25.5% of Elmont’s 10,419 housing units were built in the 1940s, another 32.7% in the 1950s and 17.9% before 1940. The median home dates from 1952, and only 3.8% of the stock has gone up since 2000. Elmont is an unincorporated hamlet in the Town of Hempstead, on the Queens line that earned it the nickname “The Gateway to Long Island.” It tried to incorporate as a village in 1931, 1940 and 1949 and failed each time, so the Town of Hempstead remains its local government.
80.8% of the units are detached houses and 10.5%, or 1,098 units, sit in two-unit buildings; apartment buildings of twenty or more are rare. 79.5% of occupied homes are owner-occupied. Heat is 64.1% utility gas, 24.5% fuel oil, 5.1% electricity and 3.1% bottled gas. Elmont is owner-occupied houses from before and just after the Second World War, many with a half-story tucked under the roof and walls built with little or nothing in them.
The houses we insulate in Elmont
For two centuries this was Foster’s Meadow, grazing land on the Hempstead Plains, renamed Elmont in 1882. The turn came with Belmont Park, laid out on 650 acres at the Queens border and opened in 1905. The farms were sold and subdivided, many of the new houses belonged to people who worked at the track, and businesses filled in along Hempstead Turnpike.
Those waves of building left the older, smaller shingled houses that still cluster near Belmont Park on Hempstead Turnpike. With 17.9% of Elmont built before 1940, we plan for the problems of a modest early frame house. The stud bays are usually empty and can run unbroken from cellar to attic, so warm air rises through the walls all winter. The attic is low, reached by a hatch, and whatever lies on its floor has settled thin around the wiring and ceiling boxes. Where a rear porch was enclosed over a shallow crawl space, that room is usually the coldest in the house. We look for knob-and-tube wiring before anyone talks about filling a wall.
After the war came the tract houses that make up most of Elmont: 58.2% of the housing dates from the 1940s and 50s. Many were built as capes with a brick-veneer ground story, especially around Dutch Broadway, and they get their own section below. Alongside them stand ranches, whose long, low attics are weakest at the eaves, where the insulation thins to almost nothing just above the outside walls.
The 8.5% from the 1960s and 5.6% from the 1970s add split-levels and raised ranches, with a bedroom over the garage. The 1,098 units in two-unit buildings we treat as one building, because the attic, the stair and the cellar rim serve both households.
Fuel changes the arithmetic. In the 64.1% of homes on gas, savings show up as smaller National Grid bills. In the 24.5% burning oil and the 3.1% on bottled gas, they show up as fewer deliveries. An oil-heated cape with open knee-wall bays and an unsealed chimney chase is the kind of house where sealing tends to repay itself soonest.
Brick below, shingles above: the Elmont cape
A brick-veneer cape looks solid, and the brick is why owners assume the walls are fine. The brick is not the structure. It is a single layer of masonry standing about an inch off a wood-framed wall, held to it with metal ties, with a gap behind it that lets water run down and out at the bottom. The wall that keeps the house warm is the wood frame behind that gap, and in a house of the 1940s or 50s its stud bays hold little or nothing.
That changes how the first floor gets insulated. Filling from outside through the mortar joints risks packing insulation into the air gap, where it bridges the brick to the sheathing and holds water against the frame. So the stud bays are filled from inside: through small holes in the plaster or drywall, dense-packed and patched, or through open framing when a room is being redone.
The worst leaks in these houses, though, are usually upstairs, where the brick stops. The half-story is built into the roof: knee walls a few feet high, triangular spaces behind them, rafter slopes rising to a small flat attic. The floor joists under the knee walls run straight out to the eave, so outdoor air travels under the upstairs floor and over the downstairs ceiling at once. Dormers add cheek walls and small roofs of their own.
Then the chimney. In a boiler-heated cape the flue usually rises through a masonry chimney, and the framing stands off it with a gap that can run from cellar to roof. That gap has to stay clear of combustibles, so it is not packed with foam or batts; it gets closed with sheet metal and high-temperature sealant, a small job that stops one of the larger leaks in the house.
We seal before we insulate
Think of insulation as a sweater and air sealing as the shell over it. On a windy January night on the old Hempstead Plains, a sweater with nothing over it lets the cold straight through.
In a brick-veneer Elmont cape the order runs from the top down. Close the chimney chase with metal and high-temperature sealant; seal the top plates, plumbing vent and wiring holes in the small attic; block the joist bays under each knee wall so outdoor air stops running under the upstairs floor; air-seal the back of the knee walls and set baffles in the slopes so the roof can still vent; seal and weatherstrip the attic hatch. Then insulate the flat, the slopes and the knee walls. In the cellar, seal and insulate the rim joist and sill. Only then are the first-floor walls filled from inside.
If a quote specifies a depth of insulation and never mentions air sealing, it is half a job.
What insulation costs in Elmont
Most of our projects run between $3,500 and $12,500. In a brick-veneer cape the biggest variable is the first-floor walls: filling them from inside means drilling and patching every bay, so owners often do the upstairs, the chimney chase and the cellar rim first, and the brick-story walls when rooms are being painted or renovated. A ranch is priced mostly on attic area and the work at the eaves. A two-family is priced as one building, on the roof over the upper unit, the shared stair and the cellar perimeter.
