The Home Insulators

Insulation Contractors in Ulster County, NY

25.3% of Ulster County’s 86,178 housing units were built in 1939 or earlier, a bigger share than any decade since has added. The median unit dates from 1966. 18.7% of the stock is 1940s and 50s, 22.4% 1960s and 70s, 19.5% 1980s and 90s and 14.1% since 2000.

68.6% of units are detached houses, 7.1% sit in two-unit buildings, 5.8% in buildings of three or four, and another 5.8%, 5,019 units, are mobile homes. 70.0% of occupied homes are owner-occupied. Fuel oil or kerosene heats 44.9% of occupied homes, utility gas 21.4%, electricity 14.0%, bottled propane 13.2% and wood 4.4%. Away from the City of Kingston and a few river towns there is little gas, so a tighter house pays off in smaller deliveries.

Ulster rises from sea level on the Hudson to Slide Mountain, about 4,180 feet. US 9W ties the river towns together: Saugerties, the City of Kingston, Esopus, Lloyd and Marlborough. Kingston, the county seat, was New York’s first state capital in 1777, and the Delaware and Hudson Canal brought Pennsylvania coal to it. Inland, the Wallkill River runs north through Shawangunk and New Paltz, and Rosendale sits where the Rondout Creek meets the Wallkill. US 209 links Marbletown, Rochester and Wawarsing, and NY 28 runs west past the Ashokan Reservoir through Hurley and Olive, with Woodstock inside the Catskill Park to the north. The sixteen town and city pages carry the detail.

The Ulster County towns we work in

  • Esopus — Port Ewen and Rifton: 16.8% built in the 1970s, 16.8% in the 1980s, 3.0% since 2000.
  • Hurley — West Hurley and Old Hurley’s stone houses: 71.9% oil heat, 35.4% built in the 1960s and 70s.
  • City of Kingston — the county seat, from the Stockade to the Rondout: 54.1% built in 1939 or earlier, 55.4% on gas.
  • Lloyd — Highland and part of Clintondale: 21.8% built since 2000, and the most townhouses and duplex halves, 462.
  • Marbletown — Stone Ridge, High Falls and Kripplebush: 28.6% built before 1940 and 16.5% in the 1980s alone.
  • Marlborough — Milton and Marlboro: a 1983 median, the newest of the sixteen, yet 62.6% oil heat.
  • New Paltz — the college town: 23.0% electric heat, the highest share, and 54.4% owner-occupied.
  • Olive — hamlets at the western end of the Ashokan Reservoir: 31.0% built in the 1960s and 70s, 18.5% wood heat.
  • Plattekill — Ardonia, Modena and Plattekill hamlet above the Orange County line: 1,012 mobile homes, 21.6% of all units.
  • Town of Rochester — Accord, Alligerville and Kerhonkson: 20.1% built in the 1980s alone, and 20.7% propane with 11.6% wood heat.
  • Rosendale — Tillson, Whiteport and High Falls: 877 units from 1939 or earlier, and the most propane heat, 24.8%.
  • Saugerties — the village, Glasco and Malden-on-Hudson: 9,692 units, second only to Kingston, and 17.0% in two- to four-family buildings.
  • Shawangunk — the only split-utility town, Central Hudson or NYSEG: a 1981 median and 30.2% from the 1980s and 90s.
  • Town of Ulster — Lake Katrine, East Kingston and Lincoln Park: post-war development, 18.6% from the 1950s, and 845 mobile homes.
  • Wawarsing — Ellenville, Napanoch and Cragsmoor: a 1957 median and 12.9% built in the 1940s, the most of the sixteen.
  • Woodstock — the summer arts colony inside the Catskill Park: 88.5% detached houses and 23.7% heated with propane.

The houses across Ulster County

The oldest layer is the largest, and some of it is stone. Settlers were farming at Esopus by 1653; their settlement of Wiltwijck became Kingston, and in 1777, with the British about to burn Kingston, the county’s records were carried to a stone house in Kerhonkson. Stone houses still stand in Kingston’s Stockade district, on Old Hurley’s Main Street and in Marbletown. The pre-1940 share is 54.1% in the City of Kingston, 31.4% in Rosendale, 28.9% in Wawarsing and 28.6% in Marbletown. A mortared stone wall has no cavity and moves moisture through itself, so it is neither drilled nor foamed; in a stone house the garret, the cellar and sill, and the frame wings added later carry the job.

