1,344 of the Village of Babylon’s 4,819 homes were built before 1940, 27.9% of the stock, and 88.2% went up before 1980. Those figures cover Babylon Village alone, the incorporated village of about 2.4 square miles of land on the Great South Bay. They do not cover the much larger Town of Babylon around it, which also takes in West Babylon, North Babylon, Deer Park, Copiague and the Village of Lindenhurst, each a separate place with its own housing.
The village is bordered by West Babylon on the west, North Babylon on the north, West Islip on the east and the bay on the south, and its station is the terminal of the Long Island Rail Road’s Babylon Branch. The median home dates from 1955. 74.7% of homes are detached houses, 5.6% are in two-unit buildings, 6.0% in buildings of three or four units and 2.7% in buildings of fifty or more, and 80.9% of occupied homes are owner-occupied.
Utility gas heats 65.8% of occupied homes, fuel oil 24.7% and electricity 8.4%. Most of the village is on National Grid gas lines. For the quarter of households still on oil, the heat an old house loses through its attic and cellar is bought by the delivery, and that is where sealing and insulating pay back fastest.
The houses we insulate in Babylon
Babylon was settled before the Revolution, when it was known as Huntington South, and by 1803 a community had grown up that wanted a name of its own. By 1885 it had the Argyle Hotel, whose staff formed a baseball team that year. The houses from before 1940 are the village’s oldest layer: two-story frame houses with walk-up or unfinished attics, full cellars on masonry foundations and porches. Many have balloon-framed walls, whose cavities run unbroken from the cellar to the attic, so warm air climbs them like a flue and leaves through the top. We assume knob-and-tube wiring in those walls until we have seen otherwise, and none of it gets buried in insulation.
The 1950s left 1,206 homes, 25.0% of the village and more than any other decade, and the 1940s another 413. These are capes and ranches. The cape leaks behind its knee walls, where the floor bays run open to the eave and the slopes above the finished rooms have no vent space. Many village capes have since gained a dormer or a finished upstairs, each with its own short attic. The ranch has a long, low attic of thin, settled loose-fill with a flue chase and every ceiling fixture punched through it.
The 1960s added 767 homes and the 1970s 518, together 26.7% of the stock: splits, high ranches and colonials. Their weak points are the garage ceiling under a bedroom, the rim joist above a half-buried lower level, the colonial’s overhang and a long attic plane that was never sealed. Only 4.3% of the village has been built since 2000.
The 268 homes in two-unit buildings and 288 in buildings of three or four units are often large older houses with one cellar, one stair and one attic shared by every household in them. We scope each as one building, because sealing one apartment’s ceiling does nothing about the stair hall carrying air to the attic from all of them. The 129 homes in buildings of fifty or more units are a different matter: their roofs and walls belong to a board or an owner, not to one apartment.
Siding off, sheathing bare: insulating an old Babylon house from the outside
Hurricane Sandy caused major flood and wind damage to many Babylon village houses on 29 October 2012, and in a village where 88.2% of homes predate 1980, siding, roofs and damaged walls get replaced sooner or later anyway. When the siding comes off an old house, its walls can be insulated from the outside without disturbing one plaster wall inside. That opportunity comes around once in a generation, and it is easy to miss if the siding contractor and the insulation contractor never talk.
With the old siding stripped, the sheathing shows. On a pre-war house it is usually boards with gaps between them; on a 1950s house, boards or early sheet goods. Where the sheathing stays, we drill each stud bay from outside, check for wiring and for blocking that splits the bay, dense-pack it with cellulose and plug the holes. Where damaged sheathing comes off and the cavities stand open, New York’s code requires the exposed cavities to be insulated to full depth, and they get filled before new sheathing goes on.
Then comes the outer layer. Rigid foam board fastened over the sheathing and taped at the seams adds insulation that no stud interrupts and turns the whole wall into an air barrier. It thickens the wall, so window and door trim has to be extended, and every opening has to be flashed so water that gets behind the new siding drains out rather than into the wall.
The order is simple: siding off, walls checked and filled, sheathing repaired, board and tape, flashing, siding on. If the roof is being replaced in the same season, the open eaves are the one chance to seal the top of each wall from outside, at the spot that is hardest to reach from inside a low attic.
We seal before we insulate
Insulation slows heat moving through a wall or ceiling. Air moving through a gap carries the heat with it, and batts and loose-fill do not stop air.
In a pre-war Babylon house the leaks run vertically. We block the tops of the balloon-framed wall cavities from the attic, seal the chimney chase with sheet metal and high-temperature sealant, close the plumbing and wiring holes and the gap around the attic stair, then go to the cellar and seal the sill and rim where the cold air comes in. Only then does insulation go onto the attic floor or into the walls. In a 1950s cape the knee walls come first: block the floor bays, air-seal the back of the knee wall, baffle the slopes, then fill.
If a quote specifies a depth of insulation and never mentions air sealing, it is half a job.
What insulation costs in Babylon
Most of our projects run between $3,500 and $12,500. A 1950s ranch with one attic and a cellar rim sits toward the lower end. A cape with knee walls, slopes and a flat above is mid-range. A pre-war two-story house with walls to fill, an attic to seal and a long cellar rim runs toward the top, and a two-family or three-unit house is priced as one building. Walls filled from outside while the siding is off cost less than the same walls later, when getting at them means new holes in finished siding or plaster.
