The Home Insulators

Insulation Contractors in Westchester County, NY

Westchester County has 391,861 housing units, and 76.9% of them were built before 1980. The median unit dates from 1958, and the oldest cohort is also the largest: 28.0% predates 1940, 25.1% went up in the 1940s and 50s, 23.9% in the 1960s and 70s, 13.5% in the 1980s and 90s and 9.6% since 2000.

Only 43.5% of units are detached houses. 6.6% are attached, 7.8% are in two-unit buildings, 7.2% in three- and four-unit buildings and 16.9% in buildings of 50 or more, and 62.2% of occupied homes are owner-occupied. Gas heats 51.6% of homes, but fuel oil still heats 30.0%, electricity 12.9% and bottled gas 3.1%, and oil climbs as the gas lines thin out to the north: Rye is 15.0% oil, New Castle 54.7%.

The county plans itself as North, Central and South, and the houses follow. The railroads of the 1840s pulled the population south, and after World War II apartment houses rose in the urban centers. The Hudson towns from Yonkers to Peekskill are turning industrial waterfront into mixed-use neighborhoods; the Sound shore is rock, marsh and harbors from New Rochelle to Rye’s Milton Harbor. The north is Croton reservoir country, with bigger lots, NYSEG in places and oil or propane where the gas lines stop. The 36 town pages carry the detail.

The Westchester County towns we work in

  • Armonk — the North Castle hamlet on Con Edison: post-war ranches and splits beside larger colonials and contemporaries.
  • Bedford — mostly NYSEG electric, some Con Edison, gas in parts only: Katonah, Bedford Hills and older farmhouses.
  • Briarcliff Manor — a village straddling the towns of Mount Pleasant and Ossining, mostly on Con Edison gas lines.
  • Bronxville — the Eastchester village of pre-war Tudors, stucco houses and apartment buildings near the train.
  • Chappaqua — New Castle’s largest hamlet, settled by Quakers in 1753; Con Edison, with gas on many streets.
  • Cortlandt — the northwest river town at the Bear Mountain Bridge; outside Croton-on-Hudson and Buchanan, gas reaches only parts.
  • Eastchester — the town around Bronxville and Tuckahoe, its own streets widely on Con Edison gas.
  • Greenburgh — 38,077 units, six villages among them; 30.6% built in the 1940s and 50s, 19.2% in buildings of 20-plus.
  • Harrison — town and village on the same ground, Con Edison for electric and gas, Purchase included.
  • Hartsdale — the Greenburgh hamlet on the Harlem Line: 92.1% built before 1980, 33.4% in buildings of 20 or more.
  • Irvington — the Hudson village first auctioned as Dearman lots in 1850; 30.9% pre-1940, 12.9% attached townhouses.
  • Larchmont — the Town of Mamaroneck village on Larchmont Harbor: pre-war colonials, Tudors and shingle houses.
  • Lewisboro — NYSEG electric and no utility gas, so oil, propane or electric heat; Golden’s Bridge and lake houses.
  • Mamaroneck — town and village on Mamaroneck Harbor and the Mamaroneck and Sheldrake rivers, widely on Con Edison gas.
  • Mount Pleasant — Pleasantville, Sleepy Hollow, Hawthorne, Thornwood and Valhalla, all Con Edison, with gas on many streets.
  • Mount Kisco — a village that is also its own town, between Bedford and New Castle, with Con Edison gas on many streets.
  • Mount Vernon — a dense Con Edison city at the New York City line: pre-war two-families, apartment houses and frame houses.
  • New Castle — 54.7% of homes heat with oil and 88.2% are owner-occupied; Millwood, the West End and Chappaqua.
  • New Rochelle — the city we work out of: Sound harbors and islands, pre-war houses, two-families and downtown apartments.
  • North Castle — the town New Castle broke away from in 1791, around Armonk; Con Edison, gas on many streets.
  • North Salem — NYSEG electric and essentially no utility gas: farmhouses, the Peach Lake hamlet, and oil or propane heat.
  • Ossining — town and Hudson River village, widely on Con Edison gas, with a waterfront moving from industry to mixed use.
  • Peekskill — the city on the northern Hudson shore: older frame houses, two-families and a redeveloping waterfront.
  • Pelham — the two villages of Pelham and Pelham Manor, largely pre-war houses, mostly on Con Edison gas.
  • Port Chester — a village in the Town of Rye, not the City: two-families, apartment buildings and older frame houses.
  • Pound Ridge — NYSEG electric and no utility gas: contemporaries and older houses on wooded lots, heated by oil or propane.
  • Purchase — the Harrison hamlet of large houses on big lots, where complex roofs mean several separate attics.
  • Rye — the City of Rye, not the Town: 30.3% built before 1940, 17.1% since 2000, and Blind Brook flooding.
  • Scarsdale — village and town on the same ground: pre-war Tudors and colonials, mostly on Con Edison gas.
  • Somers — NYSEG electric with Con Edison gas in only some parts; Heritage Hills townhouses, Lincolndale and Shenorock.
  • Tarrytown — the village at the Tappan Zee Bridge: 30.1% detached, 20.0% in two- to four-family buildings.
  • Tuckahoe — the small Eastchester village beside Bronxville: apartment buildings, two-families and older houses on Con Edison gas.
  • Valhalla — the Mount Pleasant hamlet at the Kensico Reservoir, Con Edison territory, with post-war and older houses.
  • White Plains — the county seat: downtown apartment towers ringed by pre-war and post-war houses, Con Edison throughout.
  • Yonkers — the county’s most populous city: a redeveloping Hudson waterfront, two-families, apartment houses and frame houses.
  • Yorktown — split between Con Edison and NYSEG electric, gas in parts only; Yorktown Heights, Shrub Oak, Lake Mohegan.