Most pre-war houses are frame, many built for the county’s trades: the canal port at Kingston’s Rondout, Rosendale’s natural cement industry, begun with the canal in 1825, and the bluestone quarries. A frame house of that century has empty walls with bays open from cellar to attic, a sill on stone and possibly knob-and-tube wiring, replaced before any wall is filled. Many hold more than one household: two-unit buildings are 19.1% of Kingston and 8.2% of Rosendale, and buildings of three or four units 11.6% of Kingston and 8.6% of Saugerties. A shared cellar, stair and roof make one air path, so we price those as whole buildings.

After the war came capes and ranches, then raised ranches and splits. The 1940s and 50s are 18.7% of the county and the 1960s and 70s 22.4%, and Hurley leads both, at 29.8% and 35.4%. The Town of Ulster, where housing developments followed IBM’s Kingston facility, has 24.0% and 26.6%, while 31.0% of Olive and 29.5% of Plattekill date from the 1960s and 70s. A cape of that era leaks behind its knee walls, where floor bays run open to the eave; a ranch through a long attic of sunken loose-fill over bare top plates; a raised ranch or split at the band joist between levels and the garage ceiling under a bedroom.

The 1980s and 90s are 19.5% of the county but 30.2% of Shawangunk, 30.1% of Marlborough and 28.7% of the Town of Rochester. In the hill towns that often means a contemporary with a cathedral ceiling, a loft and a woodstove, leaking at the chimney opening, the skylight wells and the recessed lights. Building since 2000, 14.1% countywide, is heaviest in Marlborough at 24.7%, Lloyd at 21.8% and Plattekill at 21.7%, and lightest in Esopus at 3.0%. Those newer walls are full; the work is the attic air handler and ducts, the room over the garage and bath fans that stop in the attic.

Mobile homes are 21.6% of Plattekill, 14.5% of the Town of Ulster and 11.7% of Olive, and they are insulated from below: the bottom board repaired, the ducts it carries sealed, the belly refilled, and the marriage line of a double-wide closed. Vacant units, a count that takes in houses kept for weekends and summers, number 1,602 in Wawarsing alone; a seasonal house being made into a year-round home starts underneath too, with the water lines moved to the warm side first. Buildings of 50 or more units, 1.8% of the county, are their owners’ decisions.

We seal before we insulate

Insulation resists conducted heat; air finds the holes around it. Warm air escapes through openings at the top of a house and draws cold air in at the sill and rim, and until those openings are closed, extra depth mostly filters the leak.

In the pre-war frame house on stone, we start in the cellar, sealing the sill and rim with closed-cell foam or sealant. In the attic the tops of the open wall bays are capped before any wall is dense-packed, the chimney gap gets sheet metal and fire-rated sealant with no foam touching the flue, and the hatch and every wire and pipe hole are sealed. Baffles go in at the eaves and insulation goes down last. In a house burning oil, propane or wood, every chimney-vented appliance gets its draft checked once the house is tighter.

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

What insulation costs in Ulster County

Most of our projects run between $3,500 and $12,500. In Ulster County the price follows the house: how many open wall bays in an old frame house must be blocked and dense-packed, how many roofs and crawl spaces a farmhouse gathered as wings were added, how much cathedral ceiling a contemporary has, and whether a mobile home’s bottom board must be rebuilt first. Closed-cell foam earns its cost where depth is short or a surface must also seal: rim joists, sills on uneven stone, shallow rafter bays and cottage floors over open crawl spaces. See what spray foam insulation costs.

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 Ulster County

Central Hudson is the electric company across nearly all of Ulster County, the City of Kingston included. The exception among our towns is Shawangunk, where service is divided between Central Hudson and NYSEG; a house in Wallkill, Walker Valley or Watchtower can be on either, and the bill settles it. Gas, where it exists, is almost all Central Hudson’s. Most of the City of Kingston and the Village of Saugerties are on its lines, and gas is available on many streets in the rest of Saugerties, Esopus and Lloyd. Gas lines reach only parts of the Town of Ulster, Shawangunk and the Village of New Paltz. The other nine towns we cover, the Village of Ellenville included, and New Paltz outside its village have little or no utility gas service.

Both electric companies’ customers pay the System Benefits Charge, which opens NYSERDA’s programs. NYSERDA’s Comfort Home pays $2,500 toward sealing and insulating the attic and rim joist, $3,000 if walls and floors are added, and $2,000 more toward ENERGY STAR windows, through a NYSERDA-approved Comfort Home contractor, for market-rate one- to four-family homes. Every item in the chosen package has to be completed, and live knob-and-tube wiring can rule a house out. Comfort Home closes when the new utility programs start around January 2027, so an owner who wants that incentive should not wait.