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 Elmont
Elmont’s electric company is PSEG Long Island, and National Grid gas lines are common across the hamlet. On Long Island the electric company sets the rebate lane. NYSERDA’s Comfort Home program is not available to PSEG Long Island homes, so Elmont’s insulation rebates come from PSEG Long Island itself.
PSEG Long Island lists a $2,500 insulation rebate and a $1,000 air-sealing rebate for market-rate single-family homes, with higher amounts for income-qualified homes and homes in state-designated disadvantaged communities, paid through its participating contractors after a free Whole House Energy Assessment. Its 2026 measure list covers attic, wall, floor, band joist, basement and crawl space insulation, and homes heated by oil, natural gas, propane or electricity are all eligible, so the 24.5% of Elmont on oil are not shut out. Insulation has to go in with blower-door-assisted air sealing. The same list describes eligible homes as single-family, so if you own one of Elmont’s two-family houses, ask PSEG Long Island whether it qualifies before you plan around the money.
National Grid’s Long Island insulation rebate program is not taking new applications; income-eligible households go through EmPower+. If your household income is under the Nassau limit, NYSERDA’s EmPower+ program can pay for air sealing and insulation at no cost up to $14,000 for lower-income households (at or below $98,925 for a family of four) or half the cost up to $7,000 for moderate-income households (below $131,900 for four), through an EmPower+ contractor. Renters can apply as well as owners. Long Island households should check eligibility on the MyEnergy portal.
Each program pays through its own participating contractors, so check the list with PSEG Long Island or on the MyEnergy portal before you sign. The federal insulation tax credit (Section 25C) ended for work placed in service after 31 December 2025, so a 2026 job carries no federal credit; be wary of anyone still advertising it. New York has no state tax credit for insulation. Program details are in our New York and New Jersey rebate guide.
Code and climate in Elmont
90.1% of Elmont’s housing was built before 1980. New York’s first statewide energy code took effect on 1 January 1979, long after the streets around Belmont Park and the brick-veneer capes were finished. Nassau County is Climate Zone 4.
Since 31 December 2025 the 2025 Energy Conservation Construction Code of New York State has been in force. A new home needs R-49 in the ceiling, or R-38 over the entire ceiling where full-height, uncompressed R-38 carries out over the wall top plate at the eaves; R-30 in floors; basement and crawl space walls at R-15 continuous, R-19, or R-13 plus R-5 continuous; windows at U-0.27; and a tested air leakage rate no higher than 3.0 air changes per hour at 50 pascals.
Existing houses are handled differently. The parts you do not alter do not have to comply, and New York’s code does not require a blower door test when you insulate an existing home. What an alteration does trigger: where a renovation opens roof or wall cavities, they must be insulated to full depth with insulation of at least R-3 per inch. In a brick-veneer cape, that makes a kitchen or bedroom renovation the natural time to fill the first-floor walls. ENERGY STAR recommends R-60 for an uninsulated attic in this zone and R-49 where 3 to 4 inches are already down.
Common questions about insulation in Elmont
Do you install insulation in Elmont, NY?
Yes, across the hamlet. Most of our Elmont work is the post-war house: the capes with a brick-veneer ground story around Dutch Broadway, the ranches, and the split-levels and raised ranches of the 1960s and 70s. We also insulate the older, smaller shingled houses near Belmont Park once the wiring has been checked, and the 1,098 units in two-unit buildings, which we scope as one building. That means knee walls, attics, slopes, first-floor walls, crawl spaces and cellar rims.
How much does insulation cost in Elmont?
Most projects run $3,500 to $12,500. In a brick-veneer cape the price depends most on whether the first-floor walls are included, since they are filled from inside, bay by bay, and patched. Many owners do the knee walls, attic, chimney chase and cellar rim first and leave the walls for a renovation. A ranch is priced on attic area and the eaves, and a two-family is priced as one building. You get a written scope and a price after a free walk-through.
Are there insulation rebates in Elmont?
Yes, through PSEG Long Island, Elmont’s electric company. It 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. Oil-heated homes are eligible, and two-family owners should ask PSEG Long Island whether their building qualifies. Income-eligible households can apply to EmPower+. Comfort Home is not open to PSEG Long Island customers, the federal 25C credit ended for work placed in service after 31 December 2025, and New York has no state insulation credit.
Our Elmont cape has brick on the first floor. Can those walls still be insulated?
Yes, but not through the brick. The brick is a veneer standing about an inch off the wood-framed wall, and that gap has to stay open so water can drain. The insulation goes into the stud bays behind it, from inside the house: a small hole in each bay, dense-packed, then patched. If a room is being renovated, open framing makes it simpler. Before the walls, though, look upstairs, because the knee walls, the open floor bays at the eaves and the chimney chase usually leak more.
Free energy audit in Elmont
We start upstairs: behind the knee walls, at the open joist bays under them, in the slopes and the small flat attic, and around the chimney. On the brick story we check what is in the walls at a switch box and from the cellar. Downstairs, the rim and sill, the boiler flue and any crawl space under an enclosed porch. If the walls can wait and the knee walls cannot, we say so. Then a written scope and a price, with no charge and no obligation.
Call 914-825-6824 or use our contact form. We are open 8am–8pm, seven days a week, and we work out of New Rochelle, NY with a 100-plus in-house crew that never subcontracts.
Learn more
- Insulation contractors across Nassau County
- Insulation in Franklin Square
- Insulation in Floral Park
- Insulation in Valley Stream
- Insulating older homes
- Air sealing
- Spray foam for knee walls and rim joists