pressurized walls, temporary walls, partitions, room dividers, pressurized wall, pressure walls, add a room

Company Rating 

June 2009

Company

Company Website Link

Overall Rating

Customer 

Service

Price

Customer Satisfaction

Liability Insurance

The Wall People, Inc. 

www.thewallpeople.com

9.6

9.7

9.3

9.6

Yes

PWNY

www.pressurizedwallsny.com

9.6

9.7

10.0

9.8

Yes

Room Dividers

www.roomdividersny.com

8.6

8.7

8.5

9.2

Yes

MPW (Manhattan Pressurized Walls )

www.manhattanpressurizedwalls.com

8.5

8.6

8.3

9.4

Yes

1Wall2Rooms

www.1wall2rooms.com

8.4

8.6

8.4

9.0

Yes

UPDATE: June1 ,2009 - The Wall People are in a virtual tie with PWNY. Now that the busy season has begun its unlikey that no one company will dominate this year due to the recession. PWNY has certainly held its own being one of the smaller companies and if their affordable prices and high quality walls remain great they could become the clear front runner. MPW also seems to be back in stride as their company vans being spoted on a daily basis around the city. The condition of the economy has certainly played a big role in how the Wall companies will market their services with some of them already giving out free or discounted options to entice customers. This is of course a big plus for potential customers who are already struggling to pay rent and other bills and who may have put getting a pressurized wall installed on hold due to the cost. Customers have inquired about some other wall companies in New York that are not on our list. They either did not provide enough data to meet our standards or were not considered full-time professional wall companies. We also do not rate companies that build pre-fabricated walls such as "old-timer", The Living Space Company.    

 The above ratings are compiled on a monthly basis and averaged over a 6-month period through random calls and emails to the companies, reviews from landlords, doormen and supers regarding their professionalism of the companies, feedback from a variety of customers about their experiences, close monitoring of company advertising tactics, website analysis, specials, Google ratings, price quotes and of course, customer service. Overall, all of the companies in our profile have had its good and bad moments but most responses were favorable. Needless to say, there will always be a few unhappy customers, especially when you spend a $1,000 for a temporary wall.

Where the companies differ greatly is in prize, size, advertising, customer service, leasing and non-leasing  options, required security deposits and most importantly options available in terms of wall design like seamless or non-seamless walls. Customer satisfaction is based on a review of 10 or more customers each month. 

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This is a non-bias rating derived from hundreds of customers and an ongoing amount of research into each company.

1. The Wall People (Ranking #1 -tie with PWNY)

As one of New York's biggest and oldest Wall companies, they know how to build walls and have the "people power" to build as many as they wish. Good connections with landlords and brokers does not hurt either and an unlimited amount of referrals has made advertising almost unnecessary. But as the smaller companies continue to nip away at the market, The Wall People will need to come up with a new game plan to keep them at the top of the pile.)

 Prices are still somewhat high for non-seamless walls so if you are on a tight budget they may not be the right choice but if you need a wall fast, and are not too concern about the look ,put The Wall People in your speed dial.  The leasing of their walls is still a questionable issue as is the use of wood strips as the only option to cover the seams. 2009 may be a struggle for the company though unless they step things up some. Smaller companies like PWNY that offer "seamless" walls at lower prices have certainly chipped away heavily at The Wall People's customer base but if The Wall People start offering “seamless” walls at no extra cost they could command the top spot for 2009. .

  PWNY offers the best prices by far for a seamless pressurized wall.  .  PWNY has slowly climbed its way to a virtual tie with The Wall People. The company now offers great walls that can only be matched in quality by MPW but at a much better price. The company offers the best prices by far among any listed Pressurized Wall company without sacrificing quality or service . The fact that PWNY builds walls at the same level of quality as MPW means that as demand continues to heat up over the summer they will be going head to head with the only other listed company that exclusively builds “seamless” ( real looking ) Pressurized Walls. PWNY has some advantages in that leasing of the wall is not required so there are no leasing fees or security deposits required. Free removal is included as well and customer satisfaction is near perfect. They are also the only company to our knowledge that offers a written life-time warranty on their walls. YOu may also find special discount codes around the net on various sites which is another plus since its the peak of the wall season and demand for service has incresed prices some. Demand for PWNY seams to be overwhelming so email seams to get the fastest response which includes free price quotes around the clock 

These guys are still going "head to head with 1Wall 2 Rooms and we have received similar price quotes from both and customer service was equal as well.  Customers are often confused as to which was which.  They both offer the same great workmanship and very fast service.  They still offer no frills, quick reliable service and are slowly chipping away at the heavy market share that the top companies command.  Once again, leasing of walls as well as use of strips to cover the seams (non-seamless) is also questionable. 

