23.8% of the homes in the hamlet of Huntington were built before 1940, 1,996 of its 8,392, and the median home dates from 1956. Those numbers describe the hamlet, not the Town. The hamlet is the unincorporated community that serves as the town seat, around the old business district known locally as Huntington Village; the Town of Huntington is far larger and also takes in Huntington Station, South Huntington, Greenlawn, East Northport, Dix Hills, Melville and Elwood, each with housing of its own. Huntington Village, despite its name, has no village government.
After the pre-war houses came the post-war ones: 8.3% of the stock dates from the 1940s and 30.8% from the 1950s, and 82.2% of all homes were built before 1980. 81.4% are detached houses, 4.7% are in two-unit buildings and 6.2%, or 524 homes, are in buildings of three or four units. 83.5% of occupied homes are owner-occupied. 57.7% heat with utility gas and 32.1% with fuel oil. PSEG Long Island supplies the electricity, and National Grid gas is available on many streets but not all.
The houses we insulate in Huntington
The hamlet sits on the North Shore, 37 miles northeast of Midtown Manhattan, across 7.7 square miles. Its center is old and walkable, and its railroad station is actually in the neighboring hamlet of Huntington Station. The 1,996 homes built before 1940 are the part of the hamlet that needs the most care. A house of that age often has two or two-and-a-half stories, a full attic reached by a real stair, a foundation of stone, brick or early block, and walls that have never held insulation. They get their own section below.
The 1940s built 697 homes and the 1950s 2,581, the largest single decade. Those are mostly capes and ranches, and a cape of that era has often been given a shed dormer across the back to make full-height bedrooms upstairs. A dormered cape loses heat in places a plain one does not: the dormer’s side cheeks, framed thin and backed by a leftover triangle of attic; the short flat ceiling above the dormer, often with barely room for a batt; and the joint where the dormer roof ties into the old roof, which is usually open to the space behind the knee walls. The ranch has one long, low attic with settled insulation.
The 1960s and 70s add 19.4%, mostly splits and high ranches with a garage below a bedroom; the 1980s and 90s add 9.6%; and 8.2% has been built since 2000, including 219 homes in the 2010s. The newer houses have insulated walls, and their losses are overhead, in cathedral ceilings, attic ductwork and rooms over garages.
Huntington also has 397 homes in two-unit buildings and 524 in buildings of three or four units. An owner-occupied three- or four-family is a job we scope as one building. The apartments stack under one roof and over one basement, and the common stair that runs from the cellar to the top floor is the tallest air path in the house. Sealing one apartment’s ceiling while the stair hall stays open does little.
Walk-up attics, plank floors and stone foundations
An older house in the hamlet often has a stair to its attic and boards nailed across the joists for storage. Insulation cannot simply be laid on top of that floor, because the heat is lost below the boards, in the joist bays over the ceiling. There are three ways to handle it. Lift the boards in rows, blow the bays full and relay them. Dense-pack the bays through a few lifted boards, which keeps the floor in use. Or, if the attic is going to become a room, move the insulation up to the roof with spray foam against the underside of the deck and bring the whole attic inside the house. The right choice depends on what the attic is for.
The attic stair is part of the envelope whichever way you go. An open stairwell to a cold attic acts as a chimney: the door at the bottom needs weatherstripping and a threshold, and the stairwell walls and the underside of the treads need insulation, or the insulated line has to go up and around the whole stair.
At the bottom of the house, a foundation of fieldstone, brick or early block rarely meets the wood sill evenly, and the gaps along that line let cold air into the cellar and up into the wall cavities. We seal the sill and insulate the rim joist, usually with closed cell foam, which also stops air. We do not glue insulation to the face of a damp stone wall without dealing with the water first, because an old masonry wall has to be able to dry. The walls between, if they are empty and balloon-framed, get blocked top and bottom and dense-packed once the wiring has been checked; knob-and-tube goes to an electrician before any wall is filled.
We seal before we insulate
Insulation slows heat conducting through a surface. It does not stop air, and an old house with a stair to its attic and a stone cellar below has a clear path for air from bottom to top.
In an older Huntington house the order is: weatherstrip the attic stair door and seal around the stairwell; lift boards where needed and seal the tops of the walls, the chimney with metal and fire-rated sealant, and the holes for wires and pipes coming up through the ceiling; then fill the joist bays and put the floor back. In the cellar, seal the sill where it meets the foundation and insulate the rim. In a three- or four-family, close the top of the common stair hall and any shafts beside it before any apartment’s ceiling is insulated. In a dormered cape, seal the joint between the dormer roof and the old roof before the knee walls and cheeks are filled.
If a quote specifies a depth of insulation and never mentions air sealing, it is half a job.
