Elon, NC
3 miles northwest
Median home built 1997 (Burlington: 1978); 11,366 people, about a fifth of Burlington's population
Attic insulation in ElonAttic Insulation in Burlington, NC
Blown-in attic insulation for Burlington, NC, in Alamance County, plus removal and air sealing.
About Burlington and Its Homes
Burlington began in the 1850s as Company Shops, the North Carolina Railroad's repair yard, and took its present name in 1887 as cotton mills replaced the shops. Its houses run from company mill villages to 1920s bungalow streets and the brick ranches of the 1940s and 1950s.
Burlington, in Alamance County, grew from 57,561 people in 2020 to 61,496 in 2025 (Census Bureau estimates), on 30.6 square miles. No town in Alamance County has more people than Burlington.
Burlington has about 28,000 housing units; 54 percent of the city's households own their home.
Burlington at a Glance
- County: Alamance County
- Population: 61,496 (2025), 57,561 (2020), up 6.8%
- Land area: 30.6 square miles (2,013 people each)
- Housing units: about 28,000 (±673)
- Median year built: 1978 (±3); Alamance County: 1988
- Owner-occupied: 54% (±3); Alamance County: 65%
- Detached houses: 58% (±3); Alamance County: 66%
- Attached houses: 5% (±2)
- Apartments: 33% (±4)
- Mobile homes: 4% (±1)
- Climate zone: 4 (state code), 3 (2021 map)
- ENERGY STAR target for Burlington attics: R-49 from bare, R-38 over 3 to 4 inches (R-value guide)
Census Bureau estimates for Burlington, 2020 to 2024 (± margin of error).
Burlington Homes and Their Attics
Mill Houses of the Lakeside Village
Each of Burlington's textile companies built a village of frame houses for its workers. The city's 1984 survey of its historic buildings describes the usual mill house as one or two stories under a gable roof, plus a single-story rear ell. Its chimney stood between the front rooms and the ell, or in the middle of the front section. Lakeside Mills built its houses in 1892 and 1893, most of them a story and a half with a central chimney. In a house like this the front section and the ell each have their own attic, and both get checked. Where the chimney passes up through the ceiling, we close the opening around it with metal flashing sealed by high-temperature caulk, and a sheet-metal collar keeps the new insulation off the brick.
Story-and-a-Half Bungalows South of Downtown
In the 1920s a run of bungalows went up in what is now the South Broad and East Fifth Streets Historic District, several of them faced in stone. The district's 2001 nomination includes a number of story-and-a-half, side-gabled bungalows with dormers, and the West Davis Street and Fountain Place district holds more bungalows from the 1910s to the early 1930s. Upstairs in a story-and-a-half house, the rooms sit partly inside the roof, with short knee walls at the sides. ENERGY STAR's list of common attic air leaks includes the open spaces behind and beneath knee walls. Those wedge-shaped side attics are sealed and insulated along with the ceiling above, which is why the upstairs rooms in these bungalows are worth a close look.
Beverly Hills and the Brick Ranch Years
Northeast of downtown, the Beverly Hills Historic District filled in mostly from the late 1920s through the 1950s. Its 2009 nomination records bungalows and revival houses first, then Minimal Traditional and Ranch houses in the 1940s and 1950s. The city's earlier survey says Burlington's growth in those two decades ran mainly to period houses and ranches, often with brick veneer. A one-story house under a low-pitched roof has very little height where the rafters meet the outside walls. On a roof like that, ENERGY STAR points out, the middle of the attic can be well covered while the edges have very little. That edge is also where the soffit vents are, so baffles go in first to keep an air path open above the new insulation.
Attic Insulation in Burlington
Some 40 percent of Burlington's homes predate 1970; if your joists show above the insulation, ENERGY STAR says to add more insulation.
Built from 1940 to 1969, 33 percent of Burlington homes often have little insulation.
The Local Climate
Burlington's center sits about 650 feet above sea level, 3 miles from NOAA's Burlington Fire Station 5, the best match for Burlington. The station's 1991 to 2020 normals average about 3,290 heating and 1,650 cooling degree days a year, so at Burlington's station, heating needs outweigh cooling.
Readings change over short distances around Burlington: NOAA's Haw River 1 E station, 4 miles away, averages about 3,550 heating degree days.
Homes by Age: What It Means for the Attic
Some 58 percent of Burlington housing units are detached single-family houses.
From 1990 to 2009, 26 percent of Burlington homes were built to codes below ENERGY STAR's target; check their eaves, where ENERGY STAR says insulation is often thinnest.
About 53 percent of Burlington's housing units predate 1980; nearly all predate the state's 1978 insulation rule too. Some 33 percent of Burlington units sit in buildings of two or more homes, where the attic is often shared.
Homes by Year Built
- Before 1940: 8% (±2), about 2,100 units
- 1940s: 6% (±1), about 1,770 units
- 1950s: 13% (±2), about 3,700 units
- 1960s: 13% (±2), about 3,600 units
- 1970s: 12% (±2), about 3,400 units
- 1980s: 10% (±2), about 2,800 units
- 1990s: 12% (±2), about 3,300 units
- 2000s: 14% (±2), about 4,000 units
- 2010s: 9% (±2), about 2,400 units
- 2020 or later: 2% (±1), about 670 units
Air Sealing and Duct Sealing in Burlington
In Burlington, 48 percent of homes heat with electricity and 50 percent with piped gas; forced air from either moves through ducts.
Air sealing comes first, as the EPA advises: wire and pipe holes, wall tops and soffits.
