Hillsborough County has 1,522,748 people and 630,692 housing units, and its median home dates from 1991. Of the county’s units, 32.1% date from the 1980s and 90s, 37.5% from 2000 on, 19.8% from the 1960s and 70s and 7.7% from the 1940s and 50s, with 2.9% from before 1940. Electricity heats 90.7% of occupied homes and Tampa Electric is the electric company, so across the county cooling is the bill that matters.
Detached houses are 56.9% of units, 358,620 in all, and 7.6% are attached villas, townhouses and duplex halves. Apartment buildings take 5.7% of units in buildings of five to nine, 6.4% in ten to nineteen, 3.7% in twenty to forty-nine and 7.3% in fifty or more, and 6.5%, 40,816 units, are manufactured homes. Owners live in 61.5% of occupied homes, and our work centers on the 288,168 owner-occupied detached houses. 7.5% of units are vacant or seasonal.
The county sits in west-central Florida with a long shoreline on Tampa Bay. It was created in 1834, far larger than today, with Pasco and Pinellas among the present-day counties inside it, and lost its western section to Pinellas in 1911. Only Tampa, Plant City and Temple Terrace are incorporated, all of them cities. Most of the county’s area is unincorporated, so Brandon, Riverview and Valrico are communities, not cities. In 2011 strawberries were its largest crop by value. Five of the ten towns below have a page of their own that carries the detail; the other five are covered here.
The Hillsborough County towns we work in
The towns with a page of their own are linked; each of those pages carries that place’s own figures.
- Brandon — the I-75 commuter suburb: 41.7% of homes from the 1980s and 90s, median year built 1993.
- Carrollwood — 57.9% of homes date from the 1980s and 90s, the most of the ten; only 8.4% since 2000.
- Lutz — 81.1% detached, the most of the ten, with 78.5% owner-occupied and 40.4% built in the 1980s and 90s.
- Plant City — the strawberry city: 33.0% of homes built before 1980, 11.7% in the 1940s and 50s, median year built 1989.
- Riverview — 70.7% of homes built since 2000 and 8.8% since 2020, the newest of the ten, median year built 2006.
- Sun City Center — 30.0% of units are attached villas and 10.1% vacant or seasonal, in an age-restricted community; median built 1997.
- Tampa — the county seat: 8.4% built before 1940, 44.5% before 1980, and 21.4% of units in buildings of twenty or more.
- Temple Terrace — 42.1% of units are detached, the fewest of the ten, and 15.9% sit in buildings of twenty or more.
- Town ’n’ Country — 34.9% built in the 1960s and 70s, 42.7% in the 1980s and 90s, and 10.0% of units manufactured homes.
- Valrico — manufactured homes are 14.4% of units; 44.0% of the stock dates from the 1980s and 90s, median 1996.
Several more communities have no page of their own and are covered here: Seffner and Mango next to Brandon, Bloomingdale next to Valrico, Gibsonton next to Riverview, Citrus Park and Keystone next to Carrollwood, and Lake Magdalene, Northdale, Egypt Lake-Leto, East Lake-Orient Park, Palm River-Clair Mel and Westchase around Tampa. Apollo Beach and Ruskin are newer communities, mostly built since 2000.
The houses across Hillsborough County
Most of the county’s oldest houses stand in its three cities. Tampa has 8.4% of its units from before 1940 and 17.1% from the 1940s and 50s, much of it in its older neighborhoods; Plant City has 3.3% and 11.7%, and Temple Terrace 11.2% from the 1940s and 50s. The frame bungalows and cottages built before 1950 stand on piers over a vented area with bare walls and a low attic holding little or nothing; air conditioning came decades afterward, the air handler squeezed into a closet and flex ducts laid across the attic floor. What they need is, first, a sealed attic floor and, second, blown depth, with the area beneath the house kept dry and vented and foam kept off the soil. A 1950s house is more often one of the block ranches described next.
The 1960s and 70s built 19.8% of the county, and three places lean on them: Town ’n’ Country at 34.9%, Temple Terrace at 31.4% and Carrollwood at 30.0%. The block ranch wears stucco over block, with drywall on furring strips inside and almost nothing in the walls, beneath a shallow attic where a thin settled layer of fill sits under the flex ducts. Leaks sit at the open cores along the wall top, in the soffit chase, at bath fans exhausting into the attic and at a closet air handler’s return.
The 1980s and 90s built 32.1% of units: Carrollwood has 57.9% from them, Valrico 44.0%, Town ’n’ Country 42.7%, Temple Terrace 42.6%, Brandon 41.7% and Lutz 40.4%. Truss roofs give these houses tall attics; the trouble sits in the ceiling below (can lights, pull-down stairs, vaults, bonus rooms) and in the equipment, since the air handler stands in the garage or in the attic beside its ducts. The first work is the ceiling plane, then the platform beneath the air handler; after that comes more blown depth aimed at ENERGY STAR’s R-49, or deck foam. If the ducts remain in the attic, a radiant barrier is another choice that we install.
