
If something is wrong in your building, the right first step is on the page for your problem: usually the super, the landlord, your co-op or condo board, or a licensed plumber, and then 311. In an emergency, such as a gas smell or a carbon monoxide alarm, get everyone out first, then call 911 from outside (and, for gas, your gas utility).
Who runs it?
The same team that runs four businesses linked from some pages of this site: Plumbing Supply and More, SoftPro Water Systems, Quality Water Treatment, and Central Plumbing & HVAC. Each link appears only on a page where it is relevant, and each carries a note beside it saying the business is run by the same team as this site. Central Plumbing & HVAC, a Pennsylvania firm serving Bucks and Montgomery counties rather than New York, appears only as an example of how a licensed firm describes its work.
None of those links changes what a page says. Rules, safety steps and dollar figures come from the agencies listed at the bottom of each page, never from a store.
How the pages are written
Each page answers for the five building types first: prewar walk-up, brownstone or row house, co-op or condo high-rise, two-family house and new-build condo. Then it covers the topic, with a lookup step, questions and a list of sources. How this atlas is made explains the sources, the dates and the gaps. The privacy page explains what the site does and does not collect. Start with your building on the prewar walk-up sheet or any of the others from the home page.