“You need new windows.”
Replacement windows and weatherstripping are rarely where the return is. On one house we cut measured air leakage by 55% without touching a single window.
Home performance
Comfort you can measure.
Drafty rooms, a hot second floor, a damp attic, high bills. Most of it traces back to air leaking through the attic and basement. We find the leaks, seal them, insulate properly, and prove the result with a blower door.
- 30–40%
- Typical air leakage reduction we expect on a whole-house job
- 55%
- Leakage cut on one tested house, with no replacement windows
- 3×
- Insulation value in deep upgrades, alongside roughly half the air leakage
- 40%
- Lower winter bills, reported by one client the following year
What we do
Efficient without tearing the house apart.
Your house doesn’t have to look like a space-age bubble to be efficient. In a typical New Jersey single-family home you can get significant leakage reductions by working in the attic, kneewalls, crawlspace and basement. You don’t need to take walls down or replace the windows.
01
Energy audits & blower door testing
We measure how leaky your house is before and after the work, so you see the results in numbers.
02
Attic & rim joist air sealing
These are the leaks we can reach up high and down low, where sealing pays off most. We always do this before insulating.
03
Attic & wall insulation
Thick layers of blown cellulose over a sealed attic floor, and dense-packed walls where it makes sense.
04
Duct sealing
Leaky attic ducts waste conditioned air. Sealing them can fix cold rooms and improve indoor air quality.
05
Crawlspaces & basements
Rim joists, foundation walls and the cramped spaces nobody else wants to crawl into. We’ve done ones with less than a foot of clearance.
06
Heating, cooling & hot water
When equipment is due, The Big Chill sizes the replacement for the tighter house you have now.
Around 80 sheets of foam board on one basement: reportedly the biggest shell upgrade at the time in New Jersey’s Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program.
Why seal first
Insulation doesn’t stop air.
Air moving through insulation guts its effectiveness, so sealing comes first, every time.
- It protects the house. Sealing the attic prevents condensation problems like mold and rot on the roof sheathing, which can save you from a premature roof replacement.
- Rooms get comfortable. Sealed ducts and a tight attic are what make cold rooms warm and hot rooms livable.
- Your next system can be smaller. A tighter house needs less heating and cooling, so the replacement can be smaller and cheaper to run.
Advice from people who don’t pay your utility bills
Common wisdom we politely ignore.
“Open an upstairs window. Hot air rises.”
Every bit of air you push out gets replaced by hot air pulled in somewhere else. In summer, an air-conditioned house leaks downward.
The neighbor with the truck“The upstairs is hot. You need a bigger AC.”
Usually it’s too little supply air, leaky attic ducts, or a starved return. Fix those (and the attic) and a smaller unit often does better.
On big central returnsResults
What clients noticed.
Unsolicited notes from home performance clients, as published on our original site.
“Jesse and Abel Smith of Tay River completed the insulation of my 2500 sqft house according to the NJ energy saving program. We found their level of competence extremely high to give valuable advice while completing the work agreed in the assessment. The outcome was impressive, realizing a 40% cost reduction on the PSE&G bills on a year to year basis during last winter.”
“Jesse and his crew had the daunting job of air sealing and insulating the attic of our ranch home. They did great work even though it was in the July heat. … Subjectively my wife and I can feel the difference, on a 90 degree day the window A/C’s can actually maintain a constant 75 degrees in the house. … For the comfort alone it is money well spent.”
“Thanks again for all the fantastic work you and your crew did. My house is so much more comfortable from your efforts and we really appreciate everything, including how generous you were helping me understand a little bit of your very complicated business.”
“Just wanted to let you know we got our rebate check today exactly 2 months as you promised. We see a big improvement in our home with it staying warmer and in warmer weather house seemed cooler.”
Programs & rebates
We know the paperwork, too.
Tay River spent years as an authorized contractor in New Jersey’s Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program, and clients regularly told us how smoothly their rebates arrived. Incentive programs change often; ask us what’s available for your house right now.
Start a project
Find out where your house leaks.
An assessment starts with a conversation and a blower door. You'll get the numbers and a plain explanation of them, plus a recommendation that puts the cheapest high-impact work first.