The Home Insulators

Insulation Contractors in Moorestown, NJ

23.8% of Moorestown’s 8,418 housing units were built before 1940. That is 2,006 houses, more than twice the 10.7% pre-1940 share of Burlington County as a whole. Nowhere else in the county do we walk into this many houses older than any energy code.

The rest is ordinary suburban stock, spread across the decades: 16.1% from the 1940s and 50s, 23.4% from the 1960s and 70s, 19.1% from the 1980s and 90s and 17.6% since 2000, with 13.5% of all units built between 2000 and 2009 alone. The median unit dates from 1968 and 63.4% was standing before 1980. 75.3% of units are detached houses, 11.9% attached, and 3.2% sit in buildings of fifty or more. 83.4% of occupied units are owner-occupied. Gas heats 80.1% of homes, electricity 16.1% and oil 2.8%.

So Moorestown is two jobs in one township. There is the old house on or near the ridge that Main Street follows, where the work is the attic floor, the cellar and the wiring and the walls are often off limits. And there is the post-war and post-2000 house in Lenola and out toward the highways, where the walls are full and the work is ducts and air sealing.

The houses we insulate in Moorestown

The old core sits along Main Street and the King’s Highway, on a ridge with a spring at either end, where the Friends built their first log meeting house in 1700 and laid out Chester Avenue in 1720 as Meeting House Lane. Houses of that lineage are frame or solid masonry, two or two and a half stories, with plaster on lath, a shallow garret, a stone or brick cellar, and a century and a half of additions: a back ell, a kitchen wing, a glassed-in porch, dormers cut later into the roof.

What fails in them is the same set of things every time. The walls are balloon-framed, so each stud bay runs uninterrupted from the sill to the attic and the whole house acts as one chimney. The attic floor holds a few inches of something poured in sixty years ago, or nothing. The plaster is airtight where it is intact and useless where knob-and-tube passes through it. The rim over the stone cellar wall is open. Every addition meets the original house at a joint that was never sealed, which is why the back room is the cold one. Old wiring comes out before any insulation goes into a wall.

The 16.1% from the 1940s and 50s and the 23.4% from the 1960s and 70s are the streets that filled in around Lenola and out toward the township edges: capes, ranches and splits. The cape fails at the knee wall: batts on the room side, no air barrier behind, and floor joists running out under it into an open eave. The ranch and the split fail at a long low attic of settled loose-fill, unsealed top plates, wind-washed eaves and a bedroom over the garage on open joist bays.

Then the new houses. 13.5% of the township went up between 2000 and 2009 and another 19.1% in the 1980s and 90s, some in subdivisions and much of it as a large replacement house on a lot where a smaller one came down. Their walls are full, and anyone offering to blow them is selling the wrong thing. Their loss is the air handler and its flex duct in the vented attic, cathedral and tray ceilings framed without baffles, a bonus room over the garage, recessed cans and bath fans venting into the attic.

The 11.9% that is attached is townhouse and duplex-half stock, where the party wall is open where it meets the roof and each unit breathes into its neighbors’ attics. The 3.2% in buildings of fifty or more is different: that envelope belongs to a board and its engineer, not to the owner of one apartment, and we say so on the phone rather than after a visit.

Old walls on the ridge, and the ones we will not drill

A house from the 1700s or 1800s is not a house with old insulation in it. It was built before anyone installed insulation at all, which changes the order of the work rather than ruling it out.

If the walls are solid masonry — brick or stone laid up without a stud cavity — there is nothing to fill, and we do not drill them. The gains are elsewhere and they are large: air sealing and insulating the attic floor or garret, closing the tops of the balloon-framed partitions, sealing the chimney and stair chases, insulating the cellar rim, and doing the walls of any later frame wing. In a house that has never had that done, the attic and cellar alone account for most of what is escaping.

If the walls are frame, the questions are the wiring and the finish. Knob-and-tube has to be out of a cavity before it is filled, and in a house with original plaster we would rather fill from outside when siding is off than open finishes that cannot be matched. Where the plaster is coming off anyway, that is the moment to do the walls properly. We tell you which case you are in, and what it is worth, before you spend anything.

We seal before we insulate

Insulation slows heat moving through a surface. It does nothing about air moving through a gap. Pour cellulose over the garret floor of an old Moorestown house with the balloon-framed bays open at the top and the stair chase unsealed, and the air keeps moving exactly as it did.

In an old house the sequence is: block and seal the top of every balloon-framed stud bay and partition at the attic floor, seal the chimney chase, the stair chase and the plumbing runs, seal where every addition meets the original structure, then insulate the attic floor or the garret slopes, then the rim over the cellar. In a post-2000 house it runs the other way: seal the air handler cabinet and duct joints, the top plates, the cans and the bath fans, baffle the slopes, close the garage ceiling, then blow the attic to R-49.