What insulation costs in Huntington
Most of our projects run between $3,500 and $12,500. In the hamlet the number follows age and access. A 1950s ranch attic sits near the low end. A dormered cape costs more, because the cheeks, the flat above the dormer and the knee walls are separate pieces of work. A pre-war house with a floored attic costs more again, since boards come up and go back down, and moving the insulation to the roofline for a usable attic sits toward the top of the range. A three- or four-family is priced as one building. Spray foam costs are explained separately.
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 Huntington
The hamlet’s electric company is PSEG Long Island, and its gas company is National Grid, available on many streets but not every one. Because the electricity comes from PSEG Long Island, NYSERDA’s Comfort Home program is not available to Huntington homes.
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. The assessment includes a thermal scan and a blower door test. Homes heated with gas, oil, propane or electricity all qualify, and the insulation must be installed along with blower-door-assisted air sealing. PSEG Long Island’s list names single-family homes, so the owner of a two-, three- or four-family should ask PSEG Long Island before relying on it.
National Grid’s Long Island insulation rebate program is not taking new applications, and income-eligible households now go through EmPower+, which covers one- to four-family homes and is open to owners and renters. For a household under Suffolk County’s 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 household of four), or half the cost up to $7,000 for moderate-income households (below $131,900 for four), through an EmPower+ contractor. Federal HEAR money can add up to $1,600 for air sealing, insulation and ventilation. Long Island households should check eligibility on the MyEnergy portal.
Each program pays through its own participating contractors, so check before you sign. The federal insulation tax credit (Section 25C) ended for work placed in service after 31 December 2025, so a 2026 job has no federal credit, and New York has no state tax credit for insulation. Our New York and New Jersey rebate guide goes through each program.
Code and climate in Huntington
82.2% of the hamlet’s homes were built before 1980. New York’s first statewide energy code took effect on 1 January 1979, and the pre-war houses and the post-war capes that make up so much of Huntington were standing long before it. Suffolk County is Climate Zone 4.
New homes now follow the 2025 Energy Conservation Construction Code of New York State, effective 31 December 2025: R-49 ceilings, or R-38 over the full ceiling where uncompressed R-38 extends at full height over the wall top plate at the eaves; R-30 floors; basement and crawl space walls of R-15 continuous, R-19, or R-13 plus R-5 continuous; U-0.27 windows; and air leakage of no more than 3.0 air changes per hour at 50 pascals.
None of that applies retroactively to an old house. Unaltered parts of an existing home need not comply, and New York’s code does not require a blower door test when you insulate an existing home. When an alteration exposes wall or roof cavities, though, they must be insulated to full depth: a kitchen or bath renovation that opens an outside wall, or an attic conversion that opens the rafters, is the moment to fill them. 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 Huntington
Do you install insulation in Huntington, NY?
Yes, in the hamlet of Huntington and across the rest of the Town of Huntington. In the hamlet that means the 1,996 houses built before 1940, with their floored attics and stone or brick foundations; the 1950s capes and ranches, 30.8% of the stock; the later splits and colonials; and the two-, three- and four-family houses, which we scope as one building. We do not insulate the envelopes of larger apartment buildings. If you are unsure where your house fits, ask on the phone.
How much does insulation cost in Huntington?
Most projects run $3,500 to $12,500. A 1950s ranch attic is usually near the low end. A dormered cape costs more because the dormer cheeks, the flat above the dormer and the knee walls are separate work. A pre-war house with a floored attic costs more again, since the boards come up and go back, and spray foaming the roofline to make the attic usable sits toward the top. A three- or four-family is priced as one building, in writing, after a free walk-through.
Are there insulation rebates in Huntington?
Yes. The hamlet is PSEG Long Island territory, and PSEG Long Island lists a $2,500 insulation rebate and a $1,000 air-sealing rebate for market-rate single-family homes, more for income-qualified homes, paid through its participating contractors after a free Whole House Energy Assessment. Comfort Home is not available to PSEG Long Island homes. EmPower+ covers income-eligible one- to four-family homes and renters. The federal 25C credit ended for work placed in service after 31 December 2025, and New York has no state tax credit for insulation.
Our attic has a plank floor we use for storage. Can it be insulated without losing that?
Yes. The usual approach is to dense-pack the joist bays under the boards through a few lifted planks, or to lift the boards in rows, fill the bays and relay them, so the floor stays usable. Before any of that, the tops of the walls, the chimney and the wire and pipe holes are sealed from above, and the stair door is weatherstripped. If the attic will become a room instead, the insulation moves to the roof, usually as spray foam against the deck.
Free energy audit in Huntington
In an older Huntington house we start at the attic stair and work up: the stairwell and door, the floorboards and what lies under a few of them, the chimney, the roof deck. Then the cellar: the foundation, the sill, the rim and any sign of water. Then the walls and whatever wiring we can see. In a multi-family, the common stair hall. If the attic is fine and the loss is at the sill, 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. 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 Huntington Station
- Insulation in Greenlawn
- Insulation in East Northport
- Insulation for older homes
- Basement, sill and rim joist insulation
- Spray foam at the roofline