The 1960s built more of Woodmere than any other decade: 32.3% of its 5,393 housing units, 1,743 homes. The 1950s added another 31.2%, and the median home dates from 1959. 86.9% of units are detached houses and 93.6% of occupied homes are owner-occupied. Heat is 76.5% utility gas, 18.9% fuel oil, 2.0% bottled gas and 1.4% electricity.
Woodmere is an unincorporated hamlet in the Town of Hempstead and one of the Five Towns. It considered becoming a village in 1910 and tried again in 1978; both attempts failed, so the Town still governs it. The Five Towns’ villages, Lawrence, Cedarhurst and the Hewletts’ villages, among them Woodsburgh, are separate municipalities, and the numbers here are Woodmere’s alone.
18.0% of Woodmere predates 1940, and 5.4% has gone up since 2000. The apartment buildings, 3.6% of units in buildings of fifty or more and 3.1% in buildings of twenty to forty-nine, are run as one property, with the roof and the exterior walls in the owner’s or the board’s hands rather than a household’s. In a house those decisions belong to the household, and most of Woodmere’s houses have a roof and an attic that take a beating in both seasons.
The houses we insulate in Woodmere
The 1960s houses, together with the 7.0% from the 1970s, are split-levels, high-ranches and two-story colonials. A split-level stacks its problems. The bedroom wing sits over the garage on a floor of open joist bays; the upper level’s side wall faces straight into the attic over the lower roof; the low-pitched roofs leave little depth at the eaves; and the lower level’s rim joist sits above grade, bare or stuffed with a batt that stops no air. A high-ranch adds a cantilevered front where the floor joists run out over open air. A colonial of the same years has a full attic, but its insulation was a few inches of batts that have since been walked on, cut for wiring and pushed aside for fans.
The 1950s houses, and the 4.5% from the 1940s, are capes and ranches. The ranch’s attic is one long low space where the insulation thins to almost nothing over the outside walls, exactly where the roof is coldest. The cape’s upstairs has knee walls with bare framing on the attic side, floor bays open to the eaves and slopes with room for only a few inches of anything.
The 970 houses built before 1940 are older frame houses: plaster on lath over empty stud bays, framing that may run unbroken from cellar to attic, and attics often floored for storage. Knob-and-tube wiring may still be in some of them, and we check for live circuits before any cavity gets filled. The houses built since 2000, 3.7% in the 2000s and 1.5% in the 2010s, have insulated walls; their losses are attic ductwork, complex roofs with vaulted ceilings, and rooms over garages.
Two-unit buildings are 3.9% of units, scoped as one building. On gas, 76.5% of homes, savings from sealing and insulating land on the National Grid bill; in the 18.9% on oil, as fewer deliveries; and in every house, the cooler summer shows on the PSEG Long Island bill.
Snow on the eaves, heat in the attic: Woodmere’s roofs
Woodmere’s January averages a low of 24 degrees and the hamlet gets about 22 inches of snow in an average winter. July averages a high of 83, and the record, 104, was set in July 1966. An attic sits between that weather and the bedrooms, and a poorly sealed one fails in both directions.
In winter the failure is the ice dam. Warm air leaking through the ceiling, plus heat conducted through thin insulation, warms the roof deck, and snow on it melts. The water runs down to the overhang, which sits outside the house and stays cold, and it freezes there. The ridge of ice grows, the next melt backs up behind it and under the shingles, and the signs follow: icicles along the gutters, stained ceilings near the outside walls, peeling paint, wet insulation. Split-levels and ranches with low-pitched roofs and short overhangs are the most exposed. Heat cable and roof rakes treat the symptom. The cure is to keep the heat out of the roof: seal the attic floor, insulate it to depth, and baffle each eave so outside air keeps the deck cold.
In summer the roof deck heats the attic well past the temperature outside, and that heat works down through a few inches of old insulation into the rooms below. Where central air was added later, the air handler and ducts usually went into that attic, so the cold air is carried through the hottest space in the house. The fix is either to seal and bury or insulate the ducts on a sealed attic floor, or, where the ducts cannot be moved, to spray foam the roofline so the attic becomes part of the conditioned house. Which one fits depends on the house.
Woodmere’s storms matter too. The hamlet is prone to flooding in early fall and late spring, and it took Hurricane Gloria in 1985, Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 and Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Wind pushes outside air through every gap on the weather side of a house, so air sealing does more than extra depth on an exposed lot. A lower level that has taken water gets closed cell foam at the rim, never fiberglass batts that hold water against the framing.
We seal before we insulate
Insulation slows heat through a surface. It does not stop air, and in Woodmere air leaks are what melt the snow on the roof. Seal first and the insulation keeps the heat where it belongs.
In a Woodmere split-level the order is: in the attics, the top plates of every wall, the ceiling boxes, the bath fans ducted outdoors, the hatch, the gaps around ducts and flues, and the short wall where the upper level meets the lower roof; baffles at every eave; in the garage, the joist bays under the bedroom closed at the rim and filled; downstairs, the rim joist with closed cell foam. Then the attic floor is insulated to depth.
If a quote specifies a depth of insulation and never mentions air sealing, it is half a job.
What insulation costs in Woodmere
Most of our projects run between $3,500 and $12,500. A 1950s ranch with one attic floor and a basement rim is toward the lower end. A split-level costs more for the same floor area, because it has two or three attic areas, a garage ceiling and an exposed rim. Spray foaming a roofline to bring attic ducts inside costs more than sealing and blowing an attic floor, and it is the right call only in some houses. A pre-1940 house moves up if its walls are filled.
