REMODELING

[Sandi]

We have purchased a 15 year old M/H. We would like to update it. The walls are not drywall, but the wall-papered look wall board. Can this be painted or can wall paper be successfully applied on the wall board? We would like to add chair rails or other molding. Can this house be remodeled as we would a stick built? Last question, is there a magaine, book, web page on remodeling a M/? Would appreciate any and all opinions. Sandi

[rmurray]

Yes you can do all these things and more..

www.mobilehomerepair.com has good information and some publications avaiable...including a video on doing just what you are asking..

Some info can be found here.....http://www.mobilehomedoctor.com/

A very good Do It Yourself site.... http://www.diynet.com/

A list of "Do It Yourself Forums" one specilizes in manufactured homes...at

http://forum.doityourself.com/index.php

AND THEN SOME FUN...at "This Ol Trailer Online" ...talk about a project..

http://www.thisoltrailer.com/index.html

Good Luck

[Barb]

Don't even start---we did and ours is that age.

Studs aren't in right places, no place to nail. In the kitchen we started to repaint and patch and ended up taking down all the wall board redoing it and its not a standard size width and some places we had to glue it down as nothing matched

Its been a nightmare, now we may just pull it out and put a good one like Valley Quality in and bag the remodeling.

Even our carpet man said it was a mess

[Debra]

I have a 14 year old home with the same type of walls. I have painted over them in one room with good results. I used a good primer coat before painting. I am currently wall-papering over another room and having good result there, too. I'm a total beginner when it comes to mobile homes, painting and wall papering....so maybe I'm just having dumb luck!

[samsmom]

I have a 16 year old trailer with the panels and I think it is some type of vinyl wallpaper. I have painted one wall in my bedroom, and my bath, but was not real happy with the results overall. I did NOT use a primer, but didn't think I needed to...is that the trick? I would really like to paint my living room, but I want it to look right.Any suggestions will be appreciated.

[David Oxhandler]

Some years back....high end builders used vinyl coated pre-wallpapered sheetrock. In its day it was a great stride forward from the use of wood paneling, towards better looking interiors and safer homes. The idea of the vinyl was to protect the wall from any stains sticking, Which is why it is very difficult to get paint to hang on the vinyl.

After a short time just about any amount of paint will chip off. You can remove the vinyl coat by lightly sanding the wall. Skim and smooth the surface with conventional drywall mud techniques, Before you put your final paint on the wall use a higth quality primer paint. From that pont forward you will be able to paint your walls in any conventional way you desire.

I like to remove the bat trim between each panel and tape/mud the joints. This gives you a fully finished conventional drywall surface and looks great. We recently started to add texture to the walls using a rented spray gun. This additinnla step make the job a lot easier, as you dont have to skim the wall to a perfect smooth finish. It gives the walls the exact look of the newst homes being built today and ultimalty increases the eye appeal and resale value of just about any home

For excellent directions on Drywall Finishing and Taping Joints see http://www.drywallinfo.com/tapingjoints.html

[MobileHomeInspectors.com]

I learned the hard way not to try to remove the vinyl paper from the panels. If you peel it, whats left is residue from the glue and if you sand that, it rolls up in little balls.
In my experience the easiest solution is slightly roughing the surface, not through the vinyl, then apply the primer and then paint to color. You will however keep the original textured look of the vinly paper.
Then above solution is also good, however takes more time and expense.
Greg Filian
Mobile Home Inspectors