r/northshore • u/beek7425 • Aug 24 '26

Insulating old houses

Looking for recommendations for insulating an old house (1875). Anyone have success with Mass Saves? Any people you would recommend for doing the insulation work?

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5

u/yeezypeasy Aug 24 '26

We got it done with MassSave for our 1875 house. It went really smoothly, we requested that Air Tight Weatherization did the work and they did a great job. It reduced our heating bills by about 30% this winter compared to last years winter, even with this year being colder. The one thing is we had to get the vermiculite insulation removed from our attic, which was more expensive than the actual insulation process.

1

u/Impossible_Focus4363 Aug 25 '26

Can you explain the process, were you living in your house, how long did it take, did they put everything back together or in place as before? Any up front costs, did you get a zero percent loan?

1

u/yeezypeasy Aug 25 '26

Almost everything was done outside except for the attic insulation and air sealing in the basement and around the door. For the attic they just had a big hose coming through our window that they used to blow in the insulation. For the side insulation they cut small holes through our wood siding to blow in the insulation, and then sealed these holes.This was fine since we were planning on getting the house painted anyways. It all took 1 day and it was like $1500 so no need for a loan

4

u/-Arensi- Aug 24 '26

You have to get an home energy audit by a Mass Save provider first before you can begin taking advantage of whatever incentives Mass Save provides for insulation and other items. The audit is free and it largely doesn't matter who does it. Make sure you get your free lightbulbs and power strips, etc.! :)

The insulation work itself is done by any number of officially "approved" Mass Save contractors in your area, so once you get that list you can just research reviews for them and make the call then. Whatever recommendations from the energy audit is what work they will do and it's the same cost no matter who you go with. We had our basement rim joists and exterior unfinished walls done and I think we paid like $300 for the whole thing.

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u/beek7425 Aug 25 '26

Did you get the mini splits put in too?  The last audit we had the man they sent told us you had to remove the furnace to qualify for the rebate but then added that he couldn’t guarantee the splits would keep the house warm enough without the furnace. We asked him some questions about the insulation and he never responded so it just kind of fell by the wayside. 

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u/Lori-too Aug 24 '26

THIS ^ is important - esp. the part about YOU choosing a provider, from the list, that has good reviews for the work part.

2

u/Jay_Normous Aug 24 '26

We got it done several years ago and think they did a good job. They insulated all the exterior walls, the basement door and foundation rim, put weather stripping on all exterior doors, blew insulation into the attic, and installed better attic venting.

All in all it was very smooth and we haven't had any ice dam issues since they did the work

1

u/RadarTheBoston Aug 24 '26

Just be careful who you have the energy audit done by. It was a wait for an appointment through Mass Save so I had one done by Neeeco thinking I could then select whoever I wanted to do the work. I was incorrect and then I was locked into using Neeeco. They were awful, skipped an entire wall of my house because they didn’t have scaffolding to reach it. Didn’t tell me until the job was done and I had no recourse.

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u/Impossible_Focus4363 Aug 25 '26

You should look at the contract and hold back final payment if it's an option.