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 Woodmere
Woodmere gets its electricity from PSEG Long Island, and National Grid gas lines are common in the hamlet. Homes on PSEG Long Island cannot use NYSERDA’s Comfort Home program, so Woodmere’s rebates come from PSEG Long Island, with EmPower+ for income-eligible households.
PSEG Long Island’s free Whole House Energy Assessment checks insulation and drafts, uses a thermal scan to find hidden heat loss, and runs a blower door test. Its 2026 list shows a $2,500 insulation rebate, a $1,000 air-sealing rebate and a $500 duct-sealing rebate for market-rate single-family homes, with higher amounts for income-qualified homes and homes in state-designated disadvantaged communities, paid through PSEG Long Island’s participating contractors. Its rules require insulation to go in with blower-door-assisted air sealing and all ductwork in unconditioned space to be sealed, which in a Woodmere house with attic ducts is part of the job anyway.
For households under the EmPower+ income limits, NYSERDA’s EmPower+ pays for air sealing and insulation at no cost up to $14,000 for lower-income households (at or below $98,925 a year for a Nassau family of four), or half the cost up to $7,000 for moderate-income households (below $131,900 for four); owners and renters can apply, and Long Island households should check eligibility on the MyEnergy portal. National Grid’s Long Island insulation program is not accepting new applications. NYSERDA’s Green Jobs–Green New York loans run from $1,500 to $25,000 over 5, 10 or 15 years; they are loans, not rebates, and PSEG Long Island customers apply for the on-bill version through PSEG Long Island.
All of these programs work through their own participating contractors, so confirm the contractor with the program before you commit. The federal Section 25C insulation credit ended for work placed in service after 31 December 2025, so a 2026 job gets no federal credit, and New York has no state tax credit for insulation. More in our rebate guide for New York and New Jersey.
Code and climate in Woodmere
93.1% of Woodmere’s housing was built before 1980. New York’s first statewide energy code took effect on 1 January 1979, after the hamlet’s 1950s and 1960s streets were long finished. Nassau County is Climate Zone 4.
Under the 2025 Energy Conservation Construction Code of New York State, in force since 31 December 2025, a new house needs R-49 ceilings, or R-38 over the entire ceiling where it reaches full, uncompressed height over the top plates at the eaves, the detail that also keeps a roof edge cold. Floors need R-30; basement and crawl space walls R-15 continuous, R-19, or R-13 plus R-5 continuous; windows U-0.27; and air leakage must test at or below 3.0 air changes per hour at 50 pascals.
An existing Woodmere house is not held to that table. Unaltered parts need not comply, and New York’s code does not require a blower door test when an existing home is insulated. Where an alteration exposes wall or roof-ceiling cavities, they are to be insulated to full depth. ENERGY STAR recommends R-60 for an uninsulated attic in this zone and R-49 for one that already has 3 to 4 inches.
Common questions about insulation in Woodmere
Do you install insulation in Woodmere, NY?
Yes. Most of our Woodmere work is the 1960s split-level, high-ranch or colonial, 32.3% of the hamlet, and the 1950s cape or ranch, 31.2%: low attics thin at the eaves, rooms over garages, exposed rims and attic ductwork. We also work on the 18.0% built before 1940, after a wiring check, and on newer houses where the ducts and vaulted ceilings are the problem. Two-family houses are scoped as one building.
How much does insulation cost in Woodmere?
Most projects run $3,500 to $12,500. A ranch with one attic floor and a basement rim is toward the lower end. A split-level usually costs more for its size, with several attic areas, a garage ceiling and an exposed rim. Foaming a roofline so attic ducts sit inside the house costs more than sealing and insulating the attic floor, and it only makes sense in some houses. After a free walk-through you get a written scope and a price.
Are there insulation rebates in Woodmere?
Yes. Woodmere is PSEG Long Island territory, and PSEG Long Island lists a $2,500 insulation rebate, a $1,000 air-sealing rebate and a $500 duct-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 cannot be used with PSEG Long Island service. Income-eligible owners and renters can check EmPower+ on the MyEnergy portal. The federal 25C credit ended with 2025, and New York has no state insulation credit.
Icicles hang along the gutters of our Woodmere house every winter. Is that an insulation problem?
Usually, yes. Big icicles mean snow on the roof is melting from heat escaping the house and refreezing at the cold overhang, which is how an ice dam forms. The leak is mostly air: gaps at the top plates, ceiling boxes, the hatch and attic ducts. We seal those, insulate the attic floor to depth, and add baffles so the eaves stay vented and cold. Heat cable only treats the symptom. If ceilings near outside walls are already stained, we check the sheathing too.
Free energy audit in Woodmere
In a Woodmere house we start in the attic: insulation depth at the eaves, stains or frost on the sheathing that point to ice dams, the ducts and air handler if central air is up there, and the gaps around flues and fans. Then the short walls and attics of a split-level, the garage ceiling, the lower-level rim, and how the boiler or furnace vents. If the attic is already sound and the problem is the garage ceiling, 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 Valley Stream
- Insulation in Oceanside
- Insulation in Lynbrook
- Attic insulation
- Roof and roofline insulation
- Air sealing