39.6% of Long Beach’s 16,471 housing units are detached houses. The rest is what a city on a barrier island less than a mile wide builds instead: 22.7% of units are in buildings of fifty or more, 9.2% in buildings of twenty to forty-nine, and 18.2%, some 3,000 units, in two-unit buildings. Long Beach ranks as the 35th-densest community in the United States.
24.1% of the stock predates 1940, 21.2% dates from the 1950s, 19.2% from the 1960s, 9.4% from the 1980s and 7.8% from 2000 on, and the median home was built in 1958. 63.4% of occupied homes are owner-occupied. Heat is mostly gas, at 71.4% of homes, with 13.3% on electricity and 10.0% on fuel oil. Long Beach is a city, not part of any town: it incorporated as a village in 1913 and re-incorporated as a city in 1922, separating completely from the Town of Hempstead. Our work here is the houses, the bungalows and the two-families; the big buildings along the boardwalk belong to their boards.
The houses we insulate in Long Beach
Nobody lived on the island year-round for two centuries after 1643. Austin Corbin laid track from Lynbrook in 1880, and the rails along the island were pulled up in 1894 after repeated washouts from winter storms. In 1907 William H. Reynolds acquired the island for a boardwalk, homes and hotels, dredged the channel on its north side that carries his name, and required every building to be “eclectic Mediterranean style,” with white stucco walls and red-clay tile roofs, until his corporation went bankrupt in 1918 and the restrictions were lifted.
A stucco house from those years is its own assembly. Drilling stucco leaves patches that rarely disappear, so walls are filled from inside, through the plaster, or left alone. A red-tile roof usually has an attic under it, and the work is the attic floor. A flat roof behind a parapet has no attic: the insulation goes on top of the deck when the roof is replaced, or against its underside from inside. The wiring gets checked first. Corbin’s Long Beach Hotel burned to the ground in July 1907 in a fire blamed on defective wiring, and in any house built before 1940 we look for knob-and-tube before insulation goes near it.
The West End, from New York Avenue to East Atlantic Beach, holds many small bungalows and large houses close to one another along narrow streets named for U.S. states, and west of New York Avenue the island is less than half a mile wide. On the Walks, extremely narrow sidewalks named after the months run between the houses. A bungalow built for summer use has nothing in the walls, a low roof with a crawl-height attic or none, and a floor over a crawl space or piers, open to the wind. On the Walks we run hose and equipment in from the nearest street.
East of New York Avenue the island widens and holds larger family houses, through neighborhoods that include the East End, the President Streets and the Canals, where four parallel canals come in from Reynolds Channel. The 21.2% of the city from the 1950s and 19.2% from the 1960s brings capes, ranches and split-levels, with a long attic, a room over the garage and a rim at every floor; the 9.4% from the 1980s has insulated walls but often an air handler and ducts in the attic.
Two-unit buildings are 18.2% of Long Beach and three- and four-unit buildings another 3.2%. We scope each as one building, because the stair, the floor between units and the roof serve both households. In the 13.3% of homes heated by electricity the savings show up on the PSEG Long Island bill; in the 10.0% on oil, as fewer deliveries.
The barrier island: storms, water and the floor
Long Beach sits between the Atlantic Ocean and Reynolds Channel, it is vulnerable to tropical cyclones, and on 29 October 2012 Hurricane Sandy proved it. Flooding destroyed hundreds of vehicles, houses suffered various levels of damage, the damage was estimated at over $250 million, and the city was without power and running water for two weeks.
That history decides where insulation goes. Nothing that holds water belongs below the level water has reached or could reach: no batts or cellulose in a crawl space or under a floor that can flood, and no open cell foam there either. Closed cell foam takes up very little water and is the foam for the underside of a floor that could get wet. If your crawl space or garage level has flood vents in its walls, they stay open; we do not seal them to stop a draft. The air barrier and the insulation go at the floor above, sealed around every pipe, wire and duct that passes through it.
Moving the boundary up to the floor has a consequence people miss: the pipes and ducts below it are now outdoors. Water lines in a vented crawl space need their own insulation, and ducts there need sealing and insulating or, better, a route inside the house. Two weeks without power in cold weather is when a sealed floor and insulated pipes earn their keep.
Wind is the everyday version of the same problem: on an island less than a mile wide, it drives air through every gap in a leaky floor, wall and roof, which is why air sealing carries so much of the result here.
We seal before we insulate
Insulation slows heat going out. It does nothing about air being pushed in, and on the island the wind does the pushing.
In a West End bungalow the sequence starts underneath: seal every pipe, wire and duct hole through the floor, and seal the rim. Then the roof: top plates, fixtures, the flue and any hatch. Then insulate the underside of the floor with closed cell foam and the roof or attic to whatever depth it allows. In a stucco house start at the attic floor and the rim, and seal around the windows from inside before any wall work.
If a quote specifies a depth of insulation and never mentions air sealing, it is half a job.
