Spray Foam Insulation in St. George, NY

Spray foam insulation in St. George is mostly about old houses. The neighborhood around the ferry terminal had its first residential developments in the 1830s, when Thomas E. Davis built the first five Greek Revival summer houses of his New Brighton development in 1835, according to Wikipedia. Later houses on the hills were designed in the Queen Anne, Shingle and Colonial Revival styles, and the Fort Hill area includes Victorian, Tudor, Shingle style and Art Deco houses. Few of them were built with insulation in mind.

Converted houses and shared walls

By the 1930s, Wikipedia notes, many of St. George's older houses had been converted to small apartment buildings. In a converted house, heat moves between units through floors and party walls, and the top unit often bakes under an uninsulated roof. Air sealing the attic and dense-packing or foaming the exterior walls helps every unit at once. Where floors separate units, open-cell foam or dense-pack in the floor cavities also cuts noise between apartments.

Historic district rules

In 1994 the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the St. George Historic District, which includes 78 houses and St. Peter's Church. If your house is in the district, exterior changes such as removing siding to blow insulation into the walls may need Landmarks approval. Insulating from the inside, through the attic, or from the basement usually avoids exterior work. We will ask early whether your house is landmarked so the plan fits the rules.

What we usually find

Balloon framing, where wall cavities run from the basement to the attic without a break, is common in houses of this age. We block those cavities at the top and bottom before filling them. Plaster walls, old wiring and multiple renovations mean we check each wall before drilling. Attics are often small and partly floored, so we may combine air sealing with foam on tight sections and loose fill where there is room.

Renters and owners

The New York City Department of City Planning tabulation area that includes St. George shows 70.2% of occupied housing units are rented, so many of our calls here come from owners of two- to four-family houses. Con Edison's Weather Ready program covered weatherization for 1-4 family homes, but its page now says it is closed to new applications, so check its status before you plan around it.

We visit, check the framing and wiring, and send a written plan for each area. Get a free estimate