One Uniondale home in five dates from the 1940s, and one in five has been built since 2000. 20.8% of the hamlet’s 9,085 housing units went up in the 1940s and 20.3% in 2000 or later, with 27.6% from the 1950s and 13.6% from before 1940 filling in the middle and the far end. The median home dates from 1956. Uniondale is an unincorporated hamlet in the Town of Hempstead, in central Nassau, home to Nassau Community College, part of Hofstra University and the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum; until 2015 the part north of Hempstead Turnpike was counted separately as East Garden City.
The housing is mixed. 71.2% of units are detached houses and 6.1% attached townhouses, but 8.8% sit in buildings of ten to nineteen units, 3.2% in buildings of twenty to forty-nine and 4.8% in buildings of fifty or more. 72.0% of occupied homes are owner-occupied. For heat, 65.7% burn utility gas, 24.2% fuel oil and 8.3% electricity, with 1.1% on bottled gas.
The houses we insulate in Uniondale
The oldest layer, 13.6% of the stock, was built before 1940, when walls went up with nothing in them and cellars were left open to the rim. The first step there is a wiring check, because live knob-and-tube has to be retired before insulation goes near it. After that the work is usually the attic floor, the cellar rim and sill, and the walls where the wiring allows.
The 1950s houses, 27.6%, are the capes and ranches most people picture on Long Island. The cape’s losses sit behind its knee walls and under the floor bays that run to the eave; the ranch’s sit across a single attic floor of settled insulation and unsealed wall tops, light boxes and fan housings. Both usually have a basement with a bare rim joist.
A house built since 2000 has insulated walls, and the job there is what sits above and beside the living space: an air handler and ducts in the attic, a room over the garage, ceilings cut through with recessed lights. In a townhouse, 6.1% of units, an owner who holds the attic can have the party wall closed where it stops short of the roof and the attic plane sealed; where an association owns the roof, the board decides.
An apartment in a building of ten or more units is a different case. The roof, the walls and the basement belong to the building, and a single owner or tenant cannot insulate them alone; the call belongs to the landlord, the condo board or the co-op board. Two-unit buildings (2.4% of units) and three- and four-unit buildings (1.6%) are ours to scope — as one building, because the stair, the floor between units and the roof are shared.
Small 1940s houses and the attic you cannot stand up in
1,894 of Uniondale’s housing units date from the 1940s. A house from that decade is often small and plainly built: one story or a story and a half, a modest roof pitch, and an attic that is not a room at all but a low triangle reached through a scuttle hatch in a closet or hallway ceiling. Nobody walks around in it, which is why its insulation is in the state it is.
Whatever went into that attic was placed by someone lying on the joists and reaching. It is thick near the hatch and thin or missing at the far ends, and at the eaves, where the roof comes down to within a few inches of the top plate, there is often nothing at all. A dozen small bypasses — wall tops, a chimney, a fixture — sit out of reach under it.
Insulating it properly takes a different method from a walk-in attic. We seal what can be reached from the hatch and from boards laid across the joists, set vent baffles at each eave by reaching in along the rafters, and blow the rest to depth with a long hose. Where the eave is too tight for enough depth, a few inches of closed cell foam at the top plate gives more R-value per inch than anything else. Where the hatch is too small or in the wrong place, we cut a new one in a closet ceiling and give it a sealed, insulated cover.
If the half-story upstairs was finished into rooms, the attic that is left is split into knee-wall spaces and a flat above the ceiling, each reached separately, and some slopes can only be dense-packed from inside the room.
We seal before we insulate
Insulation stops heat moving through a material; it does not stop air moving through a gap, and in a small attic the gaps are close together. Warm air rising out of a Uniondale ceiling drags cold air in at the cellar and the windows behind it.
In a 1940s Uniondale house the sequence is: weatherstrip the scuttle and insulate its cover; seal the top plates, the plumbing stack and the wiring holes within reach; close the gap around the chimney with sheet metal and high-temperature sealant; seal the ceiling fixture boxes and send the bath fan outdoors; baffle the eaves and foam the tightest ones. Then blow the attic to depth. In the cellar, seal the rim joist and sill and the holes where the gas, oil or water lines come through.
If a quote specifies a depth of insulation and never mentions air sealing, it is half a job.
What insulation costs in Uniondale
Most of our projects run between $3,500 and $12,500. A small 1940s house often sits in the lower part of that range because its attic is small, though a tight attic takes more labor per square foot, and cutting a new hatch or foaming the eaves adds to it. A 1950s cape is priced on its knee walls, slopes and flat, a ranch on attic area and the basement rim, and a pre-1940 house moves up when walls are included. A newer house is priced on ducts and ceilings, a townhouse on its party wall and attic plane, 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 Uniondale
Uniondale’s electric company is PSEG Long Island. National Grid gas is available on many Uniondale streets, not all. The electric company decides the program, and NYSERDA’s Comfort Home program is not open to PSEG Long Island customers.
