Frame is rusting!

[L. Sellers]

I have a 2002 Homes of Merit double-wide. The frame has large areas of rust! The house is bricked in with venting and a thick vapor barrier. The dealer says it is a manufacturing defect, and has never seen a frame rust like that. A professional painter looked at it and said the same. Homes of Merit has said it is an owner problem, even though I have a 5 year warranty in effect on the house. My appeals to Merit management have been ignored. Does anyone have experience with this problem, or what can be done to motivate the manufacturer to honor the warranty?

Thank you.

[trmimo]

trouble is virtually every homeowner's manual requires the homeowner to touch up the frame paint annually. I have never seen a homeowner do this.

[scottman]

I have a 2003 Skyline with the same problem. The frame is rusting such that there are brown streaks on the concrete slab underneath each I-beam. I have venting under our home. However when it's 90 with 100 humidity outside, and its 80 with 100 humidity under the home, you get condensation on the frame. However it dries quickly because of the venting. Its like a glass of cold lemonade on a hot day. I was told that rust on the frame is common, but there has never been a frame to rust thru.

[L. Sellers]

Clarification on"frame is rusting". I am not refering to small spots of rust, but to several long stetches of thick scaly rust, several feet long on the I-beams, cross beams covered with thick rust, and support pieces coming from the I-beam covered with rust! (That is why the dealer and the pro painter told me it is a manufacturing defect, and not common occurance rust spots... pro painter stated that he had not seen such extensive rust on even a 20+ year old home) My home is only 4.5 years old and never been exposed to flooding, etc. Any dust on the plastic vapor barrier is dry, and the frame sits over 2 feet above the vapor barrier. Even though I have explained all this to a Homes of Merit plant general manager, he doesn't even bother to return my call. Does anyone know of what state and federal agencys I could contact?

[rmurray]

HUD and the state agencies that it contracts with will only get involved in HUD violations....They DO NOT interject themselves into warranty disputes unless the argument is over something involved with health and safty....The only way to force HOM to do anything is in the courts...For this you will need an attorney....HOM is owned by Champion Homes..This is a huge home building company and you can contact higher ups in the chain of command to see if you can get them to respond...Have you read your owners manual...As the other post said here most suggest the homeowner paint the frame annually or so...

Tour best course of action would be to call your painter friend back and negotiate his price for this repair...

Obviously your dealer is not much of a dealer..Good dealers would go to bat for you in a problem that is truly a factory responsibility

[scottman]

Well I too have thick scaly rust... like I said it is creating a brown streak under each I-beam. It is so extensive that it would take quite a job to sand down the rust and spray paint each one... only to start rusting again. I've been searching for solutions too. Everyone says to vent more, but if you have stone or brick siding, there is only so many vents you can put on. The old vinyl siding where every other one is a vent I suppose would help but for my home it would look cheap... we have a nice home : ) I go under every month to check for leaks or other problems but the rust seems only cosmetic. Good Luck.