Nearly a third of Roosevelt was built before 1940. 30.8% of the hamlet’s 4,609 housing units, 1,419 homes, date from 1939 or earlier, and the median unit was built in 1953. Roosevelt also has almost no apartment buildings: not one unit sits in a building of five to forty-nine, and only 0.1% in a building of fifty or more. Where Roosevelt families do not have a detached house to themselves, they share a small one: 11.4% of units are in two-unit buildings and 6.4% in buildings of three or four.
Roosevelt is an unincorporated hamlet in the Town of Hempstead, on Nassau’s South Shore, known in earlier times as Greenwich and Rum Point before it took the name of Theodore Roosevelt in the first half of the 20th century. 19,636 people live on its 1.8 square miles. Detached houses make up 79.0% of units and owners occupy 76.3% of occupied homes. For heat, 71.6% use utility gas, 23.3% fuel oil, 3.1% electricity and 1.4% bottled gas.
So Roosevelt work is old houses, many holding more than one household, with one owner deciding for all of them.
The houses we insulate in Roosevelt
In 1920 the community set up its own Roosevelt Police District, drawn roughly along the lines of the Roosevelt Fire District, and it was folded into the Nassau County Police Department later that decade. The 1,419 units from 1939 or earlier belong to those years and the ones before. After the war the building picked up again, 550 units in the 1940s and 1,188 in the 1950s, and by 1949 the hamlet had dedicated a World War II memorial carrying 830 names at Nassau Road and the Hempstead–Babylon Turnpike.
A Roosevelt house from before 1940 went up with empty walls. Balloon framing, common in the older ones, leaves each stud bay a clear shaft from cellar to attic; inside, plaster covers wood lath, and above, the attic floor carries bare boards or a thin layer of old fill. The sill rests on the foundation with gaps a draft can pass through. Before any bay or attic floor is covered, we trace the wiring, because knob-and-tube survives in houses of this era. The front porch enclosed into a room decades ago is often the coldest space in the house: its floor sits over an open crawl or piers, its walls are a single layer of framing, and its low roof leaves no attic to fill.
The 1940s and 1950s houses are mostly small capes and ranches. A cape’s upstairs bedrooms are boxed in by short knee walls, unheated space behind them and floor joists open under them out to the eave, and a rear dormer added later brings a nearly flat roof with little depth. In the ranch the losses are spread across one attic floor: wall tops, a chimney, ceiling boxes and a bath fan that often vents into the attic rather than outdoors.
Of the 579 units from the 1960s, the raised ranches and splits carry a bedroom level over the garage, its floor framed as open bays. The 1990s added 326 more, 7.1% of the stock, built with insulated walls, so what we fix in them is overhead: attic ductwork, can lights open to the attic, and a bonus room’s floor above the garage.
Oil heats 23.3% of Roosevelt homes; there, a sealed and insulated house calls for the oil truck less often. On gas, 71.6%, the savings land on National Grid bills. In a two- or three-family house with a heating system for each apartment, they land on whoever pays each bill.
Three and four households in one Roosevelt house
Buildings of three or four hold 294 Roosevelt units, and two-unit buildings hold another 527. Whether such a building was put up for several families or divided later, the apartments share one frame, and the gaps that let heat out also connect the apartments to each other.
The same unsealed pipe chases, floor cavities and stair openings that carry warm air upward also carry cooking smells, cigarette smoke and some of the sound from one apartment into the next. Sealing them for energy slows those too. Where floors and walls between apartments act as fire separations, the holes through them get fire-rated sealant, not ordinary expanding foam, so the tightening does not weaken the separation.
The cellar of a three- or four-family often holds a heating system for each apartment. That means several flues, several gas or oil lines, and several holes through the rim and foundation, each sealed on its own. Once the building is tighter, every burner that vents up a chimney has to draw properly with the apartments’ exhaust fans running, and we check that before the job is closed out. Working carbon monoxide alarms belong in every unit either way.
The unit count also sets which programs apply. PSEG Long Island’s rebate list describes single-family homes. EmPower+, NYSERDA’s Green Jobs–Green New York loans and National Grid’s Weatherization Health and Safety Program are written for homes of one to four units. Nearly every Roosevelt home falls inside that one-to-four line, so an owner of a three- or four-family should read the rebate section below with the building’s unit count in mind.
We seal before we insulate
Warm air rises out of a building through its top and pulls outdoor air in at its bottom, and insulation piled over the openings at either end does little to stop it. The openings are closed first.
In a pre-1940 Roosevelt house with two or three apartments the order runs: in the attic, cap the open tops of the wall bays, seal each plumbing stack and vent, close the gap around the chimney with sheet metal and high-temperature sealant, and weatherstrip the hatch; at each floor, seal the chases where they pass between apartments; below, plug each open wall bay where it meets the sill, and seal along the rim and around each flue and pipe that leaves the cellar. Under an enclosed porch, seal and insulate the floor from the crawl. Only then does the attic get its insulation, and the walls theirs after the wiring passes.
If a quote specifies a depth of insulation and never mentions air sealing, it is half a job.
