NEWSLETTER
MANUFACTURED HOME REPAIR
Spring 2004


Feature your home here!

Welcome and thanks for reading our Spring 2004 newsletter. We're sorry we didn't publish a Winter 2003 newsletter. In this issue you will find:

* Building a skirting access door
* Tom's Tips
* Repairing a polybutylene (pb) waterline
* A story from 'The Life of a Mobile Home Repair Man'
* Repair manual updated for 2004
* Picture of the season
* Feature product

Many people do a great job of installing and upkeeping their skirting, but fail to plan for a simple access to get underneath their home. Take it from me, makeshift doors are frustrating. If those access doors don't open because they are jammed, frozen, hinged, non-existent or whatever, they are costing you the homeowner money, especially if you're paying a service person to do a repair and he's adding time because he can't get underneath your home. Plus if the only water shut-off to your home is underneath and you have a broken pipe, fast access is essential in preventing hundreds if not thousands of dollars in water damage.

The good news is that a tough reliable door is easy to build and simple to install. The door shown in this article will work with any type of skirting. By building a screen, this door would also double as a vent.

Location
If you are only installing one skirting door, it should be positioned closest to your main water shut-off. Be sure the door isn't located directly in front of a pipe, anchor strap or any other obstruction that would hinder getting through the door. If you intend for these doors to also act as skirting vents, then locating one door in each corner would work really well for airflow.

Construction
When building this access door, use all treated boards and plywood. Treated wood, available at most any lumberyard, is weather resistant and will add years of life to your door. Any nails and screws used should also be suitable for use in treated lumber.

Start by measuring the opening for your door. Width is not as important as height. Height should be from the ground to the bottom of the home. Width should be at least 2 feet. Build your door to these measurements.

First construct the frame. The bottom of the frame consists of a 2x8, while 2x6's are used on the other three sides. Then 1x4's are nailed along the top and sides. Leave a 3/4" reveal when nailing the 1x4's to the frame.

Measure the opening and cut a door panel to fit. 3/4" or 5/8" treated plywood should be used for the door panel. The panel should fit without sticking. Add a handle to the panel for ease of use. Instead of a solid door, a screen could be built. Simply construct a frame the size of the opening and cover it with screen available at any home improvement store.

The door is held closed by a turning latch on each side. These are made from treated 1x4 scraps cut to about 2" wide x 5" long. Drill a hole through the latch that's bigger than the screw. Screw the latch to the 1x4, positioning it so when turned vertical it won't interfere with removal of the door. Don't overtighten the screw or it won't turn freely.

Installation
Cut the opening in the skirting if you haven't already. Set the door in the opening. The 1x4's should cover any rough skirting edges. Secure the door to the ground by driving long nails or spikes through the bottom board. Predrill your holes first. To secure the top, drive 3-4" screws through the top board into the rimjoist of the home. Finally, fasten the skirting to the 1x4's.

No Hinges Please
Hinges have no place on a skirting door. The door sets low to the ground, so ice, snow and even landscaping will soon cause grief to opening a hinged door. Hinges on top are also annoying. Just leave the hinges off and remove the door by turning two latches and lifting out with the handle.

Some Manufactured Home Tips You May Not Know:

You may be able to get your home insurance cheaper by going thru Foremost/AARP. You do not have to be over 50, nor is there any need to join the organization. http://aarp.foremost.com/index.htm

You can rent many of the specialized tools needed at your local home center, Ie, Lowes, Home Depot

If you are lower income, many counties have weatherization programs that for no cost, they will come to your home free and seal up your home at no cost to you. Some counties also have programs for low or no interest loans for homeowners.

You can unplug your heat tape after the threat of frost is over to save your self money. Do NOT forget to plug it back in, during the fall. Mark it on your calendar without fail. Then again, some heat tapes do have thermostats so maybe just leave those plugged in.

If you are planning to have your AC checked this spring, have them do the furnace also. Doing both at the same time saves you money. The earlier in the season you have it done, the better.

One of the most common places for roof leaks are the vents. Re sealing them every few years can eliminate the threat. Neoprene is a good sealant.

Keeping your skirting in good shape is the first line of defense in keeping out critters from your underbelly. Animals can cause great damage and expense, its much cheaper to take care of the skirting than repairing a ripped up underbelly. Never use poison bait to rid yourself of critters, they will crawl in your underbelly and die, and well.... you know the rest. Spreading moth balls under your home is a cheap deterrent to keeping mice from entering your home.

Do not ignore a leak, not matter where it is. Small leaks can cost you money if not attended to.

Does your toilet require you to hold the handle down to complete the flush? Fluidmaster makes a flapper that will eliminate this chore. Easy to install. Can be purchased at your local hardware store.

If you own a manufactured home from the 80's or early 90's, your home probably has the gray plastic waterlines called polybutylene (PB). Due to some shortcomings in the PB, it is no longer made and has been replaced with PEX.