Since 2000 the county has built 37.5% of its units, 19.0% in the 2000s alone: Riverview is at 70.7%, Sun City Center at 45.6%, Valrico at 40.9% and Brandon at 35.3%, with Apollo Beach and Ruskin on the same pattern. This is recent, builder-grade construction: blown fiberglass at builder depth, ducts and often the air handler overhead in the attic, bonus rooms and open plans. Tightness and top-ups come first, or a sealed attic, and a house that is already tight is told so.
6.5% of the county’s units are manufactured homes: Valrico has 14.4%, Town ’n’ Country 10.0%, Riverview 8.2% and Plant City 5.8%. Their rules come from the federal HUD code, and the insulation goes in the belly and the shallow roof cavity; the owner decides on owned land and the park on leased land; ask us at the estimate. Attached and large buildings are a different conversation: Sun City Center has 30.0% of its units attached, Tampa 21.4% in buildings of twenty or more and Temple Terrace 15.9%, and there the association or the owner holds the roof and the attic and decides.
We seal before we insulate
Insulation slows heat through a material and does nothing for air moving through a gap; across Hillsborough County such gaps draw attic air and humidity into houses whose air conditioners run most of the year.
The sequence changes with the house. A Tampa bungalow starts on the attic floor with light boxes, plumbing walls, the closet air handler and the duct boots. A Town ’n’ Country block ranch starts at the top of the block wall, where open cores meet the attic, and moves on to the soffit chase. A Brandon or Riverview two-story works through each attic plane over its ceilings and then the air handler platform. Depth comes last, or a sealed attic where the equipment sits overhead.
If a quote specifies a depth of insulation and never mentions air sealing, it is half a job.
What insulation costs in Hillsborough County
Most of our projects run between $3,500 and $12,500. The county’s housing prices out by its attics: a bungalow’s low attic is slow work, a block ranch has to be sealed before it is deepened, a 1990s truss attic is large, and a builder-grade two-story adds wings and bonus rooms. Old insulation, equipment and ducts in the attic and the sealed-attic choice move every quote, and a manufactured home waits for a look at its roof cavity. The spray foam cost breakdown goes through what foam adds.
Open-cell spray foam runs R-3.9 to R-4.2 per inch and is vapor permeable, so moisture can move through it. Closed-cell spray foam runs R-6.9 to R-7.1 per inch, passes much less vapor, and costs more per inch because it uses more material. Neither foam is required to be a vapor retarder in Florida; the code’s Class II vapor-retarder rule for sealed attics applies only in Climate Zones 5 through 8.
ENERGY STAR’s modeled averages for sealing air leaks and adding insulation in Climate Zone 2 are 6% of total energy costs and 9% of heating and cooling costs.
Insulation rebates in Hillsborough County
Across the ten towns above, the electric company is Tampa Electric: Brandon, Carrollwood, Lutz, Plant City, Riverview, Sun City Center, Tampa, Temple Terrace, Town ’n’ Country and Valrico. A few rural accounts at the county’s edge belong to Peace River Electric Cooperative, which is why the electric bill, not the map, decides whose program applies. Peoples Gas is the gas company named for these communities, and gas has no insulation rebate here.
When a contractor does the work, Tampa Electric’s rebate comes off that contractor’s invoice and the contractor must be on Tampa Electric’s list; the program also accepts insulation the owner installs. Ask any installer, including us, whether they are on that list before you sign.
Tampa Electric’s rebate pays “$0.16 per square foot per R-11 insulation installed.” Its energy analyst makes a pre-approval attic inspection and gives the homeowner “a rebate certificate that is valid for one year and a list of approved contractors that can perform the installation.” Tampa Electric continues, “The contractor will deduct the rebate from the total amount of the invoice.” A follow-up inspection may happen, and the homeowner applies “within 90 days after installation is complete.”
Under the program rules Tampa Electric filed with the state a house qualifies once, with electric whole-house air conditioning or electric heat, at least R-11 added in R-11 steps, and a finished attic of R-30 or more, or R-20 or more where spray foam is used; a home that already took part is not eligible again.
There is no federal homeowner tax credit for insulation installed in 2026: the 25C credit ended for property placed in service after December 31, 2025, and contractors still advertising it are wrong. Florida’s federally funded home energy rebates, HEEHR and HOMES, are not available. Our Florida rebate guide covers Tampa Electric’s program in full.
Code and climate in Hillsborough County
30.4% of the county’s housing was built before 1980 and 62.5% before 2000, from 7.3% before 1980 in Riverview to 44.5% in Tampa. Hillsborough County, like Pinellas and Pasco, is in Climate Zone 2A, warm-humid.
