Attic Insulation in Laurinburg, NC

Laurinburg Homes and Their Attics

Building Light in the Railroad Shop Years

The city's own history explains a habit of the shop decades. Residents worried for years that the railroad would pull its shops out and take the town's trade along, so some who could have afforded a big, permanent house held back. One man told his builder to plan a house he would lose little on if the shops left and he had to sell. The shops went to Hamlet in 1894, and textile mills took their place. Any house surviving from that era, or the few decades after, deserves a wiring check before insulating. Old knob-and-tube circuits, common until around 1930, turn into a fire risk once insulation packs around them, according to ENERGY STAR. We wait until an electrician has dealt with them, and a live run is never buried.

Early 1900s Houses Near Central School

Central School, the oldest public school in Laurinburg, opened its first building in 1909 southeast of downtown, and its nomination reports that many neighboring houses come from that same decade. On the west side, a 2006 nomination for a listed home pictures West Church Street with notable early 1900s homes set on big lots. Two listed houses of about 1904, the Thomas J. Gill House and the Erwin House, were built with chimneys inside the walls that come up through the roof. A chimney that climbs through the attic leaves a ring of open space at the ceiling. That opening gets covered by a strip of aluminum sealed with high-temperature caulk, then fenced off with metal so loose insulation never rests on the masonry.

Postwar Growth and Later Subdivisions

After World War II, the Central School nomination says, the town grew fast. Classes spilled into the auditorium and other makeshift space until two more schools opened for the 1953 to 1954 year. Later, in the last quarter of the century, developers built subdivisions near the Saint Andrews campus south of town. Still, the census table behind this page puts the share of homes built before 1970 below one half. If a newer ceiling has recessed lights, check each can for an IC label. Unlabeled cans keep a 3 inch clear zone around them, and labeled ones can be covered.