New to forum

[sjthaxter]

Good evening --
I finally figured out how to complete registration. We are new to mobile home ownership, and have lots of questions after a month of exploring our new (to us) environment. We have been full time RV'ers for the past 10 years, so a lot of things we see in the mobile are similar to what was in the motor home. Our first project is to redo the second bathroom, starting with floor replacement. I have arranged help with that since I don't have the tools or a truck to haul 4 x 8 sheets of plywood. We are planning to put self adhesive vinyl tiles down, paint the walls, and replace at least the lavy faucet and possibly the tub faucet. Any suggestions or cautions would be greatly appreciated.
We look forward to learning new things, and maybe sharing what we know or learn along the way. Thanks in advance.

[JD]

Hi Sue and John,

Welcome to the forum! Many wonderful people here to help you.

There are many people on the forum that really like Novalis vinyl tile. I am a sheet goods person myself. Hopefully Yanita or the others will be along soon to give you their two cents.

Changing vanity faucets is pretty straight forward. Always use new supply lines when changing faucets. I will change shut-off valves too unless they look new. Bath faucets can be more challenging. Sometimes you will need to make an access panel in the next room to get to the faucet. In some mobile homes, the faucet is backed up real close to the water heater. We often have to pull and reset the water heater to change the faucet.

Don't go cheap on the faucet. You don't need to buy top end, designer stuff, but stay away from plastic and no-name faucets. Our base grade bath faucets are the Moen Posi-temps at around $90. A decent vanity faucet will run $45-$60.

When doing the floors, be sure to block/frame under the walls and/or old floors when you make your cuts. The new subfloor should be screw nailed or screwed down every 4" around the perimeter (as well as the old floor you cut) and every 8" down the joists in the middle of the plywood. I like to leave a tiny gap (about a nail width) between the pieces of plywood and run a 4-1/2" grinder down the joints to create a little trough. This allows me to float out the joints better and ensure you don't see joint edges through the vinyl flooring a year or two later when the home settles or because of expansion from weather.

I'd be real interested in knowing what you did for RV roof maintenance. What types of sealant did you use? What was the whole process? Did you ever have to re-roof and if so, what did you use?

Again, welcome to the forum. Looking forward to seeing your posts.

JD

[Yanita]

Hi,

Welcome to the site!

The best advice I can give you right now is to say purchase the Manufactured/MH Repair Manuel. This will teach you right off how these homes are constructed, and how to properly repair. This can be found in the books/parts link at the top of the page.

I see JD just answered this post, JD is one of the pro's around here! Trust his advice and you won't go wrong.

As for peel and stick tiles, yes if I am going to use them, Novalis is the brand. BUT, I still prefer full sheet vinyl in the bathroom areas. Every time we have remodeled a bathroom we also run the vinyl completely underneath the tub area.

Be sure to check out the photo albums, articles, newsletters, there is alot of great info there as well.

When you have a moment please complete a profile about your home. Click on the My Profile Space above and this will take you to the area. All the info we can get about your home makes it much easier for us to answer your questions. If you do not see the My Profile Space link (MPS) let me know and we will help.

Again, Welcome to the site!

~Yanita~

[Maureen]

Hi Sue and John,

Welcome to the site!

Yes, the repair manual is a must have! It's well worth the money and give you the basics on a lot of repairs! No mobile home owner should be without it!

I really have to agree with Yanita about the full vinyl sheets in bathrooms. I always have, but got a wake up call with one more young adult in the house. I've still got the old horrid vinyl down throughout the house. I'm a slow remodeler LOL! Just discovered where the old vinyl has a slit in it right in front of the shower in the boys bathroom. They're 19 and 20 (Ryan brought home one of the kids that he went to school with... again). Anyway, 2 to 4 showers a day, wet towels on the floor on top of it have created a real nice bump in the last 3 weeks! Guess who'll be doing subfloor repairs really soon? I think I've caught it in time that I can just do a patch. It was just a tiny little one inch slit in the vinyl sheet. No wider than a joint of the peel and stick. It will be about a 12x8 inch patch to fix it. Then of course, I'll have to finish the flooring before everything else is done in that bath, and the laundry room. It's all the same floor.