The houses across Westchester County

Pre-war housing is the county’s largest single layer, 28.0% of all units: Irvington is 30.9% pre-1940, Rye 30.3%, Tarrytown 28.9% and Hartsdale 25.1%, where farmland and estates were cut into houses and apartments between 1880 and 1940. The frame houses are often balloon-framed, stud bays open from basement to attic, with third floors under steep roofs and old wiring to check. Stucco, brick and stone leave little cavity to fill, so the work is the roof, the knee walls, the attic floor and the rim, from inside.

The post-war layers are nearly as large: 25.1% from the 1940s and 50s and 23.9% from the 1960s and 70s. Irvington is 34.3% 1940s–50s and Greenburgh 30.6%; Hartsdale is 32.8% 1960s–70s. That is the cape with joist bays open to the eave behind its knee walls, the ranch with settled loose-fill, the split with a bedroom wing over the garage, and the contemporary with cathedral ceilings packed tight to the deck.

Westchester is also an apartment county: 16.9% of units are in buildings of 50 or more, and Hartsdale has 33.4% of its units in buildings of 20 or more. The envelope of a large co-op, condominium or rental building belongs to a board or a landlord, and we say so. The two- to four-family house is our work, 20.0% of Tarrytown’s units and 19.2% of Irvington’s, scoped as one building, stair chase and floors between units included.

In the northern towns the house gets bigger and the fuel changes. New Castle is 83.9% detached and 23.0% built in the 1980s and 90s, and Lewisboro, North Salem and Pound Ridge have little or no utility gas. Expect air handlers and ducts in the attic, bonus rooms over garages and an oil boiler’s chimney chase. At the other edge is the water. Rye has built 17.1% of its housing since 2000 and has watched Blind Brook put Indian Village under water more than once, and in a lower level that floods, the insulation belongs on the ceiling above it.

We seal before we insulate

Insulation slows heat moving through a surface. It does nothing about air moving through a gap. Fill an attic and leave its bypasses open, and the house still pulls cold air in low and loses warm air high.

The gaps change with the era. In a pre-war house they are the tops and bottoms of balloon-framed wall bays and the third-floor knee walls; in a cape or split, the joist bays under the knee walls, the step between attics and the garage ceiling; in a 1980s or 90s colonial, the air handler, the ducts and the chimney chase; in a two-family, the stair chase and the floor between units. We seal those first, then insulate.

If a quote specifies a depth of insulation and never mentions air sealing, it is half a job.

What insulation costs in Westchester County

Most of our projects run between $3,500 and $12,500. Across Westchester the number moves with the shape of the house and its walls: a cape wrapped in knee-wall attics or a ranch with one open attic, a pre-war third floor reached only from inside, stucco or stone that rules out filling a wall, a two-family scoped as one building. Spray foam insulation in a Westchester house goes where it earns its cost: rim joists, cathedral slopes, garage ceilings and knee walls, not every cavity. See what spray foam costs.

Open cell foam runs R-3.9 to R-4.2 per inch. Closed cell runs R-6.9 to R-7.1 per inch and also acts as a vapor retarder, which is why it costs more and why it is right in some assemblies and unnecessary in others. All products are manufactured in the United States and meet applicable building code and safety standards. ENERGY STAR says sealing air leaks and adding insulation can save up to 10% on annual energy bills.

Insulation rebates in Westchester County

The electric company sets the program lane, and in Westchester it splits by geography. Con Edison supplies electricity to Yonkers, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, White Plains, Rye and Peekskill; to Greenburgh and its villages and hamlets, including Hartsdale, Irvington and Tarrytown; to Eastchester, Bronxville, Tuckahoe, Pelham, Scarsdale, Mamaroneck, Larchmont, Port Chester, Harrison and Purchase; and to Mount Pleasant, Valhalla, Briarcliff Manor, Ossining, New Castle, Chappaqua, North Castle, Armonk, Mount Kisco and Cortlandt. NYSEG supplies Lewisboro, North Salem, Pound Ridge and Somers. Most of Bedford is NYSEG with parts on Con Edison, and Yorktown is split between the two. Utility gas, where there is any, is Con Edison’s, even in NYSEG-electric Somers; Lewisboro, North Salem and Pound Ridge have little or none, and gas reaches only parts of Bedford, Somers, Yorktown and Cortlandt outside its villages.

