Sheetrock

[Yardpilot]

Hi all,

It's been awhile. I am working on my 1974 Homette 24x36 mobile. The exterior walls are 2x4 construction with 1x2 cross pieces. The construction of the wall from the inside out is really thin wallboard, insulation and the aluminum corrugated sheet metal siding. That's it. We are doing about half of the place this year, bathroom, kitchen floor, back door, new woodstove and a few other projects. All the rest of the pipe is going away and Pex is going in. There are a couple of wiring projects. As part of one project, we pulled the wallboard off by the front door and first window. The plan is to replace it with Sheetrock Ultralight. That's about 44 pounds a sheet. That shouldn't be too heavy, right? I am wiring in a drop off of the circuit around the door to add a porch light at a later date. For now, the siding stays. Next year I want to replace it. What is good? Sheet metal, plastic, wood? What are the limits weight-wise, and can I strengthen the structure as I go? The first stud each way from the door frame is a foot, the rest are 16" centers. I put some 2x4 cross pieces in the walls between those studs. That straightened a slight bow. I have access to Tyvek. Should I put that in the wall spaces against the outer corrugated aluminum siding before I put the fiberglass in place? I really hate staples! Now if I could figure out how to get the bottom of the front door to quit leaking...

I used Dek-blocks to build two porches, a small deck and a storage shed two years ago. One porch, the deck and the shed are fine. The other porch blocks are disintegrating. Any clues on that? Thanks.

[JeffInFL]

I used Ultralight on my 2x3 framing with no issues. To me, it felt about the same weight as the existing stuff that I removed. My interior walls were framed 24" on center, so I added additional 2x3's to make it 16" OC before I hung the sheetrock.

[ponch37300]

The sheet rock should be fine. I wouldn't put the tyvek in the stud cavities, I would wait until next year when you replace the exterior siding and run it around the whole house and tape the seams. If you do it from the inside you will have a gap every 16".

For siding that is really a decision on what you like. But one thing to remember is that if your metal siding is attached to the studs, in other words no sheathing, then that is actually providing a lot of your lateral support. So if you go with something like vinyl siding you will have to put up some form of sheathing on the studs and then tyvek and then the vinyl siding. Just something to keep in mind.

To stop the bottom door leak you have to figure out where the water is coming in, which can be difficult sometimes since water can come in anywhere and travel the path of least resistance. So it may be getting in above your door and traveling down to the floor. A picture might help in this situation. How hard would it be to take the door out? If it was me I think I would look into taking the door out and seeing what you can find and then put it back in and seal it good. If it's an original door some of the caulking might have failed since it is almost 40 years old, that is if they used caulking at all. When it comes to things like this I've found that instead of wasting time trying to track down pesky leaks it's actually quicker and easier for me to just dig into it to get a better view and also put it back together myself so I know it's done right.

Not sure what is going on with you concrete blocks. Any issues with water around them? Too much weight on them?

[Yardpilot]

Thanks for the answers, folks. It is a great help. These are 2x4 walls on 16" centers. The floors are 2x6 joists on 25" centers, except where they skipped them from time to time. The roof? I don't know what you call it. There are mixed 2x4, 1x2 and 2x2 pieces across the structure, with metal tubes at angles supporting bows less than a half inch thick that run across the halves of the house like convertible bows. The metal roof lays right on those. The walls are just skin, 2x4s with insulation and paneling on the inside. This section I currently have out in front bugs me. The only cross framing is 1x2 notched into the outside of the 2x4 studs. Top and bottom plates are also 2x4. I started putting 2x4 cross pieces into the spaces between the studs. My thinking is that it should increase the strength of the walls without adding too much weight. One, two or three depending on windows and such. Doubling up the bottom and top plates from the bottom side for the top one and the top side for the bottom one with short pieces, too. Between the added stud work, the sheetrock, and the new siding next spring, I anticipate adding less than a ton. (I hope). Okay so far?

[JD]

I am not sure all of the additional blocking is necessary, but it shouldn't hurt. May be real good for the mud plate area. A lot of times those studs get water damaged over time. Using a siding panel like Smartside panels would give you a lot of strength against racking.

The one thing I would definitely recommend is, remove the aluminum siding before installing new siding. I have a customer with a terrible condensation problem because the aluminum is acting like a second vapor barrier in the wall.

[Yardpilot]

Thanks, JD. My current subject to change as always plan is to salvage the metal siding and use it on storage sheds. Today I was pulling the last of the pieces around the shower space. It is right next to the electric furnace which, rather obviously, was once a gas furnace. I had planned to keep most of the "wall" intact, but when I pulled the one screw I could see out, the whole divider fell down in pieces. It seems that when they put up the section between the furnace and the tub, they just glued in the Sheetrock with mud. No nails, screws or whatnot, and three pieces of Sheetrock at that. Heck, it probably makes it easier, since I can just frame from scratch now. These internal partitions are mostly 1x2 with many of them being 3/4"x5/4". I'm running up 2x2, a spot or two of 1x2 and mostly 2x4. I have actually found places where they used multiple layers of wall board cut in strips and stapled together to make wall frames. Geez! I think about those times when we have had five feet of packed snow on the roof and cringe. Something about a partition standing on an open span of particle board just makes me twinge. I know they aren't load bearing walls, but criminy!

My neighbor gave me a shower base that will just fit where the tub came out. The problem is that the plumbing runs up inside the tub wall. That means cutting holes, running new pipe, drilling 2 1/2" holes through three consecutive joists and a bunch of other stuff the makes me uncomfortable. We got a 36" shower base instead. Most of the drain can stay in place. It only needs two holes down through the floor. The current water pipes run across the floor, so I will pull them and run Pex under the floor and up through the wall, moving a couple of the electric wires for separation.