Teachey, NC
2 miles north
500 people, about a seventh of Wallace's population
Attic insulation in TeacheyAttic Insulation in Wallace, NC
Blown-in attic insulation for Wallace, NC, in Duplin County, plus removal and air sealing.
About Wallace and Its Homes
Wallace started as Duplin Roads, a Wilmington and Weldon railroad stop incorporated in 1873, and was reincorporated as Wallace in 1899, later becoming the center of strawberry growing in the state. Around the brick blocks by the depot, its 1995 district nomination notes one- and two-story frame houses from about the turn of the twentieth century.
Wallace, in Duplin County, grew from 3,377 people in 2020 to 3,570 in 2025 (Census Bureau estimates), on 3.19 square miles. No town in Duplin County has more people than Wallace.
Wallace has about 1,820 housing units, 8 percent of Duplin County's.
Wallace at a Glance
- County: Duplin County
- Population: 3,570 (2025), 3,377 (2020), up 5.7%
- Land area: 3.19 square miles (1,119 people each)
- Housing units: about 1,820 (±282)
- Owner-occupied: 58% (±13); Duplin County: 70%
- Detached houses: 62% (±11); Duplin County: 60%
- Apartments: 25% (±11)
- Mobile homes: 12% (±7)
- Climate zone: 3 on both maps
- ENERGY STAR target for Wallace attics: R-49 from bare, R-38 over 3 to 4 inches (R-value guide)
Census Bureau estimates for Wallace, 2020 to 2024 (± margin of error).
Wallace Homes and Their Attics
Center-Hall Houses With a Kitchen Ell Behind
Duplin County's architectural survey found that the one-story, one-room-deep house with a center hall stayed a favorite well into the twentieth century, built in large numbers through the 1920s. Behind the main block there was usually an ell of one or two rooms, holding the kitchen and dining room that had once stood in a separate building. The survey's example of the type has brick chimneys on its gable ends. Where an ell has a roof of its own, it can also have its own attic space, its own depth of old insulation and its own way in. We measure the front block and the ell separately and bring both to one even depth. An end chimney that stands outside the wall leaves no gap in the attic floor.
Attic Insulation in Wallace
About 40 percent of Wallace's homes predate 1970; if your joists show above the insulation, ENERGY STAR says to add more insulation.
The Local Climate
Wallace's center sits about 50 feet above sea level, under a mile from NOAA's Wallace 1 SE station, the best match for Wallace. The station's 1991 to 2020 normals average about 2,900 heating and 1,850 cooling degree days a year, so at Wallace's station, heating needs outweigh cooling.
Homes by Age: What It Means for the Attic
About 62 percent of Wallace housing units are detached single-family houses, about 12 percent mobile homes.
Built from 1940 to 1969, about 25 percent of Wallace homes often have little insulation. In 2010 or later, about 15 percent of Wallace homes went up; check their air sealing as well as the depth.
About 55 percent of Wallace's housing units predate 1980; nearly all predate the state's 1978 insulation rule too. About 25 percent of Wallace units sit in buildings of two or more homes, where the attic is often shared.
Homes by Year Built
- Before 1940: 15% (±4), about 270 units
- 1940s: 6% (±5), about 100 units
- 1950s: 15% (±6), about 280 units
- 1960s: 7% (±5), about 120 units
- 1970s: 11% (±7), about 205 units
- 1980s: 19% (±11), about 360 units
- 1990s: 9% (±6), about 165 units
- 2000s: under 7%, about 55 units
- 2010s: 12% (±9), about 225 units
- 2020 or later: under 6%, about 45 units
Air Sealing and Duct Sealing in Wallace
In Wallace, about 82 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: 82% (±8), about 1,390 households; Duplin County: 77%
- Piped gas: under 5%, about 35 households
- Bottled or tank gas: 14% (±6), about 230 households
- Wood: under 6%, about 45 households
Power, Gas and Rebates
Duke Energy Progress supplies Wallace's electricity. For gas, Wallace is in the Duplin County franchise of Piedmont Natural Gas, whose mains may not reach every street in Wallace. Duke's free House Call fits many Wallace homes: about 82 percent heat with electricity. Bottled or tank gas, bought by the delivery, heats about 14 percent of homes in Wallace.
Rebate to check in Wallace: Smart $aver Insulate and Seal (Duke Energy; Insulation Pros is an approved trade ally). Before a job in Wallace, check its current terms; the Duplin County page lists every program.
Attic Insulation Removal in Wallace
In a Wallace attic, only wet, moldy or animal-soiled insulation is vacuumed out (ENERGY STAR's test), once the cause is fixed, and after mice that Wallace attic is sanitized and deodorized; dry, clean insulation stays.
Also Serving Near Wallace
Nearest to Wallace first.
Rose Hill, NC
6 miles north
1,429 people, about half of Wallace's population
Attic insulation in Rose HillGreenevers, NC
7 miles northeast
603 people, about a sixth of Wallace's population
Attic insulation in GreeneversMagnolia, NC
12 miles north
Its NOAA station logs about 590 more heating degree days than Wallace's; 875 people, about a quarter of Wallace's population
Attic insulation in Magnolia
Wallace Insulation FAQs
Is my older Wallace house part of a historic district?
Not if it stands in one of the neighborhoods. The one National Register district in Wallace, listed in 1995, covers the commercial core around the depot and its stores, banks and warehouses, not the neighborhoods. Two listed houses nearby stand outside the town limits. In Duplin County the state's 2023 commission list names only Warsaw's. So your house carries no designation, and attic work here is a matter between you and whoever you hire.
Could the first wiring still be in the attic of an old Wallace house?
It can be. Electric power reached Wallace in 1910, the commercial district's nomination records. That puts the town's earliest house wiring in the decades of knob-and-tube wiring, a method ENERGY STAR places before 1930. Old wiring of that kind can turn into a fire hazard once insulation is packed against it. If we find it in an attic, the insulation work around it stops until an electrician has looked at it and corrected what needs correcting.
Could the old insulation in a Wallace attic be vermiculite?
It could: about 35 percent of Wallace's homes predate 1960. If a Wallace 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 Wallace need a permit?
Wallace Town Hall can say whether Duplin County Building Inspections, the town itself or another office handles permits in Wallace; ask before work starts.
Helpful Guides
- Power from Duke Energy Progress: high summer electric bills and home energy audits
Sources
Census Bureau figures for Wallace, NOAA normals for the Wallace 1 SE station, Duke Energy Progress (October 2026). Compiled by Insulation Pros. How the town pages are made.
Sources for the Wallace notes and questions (read October 20, 2026):
- Wallace Commercial Historic District, National Register nomination (NC HPO)
- History, Town of Wallace
- Wallace, in The North Carolina Gazetteer (William S. Powell, 2nd ed., UNC Press 2010), NCpedia
- Historic and Architectural Resources of Duplin County, North Carolina, ca. 1790-1943, National Register multiple property documentation form (NC HPO)
- Adding Attic Insulation, ENERGY STAR do-it-yourself guide
- 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
Wallace, NC
Open in Google Maps (opens in a new tab)Serving Wallace, NC
Insulation Pros is an insulation contractor serving North Carolina, Wallace and the rest of Duplin County included.
Reach us
Send the square footage of your Wallace attic, or call (336) 870-3893.