36.0% of Freeport’s 14,750 homes were built before 1940. That is more than a third of the village, and it goes back to Freeport’s years as an oystering port, a summer resort and, by 1914, an unofficial colony of vaudeville performers, some of whom kept year-round family homes here. Another 30.6% dates from the 1940s and 50s, when Freeport became a bedroom community for New York City, and 20.2% from the 1960s and 70s; the median home dates from 1952. Freeport is an incorporated village in the Town of Hempstead, on the South Shore, and it has run its own electric system since 1898.
It is two housing markets. 62.4% of units are detached houses, 4.1% are in two-unit buildings and 2.9% in three- and four-unit buildings, and that is our work. But 13.3% of units are in buildings of fifty or more and 7.7% in buildings of twenty to forty-nine. Apartment buildings went up so fast in two years of the early 1960s that the village passed a moratorium on multi-unit residential construction. 70.9% of homes are owner-occupied, and heat is mostly gas: 62.0% utility gas, 21.0% fuel oil and 11.3% electricity.
The houses we insulate in Freeport
The 30.6% from the 1940s and 50s, 9.5% and 21.1% by decade, is mostly capes and ranches. The cape fails in its half-story: knee walls with no air barrier behind them, floor bays that run under the knee wall to the eave, slopes with no baffle and a thin flat above. The ranch fails across one long, low attic of settled loose-fill, unsealed wall tops and a kitchen soffit open above. Both often sit over a basement or crawl space with an unsealed rim joist.
The 13.9% from the 1960s and 6.3% from the 1970s bring splits and raised ranches, with a bedroom over the garage on a floor of open joist bays, a cantilevered overhang, and more than one attic section to seal. In the southern part of the village, where canals cut in from the salt marshes, a crawl space or lower level that stays damp gets different treatment: we seal and insulate the floor above it and keep anything that holds water out of the space below.
Two-unit buildings, 4.1% of the stock, and three- and four-unit buildings, 2.9%, are our work too. We scope each as one building, because the stair, the floors between units and the roof are shared, and sealing one apartment’s share does not work.
The large buildings are a different matter. An apartment in a building of fifty units has no attic or wall cavity its occupant controls, and the envelope belongs to the building’s owner or board. If you rent or own a unit in one, the useful call is to them. If you are not sure which side of that line your building falls on, we will tell you on the phone.
62.0% gas heat means most Freeport homes see savings on the National Grid bill. The 21.0% on oil see them as fewer deliveries, with a payback that moves with the price of oil.
Before 1940: resort-era houses and the open wall
Freeport was a settlement from the 1640s, took its name in 1853 and incorporated in 1892, when it had 1,821 people. The Southside Railroad arrived in 1868, and the developer John J. Randall gave the village several canals, including the Woodcleft Canal, one side of which is now the Nautical Mile. Randall opposed laying all of Freeport out in a grid, and to spite the grid designers he put up a Victorian house virtually overnight on a triangular lot at Lena Avenue and Wilson Place. The Freeport Spite House is still standing and occupied. By 1937 the village had more than 20,000 people.
The houses of those decades share a construction problem. Many frame houses of that age are balloon-framed, with studs running from the sill to the roof and no plate at each floor, so every wall cavity is an open flue from the cellar to the attic. Cold air enters at the sill, rises through the walls and leaves at the top, and the plaster in between stays cold. We assume balloon framing and knob-and-tube wiring in a Freeport house older than 1940 until we have looked, and live knob-and-tube is replaced before any insulation touches it.
A house that began as a summer place is its own case. If yours was built for the season and closed in later, expect walls with no insulation at all, porch roofs that tie into open wall cavities, a steep attic or an unheated third floor, and additions from several decades, each built its own way. We scope those room by room.
We seal before we insulate
Insulation slows heat moving through a surface. It does nothing about air moving through a gap, and a balloon-framed wall is one long gap.
In a pre-1940 Freeport house the sequence is: close the top of each wall cavity where it opens into the attic, close the bottom where it meets the sill in the cellar, and seal the chimney chase and the plumbing runs at both ends. Seal the attic floor, the hatch and the fixtures below. Then dense-pack the walls, once the wiring has been cleared, and insulate the attic and the rim. In a cape or split, start at the knee walls or the wall between levels, and finish at the rim.
If a quote specifies a depth of insulation and never mentions air sealing, it is half a job.
