Smithfield, NC
7 miles northeast
Median home built 1973 (Four Oaks: 1985); Power from its own town system (Four Oaks: Duke Energy Progress)
Attic insulation in SmithfieldAttic Insulation in Four Oaks, NC
Blown-in attic insulation for Four Oaks, NC, 7 miles from Smithfield, plus removal and air sealing.
About Four Oaks and Its Homes
Four Oaks was laid out in 1886 by the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, with store lots facing the tracks and house lots on the blocks to the north and south. It became the chief cotton market in Johnston County from about 1900 to 1930, but no published survey describes its homes.
Four Oaks, in Johnston County, grew from 2,268 people in 2020 to 2,978 in 2025 (Census Bureau estimates), on 2.81 square miles.
Four Oaks has about 1,140 housing units, 1 percent of Johnston County's; about 50 percent of the town's households own their home.
Four Oaks at a Glance
- County: Johnston County
- Population: 2,978 (2025), 2,268 (2020), up 31.3%
- Land area: 2.81 square miles (1,060 people each)
- Housing units: about 1,140 (±167)
- Median year built: 1985 (±4); Johnston County: 2000
- Owner-occupied: 50% (±11); Johnston County: 76%
- Detached houses: 72% (±8); Johnston County: 76%
- Attached houses: 8% (±5)
- Apartments: 9% (±6)
- Mobile homes: 11% (±8)
- Climate zone: 3 on both maps
- ENERGY STAR target for Four Oaks attics: R-49 from bare, R-38 over 3 to 4 inches (R-value guide)
Census Bureau estimates for Four Oaks, 2020 to 2024 (± margin of error).
Attic Insulation in Four Oaks
About 30 percent of Four Oaks' homes predate 1970; if your joists show above the insulation, ENERGY STAR says to add more insulation.
The Local Climate
Four Oaks' center sits about 200 feet above sea level, 7 miles from NOAA's Smithfield station, the best match for Four Oaks. The station's 1991 to 2020 normals average about 3,080 heating and 1,870 cooling degree days a year, so at Four Oaks' station, heating needs outweigh cooling.
Homes by Age: What It Means for the Attic
About 72 percent of Four Oaks housing units are detached single-family houses, about 11 percent mobile homes.
Built from 1940 to 1969, about 25 percent of Four Oaks homes often have little insulation. From 1990 to 2009, about 25 percent of Four Oaks homes were built to codes below ENERGY STAR's target; check their eaves, where ENERGY STAR says insulation is often thinnest.
About 35 percent of Four Oaks' housing units predate 1980; nearly all predate the state's 1978 insulation rule too.
Homes by Year Built
- Before 1940: 4% (±3), about 40 units
- 1940s: under 11%, about 60 units
- 1950s: 3% (±3), about 35 units
- 1960s: 17% (±8), about 190 units
- 1970s: 6% (±4), about 70 units
- 1980s: 28% (±15), about 320 units
- 1990s: 8% (±5), about 85 units
- 2000s: 17% (±9), about 200 units
- 2010s: 5% (±3), about 60 units
- 2020 or later: 7% (±4), about 80 units
Air Sealing and Duct Sealing in Four Oaks
In Four Oaks, about 94 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: 94% (±7), about 940 households; Johnston County: 78%
- Piped gas: under 3%, about 10 households
- Bottled or tank gas: 5% (±4), about 45 households
Power, Gas and Rebates
Duke Energy Progress supplies Four Oaks' electricity. For gas, Four Oaks is in the Johnston County franchise of Piedmont Natural Gas, whose mains may not reach every street in Four Oaks. Duke's free House Call fits many Four Oaks homes: about 94 percent heat with electricity.
Rebate to check in Four Oaks: Smart $aver Insulate and Seal (Duke Energy; Insulation Pros is an approved trade ally). Before a job in Four Oaks, check its current terms; the Johnston County page lists every program.
Attic Insulation Removal in Four Oaks
In a Four Oaks attic, only wet, moldy or animal-soiled insulation is vacuumed out (ENERGY STAR's test), once the cause is fixed, and after mice that Four Oaks attic is sanitized and deodorized; dry, clean insulation stays.
Also Serving Near Four Oaks
Nearest to Four Oaks first.
Selma, NC
10 miles northeast
7,406 people, about twice Four Oaks' population
Attic insulation in SelmaWilson's Mills, NC
10 miles north
Median home built 1997 (Four Oaks: 1985)
Attic insulation in Wilson's Mills
Four Oaks Insulation FAQs
Is my Four Oaks house inside the town's historic district?
Probably not, unless it stands downtown. The only National Register listing in Four Oaks, added in 2006, is a commercial district along Railroad and Main streets: brick stores, warehouses, a blacksmith shop and a mule stable, not homes. The state preservation office's 2023 list shows no preservation commission for Four Oaks either. So no historic designation stands in the way of insulating a house here. An older one simply gets the same careful look any old house needs first.
What gets checked first in an older house here before insulating?
Three things above the ceiling. The town was platted in 1886 and incorporated in 1889, so a house on one of its first lots may be well over a century old. Knob-and-tube circuits, the kind ENERGY STAR flags in homes wired before 1930, are an electrician's call before anything is blown in. Where a masonry chimney rises through the attic, its gap gets aluminum flashing set in heat-proof caulk, and a metal shield keeps insulation off it. Insulation that is wet or stained up there tells of a leaking roof. The roofer comes before we do.
Does attic insulation in Four Oaks need a permit?
Four Oaks Town Hall can say whether Johnston County Building Inspections Department, the town itself or another office handles permits in Four Oaks; ask before work starts.
Helpful Guides
- Power from Duke Energy Progress: high summer electric bills and home energy audits
Sources
Census Bureau figures for Four Oaks, NOAA normals for the Smithfield station, Duke Energy Progress (October 2026). Compiled by Insulation Pros. How the town pages are made.
Sources for the Four Oaks introduction and questions (read October 20, 2026):
- Four Oaks Commercial Historic District, National Register nomination (NC HPO)
- Four Oaks, in The North Carolina Gazetteer (William S. Powell, 2nd ed., UNC Press 2010), NCpedia
- About Us, Town of Four Oaks
- 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 Insulation Project, ENERGY STAR
- Furnace Flues Require Special Sealing Techniques, ENERGY STAR do-it-yourself guide
- Architectural Survey Status, Records, and Reports (survey reports by county), NC State Historic Preservation Office
Four Oaks, NC
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Insulation Pros is an insulation contractor serving North Carolina, Four Oaks and the rest of Johnston County included.
Reach us
Send the square footage of your Four Oaks attic, or call (336) 870-3893.