NEWSLETTER
MANUFACTURED HOME REPAIR
Winter 2004/2005


This month our feature home is Shane and Melissa Speal's retro trailer!

Your home could be featured here!

Welcome and thanks for reading our Winter 2004/2005 newsletter. In this issue you will find:

* Replacing a window.
* Coleman furnace parts
* Learning to live with Mother Nature.
* A story from 'The Life of a Mobile Home Repair Man'
* Your sewer is froze -- now what?
* The repair manual everyone should own.
* Are your winter tools up to the task?
* Picture of the month
* Tip of the month
* Wanted: a copy of your old furnace manual

One of the best ways to save on energy is to repair or replace any broken windows. Here's a quick breakdown on how to replace a damaged window.

Remove trim boards (if any) from around window.

Remove screws. A cordless drill will make this job a snap!



Carefully pry old window out using a small crowbar. Pry from all sides.

Clean off any excess putty or caulk.

Add weatherstripping to flange of new window. You could also use caulk or putty tape.



Set new window in opening.

Screw in place using new screws. Replace trim or cut new trim.

Caulk around trim and you're done!

New to our website shopping cart is Coleman Furnace Parts. Some of the more popular parts are listed in the shopping cart. If you don't see the part you are looking for, ask us. If the part is still being made, we can get it and often ship it the same day. For information on troubleshooting your own furnace, Click Here.

As most of you know by now, we were just pounded here in the Sierra Nevada's by a series of snowstorms that totaled 7 feet in my area. I wanted to pass on some pretty important information -- some snow survival tips to keep you safe and sane. Most of the tips can be adapted to any part of the country when Mother Nature shows us who's boss.

Stock-up on Supplies: First, make sure you have plenty of supplies in case the power goes go out -- like a pantry full of food that you can cook in case of an emergency.

Sometimes it can take up to a week in some areas for the power to return. During a storm, the last thing you want to do is figure out how to get to a grocery store! Make sure that you buy plenty of canned food or anything that doesn't need to be refrigerated. Unless you have generator, if you lose power. the food in your fridge and freezer is only going to last a few days at best! Also, keep enough drinking water on hand for your family for at least a week.

If you have pets, make sure that you've stocked up on their food also! Hubby and I waited for close to an hour during the storms here to get into Wal Mart for a bag of dog food! It was one of those rare breaks in the storms and Rocky had no food left. Once we got into the store, it took us another hour to grab the food and check out. Hubby was not a happy camper. and even my patience was tested!

Back-up energy source: If you have a back up energy source, make sure it's in tiptop shape! This means everything from generators to fireplaces! Make sure you have plenty of fuel. If you're using a wood burning stove, make sure the wood is handy and stored in a dry area! I can't tell you how many people just sat back and watched the snowfall on a cord or two of wood. It took some of them days to dig out to the wood pile.. Then they had to dig the woodpile out and dry the wood. If needed, designate an area in your home, cover the floor with some heavy mil plastic and stack plenty of wood there. These are the lucky folks here who's homes are able to have the wood stoves because they were installed prior to the wood stove ban.. Sheesh! If someone had installed a wood stove in here. I'd have moved the furniture out and stored a cord a wood there LOL!

Batteries: Make sure you have batteries for flashlights and radios! I always keep fresh packs of batteries on hand for everything. I have also purchased an adapter for my police scanner that will plug in to my truck's 12 volt plugs, so I can get emergency information. I also keep plenty of candles on hand along with oil lamps and oil. If you have small children, use with extreme caution! Never let either burn unattended! When I have to use the candles and lamps, we all gather in the kitchen, family room, dining area, where all of these are located on solid surfaces that are not flammable! Make sure that your cell phones are fully charged, it's also wise to purchase at least one 12 volt adapter for your car. These tips will go a long way to keeping you connected to the outside world and informed of what's going on around you!

We've all become accustomed to everything at the touch of a button. During any emergency, we find that we are still at the mercy of Mother Nature. Most of our widgets and gadgets shut down during a power outage. Even with a generator, we can just run the basic necessities. Have some old fashioned board games handy, or a deck of cards. remember charades? All of these can give you a bit of break from the stress during the storm. It can also bring you closer together as a family! Don't have a family? Bring the board game over to a neighbor's house. We've all been watching out for two elderly folks here in our neighborhood. Along with taking care of their homes, I've been playing a lot of Yahtzee with both of them the last few weeks. They're snow and ice bound right now. The snow has turned to ice and they are much too frail to even get to their mailboxes. I visit each day, with their mail in one hand and the Yahtzee game in the other! They can't be happier to see me, I get lots of hugs and kisses everyday! It can be very gratifying to give back to our senior citizens or those that are disabled in these situations! Heck, it's gratifying any time of the year. but they really need it when they have no contact with the outside world!