Con Edison’s Weather Ready insulation rebates are closed; Con Edison sends Westchester homeowners to NYSERDA’s Comfort Home program and says new weatherization incentives are coming for 2027. NYSEG has offered its own insulation and air-sealing incentive for one- to four-unit homes; ask us or NYSEG what is open when you call.

For customers of both utilities the main program is NYSERDA’s Comfort Home: $2,500 toward sealing and insulating the attic and rim joist, $3,000 if walls and floors are added, and $2,000 more toward ENERGY STAR windows, paid through a NYSERDA-approved Comfort Home contractor, for market-rate one- to four-family homes whose owners pay the System Benefits Charge on the electric bill. Comfort Home closes when the new utility programs start around January 2027, so do not wait for it.

Income-eligible owners and renters use NYSERDA’s EmPower+: for a Westchester household of four, income at or below $102,000 can mean air sealing and insulation at no cost up to $14,000, and below $136,000, half the cost up to $7,000. NYS Clean Heat, the state’s heat pump incentive for Con Edison and NYSEG customers, is moving to reward a sealed and insulated house before it pays for a heat pump, and from 2028 to require one.

Each program pays through its own participating contractors; eligibility and contractor lists are on the MyEnergy portal. No federal insulation tax credit applies to a 2026 job, because Section 25C ended for work placed in service after 31 December 2025, and New York has no state tax credit for insulation. Details are in our New York and New Jersey rebate guide.

Code and climate in Westchester County

76.9% of the county’s units predate 1980. New York’s first statewide energy code took effect on 1 January 1979, so almost none of that stock was built to one. Westchester is Climate Zone 4, while Putnam and Rockland next door are Climate Zone 5, and inland towns still run colder and snowier than the Sound shore.

For new construction, the 2025 Energy Conservation Construction Code of New York State, in force since 31 December 2025, calls for R-49 in the ceiling (R-38 is enough where it runs uncompressed at full height over the top plate at the eaves), R-30 under floors, R-15 continuous or R-19 on basement and crawl space walls, U-0.27 windows, and a blower door result of 3.0 air changes per hour at 50 pascals or less.

Existing homes are not rebuilt to that table. Unaltered parts need not comply, New York’s code does not require a blower door test when you insulate an existing home, and any wall or roof cavity an alteration opens gets filled to full depth. For attics in this zone, ENERGY STAR’s recommendation is R-60 where there is no insulation and R-49 on top of an existing 3 to 4 inches.

Common questions about insulation in Westchester County

Do you install insulation in Westchester County, NY?

Yes. We are insulation contractors working across Westchester out of New Rochelle, from Yonkers and Mount Vernon in the south to North Salem and Lewisboro in the north. The work is Westchester’s houses: pre-war balloon-framed and stucco houses, post-war capes, ranches and splits, 1980s and 90s colonials, townhouses where the association agrees, and two- to four-family buildings. We do not retrofit the envelopes of large apartment, co-op or condominium buildings, which belong to their boards.

How much does insulation cost in Westchester County?

Most projects run $3,500 to $12,500. The drivers are how the attic is laid out, because knee walls, slopes and a third floor cost more to reach than one open attic; how many bypasses and wall bays need sealing first; whether the walls are stucco, brick or stone; and in a newer house, the ductwork in the attic. You get a written scope and price after a free walk-through.

Are there insulation rebates in Westchester County?

Yes, through NYSERDA. Con Edison’s Weather Ready rebates are closed, and Comfort Home pays $2,500 for sealing and insulating the attic and rim joist, or $3,000 with walls and floors, through a NYSERDA-approved Comfort Home contractor, for Con Edison and NYSEG customers alike. It closes when the new utility programs start around January 2027. Income-eligible owners and renters use EmPower+. The federal 25C credit ended for work placed in service after 31 December 2025.

Which utility do I have in Westchester County?

Your electric bill settles it. Con Edison supplies most of the county, including every city, Greenburgh, Eastchester, Scarsdale, Mamaroneck, Harrison, Mount Pleasant, Ossining, New Castle, North Castle, Mount Kisco and Cortlandt. NYSEG supplies Lewisboro, North Salem, Pound Ridge and Somers; Bedford is mostly NYSEG and Yorktown is split. Utility gas is Con Edison’s wherever it exists, and Lewisboro, North Salem and Pound Ridge have little or none.

Free energy audit in Westchester County

We walk the attic and any knee-wall attics, the third floor of a pre-war house, the garage ceiling, the basement and its rim, and, where two households share a building, the stairwell and the floor that separates them. We check the siding, stucco or stone before we talk about walls. Then we write up the scope and the price; there is no charge and no obligation.

Call 914-825-6824 or use the contact form. Open 8am–8pm, seven days. We are a family-owned Westchester insulation company working out of New Rochelle, NY since 2015, with a 100-plus in-house crew we never subcontract.

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