Burgaw, NC
2 miles north
3,903 people, about 9 times St. Helena's population
Attic insulation in BurgawAttic Insulation in St. Helena, NC
Blown-in attic insulation for St. Helena, NC, 2 miles from Burgaw, plus removal and air sealing.
About St. Helena and Its Homes
Hugh MacRae of Wilmington started St. Helena in 1908 as a farm colony for northern Italian immigrants beside the railroad between Rocky Point and Burgaw, and it was incorporated as a village in 1988.
St. Helena, in Pender County, grew from 417 people in 2020 to 434 in 2025 (Census Bureau estimates), on 5.64 square miles. That makes St. Helena the fourth-largest town in Pender County.
St. Helena has about 220 housing units, 1 percent of Pender County's; about 86 percent of St. Helena's households own their home.
St. Helena at a Glance
- County: Pender County
- Population: 434 (2025), 417 (2020), up 4.1%
- Land area: 5.64 square miles (77 people each)
- Housing units: about 220 (±53)
- Median year built: 1985 (±5); Pender County: 1998
- Owner-occupied: 86% (±9); Pender County: 83%
- Detached houses: 90% (±10); Pender County: 71%
- Attached houses: under 4%
- Mobile homes: 7% (±6)
- Climate zone: 3 on both maps
- ENERGY STAR target for St. Helena attics: R-49 from bare, R-38 over 3 to 4 inches (R-value guide)
Census Bureau estimates for St. Helena, 2020 to 2024 (± margin of error).
St. Helena Homes and Their Attics
Board and Batten Cottages of the 1908 Colony
The 1997 county survey says the first seven families arrived in the spring of 1908. They moved into small board-and-batten cottages along the main street, and one of those cottages survived when the survey was made. According to the church's 2017 nomination, each colony family bought ten acres with a three-room house, paying over three years. Settlers from Belgium, Hungary, Serbia and Slovakia came later, then Ukrainian and Russian families from 1924. Little has been written about how those first houses were framed or finished, so we go by what each attic actually shows.
Attic Insulation in St. Helena
About 15 percent of St. Helena's homes predate 1970; if your St. Helena joists show above the insulation, ENERGY STAR says to add more insulation.
The Local Climate
St. Helena's center sits about 60 feet above sea level, 12 miles from NOAA's Willard 4 SW station, the best match for St. Helena. The station's 1991 to 2020 normals average about 2,830 heating and 1,620 cooling degree days a year, so at St. Helena's station, heating needs outweigh cooling.
The state energy code marks Pender County warm and humid.
Homes by Age: What It Means for the Attic
About 90 percent of St. Helena housing units are detached single-family houses. With about 220 housing units in St. Helena, read the figures as rough proportions.
From 1990 to 2009, about 25 percent of St. Helena homes were built to codes below ENERGY STAR's target; check their eaves, where ENERGY STAR says insulation is often thinnest. In 2010 or later, about 15 percent of St. Helena homes went up; check their air sealing as well as the depth.
Homes by Year Built
- Before 1940: under 14%, about 15 units
- 1940s: 3% (±3)
- 1950s: under 6%
- 1960s: under 10%, about 10 units
- 1970s: 25% (±11), about 55 units
- 1980s: 22% (±11), about 45 units
- 1990s: 11% (±5), about 25 units
- 2000s: 14% (±9), about 30 units
- 2010s: 10% (±7), about 20 units
- 2020 or later: under 10%
Air Sealing and Duct Sealing in St. Helena
In Burgaw, the nearest town to St. Helena with solid figures, 90 percent of homes heat with electricity.
Air sealing comes first in a St. Helena ceiling, as the EPA advises: wire and pipe holes, wall tops and soffits.
Power, Gas and Rebates
Power in and around St. Helena comes from Duke Energy Progress and Four County EMC; your bill says which. For gas, St. Helena is in the Pender County franchise of Piedmont Natural Gas, whose mains may not reach every St. Helena street. Bottled or tank gas, bought by the delivery, heats about 11 percent of homes in St. Helena.
Rebate to check if Duke Energy Progress serves your St. Helena home: Smart $aver Insulate and Seal (Duke Energy; Insulation Pros is an approved trade ally). Before a St. Helena job, check its current terms; the Pender County page lists every program.
Attic Insulation Removal in St. Helena
In a St. Helena attic, only wet, moldy or animal-soiled insulation is vacuumed out (ENERGY STAR's test), once the cause is fixed, and after mice that St. Helena attic is sanitized and deodorized; dry, clean St. Helena insulation stays.
Also Serving Near St. Helena
Nearest to St. Helena first.
Atkinson, NC
14 miles west
Median home built 1959 (St. Helena: 1985); 357 people to St. Helena's 434
Attic insulation in AtkinsonWallace, NC
16 miles north
3,570 people, about 8 times St. Helena's population
Attic insulation in WallaceNavassa, NC
18 miles southwest
Its NOAA station logs about 510 fewer heating degree days than St. Helena's; 1,889 people, about 4 times St. Helena's population
Attic insulation in Navassa
St. Helena Insulation FAQs
Is anything in St. Helena on the National Register?
One building: the Russian Orthodox church of Saints Peter and Paul, built in 1932 and listed in 2017. Its listing covers the church and its lot, not the houses around it. No local preservation commission for Pender County shows up in the list the state kept in 2023, either. So no historic designation sets terms for attic work on a house in the village.
My house here started small and was added onto. Does that change the attic work?
Often, yes. The county survey notes that Pender owners commonly enlarged old houses with additions instead of replacing them, and the colony's first homes had only three rooms. Each addition may sit under its own roof, so the house can have two or three separate attic spaces, some with no hatch at all. ENERGY STAR asks for insulation spread level, without thin spots. That only works if every section is found, so the crew traces each roofline on install day before the hose comes out.
Does attic insulation in St. Helena need a permit?
St. Helena Village Hall can say whether Pender County Planning & Community Development, St. Helena itself or another office handles St. Helena permits; ask before work starts.
Helpful Guides
- Pender County is warm and humid by the state energy code: attic condensation and mold and attic ventilation
Sources
Census Bureau figures for St. Helena, NOAA normals for the Willard 4 SW station (October 2026). Compiled by Insulation Pros. How the town pages are made.
Sources for the St. Helena notes and questions (read October 20, 2026):
- St. Helena, in The North Carolina Gazetteer (William S. Powell, 2nd ed., UNC Press 2010), NCpedia
- Pender County architectural survey report, 1997 (NC HPO)
- SS. Peter and Paul's Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church, National Register nomination (NC HPO)
- 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)
- Adding Attic Insulation, ENERGY STAR do-it-yourself guide
St. Helena, NC
Open in Google Maps (opens in a new tab)Serving St. Helena, NC
Insulation Pros is an insulation contractor serving North Carolina, St. Helena and the rest of Pender County included.
Reach us
Send the square footage of your St. Helena attic, or call (336) 870-3893.