Words of Caution During and After a Snow Storm.
1) Do not get on top of your roof to try to shovel the snow off! If you haven't bought a roof rake, then try contacting a roofing company to come out and do it for you! This is extremely dangerous when snow is on your roof, whether it be a peaked or flat roof! We've had a couple deaths and many accidents from folks trying to save the roof of their house. It's a house, and not worth risking your life over. no matter what!

2) When it comes to shoveling snow, make sure you do some warm up exercise before grabbing the snow shovel. Shoveling snow is a very hard cardio workout. not to mention back breaking. If you've got a heart condition, pay someone to do it for you. If you have a bad back. work slowly and take a lot of breaks.

3) If ice starts to form after a snowstorm, make sure that you have ice melt, sand or kitty litter on hand. Ice Melt works best, but can get a little pricey during a series of storms like we had. it can even become non-existent! A few bags of sand can be helpful in several ways. It can add traction, when spread lightly on ice. A few bags of sand in the rear of a rear wheel drive vehicle can add extra weight to get out of slick situations! Kitty liter will also work for traction when spread thinly over ice and icy snow. Make sure that you do not get the clumping kind.. The cheap kitty litter does pretty well. If needed rock salt can be used, but beware. this can cause damage to cement and any vegetation.

4) A big problem here during the storms that we endured were people feeling that they just had to get out and drive. This makes snow removal and emergency vehicles job a nightmare! Please, if you do not have to be out on the roads. don't go. If you do have to get to work, use public transit or car pool. The fewer vehicles on the road, the better for all of us! We still have several hundred roads that can't be plowed because of vehicles that have been abandoned in snow banks.

5) Another VERY important tip for those of you that use propane. Make sure that the regulator is clear of snow and ice. Very carefully remove the snow from around it with your hands. Do not use a shovel or any other type of tool. These are very sensitive and you can damage them easily. There is a vent located on these that needs to remain opened. Not taking care of this can lead to more propane than needed getting into your home.. or worse, it can blow a home up!

6) Last, but not least. we all have some sort of emergency response teams available in our areas since 911. In this area these people went out and delivered groceries to people that were homebound, they brought medications to those in need. To those in need of non-threatening medical needs, they brought them into hospitals or doctor offices for treatment. They also set up several shelters for those in need because of home damage. Use these resources if they are available and are in need!

Remember, our homes do have some different pre-cautions during storms of any sort. Investigate the weather conditions in your area. Make sure all the tools you need, are in good working condition. Make sure you have all emergency needs are in order. Look at your homeowners insurance policy before disaster strikes, make any changes ahead of time! Get to know your emergency agency services.

All of these tips and advice can make a very bad situation tolerable!

For those of you who visit the forum on a regular basis, you get a glimpse of my typical day by reading the 'Mark's Week' posts. Here's one of my recent days during a cold stretch with temps ranging from 0 to -30.

(01-11-05) Same ole stuff today -- out thawing pipes for those who don't believe in Fall maintenance (or any kind of maintenance). If people would just check over things in the Fall, I'd have 65% less freeze-up calls. Oh well, job security for me.

Today I was tired and stiff. Been a very long week of thawing pipes with no relief in site. So I started slow, real slow. First stop was a customer who had no water. They were froze-up around the water heater. So I opened the door and blasted my nibco at it for about a minute and they were thawed. These people always insist I have coffee with them, and since I was still slow and groggy, that sounded great to me (somedays it can be a pain because it slows me down, but I didn't mind today).

Then I stopped over to a lady's who's bathtub drain was plugged. She thought one of her kids toys had gone down it. I said did the kid's bath water drain? She said yes. I said I bet it's frozen -- and it was.

Then after lunch I went over to look at a frozen sewer pipe. No surprise here. Last spring I got a call asking if I could come figure out why they were using so much water. The solution was simple -- the bathtub faucet never stopped running. So I quoted her $75 to replace it (it's a cheap faucet) but they never called back. Well, instead of spending the $75 last spring, today they first paid me $75 to replace the faucet plus $190 to thaw the sewer pipes! I told them I would not thaw the pipes unless they had a new faucet, so now they were agreeable. Plus I still have to go back to replace the wax ring underneath the toilet (which often blows when the sewer is frozen) at a cost of another $50. Yep, would have been much easier last spring to spend $75.

