These guys are phenomenal - I can't believe there are not a ton of rave reviews here for this company, and to be honest I almost didn't hire them for lack of existing feedback, so I'm happy to be able to help get the ball rolling for them. Here's my scenario: the hardwood floors of the apartment above were transmitting the footsteps of my neighbors directly downward in an alarming way, such that you could literally tell at any moment what the neighbors were doing, where they were in the apartment, etc. Given that there was coming and going at all hours, it was driving us below crazy as you could never just fall asleep at night for fear of being woken up at any moment by loud and impactful thumping from above. Although they were sympathetic, the neighbors would not put down carpeting for a variety of reasons (allergies, animals, cost, etc). Our only recourse was to try to soundproof our ceiling. That's the point at which we hired Brooklyn Insulation and Soundproofing.
I'll split this review into two parts, the process and the results.
As you can probably imagine from my intro, we were really impressed with this company - here's why: to start with, the owner, Devin, made two site visits to see the situation and discuss options, once to generate a quote (or rather a couple of quotes, for different approaches to the problem), and once after we had decided on a strategy but still had a bunch of new questions that had come up. Soundproofing is a tricky science, and Devin made every effort to explain how things worked, at an understandable technical level. I had done a fair amount of research on my own and I really felt like he knew his stuff.
Since the way we were going to address the problem was to remove the existing ceiling and put up a new one suspended independently from little rubber 'clips' - a method known as decoupling - we wanted to make sure our apartment would be properly protected during all the upheaval, and Devin not only understood our concerns but did a GREAT job of protecting everything. Anything that we asked to have special attention, got even more layers of cover!
The work took about a week, with the first day being just about protecting and taping up every exposed part of the space. They put thick paper and masonite on all the floors and counters, and taped up doors and other openings with plastic film. Our apartment looked like an armored personnel carrier. Then the ceiling came down and the heavy work started. Throughout the process, both Devin and his foreman, Robert, were always available to answer questions and discuss their actions. They even encouraged us to check up on them and look over their shoulders as much as we wanted (something most craftspeople loathe!). They also proposed things we hadn't thought about, like taking advantage of the ceiling being gone to run extra speaker and power cables. The foreman even installed an extra outlet and sconce for us in a far corner of the apartment that had previously been difficult to light. Things stayed on schedule, despite some complications during the work that required a last-minute change in how the new ceiling was to be hung.
The repainting and finishing work was also completely professional and thorough. They made special trips to the paint store to match our original wall colors and their plaster guy did an amazing job of creating a smooth finish over a very large space, despite doing most of his work from atop a high scaffold. No problems here.
Their load-out was swift and efficient as well (even with 6 flights of stairs to deal with!). The foreman had been sending things out as they finished with them all throughout the week, and they got everything carried out on the last day in record time. Unfortunately, there was a lot of plaster dust coating everything they removed, and while they mopped down the space afterward, there was still quite a bit of plaster dust around and we ended up spending a half day cleaning everything ourselves until the apartment was back to what we considered 'normal'. It would be great if they had assigned someone to a more thorough cleaning detail at the end of the process so this could have been avoided.
OK, so was it worth it? definitely, but that answer may be different for everyone as this kind of major renovation is expensive and the results may not be what you hope for. First off, be aware that you will probably not eliminate all the sounds that are annoying you; but for us they were certainly much reduced, and what matters most, they are no longer loud enough to wake us up at night. Suspending the ceiling eliminated the 'spatialization' of sound that was such a big part of the problem for me personally - the fact that I could hear the neighbors clearly walk around from place to place.
Verdict: if you want to go ahead with soundproofing, you simply can't do better than with these guys. read more
