The Home Insulators

Insulation Contractors in Bergen County, NJ

The median Bergen County home was built in 1959, and the county’s largest cohort is the 1940s and 50s: 31.7% of its 368,535 housing units. Three-quarters of the stock, 74.6%, predates 1980, and New Jersey’s first statewide energy subcode took effect on 1 January 1977, so most of the county was built with no insulation requirement.

Two more numbers matter. 18.2% of units are in two- to four-family buildings, 46,500 of them in two-family houses alone, and 15.1% are in buildings of 20 or more. The fuel is gas, 77.0% of homes, with oil at 3.9%, so the bill we are lowering is a gas bill.

Bergen is three markets: the Hudson waterfront towers of Fort Lee, Edgewater, Cliffside Park and, inland, Hackensack; the pre-war commuter suburbs and two-family belt of the south and east, built along the Erie’s Main Line, the Northern Branch and the Pascack Valley Line; and the post-war and 1980s towns of the Northern Valley and the Pascack and Ramapo valleys. The fifteen town pages carry the detail.

The Bergen County towns we work in

Each page gives the town’s numbers, the assemblies that fail there, and its utility.

  • Closter — 91.3% detached, the highest of the fifteen, 38.8% built in the 1940s–50s, and nine Register-listed stone houses.
  • Cresskill — 1940s–50s streets on the old Camp Merritt land; one house in five (21.4%) rebuilt since 2000.
  • Englewood — East Hill’s stucco and stone, 26.4% pre-1940 frame, 27.3% in buildings of 20 or more.
  • Fort Lee — 61.3% of units in buildings of 20 or more; the towers are not our work, Coytesville is.
  • Hackensack — 21,405 units, the largest stock, 38.4% owner-occupied; the detached market is Fairmount.
  • Hillsdale — 90.3% owner-occupied and 91.8% gas, both the highest; Hillsdale Manor and Pascack Brook.
  • Leonia — median 1946, 39.9% pre-1940: the balloon-framed colonials and foursquares of Leonia Heights.
  • Mahwah — median 1985, the youngest; 55.1% built in the 1980s–90s, 21.8% attached, 158 mobile homes.
  • Montvale — 40.6% built in the 1960s–70s, the highest of the fifteen: the split-level page.
  • Norwood — median 1979, 38.0% built in the 1980s–90s, much of it townhouses; 2,048 units, the smallest.
  • Palisades Park — 31.8% built since 2000 and 37.2% owner-occupied, both extremes: the duplex borough.
  • Paramus — 40.2% built in the 1940s–50s, the highest of the fifteen, 84.2% detached: the cape page.
  • Ramsey — 32.8% 1960s–70s, 24.4% 1980s–90s, and the Ramsey Golf and Country Club community, begun in the 1940s.
  • Ridgefield — the borough, not the village across Overpeck Creek: 37.5% of units in two- to four-family buildings.
  • Rutherford — median 1945, the oldest; 42.5% pre-1940 and 7.1% oil, both the highest; Ridge Road.

Spray foam pricing is broken out for Fort Lee, Hackensack, Paramus and Rutherford.

The houses across Bergen County

The post-war cape is the county’s house. Paramus is 40.2% 1940s–50s, Closter 38.8%, Rutherford 33.7%, Ridgefield 33.1%, Cresskill 31.9%, and beyond our fifteen, New Milford 57.3%. A cape’s finished upstairs is wrapped on three sides by unconditioned attic: a knee wall with no air barrier on its back, joist bays open to the eave, unbaffled 2×6 slopes and a shallow flat attic. Many still wear cement shingle siding, so the walls are filled from inside or by lifting shingles, never by drilling through. The splits and ranches that followed have settled loose-fill and a long, low attic of unsealed bypasses, with a bedroom over the garage: Montvale is 40.6% 1960s–70s, Hackensack 36.1%.