What insulation costs in Long Beach
Most of our projects run between $3,500 and $12,500. A bungalow is small but priced on two surfaces, the floor from below and the roof, and a flat or crawl-height roof costs more per square foot than an open attic. Closed cell foam under a floor that could flood costs more than batts would, and it is the right material there. A stucco house is priced on its attic, rim and any interior wall work, and a two-family as one building.
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 Long Beach
Long Beach’s electric company is PSEG Long Island, and most of the city is on National Grid gas lines. Because PSEG Long Island supplies the electricity, NYSERDA’s Comfort Home program is not open to Long Beach homes, and the insulation rebates here are PSEG Long Island’s.
PSEG Long Island lists a $2,500 insulation rebate and a $1,000 air-sealing rebate for market-rate single-family homes, $500 for duct sealing, and 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 with a thermal scan and a blower door test. The 2026 measure list describes single-family homes, so it does not describe a unit in a condo building, and the owner of a two-family should ask PSEG Long Island before counting on the money.
National Grid’s Long Island insulation rebate program is not taking new applications; income-eligible households go through EmPower+. With 63.4% of homes owner-occupied, many Long Beach households rent, and EmPower+ is open to renters. NYSERDA’s EmPower+ can pay for air sealing and insulation at no cost up to $14,000 for lower-income households (in Nassau, 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. Long Island households should check eligibility on the MyEnergy portal.
Each program pays through its own participating contractors, so check the contractor with the program before you sign. The federal insulation tax credit (Section 25C) ended for work placed in service after 31 December 2025, so there is no federal insulation credit on a 2026 job, and New York has no state tax credit for insulation. The rest is in our New York and New Jersey rebate guide.
Code and climate in Long Beach
78.7% of Long Beach’s housing was built before 1980. New York’s first statewide energy code took effect on 1 January 1979, when Reynolds’ stucco houses were already more than sixty years old. Nassau County is Climate Zone 4. The Atlantic tempers the city’s winters, but snow still falls every year.
The 2025 Energy Conservation Construction Code of New York State took effect on 31 December 2025. For a new home it sets R-49 ceilings, or R-38 across the ceiling where full-height, uncompressed R-38 reaches over the wall top plate at the eaves; R-30 continuous where all the insulation sits above the roof deck, the figure to aim at when a flat roof is rebuilt with insulation on top; R-30 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 no more than 3.0 air changes per hour at 50 pascals.
For an existing house, unaltered portions do not have to comply, and New York’s code does not require a blower door test when you insulate. Where an alteration exposes roof or wall cavities, the code wants them insulated to full depth, so an open wall after storm repairs is the moment to fill it. ENERGY STAR recommends R-60 for an uninsulated attic in this zone and R-49 where 3 to 4 inches are already down; under a crawl-height bungalow roof, the space itself usually sets the limit.
Common questions about insulation in Long Beach
Do you install insulation in Long Beach, NY?
Yes, in the houses and small buildings: West End bungalows and the houses along the Walks, the pre-1940 stucco and frame houses, the larger family houses east of New York Avenue, the 1950s and 60s capes, ranches and splits, and the two-unit buildings, 18.2% of the city, which we scope as one building. We do not insulate single apartments in the large buildings along the boardwalk, where the envelope belongs to the board, and we will tell you which side of that line you are on when you call.
How much does insulation cost in Long Beach?
Most projects run $3,500 to $12,500. A bungalow is priced on its floor from below and its roof, and a flat or crawl-height roof costs more per square foot than an open attic. Closed cell foam under a floor that could flood costs more than other materials and is the right choice there. A stucco house is priced on its attic, rim and any interior wall work, and a two-family as one building. You get a written scope and price after a free walk-through.
Are there insulation rebates in Long Beach?
Yes, through PSEG Long Island, the city’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; its list does not describe condo units. Income-eligible owners and renters in one- to four-family homes can apply to EmPower+. Comfort Home excludes PSEG Long Island homes, 25C ended for work placed in service after 31 December 2025, and New York has no state insulation credit.
Our West End bungalow has no real attic and sits over a crawl space. Where does the insulation go?
Into the two surfaces around you. Underneath, we seal every hole through the floor and insulate its underside with closed cell foam, leaving any flood vents open and insulating the water lines below, which are now outside the house. Overhead, a crawl-height attic gets sealed and filled to whatever depth it allows; a roof with no attic gets closed cell foam against the underside of the deck from inside, or insulation on top when the roof is next replaced. The walls come last, and only where they can be reached cleanly.
Free energy audit in Long Beach
In a Long Beach house we start underneath: the crawl space or lower level, any flood vents, signs of past water, the pipes and ducts, the rim and the floor above. Then the roof or attic, however tight, with the flue, the fixtures and any hatch. If the floor matters more than the attic, we say so. Then a written scope and a price. No charge, 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 Nassau County
- Insulation in Oceanside
- Insulation in Lynbrook
- Crawl space insulation
- Open cell and closed cell spray foam compared
- Air sealing