When you recieve a particularly enthusiastic, articultate and funny testimonial you just have to pass it on:
As one who somehow found, liked, bid on, put an application on, was accepted for, and.... gulp.... bought..... a co-op in the East Village recently, I find myself and my purchase treated with a mixture of elation, envy, and even hostility one would assume reserved for lottery winners.
Truth be told, I fell under the lottery-winner spell myself... so much so I overlooked one teensy drawback to my apartment: the floorplan is backwards. The living room is bright but not brilliantly so, while the bedroom, which faces south and overlooks E 4th, is.
Light... and noise.
Oh sweet Jesus it's loud. Brutally, punishingly loud. I am convinced - I do not exaggerate - that E. 4th, in the heart of the village, is louder on weekend nights than Times Square. I tried to bond with the noise, to become one with the sweaty, teeming life carried into my bedroom with every drunken howl. Good for another three days. After that, increasingly violent revenge fantasies were my bedtime companions. I'm not kidding: acid-filled water balloons. My own private Soprano thugs. That sort of thing.
I vented all this on my real estate agent, even going so far as to ask whether I would be his first client to move twice in two months, and he mentioned two words that changed my life: Cityproof Windows.
These folks have one business, and one business only: they custom-make and install windows that mount INSIDE the well in which your apartment windows sit (for those of you from New England, they're sort of like storm windows in reverse: the mount inside, not outside, your existing windows). They do not touch the windows you've already got (great for us owners: no pesky boards to deal with). Their sole purpose is the total annihilation of city noise.
Here's the deal: they come to your house, take measurements, talk options, give you a a few prices. They ain't cheap: for, say, a three-foot by six-foot window, expect to pay eight to eleven hundred bucks.
But oh, the difference. My saleseman arrived, as promised, at eight AM (!), measured the 4X6 window, took a look, and said: sure, we could do the quarter-inch thick, double hung. But to really block out all that noise, he'd go thicker... he quoted me a price for 3/8" glass, looked me in the eye, and said... "but the 1/2 inch is less than a hundred dollars more. Most people who are serious go for the half inch."
Half-inch thick glass? Like the bullet-proof stuff in the oval office? (Standard window glass is 1/8 inch thick. Or less.) I became aroused just thinking about it and signed on immmediately. (I don't remember but I think it was like thirteen hundred bucks, all told, give or take).
Business is good over at Cityproof, and the promised four-week waiting period was actually closer to six. But the window was installed in about two hours, and, as they say in Valley Girl....
Oh. My. God.
Slience. Library quiet. Peaceful sleep. I slide the panels closed and feel like Charlton Heston in Omega Man, cloistering myself from the barbarians below. My favorite part? I bring guy friends in, show 'em the window, and say: "go ahead. Hit it. As hard as you can." All you hear is that dull whack of knuckles hittin' half-inch thick glass.
If you have noise issues (who doesn't?) and can afford it, do it. It'll change your life. They look pretty good, too.
Best, Peter
who are your friends that would take you up on the offer to punch half-inch-thick glass?
er, um, did you consider switching the living and bedrooms?
otherwise, a delightful post due in no small part to the use of the phrases "sweaty, teeming life carried into my bedroom with every drunken howl" and the ever-popular "double hung."
and don't be alarmed. it's definitly not unusual to be aroused by the extra half inch.
Peter,
I can't believe how noisy it is on W. 4th street in the early hours between the garbage trucks and the loud talkers. Unfortunately, the people I stayed with, who are renters, cannot afford your elegant solution to the noise problem. Actually, I found this site with your comments searching for a solution for drafty windows. I am thinking about the heating season to come. Maybe someone has a doable DIY ( read better than shrink wrap and tape) that even the inept can do!
I lived on E. 4th Street (ground floor) for nearly 10 years. I too had revenge filled fantasies of acid-filled Supersoakers or electifiying the short railing that seperated my window from the sidewalk. After putting up with the noise (and people urinating and puking right outside my window), I finally approached one of the neighboring bars about this problem and I suggested that a sound-proof window would help. I called around for estimates and one month later CityProof Windows installed a window and the bar footed the bill. It is in the interest of the bar to keep complaints to a minumum and worth a shot...
You could actually make glass panels that would function much the same as those window. They certainly wouldn't be AS good as CityProof Windows, but I'm sure they'd be decent.
Just buy 2 1/2" glass panels which, together, would cover the space you need. You'd have to figure out the appropriate mounting technique for your particular window, but there are several: you could simply hinge the glass panels; you could mount them in frames to either swing or slide closed across the space.
If you have the time and even a bit of experience with tools, you could probably figure out a decent way to do this. The glass isn't that expensive...
... It's not as nice as CityProof, but you're getting what you pay for here.
Has anyone heard anything about Cityproof versus Citiquiet? I am debating between the two for my windows in my NYC apartment. Thanks!
I like to have a noise reduction windows but when I get the estimate from one of those company, it was too pricey for me. For 3.5 x 5 feet window, they charge you $1100 per window. I am wondering if we can have the similar result if we go to the local window factory and ask for installing 1/2 thick glass window and install? Or any other special technology involved in cityproof or cityquie window?
Wow, the fact that you used a reference from Omega Man was brilliant... but even with the windows closed, you could still hear them calling him.
I think I may need to invest on this! Thanks for the recommend:)
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