2,119 of Kings Park’s 6,658 homes were built in the 1960s, 31.8% of the stock, and another 1,365 in the 1970s. The median home dates from 1967, 79.5% of homes went up before 1980, and 82.0% are detached houses. 85.6% of occupied homes are owner-occupied, so the person asking about the attic is almost always the person who will live under it for years.
Kings Park is a hamlet in the Town of Smithtown, 6.6 square miles running from Long Island Sound at Sunken Meadow State Park and the Kings Park Bluff south to Commack and the hamlet of Smithtown, with Fort Salonga to the west and the Nissequogue River on its eastern edge. It takes in part of San Remo in the northeast. PSEG Long Island supplies the electricity, and National Grid gas lines reach many streets but not all.
Utility gas heats 50.3% of occupied homes, fuel oil 38.7%, electricity 8.5% and bottled gas 1.2%. The oil share is large enough to shape the work: in those houses every leak we close is heat the burner never has to make, counted in deliveries. The 8.5% on electric heat pay for every leak directly on the PSEG Long Island bill.
The houses we insulate in Kings Park
The 1,107 homes of the 1950s and 412 of the 1940s are capes and small ranches for the most part. The cape’s upstairs is where they lose heat: short knee walls with open joist bays behind them, sloped ceilings with a thin batt pressed against the roof deck, and a flat attic at the peak too cramped to reach well. The 291 homes built before 1940 we treat as balloon-framed with knob-and-tube wiring until we have looked, and the wiring is dealt with before any wall is filled.
The 1960s house is the core of the work here: ranches, splits and two-story colonials. The colonial’s weak points are specific. Its garage wing usually has its own low attic, separated from the bedroom walls by nothing more than drywall on one side, and the room over the garage sits on a floor exposed to an unheated space. A family room added at the back on a slab often has a low-slope roof with no attic at all, just rafters, a thin batt and no way to vent it. The fireplace in that room brings a chimney chase that is frequently open to the attic along its sides.
The 1970s and 1980s houses, 1,365 and 692 of them, are raised ranches and larger colonials. Their walls have batts, often with gaps around outlets and at the corners, and their losses are at the rim joist of the lower level, the garage ceiling, and the ductwork of central air run through the attic, where a disconnected joint pours cooled or heated air into the insulation.
Then there are the 319 townhouses and other attached homes and the 279 homes in buildings of ten to nineteen units. Where an owner controls the attic of a townhouse, it is a job like any other, with the party wall sealed where it meets the roof. Where an association or a landlord controls the roof and the envelope, the decision is theirs.
Between the Sound and the river: wind, exposure and the cold north room
Kings Park is bounded by water on two sides: Long Island Sound to the north, where Sunken Meadow State Park and the bluff meet the shore, and the Nissequogue River, which empties into the Sound, on the hamlet’s eastern edge. Houses with open exposure toward either one take more wind than houses in the middle of a subdivision, and wind changes how a house leaks.
A house in still air leaks mostly by stack effect: warm air rising out through the attic floor and cold air drawn in low, at the rim joist and the basement. Add a steady wind and the windward walls get pushed in through every outlet, window trim and top plate, while the leeward side pulls air out. Wind also blows through soffit vents and across the top of the wall, cooling the insulation at the eaves and, in a loose-fill attic, pushing it back away from the edge. The result is a room on the windy side that stays cold even with the heat running, and a homeowner who assumes the wall is empty.
Usually the fix is air, not more insulation. We seal the top plates and the rim joist on the exposed side first, set baffles with a solid face at every eave so vent air cannot wash over the insulation, and where the eave is too shallow for full depth, put closed cell foam on the top plate. Then the attic gets loose-fill to depth. Windows and doors matter to a windy room as well, and we will say so when they are the bigger problem.
We seal before we insulate
Insulation slows heat moving through a material. It does not stop air, and in a Kings Park house on an exposed lot the air is doing much of the damage.
In a 1960s Kings Park colonial the order is: seal the main attic floor at the top plates, the wire and pipe holes and the chimney chase; seal and insulate the wall between the garage attic and the bedrooms; seal the floor of the room over the garage from below; baffle the eaves; then blow the attics to full depth. Downstairs, seal and insulate the rim joist, starting on the windward side. If there is a slab family room with a low-slope roof, that roof section gets its own plan, often closed cell foam, because there is no attic to work from.
If a quote specifies a depth of insulation and never mentions air sealing, it is half a job.
What insulation costs in Kings Park
Most of our projects run between $3,500 and $12,500. A 1960s ranch with one attic and an open basement is usually at the low end. A colonial with a garage attic, a room over the garage and a rim joist to seal lands in the middle. The top of the range is a house with a family room under a low-slope roof that needs foam, a cape whose knee walls and slopes all need opening, or attic ductwork that has to be sealed before the attic is 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 Kings Park
The electric company in Kings Park is PSEG Long Island; the gas company, on streets with gas, is National Grid. That puts Kings Park in PSEG Long Island’s rebate lane, and NYSERDA’s Comfort Home program is not available to its homes.