Not what I had planned this year, but that's my remodel story LOL! Nothing I plan ever gets done. It's those millions of other things that need to get fixed now! Gotta love it!

Maureen

[sjthaxter]

Thanks for the welcome. Yanita, I don't see a place to update our profile, so will just wait for it to pop up. OK, so now I'm shopping for sheet vinyl, and found that we probably shouldn't put 'no glue' vinyl over wood. How is Armstrong for sheet vinyl? Is it easy to fit in and cut? Durable?
We may have some wall repairs to do up along the marriage line in the bath we are doing. How tricky is that? Paneling/sheet rock I can handle. The framing underneath may be a bit more than I want to tackle.
Now to the roof question. We had a motor home with a rubber (EDPM) roof. It was over a frame backed fiberglass surface, so I could walk on it gently (no shoes) to clean and do maintenance of stuff on the roof. Seams at the front, back and sides were sealed at the factory with a product called DICOR. It's available from RV suppliers/ dealers and comes in a tube like caulking. It is a self leveling sealer, and is easy to remaove the old stuff and lay down a new bead along seams. We had 2 tears in the rubber in 10 years on the road, and the DICOR repaired both of those with no further leaks or problems. The ladder pulled away from the roof once, and took 2 patches or rubber with it. Those were easily patched with pieces of rubber cut off in a wrecking yard for RV's, and sealed and bonded with DICOR. It's great stuff, and is far superior to any silicone sealer for roof work. I know this is long, but hope it answers your question about our roof experiences.
Again, thanks for your kind welcome. We are looking forward to learning more.

[Yanita]

Hi Sue and John,

There are installation directions for every brand of vinyl floor covering. They all come with warranties and guarantees. My thoughts to these are, unless a pro installs then they are all useless.

If you are local to a Home Depot I recently found there remnants section on vinyl. All neatly rolled up...6x9 sheet of Mannington, real pretty tile pattern on it, for 30.00. I believe Lowe's has a similar section in there store as well.

In out last home we replaced the master bath floor with plywood, and laid down Mannington sheet vinyl, we did not glue it. Personally I won't, should there ever be another leak I want to get the vinyl up quickly and easily.

When we did our vinyl we did it on a warm day. Unrolled the vinyl in the sun. Took lots of newspapers and laid them on the bathroom floor and taped them all together..made a perfect template. MAKE SURE TO MARK THE TEMPLATE so you know what side is up. (finished floor)

Mark you template to the vinyl, measure, measure and remeasure to make sure it is right. Since the vinyl has been warming in the sun be easy with it so it does not tear. Roll the vinyl up, bring it in and lay on floor. We let ours settle down and stapled just the corners, real close to the edge. Installed jacuzzi/shower and commode, then the vanity. After all that was done we finished it off with baseboard. It will be alot more difficult to do if you are trying to go around everything.

Not sure what you need for repairs to the marriage wall. Could you post a new thread explaining what the problem is with that area.

Also not sure what you mean about the framing underneath. If you are referring to the blocking that JD mentioned this is an important thing to do to maintain a strong floor. It can be done from inside when you remove the original floor. If you need further clarification about that please let us know, it is not a difficult job. LOL, in fact when we just did our master bath in this home my Hubby stood on the ground while doing the blocking in the master bath floor. Everything was a waist level.

Now for your profile. Did you see a My Profile Space link just below the BOOK/PARTS link at the top of the page? Did you get a pop up when you came to the site, where Mark was requesting to be friends. If you got that accept it and then you will get your MPS link. If this is to confusing let me know and I will get you thru it. You need a friend to get your MPS (MY Profile Space) link

Hopefully this info has helped. Need more, just holler!

Have a great night,

~Yanita~