Once only available in clear or white, pex can now be found in a variety of colors including red, blue, white and clear. Because so many manufactured homes still contain the gray polybutylene, repairs are still necessary. Since parts for polybutylene systems are no longer available, repairs have to be made using pex. The repairs are simple, you just have to remember that anytime you connect pex to polybutylene, you need a 'pex to polybutylene' adapter (pictured right) available anywhere pex fittings are sold. In the adapter kit, the gold ring is used on the gray polybutylene line and the black ring is used on the white pex line. Besides being a different diameter, the polybutylene side of the fitting contains a lot more rings than the pex side. Do not use a regular 'pex to pex' coupler as the inside diameter of polybutylene is larger.

In the photo to the right, the top coupler is a 'pex to pex' adapter. The bottom coupler is a 'pex to polybutylene' adapter. On the right side of the 'pex to polybutylene' adapter is the polybutylene connection. Notice how its thicker and has more rings.

If you have a leak in the middle of a gray polybutylene waterline, cut out the leak and install a piece of pex with a 'pex to polybutylene' adapter on each end. Once you have the adapter in place, any repair is possible.

The rings are then crimped into place with a crimping tool.

Here in South Dakota we rely on heat tapes to keep our main waterline thawed during the cold winters. If any part of that waterline is exposed or not heat taped, chances are good that the waterline will freeze. Needless to say, I get lots of waterline freeze-up calls during the winter.

In January my phone rang for a frozen waterline. I had installed a new heat tape last January for this customer, so they were baffled as to why they suddenly had no water. So I stopped over.

It didn't take me long to discover that the problem was the neighbor's dog. The waterline is connected to the main which is located next to the home (not underneath as many are). Normally a wooden box is built to cover the connection, but not in this case. So the neighbors dog chewed off the insulation from the pipe causing the water to freeze. The heat tape was working fine, but it can't do its job if the pipe isn't wrapped in insulation. The insulation holds the heat from the tape to the pipe.

So I thawed and reinsulated the waterline. I handed the customer my bill for $35 and suggested that either a wooden box be built to protect the waterline connection, or don't allow the neighbor's fence to extend to the side of your home. I then added that next time the dog may damage your heat tape or the freon lines to your air conditioner. Her only comment was, "Well, that's the neighbor's problem." I said OK, but you're the one paying the bill and without water!

The following week the same customer calls again -- no water. I stopped over and noticed again that the insulation was gone. But this time, the neighbors dog had chewed on the heat tape. What cost $35 last time, now cost them $175 for a new heat tape plus I added an extra $40 to build them a wooden box to cover the connection. Her 'neighbors problem' has sure cost her a lot of money!

Read the Press Release

The perfect Spring Helper for do-it-yourselfers working on their mobile home! This 125 page book is written by us at mobilehomerepair.com, the professionals who are out in the field every day repairing manufactured homes. The book shows actual pictures from projects we were hired to do.

Designed for homeowners as well as contractors, "The manual for manufactured/mobile home repair and upgrade" is packed full of useful repair techniques. But it's more than just doing repairs, it's also about upgrading and improving a manufactured home. For instance, not only will you learn how to stop a metal roof from leaking, you'll also discover an inexpensive way to replace it. Want to relevel your own home? This manual gives you step by step instructions. Need to replace your waterlines? Then you can't miss the information found here.

Even if you don't do your own repairs, this manual will give you invaluable knowledge of how a repair should be performed so when you do seek a contractor, you know the right questions to ask. Written by us, this manual should be required reading for every owner of a manufactured home.

	Moving Day: For many folks, the arrival of Spring also means the arrival of the moving truck (or a flatbed trailer piled high!)

FEATURE PRODUCT
Stick-It-N-Forget-It Tape

"Tape so good it'll seal a cracked sewer line and never come off!"

Every so often we stumble upon a product that blows us away. The stick-it-n-forget-it tape and roofing material is one of those products. The tape sticks to anything solid and extremely durable in all weather conditions. The roofing material is some of the best we've ever seen. (The tape is the same as the roofing, just comes in narrower rolls.)

Pictured (right) is a plastic 2-liter bottle. I cut a big hole in the side of the bottle and patched it with a piece of stick-it-n-forget-it. I let the tape cure for a few hours then filled the bottle with water. The bottle has been sitting on my desk for 2 months and not one drop has yet leaked out!

The stick-it-n-forget-it is an addicting tape to have around because it's uses are limitless. Click Here to see more uses and other experiments we've performed with this product.

If you have a picture or repair tip to share, please e-mail it to us.

FEATURE YOUR HOME
Are you proud of your home? New or old, your home could be featured at the top of our seasonal newsletter. Simply submit via e-mail a clear picture with good lighting and you could see your home at the top of our next newsletter!