The Home Insulators

Insulation Contractors in Cherry Hill, NJ

48.4% of Cherry Hill’s 30,124 housing units went up in the 1960s and 70s. No other Camden County town we cover is that concentrated in one twenty-year run, and it settles what a job here looks like. The median unit dates from 1969, 74.2% of the township was framed before New Jersey’s first statewide energy subcode of 1 January 1978, 67.3% of units are detached and 77.1% of occupied units are owner-occupied. One owner, one gas bill, one attic.

This was Delaware Township until a referendum picked the name Cherry Hill in 1961, the year the shopping center opened opposite the old Cherry Hill Farm on Kaighn Avenue. Building boomed after the Second World War into the 1980s, and what filled the farm fields between Ellisburg and the Cooper River was the ranch and the split-level. Only 7.7% of the stock has gone up since 2000, in pockets of custom houses and the reuse of commercial buildings.

Three assemblies carry most of our work here: the long low attic over a 1960s ranch, the stack of short attics and the bedroom over the garage in a split-level, and the crawl space or slab underneath both. Gas heats 80.6% of occupied homes and oil only 2.2%, so the argument is almost always a gas bill.

The houses we insulate in Cherry Hill

Of the 30,124 units, 3.4% predate 1940, 22.4% are 1940s and 50s, 48.4% are 1960s and 70s, 18.1% are 1980s and 90s and 7.7% has been built since 2000. The 1960s alone account for 28.0% of everything standing, the largest single decade. Detached houses are 67.3% of the stock, attached houses 8.7%, two- to four-family buildings 2.8%, and 13.4% of units sit in buildings of fifty or more. Electricity heats 15.1% of occupied units, most of it in those buildings.

Ellisburg and Erlton sit at the older end near King’s Highway and Route 70. Barclay, Springdale, Greentree, Kingston Estates, Old Orchard, Point of Woods, Colwick and the Golden Triangle are the streets that replaced the farms, and Woodcrest grew around a golf course laid out in 1929. On those streets the house is a ranch or a split-level.

The ranch is one long ceiling plane under a low-pitched roof. The loose-fill laid in 1965 has settled to a fraction of its depth, there are no baffles at the eaves so the first three feet of it is wind-washed, and the ceiling below is punched through with bypasses: the hatch, the bath fans, the top plates, the flue chase, the recessed cans added in a later kitchen job.

The split-level is the harder house, and Cherry Hill has thousands of them. Two or three ceiling planes at different heights, a short attic over each, and a framed pocket where the upper roof meets the lower one. That pocket is open to both attics and to the wall cavities below it, and nobody has ever sealed it. Under the upper level sits the garage, and the bedroom above it has joist bays running straight out to the soffit, which is why that room is ten degrees behind the rest of the house in January.

This is the coastal plain, so the basement these houses do not have matters. A great many mid-century Cherry Hill ranches sit on a slab or a shallow crawl space. A vented crawl with a dirt floor, batts falling out of the joists and ducts running through it makes the floor cold in February and the house damp in July. We close the vents, lay a vapor retarder over the dirt, foam the walls and rim with closed cell and bring the space inside. A slab house loses at the slab edge instead.

The 22.4% from the 1940s and 50s is largely the cape, and its weak point is the knee wall: insulation on the room side with no air barrier behind it, joist bays open to the eave under the bedroom floor, unbaffled slopes and a shallow flat above. In the 3.4% that predates 1940, the farmhouses around Colestown, we assume balloon framing and knob-and-tube wiring until the attic proves otherwise.

The 18.1% from the 1980s and 90s and the 7.7% since 2000 are a different scope. Their walls hold R-11 to R-13 batts or better and are not worth opening. What fails is the air handler and ductwork sitting in a vented attic outside the insulation, cathedral ceilings built without baffles, the bonus room over the garage, and bath fans that dump into the attic.

The 4,024 apartments, and the townhouses next to them

13.4% of Cherry Hill’s units are in buildings of fifty or more, 4,024 apartments in all, with another 2.7% in buildings of twenty to forty-nine; Cherry Hill Towers stands on part of the old Cherry Hill Farm ground. If you own or rent one of those, we are not the call. There is no attic over your ceiling, the walls have no cavity to fill, the roof is a capital item for the owner or the board, and one unit cannot be sealed in isolation when the chases run the length of the building.

The 8.7% in attached houses is different. A townhouse or a duplex half has its own attic, its own rim and a party wall, and the party wall is usually the problem: framed to the roof deck but never closed at the top, so your heated air crosses into the neighbor’s attic and cold air comes back. An end unit adds an exposed gable. Those are ours, as are the 2.8% in two- to four-family buildings, scoped as one building because the shared floor and stair chase run through both units.

We seal before we insulate

Insulation slows heat moving through a surface. It does nothing about air moving through a gap. Blow sixteen inches of cellulose over a split-level ceiling that is open to the garage and the wall pocket, and that bedroom stays cold.

In a Cherry Hill split the order is: close the framed pocket where the upper roof meets the lower one, block the joist bays over the garage at the exterior wall, seal the top plates, flue chase, bath fans and hatch on every attic plane, baffle the eaves, then insulate each plane to depth. In a ranch it is the ceiling bypasses first and the eave baffles second, and the crawl space or rim after that.

If a quote specifies a depth of insulation and never mentions air sealing, it is half a job.

What insulation costs in Cherry Hill

Most of our projects run between $3,500 and $12,500. In a split-level the number moves with the count of separate attic planes, the length of transition wall and garage ceiling to close, and whether the crawl space is being brought inside. A ranch attic on its own is usually at the low end, because the plane is uninterrupted. Our spray foam cost guide breaks the foam side down further.

