Newbie-Pony walls

[Guest]

Hello everyone, i have been lurking for about 6 months now and decided it was time for me to register and get on the boards.

darling hubby and i sold our nice new stick built home last June and moved to the country and bought a 1994 Winalta manufactured (modular) home.

So far I have completed the main bathroom, hallway, 2nd bedroom, kitchen and living room. Peeled off all the vinyl wall paper and strips, mud and taped and painted. I have also tiled the backsplash in the kitchen re finished the hard wood floors in the kitchen and decorated. A very rewarding experience.

However, hubby and I are not sure which route wwe would like to take in regards to expansion. Basement or addition. If we do the addition we would like to put pony walls up and take the underbelly down, so we can have access to all the plumbing, heating ducts etc. Also we would be venting/heating the crawl space.

A basement we have no idea, we have tried to find someone who would come out and give us a quote but it seems like we cannot find anyone in Alberta who does such a thing.

My question is has anyone done pony walls? My hubby is a carpenter and he had done it on our stick built years ago and worked fine.

Another question, Has anyone in Canada done a basement?

Stefanie[/img]

[Harry]

Hi Stefanie

Welcome.

Do you have a manufactured or modular home?

You say you have "a 1994 Winalta manufactured (modular) home". Manufactured and modular are different. Winalta makes both. If your home has a non-removable steel chassis and made it to the site with its own wheels...it's a manufactured home. Also if your home has I-beams running the length of the home...its a manufactured home. Modular homes are typically transported on the bed of a truck in pieces and assembled on site.

Once again welcome to the site.

Harry

[Harry]

Hi Stefanie

Heres an article on adding a basement. http://www.mobilehomerepair.com/basements1.html

Others will chime in with more information.

Harry

[Guest]

Thanks for the reply Harry,

we have a modular home, it arrived, from what we know on the bed oof two trucks. since it is a doule wide we have a marraige line throught he center of our home.

Does this make a difference of weather you can do a basement or pony walls. I am leaning towards an addition because I do not want to be dispaaced form my home if we get a basement done. However, hubby has differnet ideas, and wants to find out if there is anyone who will do a basement in Alberta and the cost.

[Yanita]

Hi,

Were you physically present when this home was delivered. Was each section delivered on a trailer or was it being towed down the road?

You would have to call your local codes office to find out what you need to do, all areas of the world have different rules on how things must be done.

To get estimates you would need to call around to a few housing contractors...but we still need to know what type of home you have, there is a big difference between modular and mobile.

~Yanita~

[Guest]

No we were not physically present when the house was delivered.

It was brought in 2 sections and the neighbour told us it was brought in on 2 flat bed trucks. i am a little confused by this question because all mobile , prefab manufactured homes and modulers are brought in this way here. the only homes that are not, and so called having there own wheels are ones from the 80's and older.

Does that answer your question, I am so confused. I also have the home inspection report in front of me and it only says manufactured by winalta shelters.

What are the differences between each. Am i not welcome to this boards if I have a modular? I still have strips, same tyoe of furnace and other similarities.

Very Confused now

[Yanita]

Hi Stephanie,

LOl, of course you are Welcome on this board...we just need to know exactly if your home is modular of mobile, there is a major difference between the 2.

Mobile homes will NOT be brought in on a flat bed truck or trailer, it has a steel tongue on the front, that is the hitch, the truck will tow the home. Brand new 2007 mobile homes/manufactured homes are still towed behind a truck.

Please go to the front of your home, is there a hitch, it would be located on the narrower end of each section. Although the hitch may have been removed. You can look underneath your home and clearly see if there is I beams, lengths of steel running the entire length of your home, yours came in 2 sections so you should have 4 I beams if this is a mobile/manufactured home. Mobile and Manufactured are the same thing...modular is completely different.

Hope this helps.

~Yanita~

[Guest]

Hahaha, i got so confused, i phoned my hubby. we do not have a hitch and we do not have I beams. It is definetly a modualr home. Lol I should have phoned him first considering he does build houses.lol

The only steel structure we have is our the steel piles and cross hatched, or something fthat holds up our modular.

Yeah, I figured it out.

So back to my question, now that I know what i live in. lol

Stefanie (duh, me)

[Yanita]

Hi,

Whew, glad we got that cleared up!

OK, the sad thing is I have limited knowledge about a MODULAR home. This is mobile/manufactured home site.

Your home is built like a traditional home.

As for putting a basement under your home, again that would be determined by your building codes, you also live in a different country than I.

Do not despair, your husband being in the building trades he probably knows exactly where to go, have trust dear! We have several active forum friends from Canada, hopefully one of them will respond to this thread.

~Yanita~

[Greg]

Stefanie, With a Modular home you can add an addition the same way as you would a stick built. I personally would do a poured concrete & block footer. As for a basement I think to would be harder to do than a mobile since a mobile uses the I beams for support, yours is using piers for support. Nothing I would attemt with talking to an engineer first.
Of course you are welcome here, but please remember that we are better versed in repairs to mobiles, but there will ALWAYS be someone here to try to help. Greg

[geraldk]

hiya stephanie
i also live in alta and found this site www.winaltainc.com
they are located between edmonton and spruce grove they have phone #'s on there site if not get back to me an i can look them up
as i live closeby ..also try a company called mdm foundations in edmonton if win alta says your home will work on a foundation (basement)

[Guest]

Thank you so much for the Winalta website, it is down right now, but I will keep an eye out and get in contact with them. I will give my hubby the info about the foundation guys and he can look into it.

Thank you so very much.

Stefanie, a fellow Albertan

[Guest]

well I got in touch with the drafting department at winalta, and where we would like to put the stairs is not advisable, and they recommend against a basement on this model. So I guesss there is our answe on a basement. So we are noe looking into doing an addition and the pony walls.

One nice thing though is we finally have a floor plan and layout of everything for the modular from winalta, they were quite pleasent and emailed me all the information.

Thank you again with putting me in touch with them.

Stefanie

[geraldk]

your very welcome ,, glad i could help . sry to hear ya cant do a basement its always a good thing to check with the manufacturing dept