About Us

COASTROAD Hearth & Patio Supply Company is a family owned and operated business.

We have a great team here at COASTROAD. Robby is the president but he is very busy running R.D. White & Sons, Inc. (of which he is also president, a separate corporation). Tom is the general manager, VP, and fireplace and outdoor kitchen "design guru". Liesl Parks manages purchasing and special orders. Denise Galiano manages new construction projects and keeps us all organized (or at least tries). Paulette Fullwood has a full-time job keeping the accounting straight, but she still helps to cover the phones when it gets really crazy in the showroom!

Our technical/service/installation staff is headed up by our two senior technicians, John Milliken and Chriss Locklear (in February 2009, John had been with us for eleven years. Congratulations!).

TRAINING & CERTIFICATIONS

John Milliken: Factory training from Fireplace Xtrordinair, Gas-Tite, HEAT & GLO, Mendota, Majestic and Vermont Castings; FITS (Fireplace Installer Training System) Gas Fireplace Fundamentals certification; FITS Gas Fireplace Installation certification.

Chriss Locklear: Factory training from Fireplace Xtrordinair, Gas-Tite, HEAT & GLO, Mendota, Majestic and Vermont Castings; FITS (Fireplace Installer Training System) Gas Fireplace Fundamentals certification; FITS Gas Fireplace Installation certification.

Tom Parks: Factory training from Fireplace Xtrordinair, Gas-Tite, Heat & Glo, HearthStone, Mendota, Majestic and Vermont Castings; FITS (Fireplace Installer Training System) Gas Fireplace Fundamentals certification; FITS Gas Fireplace Installation certification; NFI (National Fireplace Institute) wood and gas specialist certification; N.C. Fuel Piping License #27731

HISTORY

Originally, R.D. White & Sons, Inc. handled all of the gas fireplaces and gas grills around these parts. R.D. White & Sons, Inc. has been serving the area since 1925, providing agricultural and highway use fuels, liquid propane gas, fuel piping and tank services and all sorts of equipment from farm equipment to water heaters. As things progressed around here, it became obvious that the fireplace and grill business was outgrowing the small offices of R.D. White, which already needed to expand to handle the influx of new propane customers.

In 1997, Robby White, president of R.D. White & Sons, Inc. and the force behind COASTROAD Hearth & Patio, decided it would work to take the old Shallotte Theatre building, which had become dilapidated and unoccupied, and create a new showroom. Robby pitched the idea to his brother-in-law, Tom Parks, who, at the time, was drawing full-time for an architectural firm in Wilmington.

Robby and Tom worked together to design the new showplace for fireplaces, mantels, professional kitchen appliances and outdoor kitchens (yes, we had an extensive outdoor kitchen display back then - we were a little ahead of our time). Tom - who had some experience in retail design and rehabilitating dilapidated buildings as well - spent the next six months gutting the old building and creating something that would honor the building's history while offering a look at the future. COASTROAD Hearth & Patio was born!

We don't sell indoor kitchen appliances anymore, but the rest of the fireplace and outdoor kitchen offering has increased tenfold since the doors opened in July of 1998. After eleven years of business, there isn't a single piece of fireplace or grill equipment still on display here that was here when we opened, partly because all technologies change and we have to keep up, but really, more accurately, because we have to keep ahead of the times. Nonetheless, the building still has an "old-timey" feel and you can still tell where the original building ended and the addition was tacked on in the fifties. Come by and we'll tell you the stories if you like.