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. After air sealing and insulating, homeowners typically save 20% or more on heating and cooling.

Insulation rebates in Cherry Hill

Cherry Hill is PSE&G territory for electric, and PSE&G for gas across most of the township, with South Jersey Gas serving roughly a tenth of it along the southern edge. Read the name on your gas bill before anyone applies for anything: with 80.6% of homes on gas heat, the gas utility is the one that matters here.

PSE&G Whole Home Energy Solutions pays up to $7,500 in rebates toward air sealing, insulation and the envelope work the assessment calls for, plus 0% on-bill repayment of up to $25,000 — seven years for projects of $10,000 or less, ten years above that or for income-qualified customers. It starts with an assessment by a BPI-certified contractor participating in PSE&G’s program, who sets that fee. PSE&G publishes no per-measure amounts, so “up to $7,500” is as precise as anyone can plainly be. Separately, PSE&G’s Whole Home Energy Assessment is free for any residential customer in a home of fewer than five units.

On the South Jersey Gas side, South Jersey Gas Whole Home Energy Solutions pays to the same $7,500 ceiling and publishes its formula: $2,000 at a modeled five percent energy saving plus $200 for every percentage point above that, never more than half the project cost, with 0% on-bill repayment of $2,500 to $25,000. It needs an active account and gas heat, and it comes with a complimentary Whole Home Energy Assessment.

For income-qualified households the work can be free. PSE&G Home Weatherization installs insulation, air sealing and duct sealing at no cost between 250% and 400% of the federal poverty level, and South Jersey Gas runs an equivalent program worth up to $14,000. New Jersey Comfort Partners does the same at or below 250% of the federal poverty guidelines, $82,500 a year for a family of four.

New Jersey’s IRA Home Energy Rebates have not launched — the state’s own page says they are in development and not open for applications. The federal Section 25C tax credit ended for anything placed in service after 31 December 2025, so there is no federal insulation credit on a 2026 job, whatever a flyer in your door may still say. The full picture is in our New York and New Jersey rebate guide.

Code and climate in Cherry Hill

74.2% of Cherry Hill was built before New Jersey’s first statewide energy subcode of 1 January 1978, which is to say three quarters of the township was framed with no insulation requirement at all. Camden County is climate zone 4A, the milder of the state’s two zones, shared with Burlington and Gloucester next door.

New Jersey adopted the 2024 IECC on 17 August 2026. For new construction it sets R-49 ceilings — the 2021 edition it replaced called for R-60, and a complete permit application filed under the old code is still accepted until about 16 February 2027 — with walls at R-30 in the cavity or R-20 plus R-5 continuous, windows at U-0.30 in the 4A counties, and air leakage of 3.0 air changes per hour at 50 pascals.

A house already standing falls under New Jersey’s Rehabilitation Subcode: insulating an attic does not mean bringing the rest of the house up to code, and no blower-door test is required. Blown-in or batt insulation against the interior finish is ordinary maintenance with no permit; spray foam and other foam plastic insulation need a permit, which we pull as part of the job. R-49 is what the state considers right for this climate, and it is what we design to.

Common questions about insulation in Cherry Hill

Do you install insulation in Cherry Hill, NJ?

Yes. Most of what we do here is the 1960s and 70s ranch and split-level that make up 48.4% of the township, plus the 1940s and 50s capes at the Ellisburg and Erlton end and the 1980s and 90s colonials with ductwork in the attic. We also do townhouses and two- to four-family buildings. We do not work in the apartment buildings of fifty or more units, where the envelope belongs to the owner or the board.

How much does insulation cost in Cherry Hill?

Most projects run $3,500 to $12,500. In a split-level the drivers are how many separate attic planes there are, how much transition wall and garage ceiling has to be closed, and whether the crawl space is being sealed and insulated. A single-plane ranch attic is usually the least expensive job in the township, and a newer colonial is priced on duct footage and ceiling area rather than walls. Written scope and fixed price after a free walk-through.

Are there insulation rebates in Cherry Hill?

Yes. Most of Cherry Hill is PSE&G for gas and electric, with South Jersey Gas along the southern edge, and both run Whole Home Energy Solutions with up to $7,500 in rebates and 0% repayment up to $25,000. Check which name is on your gas bill first. Income-qualified households can have the work done at no cost through PSE&G Home Weatherization or Comfort Partners. The state’s IRA rebates have not launched, and the federal 25C credit ended after 31 December 2025.

The bedroom over our garage is always cold. What actually fixes it?

Air, not insulation depth. In a Cherry Hill split the floor joists under that bedroom run from the garage out to the exterior wall, and the bays are open at the soffit, so outdoor air blows under the floor all winter. Batts stuffed against the garage ceiling do nothing about that. We block the bays at the exterior wall, air-seal the garage ceiling and the wall that bedroom shares with the attic pocket, then insulate the floor assembly.

Free energy audit in Cherry Hill

We start in the attic, or in each attic if it is a split: depth and condition of what is up there, the eaves, the hatch, the chases, and whether the air handler and ducts sit inside or outside the insulated envelope. Then the garage ceiling, the transition pocket, the rim, and the crawl space or slab edge. If the attic is fine and the real losses are the garage and the crawl, we say so. Then a written scope and a price, no charge.

Call 914-825-6824 or use the form below. Open 8am–8pm, seven days. We work out of New Rochelle, NY with a 100-plus in-house crew, and we hold manufacturer installer certifications from the spray foam manufacturers we use.

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