Adventures in Old Mobile Home - And Questions

Repair help for the do-it-yourselfer.
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Markfothebeast
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2016 4:38 pm

New member here. I'm still fixing things after 2 years on our place. I should have joined the forum back then to save from all the headaches. I have a very old mobile home. I'm not sure how old it is but I think it is from the 1960s. It is on a foundation with a basement and it also has a shingled roof with low pitch solid trusses that are not original.
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I have removed several windows in odd places and replaced all doors and 90% of the windows. There's a 10x20 addition also. It's still a work in progress. The gas heat bill has lowered tremendously after gutting some walls and re insulating and sealing rim joists.
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This is my current project. The bathroom and bedroom are being gutted. I have removed a section of the original ceiling which was attached to the original 1x2 roof. The original 1x2 roof structure was nailed to the solid wood trusses. ImageI have removed these and plan to drywall both the walls and ceilings. The roof decking began to rot and sag over 30+ years due to no venting. I am unable to find a way to vent the roof properly. There are literally no eaves or anywhere to put soffit on the sides of the roof.

I am installing a roof vent at least to vent some moisture. Does anyone have any ideas how I can vent this low pitched roof? Even if I were to manage to cut out the 2x4s on the ends of the trusses, the clearance between the edge gap is so small that the insulation would block the airflow.

I also have questions about the original 2x2 walls. They appear to be partially load-bearing. I say that because there are 2x4 walls (framed sideways) on the outside of the original walls. The trusses sit on top of 2x4s that span both walls. The inner load bearing vertical 2x2s appear to be pulling apart from the horizontal 1x2s. What do you typically do with these 2x2 walls to reinforce them? I am thinking of putting a few 2x4s in sideways to aid in the load bearing. Also to keep the drywall joints from cracking. Image

Bathroom/bedroom walls removed
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New tub and framing
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I have been strengthening the 2x4 floor joists because I'd like to have these inner walls help with some of the roof load (lots of snow here). The newer (but old) trusses were flimsy so I have been nailing 2x6s between each one and drilling holes for air flow. This helped straighten the trusses back to 24" O.C.. With there being no purlins between trusses, the roof decking doesn't seem to have the amount of support it should have.

I have removed most of the stinky old moisture barrier underneath to get to the floor joists. And now that most of it is gone I was able to seal the terribly leaky rim joists. The moisture barrier did very little to cover the rim joists.

The electrical wiring was a confusing mess and not like a typical house; outlets on light circuits, an entire wall on one circuit, etc. No to mention arcing outlets and burnt wires. I replaced the lug fuse box (running 30 amp fuses by the way) with a 100 amp breaker panel and new wiring from the main Here's a short video of some of the things I am working on.https://youtu.be/r3gQP4xGOkQ

I have many pictures and videos which may help someone someday. And that's some of my adventures with this old mobile home.
Markfothebeast
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2016 4:38 pm

I thought I'd share a couple photos of reinforcing the spongey subfloor. Simply adding 2x4s made quite a difference in how solid the subfloor feels. Some sections of the floor joists suspend about 4" above the steel frame without resting on it. I lodged 2x6's in between these areas.

Here's the previous joist gap where the floor was especially bouncy, an entire 29"W x 7'L with no support.
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Partially finished (no more spongey floor!)
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Craigrrr
Posts: 38
Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2016 10:29 am

You got your work cut out for ya! Nice to have a basement however!
suspiria_2
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2016 5:01 pm
Location: oh, sweet home!

what is the grey material? it looks like metal. does this mean you have the bottom of your mobile home covered in metal, which means that your basement has a metal ceiling?

thanks for the pictures. very interesting!
1997 12 x 60 single wide, 2bd/2ba, on private land
Markfothebeast
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2016 4:38 pm

That is galvanized ducting that was added at some point. The ceiling is pretty much a steel chassis and joists. I removed the drop ceiling and vapor barrier.

No vapor barrier or drop ceiling here. Going to drywall the ceiling when done with electrical and paint the steel chassis beams.
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Drop ceiling that's coming down soon. This was covering the entire basement before. An ugly ceiling material in my opinion.
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Markfothebeast
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2016 4:38 pm

This last winter I felt a strong breeze in the basement. I discovered that the rim joists were leaking terribly. The mobile home was put right on the basement with the vapor barrier on. Both the rim joists and gap between the vapor barrier and foundation were heavily leaking. But here you can see how poor the vapor barrier insulation is. It was never completely covering the rim joists either. If it had an "R-Value" i'd give it a 1. If you feel a cold floor on the edges of your mobile home there's a chance it could look just like this.

Partially removed. Sealing off rim joists with spray foam.
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Markfothebeast
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2016 4:38 pm

Here's an update on my remodel (Taking a break from lifting ceiling drywall). This hall was very narrow, 28" to be exact. I couldn't get much through there before. I cut it to 32". Sadly, it had the only upstairs cold air return which was a big ugly duct taking up space. I'm having to add atleast 3 or 4 more cold air returns because the furnace "whistles" from being choked by poor air flow. It's not the original furnace but rather a 90k BTU propane unit relocated to the basement.
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