The Manufactured Housing Forums

My wife and I bought a 1999 Redman 16 x 80 manufactured/mobile home in January of 2000 brand new in south Louisiana. The design from left to right is master bedroom/bathroom, kitchen & washer/dryer room, living room/front door, hallway going to two smaller bedrooms, a small bathroom and the AC/Heating unit located in between the two small bedrooms. It has raised ceilings, 7 feet at the outer walls and 8 feet center.
For the first couple of years, the house seemed to be in good shape other than a couple of very minor cosmetic issues. Then, in May of 2003, I was in the first of the two small bedrooms, one we only use for storage that we rarely go into that will eventually be a child's room when we finally have one, when I was stunned by a discovery. I was trying to grab something that fell behind the headboard of a bed in that room and my head was against the wall when I noticed that my head was getting very little resistence from the wall and that it was soft. I looked up and there was an indention from my head in the sheetrock wall. I gently pressed against the wall with my thumb with very little pressure, enough to press in a slightly dry sponge, and I was able to press in the wall about halfway between the floor and ceiling. I started to check all of the walls around the house and eventually discovered that I had about 21 different wall panels around the house that had softness in them halfway up the wall. All of the wall panels were on outer walls except for one inner wall panel next to the one I originally discovered, located in every room except for the master bedroom, master bathroom, rear kitchen wall and the washer/dryer room. Basically looking from the front left to right as I described in the beginning of this letter, every wall panel from the kitchen through the living room, hallway, first bathroom panel, then jumping to the rear wall in the two bedrooms and living room going back to the left, except for the panels located above and below windows, which were fine. The worst ones were the hallway walls near the central AC unit and the ones in the 1st small bedroom. These walls could have been like this for a while, but I didn't make it a habit to go pressing and leaning against the walls in my house, I only discovered this by accident. Gateway Homes, the manufacturer who bought out Redman, sent out two contract repairmen to look at it and they pulled of the two worst panels to look and sure enough, they were wet and crumbling. The outside walls are two sheets of plywood, one at the top of the wall and one on the bottom and 2 x 6 wall studs, making for strong walls. Well, it could be seen from removing two panels that there was a small separation between the two sheets of plywood on the outer walls at the level of the soft, wet spots in the walls and there was dirt and dust at that level of the insulation, which was only 3 inches thick, although there is 6 inches of room inside the walls between the panels. It could clearly be seen that the AC was pulling moisture and dirt through these separations in the plywood panels and that this was causing the problem. They checked the roof and under the outside siding and no leakage could be detected from the roof and upper part of the house, especially since there isn't one single water stain on my ceilings.
A different crew showed up a few weeks later, one which was inept in my opinion. By this time, the two temporary sheetrock wall panels that replaced the ones pulled off a couple of weeks later were already soft. Gateway only replaced the inside sheetrock walls, wouldn't put thicker insulation in the walls, and the crew made a complete mess. We had pulled everything off the walls and pulled away all of the furniture from the walls, but the crew only covered the floors, not our furniture. Then instead of pulling off the wall panels intact, they ripped the wall panels off in pieces inside of the house, causing a huge dusty mess on everything, I had to cover my furniture myself that night after they left, but everything was covered in dust already. They also placed another vent in the ceiling in the hallway above the AC unit. It took three days with me, my wife and our two cats living out of our bedroom, the only area of the house not touched by repair.
Well, within 2-3 weeks, the walls were soft AGAIN. This time, it was 24 panels, adding two more panels inside the second bedroom, and a two more in the front part of the kitchen, but no inner wall panels this time. After some resistence from Gateway again saying it wasn't their responsibiliy (I forgot to say they said this the first time before giving in), but then agreed to repair it again. In October 2003, they sent a much better repair crew this time, one that insisted that they must be allowed to do the job their way doing what they had to do to fix the problem, or else they wouldn't do the job for them. Well, they replaced the indoor sheetrock walls, removing the whole panels and taking them outside intact, and then removed all of the siding on the outside, sealed all of the separation between the sheets of plywood, wrapped the outside walls of the house then DEMANDED that Gateway pay for new siding on the whole house to replace the old ones because the pieces removed cracked and broke and my color siding wasn't made in the same shade anymore. It took four days to do the job this time, having to go through the crap of living out of our bedroom again (we were miserable and sick of it), but it seemed fine.
Well, it took longer this time since they wrapped the house the second time in October, but here it is in July and we have soft walls again, not as many, but the rest of them will likely get there eventually. I left a message with the same person with Gateway on Tuesday, July 6 (haven't heard from her yet, but will call again on Thursday) and also went to talk to the owner of Teche Manufactured Homes in New Iberia, Louisiana, where we bought the house. He knows my father and he knew of the first repair, but didn't hear about the second one until we talked to him Tuesday. He came out and looked at the house and can't figure out why the repairs done before didn't fix the problem. He did talk to Gateway himself on the way to our house and they were supposed to be figuring out what to do over there (Gateway is located in Alabama), but haven't called me back yet, which doesn't surprise me because I had to call a few times each time to get them to respond. We live in an suburban area that is humid, 80-95 degrees from April-September and we are in a very rainy period right now. We operate our AC well within the specified range, only setting our AC unit at 75-77 degrees during the day when we are gone and 70-72 degrees at night (they say not to set it above 80 or below 69 degrees). The ground is raised below the house, so no water collects under the house and it is insulated down there too.
I refuse to flip our lives upside down again for them to replace the walls, only to have it happen again several months from now. It is in my opinion that this is a major defect in the construction of the house, but I am afraid we will be in a huge fight over this matter with Gateway Homes due to the resistence we had from them before. This house is only 4 1/2 years old and we still owe $21,000 on the loan for it over another 10 1/2 years. When I finally talk to Gateway, we will demand that the house be replaced with a model above this one, maybe 18 x 90 or something like that, to make up for all of the trouble this has and will cause us. If they refuse to replace the house, we will get an attorney and file a lawsuit.