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 Babylon
Babylon Village buys its electricity from PSEG Long Island; it is not one of the few Long Island villages with its own electric system. Gas comes from National Grid, whose lines serve most of the village.
PSEG Long Island’s program opens with a free Whole House Energy Assessment, a check of insulation and drafts with a thermal scan and a blower door test, arranged through one of its participating contractors. For market-rate single-family homes it lists $2,500 toward insulation in attics, walls, floors, band joists, basements and crawl spaces and $1,000 toward air sealing, with higher amounts for income-qualified homes and homes in state-designated disadvantaged communities. The insulation must go in together with comprehensive air sealing, and only work done by its participating contractors earns the rebate, so confirm a contractor on PSEG Long Island’s list first. The list is written for single-family homes, so the owner of a village two-family should ask PSEG Long Island before counting on it.
National Grid’s Long Island insulation rebate program is not taking new applications, and its income-eligible customers now go to NYSERDA’s EmPower+, which serves owners and renters of one- to four-family homes through EmPower+ contractors. Lower-income households get air sealing and insulation at no cost up to $14,000; moderate-income households get half the cost covered up to $7,000. In Suffolk a two-person household is in the lower tier at or below $79,163 and in the moderate tier below $105,550. Federal HEAR money adds up to $1,600 for air sealing, insulation and ventilation. Long Island households should check eligibility on the MyEnergy portal.
The federal insulation tax credit (Section 25C) ended for work placed in service after 31 December 2025, so no 2026 job earns it, 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 Babylon
88.2% of the village’s homes were built before 1980. New York’s first statewide energy code took effect on 1 January 1979, decades after the pre-war houses and the post-war capes went up. Suffolk County is Climate Zone 4.
New construction now follows the 2025 Energy Conservation Construction Code of New York State, in force since 31 December 2025: R-49 ceilings, or R-38 across the whole ceiling where it keeps its full uncompressed depth over the wall top plate at the eaves; R-30 floors; R-15 continuous, R-19, or R-13 plus R-5 continuous on basement and crawl space walls; U-0.27 windows; and at most 3.0 air changes per hour at 50 pascals.
An old village house does not have to meet that table. Parts the work leaves unaltered need not comply, and New York’s code does not require a blower door test when you insulate an existing home. The rules that bite are the ones above: insulation may not be reduced, and cavities opened during the work get filled to full depth. For the attic, ENERGY STAR recommends R-60 where there is no insulation and R-49 where 3 to 4 inches are already there.
Common questions about insulation in Babylon
Do you install insulation in Babylon, NY?
Yes, in the Village of Babylon: the 1,344 pre-war houses, the capes and ranches of the 1940s and 50s, the splits and colonials of the 1960s and 70s, and the two-families and three- and four-unit houses. The usual work is cellar rims, attic floors, knee walls, balloon-framed wall tops and walls filled from outside during re-siding. We also work across the rest of the Town of Babylon, including West Babylon, North Babylon, Deer Park, Copiague and Lindenhurst.
How much does insulation cost in Babylon?
Most projects run $3,500 to $12,500. A 1950s ranch with one attic and a cellar rim is toward the low end, and a cape with knee walls and slopes is mid-range. A pre-war two-story house with balloon-framed walls, an attic and a long rim runs higher, and a two-family is priced as one building. If new siding is planned, filling the walls while it is off costs less than doing them later. A written scope and price follow a free walk-through.
Are there insulation rebates in Babylon?
Yes. PSEG Long Island, the village’s electric company, lists a $2,500 insulation rebate and a $1,000 air-sealing rebate for market-rate single-family homes, with more for income-qualified homes, paid through its participating contractors after a free Whole House Energy Assessment. National Grid’s Long Island insulation program is closed to new applications, and income-eligible owners and renters can apply to EmPower+. The federal 25C credit ended for work placed in service after 31 December 2025, and New York has no state insulation credit.
We own an apartment in one of Babylon Village’s larger buildings. Can you insulate it?
Usually not on your own. In a building of twenty or fifty units the roof, the outside walls and the floors between apartments belong to the building, and any change to them goes through the board or the owner. An apartment has no attic of its own and no wall cavity that is only yours. What an owner can do is weatherstrip the entry door, seal around pipes and outlets on outside walls, and bring drafty windows and cold walls to the board. A two-family or a three- or four-unit house in the village is our work, and we scope it as one building.
Free energy audit in Babylon
In a pre-war house we start in the cellar at the sill and rim, then climb to the attic to look down into the wall cavities and at the chimney chase, noting any old wiring on the way. In a cape we open the knee-wall hatches and look along the floor bays. If new siding or a new roof is planned, we look at the house from outside and fit the insulation into that schedule. You get a written scope and price, with no charge and no obligation.
Call 914-825-6824 or use our contact form. Open 8am–8pm, seven days. We work out of New Rochelle, NY with a 100-plus in-house crew that never subcontracts.
Learn more
- Insulation contractors across Suffolk County
- Insulation in West Islip
- Insulation in North Babylon
- Insulation in West Babylon
- Wall insulation
- Insulating older homes