foam board for belly repair

[Brenda (OH)]

I have spoken to folks in the park that have used foam board instead of belly wrap to do repair work on mobile homes.

I have to close up middle section on a mobile home, no insulation or belly wrap left. I was considering stapling insulation to underside of floor, then put the foam board up, attached to joists.

I have the belly wrap, but the area needing repair is a big section, about 8 ft by 8 ft, and it is right over the drain line,. I thought the board might be easier to handle at that location.

thoughts? the home is in Ohio, it can get below freezing, and I want to do good quality repairs to home prior to selling it.

the home was made in the 1980s.

Brenda

[Yanita]

Good quality repairs...

That would require replacing the insulation and installing the actual belly material.

In the parts link above there is tape that helps seal the edgs of the repairs together. Oops, I forget the name of the tape.

Yanita

[busybee1952]

I'm working on the exact same kind of project. The problem is that the drain pipes hang down under the floor joists. If you put your insulation between the joists, your pipes won't be covered and will freeze. When you try to wrap a piece of anything even semi-ridgid over top of these pipes, you end up with gaps on the sides. I've looked at this project using all of my imagination and cannot find any easy way to do it. I thought about using paneling pieces which I could fit on the metal frame but when they go over top of a water or drain pipe and hook onto the other side of that section of frame, there will be a gap at the sides and it will sag in the middle a whole lot. It was a devil indeed whoever thought up designing a mobile home that way! I think there is an article written by our noble leader in the Articles section and really, it's just plain wise advise written by someone who has probably already approached this problem in every conceiveable way. Good luck!

[Yanita]

The practical solution is to repair or replace the belly in sections. Between each section of metal frame. It sounds easy to simply fasten the new belly material to the floor joist, but when ducts and pipes run below the floor it's not possible. Plus insulation needs to run underneath the floor joist.

Here's one approach that may work. Keep in mind that you only have a 1 to 2 feet high space to work in.

First measure the area then measure and cut the belly material to size. Do not be afraid to oversize the patch, you can always trim if needed.

Next have your rolls of 3.5" fiberglass insulation with paper backing. The wider the rolls the better. Spread out the tarp and unroll the insulation onto the tarp. Adhere the insulation to the tarp by using dabs of clear silicone. When you are done you should have a big blanket.

The best way to nail up your new underbelly is to use wooden lathe strips around the edges. Roll the tarp once/twice around the lathes. Drag the blanket under the home, with a helper. With such a small area to use a hammer will be hard to swing, a nail gun or screw gun would be easier.

Nail/screw the blanket to your floor joist, between the I beams.

Remember that all water lines and ducting must remain between the floor and insulation so the pipes stay warm. DO NOT wrap waterlines located in the belly in any type of insulation. They must be exposed to the heat. To do otherwise will result in freezing pipes.

Hope this helps.

~Yanita~

PS, you can use a tarp for underbelly material be remember these are not impregnanted with oil and therefore will rot in a short time. They also offer little resistance to bugs, critters etc.

[Greg]

Yanita has about the best "low budget" approch, the other way would be to make sure the skirting is in good shape with no holes and FILL it with foam insulation, then pray you NEVER have to do any work under there!!! Greg

[Maureen]

Hi Brenda,

This is just my opinion, but this is one of these repairs that you only want to make once!

Our homes were constructed with the bellies we have, because they really do a lot of work under there!. Now if you live in an area that never freezes, your skirting is solid, foam board might be an easy fix. If you could get it to wrap around pipes. etc.

Bat insulation is fairly cheap. Mark sell the belly material at a really great price. This really is the cheapest and easiest installation for sound repairs, that will last for a very long time. Since you don't have to do the whole belly, I'd really try to do the repair the correct way. I'm sure you suffer freezing temps in the Winter in Ohio. You'll be glad that you went the extra length to make sure your home is in good shape!

Another point, if you do the repair correct the first time, you'll save energy over the heating and cooling season also. That will save money over time!

Maureen

[Harry]

Hi Brenda

Mark's Repair Manual Chapter 1 covers small, medium and large underbelly repairs. While the foam board is better than nothing Mark's (and Yanita's) method is what I recommend.

For me the key to working downunder the home is to have an assistant doing the cutting and passing the materials under the home. Also there are a lot of safety related reasons for having an assistant while working downunder.

Good Luck.

Harry