The first step is PSEG Long Island’s free Whole House Energy Assessment, arranged through one of its participating contractors, with a check of insulation and drafts, a thermal scan and a blower door test. For a market-rate single-family home PSEG Long Island then lists a $2,500 insulation rebate, a $1,000 air-sealing rebate and a $500 duct-sealing rebate, and more for income-qualified homes and homes in state-designated disadvantaged communities. Homes heated by oil, gas, propane or electricity are eligible. Insulation must be installed with blower-door-assisted air sealing, and any ductwork in unconditioned space must be duct sealed, which in a Kings Park house usually means the attic ducts. The rebates are paid through PSEG Long Island’s participating contractors, so ask any installer whether they are on that list and confirm it with PSEG Long Island.
For income-eligible households, owners or renters, the route is EmPower+; National Grid’s Long Island insulation rebate program is not accepting new applications. NYSERDA’s EmPower+ program can pay for air sealing and insulation at no cost up to $14,000 for a Suffolk household at the lower-income tier (at or below $98,925 for a family of four) or half the cost up to $7,000 at the moderate-income tier (below $131,900 for four), through an EmPower+ contractor, with up to $1,600 more in federal HEAR funds for air sealing, insulation and ventilation. Long Island households should check eligibility on the MyEnergy portal.
Neither kind of tax credit applies. The federal Section 25C insulation credit ended for work placed in service after 31 December 2025, so a 2026 job earns no federal credit, and New York has no state tax credit for insulation. Our New York and New Jersey rebate guide walks through each program.
Code and climate in Kings Park
79.5% of Kings Park’s homes were built before 1980. New York’s first statewide energy code took effect on 1 January 1979, too late for the capes, ranches and colonials that make up most of the hamlet. Suffolk County is Climate Zone 4.
The 2025 Energy Conservation Construction Code of New York State, in force since 31 December 2025, sets the bar for a new house: R-49 at the ceiling, or R-38 over the entire ceiling provided its uncompressed full height reaches over the wall top plate at the eaves; R-30 at the floor; R-15 continuous, R-19, or R-13 plus R-5 continuous on basement and crawl space walls; U-0.27 windows; and no more than 3.0 air changes per hour at 50 pascals. That R-38 allowance depends on exactly the eave detail wind undermines in an older house.
A house already built is not measured against that list. Unaltered parts need not comply, and New York’s code does not require a blower door test when you insulate an existing home. Cavities that an alteration exposes, in a wall or a roof, must be filled to full depth, so the family room ceiling opened for a roof repair gets insulated before it closes. For attics in this zone, ENERGY STAR recommends R-60 where there is no insulation and R-49 where 3 to 4 inches already sit.
Common questions about insulation in Kings Park
Do you install insulation in Kings Park, NY?
Yes, from the streets near Sunken Meadow and the river down to the Commack and Smithtown lines, including the Kings Park side of San Remo. Most of the work is 1960s and 70s houses, 52.3% of the stock: ranches, splits, raised ranches and colonials. We also insulate 1950s capes, the few pre-war houses, and townhouses where the owner controls the attic. In condominium buildings where the association owns the envelope, the board decides. Call and we will tell you what a house like yours needs.
How much does insulation cost in Kings Park?
Most projects run $3,500 to $12,500. A 1960s ranch with one attic and an open basement sits near the low end. A colonial with a garage attic, a room over the garage and a rim joist to seal is in the middle. The upper end is a family room under a low-slope roof that needs foam, a cape with knee walls and slopes to open, or attic ductwork that must be sealed first. We price in writing after a free walk-through.
Are there insulation rebates in Kings Park?
Yes, through PSEG Long Island, the electric company. After a free Whole House Energy Assessment, PSEG Long Island lists $2,500 for insulation, $1,000 for air sealing and $500 for duct sealing in a market-rate single-family home, more for income-qualified homes, paid through its participating contractors. Oil and electric heat qualify. Comfort Home is not open to PSEG Long Island homes. EmPower+ serves income-eligible owners and renters. The federal 25C credit ended with 2025, and New York has no state insulation credit.
Can you add insulation to the walls of our 1960s Kings Park house without opening them?
Sometimes, but first we find out what is in them. Many houses of that decade were built with thin batts in the walls, and blowing loose-fill into a bay that already holds a batt does not work well. We check with a thermal camera and at an outlet or two. Bays that turn out empty, often in an enclosed porch, a converted garage or around a later window, can be filled through small holes. In most Kings Park houses, though, the attic, the eaves and the rim joist deliver more for the money.
Free energy audit in Kings Park
We begin with the rooms you say are cold, especially on the side facing the wind, and look at them with a thermal camera. Then the attic: depth, eaves, baffles, the chimney chase, any ductwork and the garage attic. Then the basement: rim joist, the garage ceiling, and the burner in an oil-heated house. If the problem is the eaves and a leaky rim rather than empty walls, we tell you that. The written scope and price are free, with no obligation.
Call 914-825-6824 or send a note through 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 Suffolk County
- Insulation in Fort Salonga
- Insulation in Commack
- Insulation in Smithtown
- Attic insulation
- What an energy audit covers
- Recommended R-values for New York