Ideas for new siding?

[Heidi O]

We have a 1974 Fuqua doublewide (28x64) that we are doing a complete remodel on. (All electric has been replaced, all plumbing replaced, bathrooms and kitchen removed and partially rebuilt, subflooring particleboard removed and replaced w/ plywood and the list goes on.) Should have just built from scratch! So our new metal roof is on and I have collected doublepane replacement windows. We are on a permanent foundation w/ cinderblock skirting. What siding should I do?
I live in New Mexico (forested mountains) so stucco would be appropriate. Also cedar or some other wood. I am thinking in the $5000 range, and we could do it ourselves. Any suggestions for inexpensive, durable siding that has a rustic feel? Maybe some insulation value? Currently it has aluminum and is ugly!
Thanks,
Heidi

[SpongeBob]

Hi Heidi
I have seen textured vinyl shingles that come in 2'x6' interlocking sheets. They already have a backer board applied to them. So you are technically covering two steps in one. They appear when put on that they are individual shingles that overlap like a typical cedar shake (shingle). They can be ordered in an assortment of colors. As for R-Value I cannot answer that. Hope this helped.

-Bob

[NoDinero]

Hey Heidi,
My wife and I live in Abq. at the foothills.
We are about to embark on a total remodel too.
I know the surroundings in the mountains where you live.
I would go with the durable Hardi- Siding (50 year warr.). You can purchase the lap siding or the 4x8 sheets and paint it the color you wish or apply 4x8 rigid insulation on the surface with the other necessary materials and apply stucco with whatever color you wish.
Both will last much longer than the usual materials found on the typical MH.
Steve

[JD]

On a '74 mobile home with aluminum siding, I would be very careful about adding too much weight to the wall. You may have 2x3 walls. In which case I would keep the siding as light as possible. You can support the added weight to walls with edge piers, but this brings it's own set of new problems. Whenever you have more than two rows of piers under a mobile home unit, it can create a settling / leveling problem.

JMO
JD

[NoDinero]

True JD however adding rigid foam, plastic mesh along with 2 coats of stucco would hardly be a weight factor that she would have to contend with. Stucco has already been done on doublewides and old singlewides without any problems after several years of application.
Now if the existing siding is removed then the new applied (Hardi Siding) the weight difference between the 2 materials would be maybe 20+# per sheet wouldn't you say? Yes, I would agree with you if she had 2x3s that may pose a weight problem for the perimeter walls.
Steve

[JD]

Hi Steve,

I wasn't really thinking of the success of stucco on a mobile home. We sure don't get much of that in my area and I wouldn't know. But I know it has some weight. I have wrecked it off of stick built homes. And actually, the weight difference when she removes her siding will be closer to 65# per 32SF, plus the weight of stucco. She has aluminum siding now.

Only giving my opinion of being cautious and knowing what you are working with. Many 70's mobile homes will have the 2x3 walls. Some will have floor joists running length ways with the home, rather than from side to side. This would really compound the weight problem. People overcome weight issues with edge piers. It all depends on what a homeowner wants and what they are willing to accept for it. For Heidi, maybe her cinderblock skirting will work for edge support if it has a good footing.

I have seen homes where the floor will drop over an inch in the 18" from the steel frame beams to the outside wall. Most times it was due to added weight to the structure. Some times it was just the bad design of floor joists running length ways with the home. Personally, I think it is a bad thing when the floor has more pitch than the awning.

JD

[NoDinero]

JD Thanks for the insight.
I was really unaware with the floor joists running the length of the home.
Learn something everyday!
Steve

[JD]

I don't know that this is the case with Heidi's home. Just that a small percentage of homes were built that way and they should be extra careful about adding any weight at all to the home.

I learn stuff from this forum everyday. Wonderful people here.

JD

[Heidi O]

Thanks so much for all your ideas. I didn't really think about weight. Our floor joists run the normal way, and we have done a lot of reinforcing to the floor joists. We also have added 2x6's to the framing so our exterior walls can hold thicker insulation. So from the wall's perspective we should be okay but I haven't thought about the weight of the whole wall.
Thanks,
Heidi

[Yanita]

Hi,

It's not just the weight of the roof that the walls holds up. It is also the weight that is transferred to the floor and whether you have outriggers and perimeter blocking.

Still even with all that in place I think you are taking a big risk.

JMO, Yanita

[texasprairierose]

Heidi O,

Take a look at these websites www.fauxpanels.com and www.genstoneproducts.com.

We looked into "bricking" our house a couple of years ago and came across this product. It is lightweight...1/2 - 1 pound per square foot; it has an R value of approximately 2.9; and you can install them yourself.

We ordered some samples from GenStone and were impressed with the product. I talked to them a year or so ago about making a log look because we have a cabin in New Mexico that we would like to put log siding on, and the salesman said that they were working on a log siding.

Diane

[Koiflowers]

TexasPrairieRose

Thank you for posting the two sites. Did you ever get a quote for the gemstone product. At $63 for a 2x4 piece of the FauxPanels our 24x48 home would cost over $3,100 to "skirt" if it never exceeded 2 ft in height. My excitement faded quite a lot once I figured the total cost. Is "Gemstone" less expensive.

[texasprairierose]

Koiflowers,

We didn't get a written quote from GenStone, but we talked with a salesman and gave him the dimensions and he calculated that it would cost us between $4,000.00-$6,000.00 three years ago. We did however get a quote to brick it with real brick and that quote was $10,000.00-$15,000.00 for the same dimensions.

We were looking at the brick product which comes in 4' high x 2' wide panels and covers approximately 7 square feet. Although our house is 28 x 76, we have relatively little siding area because we have 28 windows in our house (you can see what I'm talking about if you look at the picture of our house under the "need to do some remodeling...inside and out" thread).

In addition to not having a lot of area to cover due to the windows, we were going to just do the areas where the siding is vertical. It is hard to tell from the picture, but the areas where the six long windows are at and where the two smaller windows are at, the siding is horizontal...so basically everything between the column on the left of the front door to the column on the far side of the two windows would remain siding which would have tremendously cut down how much "brick" we would have needed.

While researching the GenStone product we wanted to see what it looked like on a house. We contacted a sales rep and while we were in Colorado he showed us a stick built house that had the stone look panels. It looked very nice...we could not tell that they were not "real" stones.

Diane

[Harry]

Hi

I like vinyl siding.

Here's an idea by TIMBERMILL.



Harry

[Koiflowers]

What the heck. Vinyl log look. Are you going to use it?

http://www.vinyllogsiding.com this site has really nice pictures of the siding used on different houses. It's beautiful.