The pre-war suburbs are balloon-framed. Rutherford is 42.5% pre-1940, Leonia 39.9%, Englewood 26.4%, Hillsdale 24.9%: stud bays open from sill to attic, with pre-1950 wiring to check. Beside them runs the two-family belt along the Passaic and the Meadowlands — Garfield 58.4% in two- to four-family buildings, and among our towns Ridgefield 37.5% and Palisades Park 32.8% — where an up-and-down two-family has a shared stair chase, a low-slope roof over the top unit, one heating plant, and a landlord who has to say yes. The Overpeck lowland in Leonia, Englewood, Palisades Park and Ridgefield, and the Meadowlands towns Sandy flooded, add wet basements and garage-under levels to the scope; no closed-cell foam goes on a basement wall that floods.

Bergen also holds the largest surviving concentration of 18th-century Jersey Dutch sandstone houses anywhere, standing in twelve of our fifteen towns, nine in Closter alone: solid masonry, rough-cut stone bonded with straw and pig hair, with no cavity to fill and, usually, landmark status that rules out drilling. We insulate the garret under the gambrel roof, the attic floor, the cellar and rim, and the later frame wing; we do not drill the stone. The same no-cavity rule covers the stucco, Tudor and masonry houses of Englewood’s East Hill, Rutherford’s Ridge Road and Leonia Heights.

The towers are not what we do. Fort Lee has 61.3% of its units in buildings of 20 or more and Hackensack 49.5%, and 30.0% and 37.9% of those towns heat with electricity because the buildings run on through-wall units. Masonry or curtain-wall envelopes, no attic, a board making capital-plan decisions: we say so here, and work the low-rise streets around them, Coytesville in Fort Lee and Fairmount in Hackensack.

The newest stock is the teardown rebuild. Palisades Park has rebuilt 31.8% of itself since 2000, largely as side-by-side duplexes; Cresskill (21.4%) and Paramus (15.8%) have done it as large houses on cape lots. Their walls already meet the code of their day, so blown-in is not the job. The party wall open to two attics, the garage-under first floor, the attic air handler and its ducts, and the bath fans are.

We seal before we insulate

Insulation slows heat moving through a surface. It does nothing about air moving through a gap. Blow a Paramus cape’s flat attic to full depth, leave the knee walls open, and the upstairs is still cold.

In the county’s dominant house, the cape, the sequence is: block the joist bays under the knee wall, put a rigid air barrier on the attic side of the knee wall, baffle the slopes, seal the top plates, chimney chase and bath fans at the flat attic, then insulate. In a two-family it is the stair chase and the floor cavity between units first; in a duplex or townhouse, the party wall at the attic plate.

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

What insulation costs in Bergen County

Most of our projects run between $3,500 and $12,500. Across Bergen what moves the number is the shape of the attic — a cape’s three attics against a ranch’s one — the count of bypasses and wall bays to seal or block first, whether a party wall or a floor between units is in the scope, and how the walls are finished, since siding and masonry decide whether a cavity can be reached at all.

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. After air sealing and insulating, homeowners typically save 20% or more on heating and cooling.

Insulation rebates in Bergen County

PSE&G supplies the gas to all fifteen towns, but the electricity splits, and the electric utility sets the program: PSE&G in Englewood, Fort Lee, Hackensack, Hillsdale, Leonia, Palisades Park, Paramus, Ridgefield and Rutherford; Rockland Electric, the New Jersey arm of Orange & Rockland, in Closter, Cresskill, Mahwah, Montvale, Norwood and Ramsey.

In the PSE&G towns, PSE&G Whole Home Energy Solutions offers up to $7,500 in rebates toward air sealing, insulation and related work, plus 0% on-bill repayment of up to $25,000 over 7 or 10 years. It starts with PSE&G’s home energy assessment, and the work must be done by a BPI-certified contractor participating in PSE&G’s program. PSE&G’s Whole Home Energy Assessment is free for any PSE&G gas or electric customer, once a year. PSE&G Home Weatherization does insulation, air sealing and duct sealing at no cost for households above 250% and below 400% of the federal poverty level.