What insulation costs in Freeport
Most of our projects run between $3,500 and $12,500. In a pre-1940 house the number moves with the walls: how many bays to close at top and bottom and dense-pack, whether we work from inside through plaster or from outside under the siding, and whether a third floor or a porch roof adds its own assembly. Knob-and-tube replacement is an electrician’s job, done first, and not part of our price. A 1950s cape is priced on its knee walls and slopes, a split on its attic sections and garage ceiling, 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 Freeport
Freeport’s electric company is the village’s own: Freeport municipal electric, village-owned since 1898 and one of two municipally owned electric systems in Nassau County, the other being Rockville Centre’s. Gas comes from National Grid. That electric company changes the rebate picture more than anything else about a Freeport house.
Freeport lies outside the territory of the Long Island Power Authority and PSEG Long Island, so PSEG Long Island’s Home Performance rebates and its Whole House Energy Assessment are not the lane here. NYSERDA’s Comfort Home manual says homes with municipal electric service are not eligible for its package incentives. For anything tied to your electric service, check with the village electric department and the MyEnergy portal before counting on it.
Freeport homes on National Grid gas see National Grid’s Long Island status: its insulation rebate program is not taking new applications, and income-eligible households go through EmPower+, which National Grid says has served one- to four-family homes of Long Island gas customers since 1 November 2025. 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. Owners and renters can apply; Long Island households should check eligibility on the MyEnergy portal. Separately, NYSERDA’s online Home Energy Plan gives any New York owner of a one- to four-family home a no-cost virtual energy assessment.
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. Programs pay through their own participating contractors, and we will tell you plainly what a program requires. More in our New York and New Jersey rebate guide.
Code and climate in Freeport
86.8% of Freeport’s homes were built before 1980. The resort-era houses were decades old before New York’s first statewide energy code took effect on 1 January 1979. Nassau County is Climate Zone 4.
The 2025 Energy Conservation Construction Code of New York State took effect on 31 December 2025. For a new home it requires R-49 ceilings, met by R-38 where full-height, uncompressed R-38 reaches over the wall top plate at the eaves; wood-framed walls at R-30, R-20 plus R-5 continuous, R-13 plus R-10 continuous or R-20 continuous; 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 no higher than 3.0 air changes per hour at 50 pascals.
A standing house is not held to 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. What it does require is that when an alteration exposes roof or wall cavities, they are insulated to full depth, which in a Freeport house means an open plaster wall should not be 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 Freeport
Do you install insulation in Freeport, NY?
Yes, in the houses and small multi-family buildings: the pre-1940 houses that make up 36.0% of the village, many of them balloon-framed, the 1940s and 50s capes and ranches, the 1960s and 70s splits and raised ranches, and the two- to four-family buildings, which we scope as one building. We do not insulate individual apartments in the large buildings, where the envelope belongs to the owner or board, and we will tell you which side of that line you are on when you call.
How much does insulation cost in Freeport?
Most projects run $3,500 to $12,500. In a pre-1940 house the drivers are the walls: the number of bays to close at top and bottom and dense-pack, and whether we work from inside or outside. Any knob-and-tube wiring is replaced by an electrician first, outside our price. A 1950s cape is priced on knee walls and slopes, a split on attic sections and the garage ceiling. We give a written scope and price after a free walk-through.
Are there insulation rebates in Freeport?
Fewer than elsewhere on Long Island. Freeport has its own village electric system, so PSEG Long Island’s rebates are not the lane, and Comfort Home’s package incentives exclude homes with municipal electric service; check with the village electric department and the MyEnergy portal. National Grid’s insulation rebate is closed to new applications, but income-eligible Long Island gas customers can apply to EmPower+. The federal 25C credit ended for work placed in service after 31 December 2025, and New York has no state insulation tax credit.
Our Freeport house was built before 1940. Can the walls be insulated?
Usually, yes. First we confirm the framing and the wiring: live knob-and-tube has to be replaced before any insulation goes in. Then we close each balloon-framed cavity at the attic and at the cellar sill, so the wall stops acting as a chimney, and dense-pack the bays from inside through the plaster or from outside under a lifted course of siding. Porch roofs, bay windows and later additions get checked separately, because their cavities often connect to the main walls in ways that leak.
Free energy audit in Freeport
In an older house we start in the cellar at the sill and rim, then the attic, looking down into the tops of the wall cavities, then the wiring, the porches, any third floor and the additions. In a cape or split it is the knee walls, attic sections and garage ceiling. If the walls are fine and the loss is the attic floor, 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 Rockville Centre
- Insulation in Baldwin
- Insulation in Merrick
- Insulating older homes
- Air sealing
- What happens during an energy audit