HAS ANY OF YOU HAD A SITUATION SIMILAR TO THIS AND, IF SO, DO YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR US? I am confident we can succeed in this matter and get what we want, one way or another, but we could use some advise.

THANK YOU.

Mark

I forgot to mention that we didn't pay for the repairs the first two times, Gateway Homes did pay for it completely. The thing is, if this keeps happening, this could eventually cause black mold to accumulate inside our walls, which is becoming common in South Louisiana homes with leakage problems and a major health hazard. We also have an insurance policy on the home that we pay about $500 per year for, especially since we are in an area that gets hit hard by hurricanes periodically (we are about 25-30 miles from the Gulf of Mexico in Lafayette, LA).

You obviously have moisture problems...but most likely from under the home..or inside the home...Is there a vapor barrier on the covering the ground...Gallons of moisture bleeds up from the ground everyday under a home in the SE..For a good article read these...

http://www.msue.msu.edu/msue/imp/mod02/01500575.html



The Manufactured Housing Research Alliance has done a moisture study in your area...Check it out here..Notice the first listed cause is a pressure inbalance in the home..

http://www.mhrahome.org/pages/moisture_field.htm


They have a guide to solve these problems...it is expensive..but in your case it might be worth the price..maybe your dealer will help pay for it..

http://www.mhrahome.org/pages/moisture_report.htm


Here is the actual report..it is a free download..

http://www.mhrahome.org/media/reports/moist.pdf


Here is a picture of exactly your problem...

http://www.mhrahome.org/images/moisture_images/4.jpg


It is really a credit to your factory to have tried as hard as they have...Maybe they could buy this book to help solve your problems... and others...

Good Luck

There is a moisture barrier under the house and the ground is higher under the house than it is on the land around it, so there is no water accumulation under the house either. With this, it has already been determined by the contractors that this is not being caused by moisture under the house, especially since if it was, then my floors would possibly be giving me problems and my walls would be wet and soft at the bottom near the floor, not just in the center of the walls.

I hope you check out these reports...As I said..there is a section that addresses your problem exactly..

Hi i have a friend who had the same problem. They changed the wall panels several times only to find out they got wet again.They also added a fresh air vent in his air return, that did not help either. He called the local fire marshall he inspected it and he gave the manufacturer so many days to fix it. The manufacturer changed their minds about it not being their problem to getting on the ball with a repair crew at his house quickly. The problem with his home ended up being a lot of holes in his ac ducts and it caused a negative pressure inside . They fixed all holes in his ducts and changed all his wall panels and all of his insulation . His problem is now solved.He lives in thibodaux,louisiana same weather you guys have. By the way they also sprayed something inside his walls once everything was taken out to prevent mold growth. i would recomend you call your fire marshall and tell him of the problems.Hope this helps....Good Luck............

The points suggested are excellent. Also, where does your dryer vent terminate? If it is not outside of the skirting that could well be your problem. Where does the condensation drain for your a/c terminate? It must drain to the outside, not under your home and not to a place wher the water will just run under the home. Does you skirting have adequate ventilation? Remember the temperature under the home should be close to the outside temperature, not the inside temperature. If all these are ok, I would suspect the ductwork. If you have a self contained air conditoner (one that has 2 12" diameter tubes going to the house instead of two small pipes) have those 2 ducts replaced and have a qualified hvac tech make sure that you return air and forced air are properly balanced.

The dryer vents to the outside, not under the house and the A/C doesn't drain under the house. Nothing under the house causes the sheetrock problems because it occurs at the center of the walls, where there are separations between the sheets of plywood on the outer walls. It's poor construction. This was already confirmed.

4" of insulation in a 6" wall can be the cause of your problem. This creates a dead air space in the wall just like an attic. Dead air spaces must be ventilated to stop condensation, and of course most sidewalls are not vented. This would be made worse if the batts of insulation are curved (as they probably are) touching the sheathing at one point and the drywall at another. Still the speed at which this recurrs makes me think you have more than one problem. You say the insulation has a band of dirt on it like the a/c is forcing air though it. If the a/c is working properly this does not happen even with the sheathing gap. This a sign of an hvac problem. Probably duct leakage or return air constriction. Have you noticed any change in the performance of your a/c since the wrap was installed? If the a/c is drawing air through the walls, you should find that the drywall problem is worse around your switches and receptacles than in panels with no holes. Also, don't be afraid to hire an independant contractor to evaluate your house. You may find that opinion to be very different than the contractors the factory sends out. You can also contact your insurance agent and explain your situation and ask to have an adjuster inspect your home. Most insurance companies are glad to assist you when they feel they have a third party (such as the factory) that they can bill for their expenses, and they will be much more accomadating about relocting you while they fix the problem.

Good Luck.

I dont even have a bit of advice for these people. But, I am with Murray. This Company has proved thier service impecable. I've never known one to do what yours has. Good for you, keep it up & don't give up this is huge. You need to stay on them [which it appears you are] Did you have a 5 year warranty?
And, 16X90, the largest we go in my state is 16X80 inc. the 4 foot hitch.

The poster added for you to involve your Insurance Company great advice, they don't want it coming back on them. And, they will put you up while it's being redone, and most likely pay for clean up afterward.
Hey Good Luck!