Attic Insulation in Coats, NC
Blown-in attic insulation for Coats, NC, 6 miles from Erwin, plus removal and air sealing.
About Coats and Its Homes
Coats is named for James Thomas Coats, known as Elder Tom, who in 1902 gave the Cape Fear and Northern land for a depot near Troyville, an old stagecoach stop. The town laid out around that depot was incorporated in 1905, though its houses have drawn little study since.
Coats, in Harnett County, grew from 2,147 people in 2020 to 2,370 in 2025 (Census Bureau estimates), on 1.54 square miles.
Coats has about 970 housing units, 2 percent of Harnett County's; about 48 percent of the town's households own their home.
Coats at a Glance
- County: Harnett County
- Population: 2,370 (2025), 2,147 (2020), up 10.4%
- Land area: 1.54 square miles (1,539 people each)
- Housing units: about 970 (±179)
- Median year built: 1978 (±4); Harnett County: 1997
- Owner-occupied: 48% (±11); Harnett County: 71%
- Detached houses: 67% (±11); Harnett County: 71%
- Attached houses: under 3%
- Apartments: 27% (±9)
- Mobile homes: 4% (±3)
- Climate zone: 4 (state code), 3 (2021 map)
- ENERGY STAR target for Coats attics: R-49 from bare, R-38 over 3 to 4 inches (R-value guide)
Census Bureau estimates for Coats, 2020 to 2024 (± margin of error).
Attic Insulation in Coats
About 30 percent of Coats' homes predate 1970; if your joists show above the insulation, ENERGY STAR says to add more insulation.
Built from 1970 to 1989, about 30 percent of Coats homes may hold settled fiberglass; check its depth against the joists.
The Local Climate
Coats' center sits about 310 feet above sea level, 6 miles from NOAA's Dunn 4 NW station, the best match for Coats. The station's 1991 to 2020 normals average about 2,910 heating and 1,970 cooling degree days a year, so Coats attics work in both seasons.
Readings change over short distances around Coats: NOAA's Lillington station, 8 miles away, averages about 3,320 heating degree days.
Homes by Age: What It Means for the Attic
About 67 percent of Coats housing units are detached single-family houses.
From 1990 to 2009, about 25 percent of Coats homes were built to codes below ENERGY STAR's target; check their eaves, where ENERGY STAR says insulation is often thinnest.
About 27 percent of Coats units sit in buildings of two or more homes, where the attic is often shared. Renters hold about 52 percent of Coats' occupied homes, so many attic decisions rest with landlords.
Homes by Year Built
- Before 1940: 14% (±7), about 135 units
- 1940s: 5% (±4), about 45 units
- 1950s: 4% (±4), about 45 units
- 1960s: 8% (±4), about 80 units
- 1970s: 24% (±11), about 235 units
- 1980s: 8% (±5), about 75 units
- 1990s: 17% (±7), about 165 units
- 2000s: 7% (±5), about 65 units
- 2010s: 10% (±6), about 100 units
- 2020 or later: under 5%, about 25 units
Air Sealing and Duct Sealing in Coats
In Coats, 81 percent of homes heat with electricity; where that heat is forced air, ducts often run through the attic.
Air sealing comes first, as the EPA advises: wire and pipe holes, wall tops and soffits.
How Homes Here Are Heated
- Electricity: 81% (±6), about 690 households; Harnett County: 83%
- Bottled or tank gas: 16% (±9), about 140 households
- Wood: under 3%, about 10 households
Power, Gas and Rebates
Duke Energy Progress supplies Coats' electricity. For gas, Coats is in the Harnett County franchise of Piedmont Natural Gas, whose mains may not reach every street in Coats. Duke's free House Call fits many Coats homes: 81 percent heat with electricity. Bottled or tank gas, bought by the delivery, heats about 16 percent of homes in Coats.
Rebate to check in Coats: Smart $aver Insulate and Seal (Duke Energy; Insulation Pros is an approved trade ally). Before a job in Coats, check its current terms; the Harnett County page lists every program.
Attic Insulation Removal in Coats
In a Coats attic, only wet, moldy or animal-soiled insulation is vacuumed out (ENERGY STAR's test), once the cause is fixed, and after mice that Coats attic is sanitized and deodorized; dry, clean insulation stays.
Also Serving Near Coats
Nearest to Coats first.
Dunn, NC
7 miles southeast
Median home built 1973 (Coats: 1978); 8,814 people, about 4 times Coats' population
Attic insulation in DunnBenson, NC
7 miles east
Power from its own town system (Coats: Duke Energy Progress)
Attic insulation in BensonLillington, NC
8 miles west
Its NOAA station logs about 410 more heating degree days than Coats'; 5,040 people, about twice Coats' population
Attic insulation in LillingtonAngier, NC
8 miles northwest
Median home built 1998 (Coats: 1978); Its NOAA station logs about 720 more heating degree days than Coats'
Attic insulation in Angier
Coats Insulation FAQs
Is anything in town listed on the National Register?
No. Nothing in or near Coats appears on the state's register list. A 2023 state roster of local preservation commissions has no Harnett County section at all. The 2008 county survey did write up a few buildings here, among them the old elementary school and the storefronts on East Main Street. Being written up in a survey creates no designation. No historic rule shapes what you do in your own attic.
Why are the upstairs rooms in my older Coats house so hard to heat?
Often because they are built into the roof. The county survey describes a house here from about 1910 that stands a story and a half, two rooms deep under a hip roof, with gabled dormers lighting the upper floor. In a house built like that, ENERGY STAR lists the spaces behind and below the knee walls among the common air leaks. We seal and insulate those low side attics, not only the space over the ceiling, wherever the framing lets us reach them.
Could the old insulation in a Coats attic be vermiculite?
It could: about 25 percent of Coats' homes predate 1960. If a Coats 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 Coats need a permit?
Coats Town Hall can say whether Harnett County Development Services, the town itself or another office handles permits in Coats; ask before work starts.
Helpful Guides
- Power from Duke Energy Progress: high summer electric bills and home energy audits
- Hot summers at NOAA's Dunn 4 NW station: radiant barriers
Sources
Census Bureau figures for Coats, NOAA normals for the Dunn 4 NW station, Duke Energy Progress (October 2026). Compiled by Insulation Pros. How the town pages are made.
Sources for the Coats introduction and questions (read October 2026):
- Historic and Architectural Resources of Harnett County, North Carolina, ca. 1770-1950 (Harnett County Survey, December 2008), NC State Historic Preservation Office
- Coats, in The North Carolina Gazetteer (William S. Powell, 2nd ed., UNC Press 2010), NCpedia
- Learn about Coats: A Short History, Town of Coats
- House Joint Resolution 398, Resolution 2005-14, honoring the founders of the Town of Coats on its 100th anniversary (General Assembly of North Carolina, ratified)
- NC Listings in 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)
- Attic Air Sealing Project, ENERGY STAR
Serving Coats, NC
Insulation Pros is an insulation contractor serving North Carolina, Coats and the rest of Harnett County included.
Reach us
Send the square footage of your Coats attic, or call (336) 870-3893.