How to Inspect Mobile Homes or Manufactured Housing for Structural Defects:

Special attention crawl areas below mobile homes: common defects in skirts, air leaks, insulation, water damage, mold, rot, insect or vermin damage. General damage to mobile home structure including floors, walls, ceilings, roofs, from leaks, rot, insects.

WALL DEFECTS - Defects in Mobile Homes

Ver.3.5 - 04/25/07, updated through 2012 - Steve Vermilye, New Paltz NY and Daniel Friedman, Poughkeepsie NY, Hudson Valley ASHI Chapter Seminar, Newburgh NY, January 4, 2000, NY Metro ASHI Fall 99 Seminar, Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza, White Plains NY, October 2, 1999.

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• watch for furring strips and aluminum siding vs. real 2x4 or 2x6 studs 16"o.c.
• watch for short walls less than 7'6" (C. r.) - short walls mean special short doors, furring strips means no real insulation;
• Sheathing: OSB or plywood under vinyl; metal siding may have no sheathing = weaker structure;
• metal siding: leaks at decorative railing/trim (horizontal); leaks at doors and windows;
• hardboard siding: leaks at seams and joints; poor material, short life;
• Watch out: leaks into a mobile home or trailer or doublewide
  
  invite MOBILE HOME MOLD CONTAMINATION

Question: is the center wall in a doublewide structurally significant?

(Sept 21, 2012) T.Oliver B said:

In a 1977 "double-wide", is the center (longitudinal) wall structurally significant?

I'd like to lose most of it. I've see a mobile office taken apart, and each halve had a massive 2x4 laminated "header?", and apparently had no need for a longitudinal wall.

Will I see the same in the old double-wide I recently purchased? It's pretty solid, overall, and the roofline is good.

The center wall is thinnish, and doesn't "feel" structuraly significant. It feels a bit cheesy. I'm betting that it's not structural.
Any thoughts? I haven't seen into the "attic" yet; perhaps this weekend. t.oliverbridges@gmail.com

Reply:

You want to take a careful look at framing from the attic. If trusses or ceiling joists are one piece from wall to wall tou may be ok

Question: can I install insulated wall panels on my old singlewide home?

(Feb 17, 2014) Dianne Adams said:

I have lived in a poor sad single wide with large add-on for about 15 years. This mobile was made in the early 1970's I believe. The outside walls seem to be some type of cheesy SIP (Sealed Insulated Panel)of many years ago.

On either side of the "I" beam the material of the SIP is coming apart. I would like to install insulted vinyl paneling myself if at all possible to save as much money as possible. I am somewhat...handy with electric screwdriver and saw and such.

Would you think I might possibly be able to install these insulted panels myself? Do you recommend a particular type or brand? What 'rating' should I look for? Thanks in advance. Oh!

I live in high desert in the very center of California - elevation about 2300 feet - temperature range 20 degrees or so (above zero) in winter and up to 110 degrees in the summer.

I am FAR more concerned about the HEAT than the cold. I currently am not using an form of heat except clothes.

I have an entirely electric house and can't afford to run electric heaters but that's OK as long as I don't melt in the summer. One entire wall of the room that I use like 95% of the time has the sun hitting it all day long. That is the wall I want to address first...

Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks again!

Dianne & Jaemeister & Silly Sally & Lacey & Rubee & Poo Poo Pa Choo & Mona Lisa & Bella Cruz & little g.g. (all dogs) & Pebbles & Pumpkin & Coco (cats) & Mister (male finch) and a bunch of fowl - 14 hens and one lucky rooster!

Reply:

Dianne,

You could most likely install a thin layer of insulating board, then flashing tape around windows and doors, then your finish siding; perhaps taping the insulating board seams will improve the insulation's performance;

But I'd want to be sure we have a clear understanding of the wall structure so we're not creating a moisture trap;

Also, siding jobs often turn out to be a bit more work than one anticipated: as you are making the exterior wall thicker you end up either having to build-out the trim around windows and doors or living with a home whose windows and doors look like sunken eyes - this is a cosmetic or aesthetic concern only, that is as long as you've properly sealed around those openings so as not to have leaks into the walls.

If your home has a nearly flat roof, most likely adding insulation on the ceilings inside, or inside the roof, or as some mobile home owners do, building a gable roof over the original structure, will do more to reduce heat gain (your main concern) than adding insulation on the walls.

So priorities are probably the roof (or interior ceilings if you have space), and the sun-beaten wall.

CRAWL SPACES - Mobile Home Crawl Space Concerns

We moved this topic to a new web page at MOBILE HOME CRAWL SPACES.

General Mobile Home, Doublewide & Trailer Structural Concerns

• support added for sagging roofs/ceilings, makeshift, improper
• Rotted floors at leak points such as below windows and at leaky water heaters

References for mobile home wall structures

• Domestic Building Surveys, Andrew R. Williams, Kindle book, Amazon.com
• Defects and Deterioration in Buildings: A Practical Guide to the Science and Technology of Material Failure, Barry Richardson, Spon Press; 2d Ed (2001), ISBN-10: 041925210X, ISBN-13: 978-0419252108. Quoting:
  A professional reference designed to assist surveyors, engineers, architects and contractors in diagnosing existing problems and avoiding them in new buildings. Fully revised and updated, this edition, in new clearer format, covers developments in building defects, and problems such as sick building syndrome. Well liked for its mixture of theory and practice the new edition will complement Hinks and Cook's student textbook on defects at the practitioner level.
• MOISTURE CONTROL in BUILDINGS [PDF] U.S. Department of Energy
• Also seeReferences or Citations at the end of this article

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• MOBILE HOME STRUCTURAL DEFECTS

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