For households under the income limits, owners and renters alike, NYSERDA’s EmPower+ can pay for air sealing and insulation at no cost up to $14,000 for lower-income households, or half the cost up to $7,000 for moderate-income households, through an EmPower+ contractor. In Ulster County the 2026 no-cost tier runs to $50,325 for one person and $80,160 for four; the half-cost tier applies below $67,100 and $106,880. Federal HEAR money inside EmPower+ adds up to $1,600 for air sealing, insulation and ventilation.

NYSEG has offered its own insulation and air-sealing incentive for one- to four-unit homes; ask us or NYSEG what is open when you call. For heat pumps, NYS Clean Heat allows Central Hudson customers a larger incentive cap than it allows by default, and the program is moving to reward — and from 2028 require — a sealed and insulated house before it pays for a heat pump, so insulate first. NYSERDA’s Green Jobs–Green New York loans run $1,500 to $25,000 over 5, 10 or 15 years.

These programs pay only through their own participating contractors; the MyEnergy portal shows eligibility and lists them, so look before signing a contract. 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. New York has no state tax credit for insulation. See insulation rebates in New York and New Jersey.

Code and climate in Ulster County

66.4% of Ulster County’s housing was built before 1980, from 89.7% in the City of Kingston down to 45.2% in Marlborough. New York’s first statewide energy code took effect on 1 January 1979. New York’s county table places Ulster in Climate Zone 6, the only county we cover in that zone; Dutchess across the Hudson and Orange to the south are Climate Zone 5.

The 2025 Energy Conservation Construction Code of New York State took effect on 31 December 2025 and governs new building. A new house here needs R-49 in the ceiling, or R-38 across the entire ceiling where that full uncompressed depth carries over the wall top plate at the eaves; R-30 floors; basement and crawl space walls at R-15 continuous, R-19, or R-13 plus R-5 continuous; and U-0.27 windows, the same as in the Zone 5 counties. Air leakage is where Zone 6 asks more: no more than 2.5 air changes per hour at 50 pascals for a new home, against 3.0 in Zones 4 and 5.

Existing houses follow separate rules: portions the work leaves alone need not comply, New York’s code does not require a blower door test when you insulate an existing home, and a roof or wall cavity opened during the work must be filled to its full depth. ENERGY STAR’s attic advice for Zones 5 and 6 is R-60 over an uninsulated attic floor, or R-49 where 3 to 4 inches already lie.

Common questions about insulation in Ulster County

Do you install insulation in Ulster County, NY?

Yes. We insulate homes in the City of Kingston and across the county’s towns, from Saugerties and Woodstock in the north to Wawarsing in the west and Marlborough and Shawangunk in the south; each of the sixteen places above has its own page. The work ranges from stone and pre-war frame houses to post-war capes and ranches, 1980s contemporaries with woodstoves, newer colonials and mobile homes. Large apartment buildings are their owners’ decisions.

How much does insulation cost in Ulster County?

Most of our projects run $3,500 to $12,500. Where a job falls depends on the house: an old frame house with open wall bays to block and dense-pack, a farmhouse with several additions and crawl spaces, a stone house where the garret and cellar carry the work, a contemporary with a large cathedral ceiling, or a mobile home whose bottom board needs rebuilding. The walk-through is free, and the scope and price come in writing first.

Are there insulation rebates in Ulster County?

Yes. Central Hudson and NYSEG customers both pay the System Benefits Charge, so NYSERDA’s programs apply across the county. For market-rate homes, Comfort Home puts $2,500 toward sealing and insulating the attic and rim joist, or $3,000 when walls and floors are included, through a NYSERDA-approved Comfort Home contractor; Comfort Home closes when the new utility programs start around January 2027. Lower-income owners and renters look to EmPower+. There is no federal 25C credit for 2026 work, and New York has no state insulation tax credit.

Which utility do I have in Ulster County?

Look at the name on your electric bill. Central Hudson supplies almost the whole county, the City of Kingston included. Shawangunk, with Wallkill, Walker Valley and Watchtower, is split between Central Hudson and NYSEG, and NYSEG also serves Shandaken and Hardenburgh. Where there is gas it is Central Hudson’s: across most of Kingston and the Village of Saugerties, on many streets in Esopus and Lloyd, and only in parts of the Town of Ulster, Shawangunk and the Village of New Paltz. Most other towns have little or no utility gas.

Free energy audit in Ulster County

A walk-through starts at the bottom: the sill and rim on a stone or block foundation, the crawl space under a wing or cottage, the belly of a mobile home. Then the walls, where an old house is checked for open bays and live knob-and-tube, and the attic, garret, knee walls or cathedral slopes. In a house heated by oil, propane or wood we check the heating appliance, chimney and combustion air before recommending anything tighter. You leave with a written scope and price, free and without obligation.

Call 914-825-6824 or use the 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