Attic Insulation in Belhaven, NC

Belhaven Homes and Their Attics

Water Street, East Main and the Mill Side

The 2009 county survey reads Belhaven's lumber years in its streets. Timber and railroad men built the large houses on Water Street. Teachers, factory managers, boat captains and merchants had more modest homes on East Main Street, and north of it the houses turn to plain one- and two-story I-houses and front-gable forms. Between Railroad Street and the bypass are the small frame houses of mill workers. The survey ties these streets to a lumber boom that began in 1898 and was largely over by the middle of the century. In a house from those decades the wiring comes first. Wiring from before 1930 may be knob-and-tube, which ENERGY STAR flags as a fire danger when buried in insulation. An electrician checks it, and a live run is never covered.

Hurricanes From Hazel to Fran

Belhaven sits low beside the water, and big storms have found it often. Hurricanes Connie, Hazel and Diane hit the town in 1954 and 1955. In 1996 Bertha flooded it in July, the surge from Fran brought a second flood in September, and Tropical Storm Josephine followed with heavy rain. Floodwater is a matter for floors and walls. Up in the attic, storm damage shows another way: insulation under the roof deck that is damp or matted, or carries water stains. To ENERGY STAR, damp insulation means the roof leaks. So the roof gets fixed before anything else, and only then do we vacuum the soggy insulation out and blow in new.