Then after that job, I had another lady call and say she had no hot water. So I stopped over there. Her husband meets me, a guy younger than me. He's telling me that he and his Dad have been trying to thaw out their hot waterline since last Thursday (today is Tuesday). He said they've spent countless hours trying to figure out where it's froze. They even bought a small nibco heater trying different things -- but no luck. Well, while they spent days (& more money than I charged them) trying to thaw their own hot waterline, I had their hot water running within 15 minutes of showing up -- and it wouldn't have taken me that long but the closest outlet I could find to run my nibco was 100' away -- so took a little bit to unroll then roll-up my 100' cord. Anyway, they were flabbergasted at how fast I thawed them. Problem was, they were looking underneath the home. They weren't froze underneath his home -- they were froze by the water heater just like the first guy this morning. Of course he couldn't pay me til the end of the month, but at least I only got 15 minutes into the job.

More calls await me tomorrow -- including another doozy of a sewer freeze-up call. My nibcos are screaming for a day off too!

If your bathtub is filling up with waste water when you run water down any nearby drain, most likely you have a frozen sewer pipe, especially if your temperatures have been consistently cold. If you want to know why your sewer pipe froze, read this article.

Most people who experience a plugged sewer, first call the roto-rooter guys. If you call them, ask if they work on frozen sewer lines. Many do not and will charge you a service call to come out and tell you to call someone else because your sewer pipe is frozen.

Most people will try plunging the drain hoping to break it loose. If you plunge, plunge with care and only do it a couple times. Plunging can cause the seal underneath your toilet to blow and may also blow apart p-traps. So keep plunging to a minimum or don't do it at all.

Pouring hot water into your tub drain will probably have a minimal effect unless it's only the tub drain that's froze. Drain cleaners will also not thaw a frozen sewer pipe. The best way to get your sewer flowing again is to directly attack the frozen pipe from underneath the home.

Thaw Using a Nibco
I prefer to thaw frozen sewer pipes with a nibco-type heater (as pictured). Always run these heaters from outside the home (not underneath) and stand nearby every minute they are running. Locate the frozen sewer pipe and enclose the area around the pipe with cardboard. Enclosing the area will help concentrate the heat to the pipe so you don't have to heat the entire crawl space to thaw the pipe. Then run your nibco until the pipe has thawed.

If your pipe is real long, you may have to start thawing at the end that drops into the ground. When that section is thawed, work your way back. You can tell when an area is thawed because the sewer pipe will be much lighter when lifting or moving it. Once the pipe thawed enough so the water starts to drain, turn on a faucet and let the water run until you don't hear anymore ice scraping inside the pipe.

If your frozen sewer pipe is fairly easy to access and you don't have a nibco, then you could cut-out the pipe, thaw or buy new, then put back with rubber fernco couplers. Sewer pipes should never freeze -- and if they do there's always a problem. Once thawed, correct the problem as described in this article. If during the process you noticed water leaking out from the bottom of a toilet, you'll also need to replace the wax ring underneath that toilet.

The perfect tool for the do-it-yourselfers working on their mobile home! This 130 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. We've now included furnace troubleshooting and a/c maintenance tips.

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.

Let's talk about snow removal tools and maintenance. Yes, we do need to maintain these tools, otherwise. they will fail you at the most inopportune time. I learned that first hand this winter.

I highly suggest inspecting your snow removal tools in the Fall when you're putting away your gardening tools for the winter. If you have wood-handled tools, inspect the wood for any cracks or signs of stressed wood. Wipe the handles down with linseed oil several times during the winter months. Inspect the blades of the tools for any damage.

If you live in an area where it snows frequently and own a snow blower, make sure it's in good working order in the fall. I'll steal a tip from Tom here, if you're snow blower won't start after a snowfall.. warm it up! As Tom found out the hard way, just placing it in the car and a trip to Sears warmed it up to start just fine!

If you find a tool that needs to be replaced, do it right away. There's nothing more frustrating then trying to find a new snow shovel or rake during a major snowstorm. Take my word for it LOL! I'd also highly suggest aluminum handled tools. The new ergonomic handled tools are great. These make shoveling snow so much easier and your back will thank you for it in the long run! Take a look at all the new tools available for snow removal. some are very cool and will make living with snow a little easier.

Here's a short list of tools that I recommend for snow removal.
* Ergonomic Snow Shovel
* Aluminum Roof Rake (a must for manufactured home owners)
* Ice Breaker or Ice Chopper
* SnoHoe

Here's a pretty cool link for snow and ice removal equipment and tools. It offers everything from snowplow parts to snow shovels and almost everything in between!

WANTED: OLD FURNACE MANUALS
If you have a mobile home furnace from the mid 80's or older, I would be willing to trade you a copy of my book "The Manual for Manufactured/Mobile Home Repair and Upgrade" for a copy of your furnace manual. Good photo copies are fine. Your furnace manual must have a parts diagram and a wiring diagram. To find out if I need your manual, please e-mail me directly. Thanks, Mark.

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!