In the Rockland Electric towns, Rockland Electric Whole Home Energy Solutions offers up to $7,500 in rebates plus interest-free financing, typically over seven to ten years; every project must include at least attic air sealing and an attic insulation upgrade, and the work must be done by a BPI-certified contractor participating in the program. Rockland Electric’s Home Energy Assessment is free for its residential customers, and Rockland Electric Home Weatherization does insulation, air sealing and duct sealing at no cost for income-qualified households (roughly $39,900 to $63,840 for one person, more for larger households). PSE&G’s free Whole Home Energy Assessment applies here too, since the gas is PSE&G; whether PSE&G’s rebate program accepts a PSE&G-gas, Rockland-Electric home is not stated on its page, so start with Rockland Electric’s program and confirm with PSE&G.

Countywide, New Jersey Comfort Partners provides no-cost insulation and air sealing for households at or below 250% of the federal poverty guidelines (for example $82,500 for a family of four); homes heated with oil or propane are referred to the state weatherization office. The New Jersey IRA Home Energy Rebates have not launched — the state’s page says “under development” — so they are not available yet. See the full New Jersey rebate guide.

The federal Section 25C tax credit ended for anything placed in service after 31 December 2025. There is no federal insulation credit on a 2026 job.

Code and climate in Bergen County

74.6% of Bergen’s housing predates 1980, and the state’s first energy subcode dates from 1 January 1977. Bergen County is climate zone 5A; Essex, Hudson and Union next door are 4A. New Jersey adopted the 2024 IECC on 17 August 2026. For new construction it sets R-49 ceilings — the 2021 edition it replaced called for R-60, and a permit application filed under the old code is still accepted for six months, until about mid-February 2027 — with walls at R-20 plus R-5 continuous, windows at U-0.28, and air leakage of 3.0 air changes per hour at 50 pascals.

Existing homes fall under New Jersey’s Rehabilitation Subcode. Insulating an attic does not require bringing the rest of the house to code and does not require a blower-door test. New Jersey treats blown-in or batt insulation installed against the interior finish as ordinary maintenance with no permit; spray foam and other foam plastic insulation need a permit, which we pull as part of the job. R-49 is the number the state considers right for this climate, and it is what we design to.

Common questions about insulation in Bergen County

Do you install insulation in Bergen County, NJ?

Yes, in the fifteen towns on this page and the county around them: the post-war capes and splits, the pre-war balloon-framed houses and two-families of the railroad suburbs, the 1980s townhouses of the Ramapo valley, and the frame wings, garrets and cellars of the Dutch stone houses. The towers of Fort Lee, Hackensack, Edgewater and Cliffside Park are not a retrofit we do.

How much does insulation cost in Bergen County?

Most projects run $3,500 to $12,500. The drivers are the attic’s shape, since a cape’s knee walls and slopes take more work than a ranch’s flat attic, the number of bypasses or wall bays to seal before insulating, whether a party wall or a floor between units is in the scope, and how the walls are clad. Fort Lee, Hackensack, Paramus and Rutherford have their own cost pages.

Are there insulation rebates in Bergen County?

Yes, through your electric utility. PSE&G Whole Home Energy Solutions and Rockland Electric Whole Home Energy Solutions each offer up to $7,500 in rebates for air sealing and insulation, plus financing, through a BPI-certified contractor participating in the program. Both utilities offer a free home energy assessment, and New Jersey Comfort Partners does the work at no cost for households at or below 250% of the federal poverty guidelines.

Which utility do I have in Bergen County?

Gas is PSE&G in all fifteen towns on this page. Electricity is PSE&G in Englewood, Fort Lee, Hackensack, Hillsdale, Leonia, Palisades Park, Paramus, Ridgefield and Rutherford, and Rockland Electric in Closter, Cresskill, Mahwah, Montvale, Norwood and Ramsey. Your electric bill settles it, and accounts near a boundary can be served across a line, so check the bill rather than the map.

Free energy audit in Bergen County

We walk the attic, the eave spaces behind any knee walls, the basement or cellar and the rim, and in a two-family the stair chase and the floor between units. We check the siding before we talk about filling a wall, because cement shingle, brick veneer, stucco and stone each change the answer. Then you get a written scope and a price, with no charge and no obligation. If your building is a tower, we will say so on the phone.

Call 914-825-6824 or use the form on this page. Open 8am–8pm, seven days. We work out of New Rochelle, NY with a 100-plus in-house crew, and we hold manufacturer installer certifications from the spray foam manufacturers we use.

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