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

What insulation costs in Moorestown

Most of our projects run between $3,500 and $12,500. In an old Moorestown house the number moves with how many balloon-framed bays and partitions have to be blocked, how many additions meet the original house, whether the garret is a floor or slopes to fill, and whether wall work is possible at all. In a newer house it is duct footage, ceiling area and the count of slopes to baffle. Our page on insulating an older home goes further into the first case, and what spray foam insulation costs the foam side.

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 Moorestown

Moorestown is PSE&G territory for both electricity and gas, so there is one program. 80.1% of the township heats with gas and 2.8% with oil, so for most houses the case is a gas bill.

PSE&G Whole Home Energy Solutions pays up to $7,500 in rebates toward air sealing, insulation and the related work an assessment calls for, plus 0% on-bill repayment of up to $25,000, over seven years for projects of $10,000 or less and ten years above that or for income-qualified customers. It is written for owner-occupied homes of one to four units, so it covers the houses and townhouses but not a unit in the larger buildings. Every project must include air sealing and the envelope work the assessment identifies, done by a BPI-certified contractor in PSE&G’s program, who sets the assessment fee. PSE&G does not publish per-measure amounts, so “up to $7,500” is as precise as anyone can be.

PSE&G’s Whole Home Energy Assessment is a separate free walk-through for any PSE&G residential gas or electric customer in a home of fewer than five units, with small items installed on the spot. PSE&G Home Weatherization installs insulation, air sealing and duct sealing at no cost for households between 250% and 400% of the federal poverty level. 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; the 2.8% of Moorestown on oil is referred to the state’s weatherization office.

New Jersey’s IRA Home Energy Rebates have not launched. The state says the programs 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. The full picture is in our New York and New Jersey rebate guide.

Code and climate in Moorestown

63.4% of Moorestown was standing before 1980, and the 23.8% that predates 1940 was up long before New Jersey’s first statewide energy subcode of 1 January 1978, in many cases by a century and a half. Those houses were built to shed rain and hold up a roof, and they do both well. Burlington County is climate zone 4A, along with Camden, Mercer, Ocean and Atlantic around it.

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, 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 the attic does not require bringing the rest of the house to code and does not require a blower-door test. Blown-in or batt insulation installed 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 the number the state considers right for this climate, and it is what we design to.

Common questions about insulation in Moorestown

Do you install insulation in Moorestown, NJ?

Yes, and the township splits our work in two. In the 23.8% that predates 1940, on and around Main Street and the King’s Highway, the job is the attic floor or garret, the tops of the balloon-framed bays, the chases and the cellar rim. In the post-war capes and splits it is knee walls and settled loose-fill; in the newer houses, the ducts and the attic plane. We do not work on the buildings of fifty or more units, where the envelope belongs to a board.

How much does insulation cost in Moorestown?

Most projects run $3,500 to $12,500. In an old house the drivers are the number of balloon-framed bays and partitions to block, the number of additions meeting the original structure, whether the garret is a floor or a set of slopes, and whether wall work is possible at all. In a newer house it is duct footage, ceiling area and how many slopes need baffling. You get a written scope and a price after a free walk-through.

Are there insulation rebates in Moorestown?

Yes. Moorestown is PSE&G for both gas and electric. PSE&G Whole Home Energy Solutions pays up to $7,500 in rebates plus 0% on-bill repayment of up to $25,000 for owner-occupied homes of one to four units, and the project has to include air sealing. PSE&G’s separate Whole Home Energy Assessment is free once a year. Comfort Partners does the work at no cost at or below 250% of the federal poverty guidelines. The federal 25C credit ended for anything placed in service after 31 December 2025.

Our Moorestown house is from the 1800s with plaster walls and old wiring. Is it a lost cause?

No, but it is a different job. The wiring decides everything: knob-and-tube has to be out of a cavity before anything is blown into it. Plaster on lath is worth keeping, so we would rather fill walls from outside when siding comes off, or leave them and take the larger gains at the attic floor, the balloon-framed bays, the chases and the cellar rim. In a house that has never been sealed, that work alone makes more difference than the walls would.

Free energy audit in Moorestown

In an old house we go to the attic floor and look for open stud bays and partition tops, then the chimney and stair chases, the joints where additions meet, the garret slopes and the cellar rim, and we check for knob-and-tube. In a newer house we start with the air handler and the ducts. Then a written scope and a price, no charge and no obligation. If the honest answer is that the walls should be left alone, we tell you that.

Call 914-825-6824 or use the contact form. 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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