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, all paid through its participating contractors after a free Whole House Energy Assessment. The rules cover single-family homes heated with oil, natural gas, propane or electricity; insulation has to be installed together with blower-door-assisted air sealing, and ducts in unconditioned space must be sealed. Because the list is written for single-family homes, an owner of a townhouse, a condo or a two-family should ask PSEG Long Island before counting on it.
For income-eligible households, National Grid’s Long Island insulation rebate program is closed to new applications and EmPower+ has taken its place. NYSERDA’s EmPower+ 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 Nassau family of four), or half the cost up to $7,000 for moderate-income households (below $131,900 for four), through an EmPower+ contractor. It is open to owners and renters of one- to four-family homes, and Long Island households should check eligibility on the MyEnergy portal.
Renters have one more option. PSEG Long Island’s REAP program offers a free in-home energy survey to customers within its income guidelines ($131,900 for a household of four) who have not had a REAP visit in five years, and may add door sweeps, an attic hatch cover and other small items at no cost; it does not install insulation. Every one of these programs pays through its own participating contractors. 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, and New York has no state tax credit for insulation. See our New York and New Jersey rebate guide.
Code and climate in Uniondale
73.1% of Uniondale’s housing was built before 1980. New York’s first statewide energy code took effect on 1 January 1979. Nassau County is Climate Zone 4.
Today’s code is the 2025 Energy Conservation Construction Code of New York State, in force since 31 December 2025. A new home needs R-49 ceilings, though R-38 is accepted over the whole ceiling where it runs at full, uncompressed height out over the wall top plate at the eaves — which is exactly the depth a 1940s eave does not have. The same table sets 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 air leakage of no more than 3.0 air changes per hour at 50 pascals.
A house already standing is not measured against that table. Unaltered portions do not have to comply, and New York’s code does not require a blower door test when you insulate an existing home. Where an alteration opens roof or wall cavities, they are to be filled to full depth at a minimum of R-3 per inch. ENERGY STAR recommends R-60 for an uninsulated attic in this zone and R-49 where 3 to 4 inches already sit on the attic floor, and in a tight 1940s attic we get as close to that as the eaves allow.
Common questions about insulation in Uniondale
Do you install insulation in Uniondale, NY?
Yes, north and south of Hempstead Turnpike. Much of our Uniondale work is the small 1940s house with a crawl-height attic, 20.8% of the stock, along with the 1950s capes and ranches, the pre-1940 houses once the wiring is checked, and the newer houses where the ducts and ceilings are the job. We also work on townhouses where the owner holds the attic and on two- to four-family houses scoped as one building. Apartments in larger buildings are a decision for the landlord or board.
How much does insulation cost in Uniondale?
Most projects run $3,500 to $12,500. A small 1940s house often lands in the lower part of the range, though a crawl-height attic takes more labor per square foot, and a new hatch or closed cell foam at tight eaves adds to it. A cape is priced on knee walls and slopes, a ranch on attic area and the rim, a newer house on its ducts and ceilings. A two-family is priced as one building. You get a written scope and price after a free walk-through.
Are there insulation rebates in Uniondale?
Yes. Uniondale 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, with more for income-qualified homes, paid through its participating contractors after a free Whole House Energy Assessment. Comfort Home is not available on PSEG Long Island. Income-eligible owners and renters can check EmPower+ on the MyEnergy portal, and REAP offers renters a free survey. The federal 25C credit ended for work placed in service after 31 December 2025, and New York has no state insulation credit.
Our Uniondale home is heated with electricity. Does insulation matter more for us?
It shows up more directly. 8.3% of Uniondale homes heat with electricity, and in those homes every bit of heat that leaks out through the attic or the rim is heat bought on the PSEG Long Island bill, so sealing and insulating appears there month by month. PSEG Long Island’s rebate rules list electrically heated single-family homes as eligible. If you are thinking about a heat pump, insulate first: the equipment is sized to the heat the house loses, and a sealed house needs a smaller one. In an apartment building, the building’s owner decides.
Free energy audit in Uniondale
In a 1940s house we start at the scuttle: how far a person can reach, how deep the insulation is near the hatch and how thin at the eaves, the chimney, and whether a new hatch would open up the far ends. In a finished half-story, the knee-wall spaces and the flat above. Then the cellar rim and the pipe holes, and in a newer house the air handler, ducts and the room over the garage. If the attic is in reach and the rim is the bigger loss, we say so. Then a written scope and a price, no charge and no 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 East Meadow
- Insulation in Hempstead
- Insulation in Roosevelt
- Attic insulation
- Open cell and closed cell spray foam compared
- Recommended R-values for New York