So many problems.... plumbing and furnace

[mommy_noel]

I purchased my 1993 mobile home(14x70) for 2,000 "as-is" with the impression that all that was wrong with it was cosmetic details. I quickly learned that was a complete lie. This is my first mobile home so I am a complete newb.

As of right now we have the following problems that I desperately need help with...

1. Furnace- we have not had heat or air since we moved in here because supposedly it needs a squirrel cage and possibly other things ( previous owner did not inform us of this his girlfriend told us after we had purchased the home) I have no experience in how to fix this or where to start

2. Tubs- We have a 2 bathroom home and both tubs need to be replaced. The Master Tub has never been used by us. When we moved in the last owner left a huge mess and had the master tub filled with old plaster and drywall and tons of crap. I went to clean the tub out and found a piece of duct tape stuck to tub. I assumed it was just trash that was in the tub and pulled it up. underneath was a huge hole in the tub! That was his way of "fixing" the tub. The second tub has always had a dipped area in the middle where if u walked on that spot it would give and now a crack has appeared there that we have tried to repair with epoxy with no luck.

3. Our skylight above the master tub leaks due to last owner having 3 boys and a trampoline in the backyard who thought it would be a good idea to climb on top of the mobile home and leap on trampoline and apparently cracked the seal. Well last owner informed us of this problem but assured us that he had just fixed it... it was not fixed and every time it rains it leaks in the floor right beside the tub... of course we don't have the luck that it would leak INTO the tub...

4. We have had multiple problems with pipes busting this is our second winter and we had our mainline freeze and burst almost the whole length of pipe (40 feet) last year and we actually have Mark's book and with help from that and online searching I successfully replaced the pipe and installed heat tape on the line I also replaced the kitchen faucet and all lines under the kitchen sink because they leaked so I felt very proud of myself.

Well now this year we woke up one morning with no water and the mainline was froze and heat tape was still working.Last Year we did not install fiberglass insulation over the heat tape because all fiberglass insulation we found did not recommend it. We also noticed that where the pipe elbowed and went in ground was frozen and was not wrapped in heat tape. We decided to get a longer heat tape so all parts of pipe would have heat tape and as we were down there we found a busted coupling. So we decide to pull the heat tape off until daylight ( this was after dark when we found busted coupling) and when we woke up and went down we found a crack of about 8 feet down there and 3 busted couplings. so we replaced all of those but the pieces that we did not replace still had ice in them.... well possibly bad hindsight but we put the heat tape on to melt the ice and covered it with insulation in the 6 foot pipe form... 3 days later brings us to today.The weather has not been warm and the high's have been around the 20's and we still hadn't had water... (we aren't sure how long heat tape takes to thaw pipes so we just waited) We had left all faucets open to let air escape and had the water turned to help force the water out. ( with no luck over the past 3 days btw)

Mid day today I heard water running in the second bathroom and water was coming out of the tub not full blast but steady stream. So we were super excited.... well when my fiance went down under trailer to help warm up pipes to get the rest of pipes flowing (no other pipes in house had water) he noticed sagging in the underbelly under the bathroom and was leaking (stream of water).

We opened the underbelly and searched and searched and could not find a leak.

so here we are with no water and a possible leak that we can't find. We have been without water for a week and we don't have the extra money to pay for a plumber especially since we believe this is something we could do ourselves but our frustrations are clouding our thoughts and we desperately need a second opinion.

Any advice or help on any of these problems???

[Brenda (OH)]

what type of piping are you using below the home? it sounds like you are using the stiff straight stuff that looks like pvc. It cannot take freezing at all...

others may have better answers, but it sounds like you need to get the supply line from the crock up to the underbelly changed over into pex. it works well with heat tape, and if the tape fails, you only have to replace the heat tape.

If you are in a park and there is a water meter, the heat tape needs to be installed on it also, and then you wrap the water meter in fiberglass insulation, and put a 2 gallon bucket over it. I cut up the sides of the bucket, put insulation around the meter, slide the bucket on it upside down, then put the bucket lid under it, and put a couple of wraps of tape around the whole assembly. if the water meter freezes, it can break, and some parks charge you to replace the meter...

If the plumbing is the black or gray plastic lines, they are known for leaking at fittings, so that may be where your mystery leak is hiding out....

Pex is easy to work with, once you have seen it done and done it yourself a time or two. The difficulty is joining old lines to new. You may want to consider totally going with pex from supply line on out, most leaks then would just be that screw on fittings onto faucets etc need a little more tightening.

tip... do not replace access panels inside the mobile home for several days after doing plumbing repairs so that you can check for leaks. some leaks only appear after the plumbing is back in use and all of the air is out of the lines... especially the diverter line to the shower...

Brenda (oh)

[mommy_noel]

Yes we have CPVC under there currently and we just replaced that so I don't really want to replace that with pex until I have to again and then we want to do a full haul of that. what are the minimum amount of tools I would need to replace 40 feet of pipe? should I run the main line between the floor and the underbelly or will under the home be fine? My meter is on the side of the road with no plug ins how would I be able to wrap that in heat tape?? We also notice on one side of our house that a drain pipe has come undone and we are not sure if our sewer is froze. Now let me explain why lol. so since we have not had water we are trying our best not to put much toilet paper in the toilet seeing how we can only flush when we add water.we have a four year old daughter who does not always understand that concept and put too much toilet paper in the toilet. So we thought she clogged it so we start to plunge the toilet and we heard gurgling in the sink and clear water coming up from the tub. Is that a reaction to no water running or just water in the tub trap? or does that mean our main pipe is clogged/ froze? The reason I ask is because I was under the impression that if the main was clogged that dirty water would be coming up the tub not clean water.... we are so full of problems and just can't get a break.... and we are still with no water going on day 10 ...

[Brenda (OH)]

for pex, you would need the pex line, a crimper, crimps, elbows, shut-off values, tee fittings, the tool to cut the pex...

if the cpvc froze, it is probably gone shattered, unless the quality is a lot better than the stuff I have found. the stuff I ran into had shattered in spirals, and when we turned on the water it was like hearing a water fall....

whether or not the clog is above ground or below, be prepared for if the park finds the clog is a toy, a sock, or any thing else that should not be in the main, and it can be traced back to your lot and your drain, they may charge you for the unclogging repair....

Brenda (OH)

[aspenmathew]

Yeah your problems are a little to much, but their is no need to worry about it, you can get many solutions to it. We all know that home improvement is a tough task but the truth is that if it is properly planned than you can do it in a much better way. Their are also lots of Home Improvement store that can help you get various types of home accessories etc and at a much cheaper price.