Welcome

[David Oxhandler]

Welcome to the Manufactured Home Repair & Renovation Forum.

MB Quality Contractors, Inc. specializes in repairing, refurbishing, and trimming out manufactured homes in Colorado, southeast Wyoming, and southwest Nebraska. Tracy Mason, President, began working almost a decade ago for a major manufactured home builder as a field service technician. He quickly realized the shortcomings of the service system, and sought to improve relations with customers. He has always felt that customers have spent hard earned money on a good quality home. Based on this ethic, he formed MB Quality Contractors, Inc, with the purpose of providing top quality service on today's manufactured homes. Tracy's office is located in Greeley, Colorado. He is proud to dedicate his company to customer service, and takes pride in maintaining good communication with homeowners. Now you can benefit from Tracy's years of experience. Just Click on the NEW TOPIC link above or below and give him a try.

[April]

Hi,
I am a new owner of a manufactured home. There are some things that are wrong with it. And I want to do it by myself but don't know how to do it. Or if i can do it. The owners before me put up panelling through out the house. there are some that are bowing. And i would like to take it all down and put up new. Would i just tack it to the old stuff or would i just take it down and put up new stuff. Also any other helpfull hit is replace the celling. it almost looks like a drop celling but it is not. there are some parts that don't look at that great. and i was wanting to know if i could put some type of wood up there is make it a nice wood or paint over it.



Thank you april

[Tracy]

April,

At the very least I would start with removing the panels to see what you have behind the paneling. In older manufactured homes, all you get is paneling. If you have "sheetrock" behind it - probably covered in wallpaper - you can patch any holes and paint over it. The issue with nailing new paneling over the existing panels is that any bows that you see now, are just going to be translated into the new paneling. All that work to have the same result!

I'm a little unclear on your ceiling issues. Manufacturers generally have 2 ways of doing ceilings; sheetrocked and then some form of texture, or a panelized system. In both cases you should be safe painting over any stains, just make sure you prime stains first or the will bleed through your new paint job. If you have a panelized ceiling that is plastic, as opposed to fiber based, you may have a hard time getting the paint to stick. Try a test area first. If your paint doesn't want to stick, prime the whole ceiling first with an oil based primer, then paint with a latex paint.

[ron buckner]

April,
Are your walls "bowing" or "rippling"? And is the panel material drywall gypsum or luan wood. "Bowing" is indicative of a drywall board actually becoming unglued from your wall joists and this generally only happens when a severe stress is actually pulling/pushing the wall away (NOT GOOD!-Perimeter walls might be sagging. House may need releveling, or structural attention)
A Rippleing wall is generally associated with luan wood covered paneling found on just about every '70's vintage home made (along with most of todays lesser $'s too), and the effect is caused by nothing more then time and house settling. If this is the case, there is little that can be done with the paneling you have. Putting drywall over the paneling will eliinate the ripples, but it may also hurt the home in the long run. Your walls, your floor and your roof are all engineered for each other. Putting that extra weight on your walls may overload your flooring and create other problems with your roof. You need more answers

Your ceiling was probably a Monsanto product called Modulux, it has since been discontinued and we havn't seen any out here for over a year. If you have any decomposition taking place where there are actually holes that need to be filled, there will be little anybody can do for you. My advise is to buy a drywall patch kit, cut the hole to the net size of dropin ceiling tile of similar design, install the drywall patch kit in on the outerside of the hole you just cut, and then glue the tiles in with liquid nails-match the texture as close as posibble with wahtever works. Now, if there's just a stain. Use the shellac based Kilz, it covers much better and dosn't soak in anywhere near as much.

[April]

Ron and Tracy,
Thank you for responding. There is only 2 panels that are bowing. there is not no dry wall behind there. I also know that we might have to get someone out there to relevel the house. I do know that it was very well taken care of by the owners. I am not going to put up dry wall over the the panelling. I did wall paper some of it too see how it would look. And it looks nice. so i think instead of redoing the panelling. i will just stick with wall paper. And for the celling. And i think over all the structer is good. My husband worked for a mobile home company. and we is pretty good at inspecting a home. We are going to get someone to come put and inspect the home also. but i just did not know what to do about the panelling.
thank you agian for responding.
april

[Celeste]

Hi, I live in Arizona and I recently purchaced a 1980's MH with my mechanically inclined boyfriend. The skirting is buried, making the house appear to be at ground level, with a crawl space underneath. The skirting is steel and is completley rusted through in some spots. This has caused erosion under the house, and we're wondering how extensive the replacement is. We're also wondering how to replace it. Is it possible to somehow put sheets of galvanized steel there? If so, can we dig the dirt out from next to the house, or does it require installing them from under the house?
There's also a concrete driveway and porch adjacent to each other on two sides of the house; does skirting need to be installed there too? How would we replace the skirting and dirt that's already eroded from there, if any?
Any suggestions or insight would be greatly appreciatied...
Celeste