Things seamed to have slowed down some from the crazy peak season when you could see the MPW truck almost on a daily basis.  But they still build great "seamless" walls and if price is no object, they offer a great product. Only PWNY builds walls that can match the look of MPW walls. They just do it for about 20% less.

Basic, "non-seamless" walls is what these guys specialize in and at a reasonable price. If all you need is a plain white wall with a door, they can give you just that in just a a day.

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What to look for when choosing a Pressurized Wall Company.

1. Make sure the company has liability insurance.  If not and damage is done to your apartment, elevator, building lobby, etc...You could be held liable. In addition, if the worker is hurt in the apartment they could file a lawsuit against you as well. 

2. Choose a company that specializes in Pressurized Walls.  Hiring the handyman next door could lead to a disaster..  Its like going to a chiropractor when you have a toothache or taking your BMW to a Toyota dealer for repairs.  Companies that do not specialize in building Pressurized Walls are more then likely just trying to jump on the bandwagon of this hot new trend. Demand for Pressurized Wall services is very high  so a legitimate wall company would not have time to do anything else but build walls.

3. Make sure the company has a website with photos of some of the walls they have built.  Also, ask for references. 

4. Find out exactly what you are getting and how the wall will look.  Several of the respondents to our survey were not informed by their wall company that the wall would not have what's called a "seamless" finish. Meaning that the wall would look like the rest of their apartment instead of having wood strips place on all of the seams on the Temporary wall.  Also, find out the exact color of your apartment and see if you can have the wall company match the paint. There are many shades of white so ask your super for the exact color.  If the wall company paints your wall standard white for example and your apartment is Linen white, the new wall will stick out like a sore thumb.

5. Make sure there are no "hidden fees" i.e.. ( security deposits you were not told about, removal fees, walk-up fees, painting fees, etc....)  Get everything in writing before you make a commitment.

6. Choose one of the companies listed above!!  We have spent an enormous amount of time researching the Pressurized Wall Phenomenon and we assure you that if the company you want to use is not on the above list, they are not a full-service wall company.  Several new companies and handymen have pop-up over the past few months offering Pressurized Wall services.  Clearly this trend will continue to grow as more and more contractors realize that the Wall business can be very lucrative.  We will do our best to keep you informed as to who the real players are. No other company to our knowledge is monitoring the Pressurized Wall business so we take pride in being the first as well as giving you the most up date information. 

7.  Find out if your wall is leased.  If so, you will have to pay an extra fee to the company each year to keep it.  Some of the customers surveyed were not told this by the wall company and were charged a fee to keep the wall after the first year.   

8.  Don't and we emphasize, "don't" wait until the last minute to reserve a date for your installation. Like any other line of business, if demand is high, prices will go up and available dates will go down. Smaller companies like PWNY seam to be booked as far as 10-days to 2-weeks in advance during peak times so contacting them on on a Saturday afternoon for a Monday morning installation is highly unlikely unless you are willing to pay a high rush service fee. To get the best deals with Wall companies book as far in advance as possible especially between the months of April and September..   

About   B & D Marketing Company:

B & D Marketing Company was formed to provide a variety of online services to students, NYC renters and New Yorkers looking for free access to valuable information.  Over the coming year we will offer independent reviews of new Restaurants, Nightclubs RE Brokers, Apartment Buildings and other service companies in New York. Our decision to review Pressurized Wall companies was due to the lack of valuable information on this growing trend.  The founders of  B & D Marketing are all college students or young professionals trying to make it in the Big Apple and we have all had Pressurized Walls built at one time or another.

 B & D Marketing. has no paid sponsors and is not affiliated with any business that we review.