What insulation costs in Roosevelt
Most of our projects run between $3,500 and $12,500. We price a Roosevelt two- to four-family as a single building. Its number rises with the size of the top apartment’s attic, how many wall bays need dense-packing, how much wiring must be sorted out first, and how many chases and flues pierce each floor. A closed-in porch brings its own floor and shallow roof into the scope. Post-war capes and ranches generally come in lower, since the work is confined to knee walls or the attic floor, eaves and rim.
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 Roosevelt
Roosevelt’s electric company is PSEG Long Island. National Grid gas runs on many Roosevelt streets but not all of them. Because the electricity comes from PSEG Long Island, NYSERDA’s Comfort Home program is not available here.
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. It pays through its participating contractors after a free Whole House Energy Assessment. Homes on oil, gas, propane or electric heat are eligible, and insulation must go in alongside blower-door-assisted air sealing. Because the list names single-family homes, a Roosevelt landlord with two to four apartments needs PSEG Long Island’s answer on the building before relying on it.
Roosevelt’s median household income, $135,158, sits close to EmPower+’s moderate-income line for a Nassau family of four, $131,900, so the income check is worth making. NYSERDA’s EmPower+ can pay for air sealing and insulation at no cost up to $14,000 for lower-income households (at or below $89,063 for a Nassau household of three) or half the cost up to $7,000 for moderate-income households (below $118,750 for three), through an EmPower+ contractor, and federal HEAR money adds up to $1,600 for air sealing, insulation and ventilation. Income-eligible owners and renters of one- to four-family homes can apply, and Long Island households should check eligibility on the MyEnergy portal. National Grid’s Weatherization Health and Safety Program offers no-cost home safety improvements to income-eligible homes of four units or fewer, but only once the household has applied to EmPower+ and completed a no-cost Health and Safety Assessment. In an old house, a safety problem is often what stands between the owner and the insulation. National Grid’s Long Island insulation rebate program itself is closed to new applications.
Each of these programs pays through its own participating contractors, so check the installer with the program first. The federal insulation tax credit (Section 25C) ended for work placed in service after 31 December 2025, and New York has no state tax credit for insulation. Our New York and New Jersey rebate guide sets out every program.
Code and climate in Roosevelt
84.8% of Roosevelt’s housing was built before 1980. New York’s first statewide energy code took effect on 1 January 1979, at least four decades after Roosevelt’s pre-war houses went up. Nassau County is Climate Zone 4.
Since 31 December 2025 the 2025 Energy Conservation Construction Code of New York State has set the table for new homes: R-49 ceilings, with R-38 accepted over the whole ceiling where it reaches full, uncompressed height over the wall top plate at the eaves; R-30 floors; basement and crawl space walls at R-15 continuous, R-19, or R-13 plus R-5 continuous; U-0.27 windows; and air leakage of 3.0 air changes per hour or less at 50 pascals.
Roosevelt’s existing houses answer to different rules. Unaltered portions need not comply, and New York’s code does not require a blower door test when you insulate an existing home. When an alteration opens roof-ceiling or wall cavities, though, they are to be insulated to full depth at a minimum of R-3 per inch, so an apartment being renovated between tenants should not have its outside walls closed up empty. 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 Roosevelt
Do you install insulation in Roosevelt, NY?
Yes. Roosevelt is a hamlet in the Town of Hempstead, and much of our work there is in the pre-1940 houses, 30.8% of the stock, once the wiring is checked: attic floors, open wall bays, cellar rims and enclosed porches. The post-war capes, ranches and raised ranches are ours too, as are 1990s houses whose attic ducts need sealing. Two- to four-family houses are scoped as one building with the owner.
How much does insulation cost in Roosevelt?
Most projects run $3,500 to $12,500. For a two- to four-family the price covers the whole building and turns on the top-floor attic, the wall bays, any wiring that must be dealt with first, and the chases and flues on every floor. Capes and ranches from after the war typically cost less. A closed-in porch adds its floor and roof. The walk-through is free, and the written price carries no obligation.
Are there insulation rebates in Roosevelt?
Yes. PSEG Long Island, Roosevelt’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. Owners of two- to four-family houses should ask PSEG Long Island about eligibility. Owners and renters within the income limits can look into EmPower+ on the MyEnergy portal. Comfort Home is not open to PSEG Long Island customers, 25C ended for work placed in service after 31 December 2025, and New York has no state insulation credit.
We own a three-family in Roosevelt and live on the first floor. Can the building be insulated with the tenants living in it?
Yes. Most of the work happens from the attic, the cellar and the shared stair, so each apartment usually needs to give access only for a short time, for a closet hatch, a knee-wall door or the chases in a kitchen or bath. We tell every household ahead of time which rooms we need and when. Plan the whole building in one visit: the top apartment gains most from the attic, yours from the cellar, and the middle one from the sealed stair and chases.
Free energy audit in Roosevelt
We start at the top: the attic over the upper apartment, the tops of the wall bays, the chimney and each stack and vent. Then down through the building, apartment by apartment, to the stair, the kitchen and bath chases, the wiring and any enclosed porch, and into the cellar for the sill, the rim, the flues and each heating system’s venting. If the cellar leaks more than the attic, you will hear that first. A written scope and price follow, free and without obligation.
Call 914-825-6824 or use our contact form. We are open 8am–8pm, seven days, and 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 Freeport
- Insulation in Uniondale
- Insulation in Baldwin
- Insulating older homes
- Wall insulation
- Air sealing