How Homes Here Are Heated
- Electricity: 48% (±3), about 12,300 households; Alamance County: 52%
- Piped gas: 50% (±3), about 12,800 households
- Bottled or tank gas: 1% (±1), about 270 households
Power, Gas and Rebates
Duke Energy supplies Burlington's electricity. For gas, Burlington is in the Alamance County franchise of Piedmont Natural Gas, and 50 percent of the city's homes heat with piped gas. Duke's free House Call fits many Burlington homes: 48 percent heat with electricity.
Rebate to check in Burlington: Smart $aver Insulate and Seal (Duke Energy; Insulation Pros is an approved trade ally). Before a job in Burlington, check its current terms; the Alamance County page lists every program.
Attic Insulation Removal in Burlington
In a Burlington attic, only wet, moldy or animal-soiled insulation is vacuumed out (ENERGY STAR's test), once the cause is fixed, and after mice that Burlington attic is sanitized and deodorized; dry, clean insulation stays.
Also Serving Near Burlington
Nearest to Burlington first.
Alamance, NC
4 miles south
Median home built 2001 (Burlington: 1978); 1,061 people, under a tenth of Burlington's population
Attic insulation in AlamanceGibsonville, NC
5 miles northwest
Median home built 2004 (Burlington: 1978); 9,876 people, about a sixth of Burlington's population
Attic insulation in GibsonvilleGraham, NC
5 miles east
Median home built 1987 (Burlington: 1978); Its NOAA station logs about 260 more heating degree days than Burlington's
Attic insulation in GrahamWhitsett, NC
6 miles west
Median home built 1973 (Burlington: 1978); 606 people, under a tenth of Burlington's population
Attic insulation in Whitsett
Burlington Insulation FAQs
Does living in a Burlington historic district limit what I can do in my attic?
Not the inside work. Burlington has several National Register districts, among them West Davis Street and Fountain Place, East Davis Street, South Broad and East Fifth Streets, and Beverly Hills. The State Historic Preservation Office says National Register listing puts no restriction on an owner using private money. The city also has a Historic Preservation Commission, and under state law a local district or landmark needs its approval only for changes to the outside. Insulating and air sealing happen indoors. New roof or soffit vents change the outside, so ask the city before that part of the job.
Did the mill company put insulation in my Burlington mill house?
Nothing required it. The city's survey describes the company houses as built quickly and cheaply, and state law tied new homes to insulation standards only from 1978 on. From the mid-1930s the mill companies sold their village houses, often to the families living in them. Nothing in the survey says the houses were insulated, so nothing is taken for granted. Before work starts, the crew checks the depth over the main roof and over the back ell separately, since the two can differ.
What gets checked before insulating an old house on West Davis Street?
The wiring and the chimneys. The district's 1984 nomination dates its oldest houses to the 1880s and 1890s, and it describes Queen Anne houses there with tall, corbelled chimneys. Knob-and-tube wiring, the kind found in houses wired before about 1930, can start a fire when insulation is packed around it, ENERGY STAR warns. An electrician checks it first. Insulation also stays clear of a masonry chimney, usually by 2 inches, with a metal dam holding it back.
Are there rebates for attic insulation in Burlington?
Duke Energy's Smart $aver Insulate and Seal is the one to check: a rebate for attic insulation done together with air sealing, and a separate one for duct sealing, when the attic starts at R-19 or less; a contractor in Duke's Smart $aver network must do the work, and Insulation Pros is an approved Duke Energy trade ally. Check its current terms. The Alamance County page lists every other program.
Could the old insulation in a Burlington attic be vermiculite?
It could: about 27 percent of Burlington's homes predate 1960. If a Burlington attic holds a pebble-like gray-brown or silver-gold fill, leave it undisturbed: the EPA says vermiculite may contain asbestos.
Does attic insulation in Burlington need a permit?
Burlington City Hall can say whether Alamance County Inspections, the city itself or another office handles permits in Burlington; ask before work starts.
Helpful Guides
- Power from Duke Energy: high summer electric bills and home energy audits
Sources
Census Bureau figures for Burlington, NOAA normals for the Burlington Fire Station 5, Duke Energy (October 2026). Compiled by Insulation Pros. How the town pages are made.
Sources for the Burlington notes and questions (read October 20, 2026):
- Burlington, in The North Carolina Gazetteer (William S. Powell, 2nd ed., UNC Press 2010), NCpedia
- Historic Resources of Burlington, National Register multiple resource nomination (NC HPO, 1984)
- Lakeside Mills District, National Register nomination (NC HPO)
- Furnace Flues Require Special Sealing Techniques, ENERGY STAR do-it-yourself guide
- South Broad-East Fifth Streets Historic District, National Register nomination (NC HPO)
- West Davis Street-Fountain Place Historic District, National Register nomination (NC HPO)
- Attic Air Sealing Project, ENERGY STAR
- Building Construction Problem Areas, weatherization training text, Iowa Department of Health and Human Services
- Beverly Hills Historic District, National Register nomination (NC HPO)
- Post-World War II and Modern Architecture in Raleigh, North Carolina, 1945-1965, National Register multiple property documentation form (NC HPO)
- Adding Attic Insulation, ENERGY STAR do-it-yourself guide
- About Attic Ventilation, ENERGY STAR do-it-yourself guide
- NC Listings in the National Register of Historic Places, NC State Historic Preservation Office
- What Is the National Register of Historic Places?, NC State Historic Preservation Office
- Historic Preservation Commission Staff in North Carolina, listed by county, as of 2/20/2023 (NC HPO)
- N.C. Gen. Stat. 160D-947, Certificate of appropriateness required
- N.C. Gen. Stat. 143-139.2, Enforcement of insulation requirements; certificate for occupancy
- Attic Insulation Project, ENERGY STAR
Burlington, NC
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Insulation Pros is an insulation contractor serving North Carolina, Burlington and the rest of Alamance County included.
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Send the square footage of your Burlington attic, or call (336) 870-3893.