Counties write no energy code of their own, so one statewide code governs from Tampa to Plant City: the Florida Building Code, Energy Conservation, 8th Edition (2023), in force since December 31, 2023. New homes and additions carry these prescriptive numbers: R-38 for ceilings, R-13 for wood-frame walls and raised floors, R-0 for slabs, R-4 or R-6 for concrete-block walls (R-4 when most of the insulation is outside the block, R-6 when most is inside), U-0.40 and SHGC 0.25 for windows, and R-8 for ducts in an unconditioned attic. Each new home needs a blower-door test at no more than 7 ACH50, filed before the certificate of occupancy, and one under 3 ACH50 needs whole-house mechanical ventilation. The prescriptive path says “air handling units are not allowed in attics,” a rule for new work only.
Florida’s energy code sets minimums for new homes and major renovations. Adding insulation to an existing attic is your choice; the code does not require it. Reroofing alone generally does not trigger a new insulation requirement under Florida’s energy code; your building department has the final word. ENERGY STAR’s Zone 2 recommendation, R-49 for an uninsulated attic and R-38 on top of 3 to 4 inches, applies to existing houses and stays separate from the code’s R-38 minimum for new homes.
Sealed attics are allowed under the Florida residential code, and among its conditions the attic is completely inside the thermal envelope and the ceiling side carries no Class I vapor retarder; a 2025 statute adds a route for new construction that is never a retrofit rule. On moisture, a December 2024 Florida Solar Energy Center review for the state found mixed results on moisture and energy use in sealed attics; the Florida research it found covered open-cell foam only, and the studies from hot-humid climates agreed that roof-wood moisture stayed at acceptable levels with open-cell foam on the roof sheathing. It is a finding, not a promise for any one roof. None of the three Tampa Bay counties is in the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, which covers only Miami-Dade and Broward.
Permit rules vary by county and city; ask your building department, or ask us when we quote. Florida requires termite protection on new homes, and foam should not touch the soil outside. The 9th Edition (2026) is the next statewide edition and is scheduled to take effect December 31, 2026.
Checked against the Florida Building Commission and the code text on October 28, 2026.
Common questions about insulation in Hillsborough County
Do you install insulation in Hillsborough County, FL?
Yes. We insulate houses across the county, from Tampa bungalows and Plant City cottages to the block ranches of Town ’n’ Country, Temple Terrace and Carrollwood, the 1980s and 90s truss-roof houses of Brandon, Valrico and Lutz, and the newer two-stories of Riverview, with air sealing, batts of fiberglass, rigid foam board, blown-in cellulose or fiberglass, and closed-cell and open-cell spray foam. Villas, condominiums and apartment buildings are decided by their associations or owners.
How much does insulation cost in Hillsborough County?
Most projects run between $3,500 and $12,500. Across the county the attic sets the number: a Tampa bungalow’s cramped attic takes longer, a Town ’n’ Country block ranch needs its wall tops and soffit chase sealed first, a Carrollwood or Brandon truss attic covers a lot of ceiling, and a Riverview two-story splits into wings and bonus rooms. Equipment and ducts in the attic, and old insulation to move, add to it. The price comes in writing after the walk-through.
Are there insulation rebates in Hillsborough County?
Yes, for Tampa Electric customers: Tampa Electric’s ceiling insulation rebate is $0.16 per square foot per R-11 insulation installed, paid after Tampa Electric’s analyst has inspected the attic, and its program rules filed with the state call for a finished attic at R-30 or more (R-20 or more where spray foam is used). Ask any installer, us included, whether Tampa Electric’s list names them before you sign; the rebate comes off the invoice of a contractor on that list or applies to insulation the owner installs.
Which utility do I have in Hillsborough County?
Tampa Electric is the electric company across Hillsborough County, and it is the one whose insulation rebate applies. A few rural accounts belong to Peace River Electric Cooperative, so the name on your electric bill settles it. For gas, Peoples Gas is named for Brandon, Lutz, Plant City, Riverview, Sun City Center, Tampa, Temple Terrace, Valrico and unincorporated Hillsborough County, which takes in Town ’n’ Country and Carrollwood; gas has no insulation rebate.
Free estimate in Hillsborough County
What we offer across the county is an estimate of our own, free, with no route to a rebate and no connection to Tampa Electric’s no-cost in-home audit by its energy analyst. A bungalow gets looked at from its attic floor and closet air handler, a block ranch from the wall tops and soffit chase, a truss-roof house from the pull-down stair and the air handler platform, and a manufactured home from its roof cavity and belly. The scope and price arrive in writing.
Call 914-554-2289 or use the contact form. Our Florida branch covers Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties. The Home Insulators is a family-owned company that has been insulating homes in the Northeast since 2015. Our own crew does the work and we never subcontract it.
Get my free estimateor call 914-554-2289, 8am–8pm every day