The Manufactured Housing Forums

I live in SD. A year ago I had my skirting replaced. At that time the old skirting had styrafoam insulation panels. I was told these were bad for ventilation reasons and it was removed. Later on this year I had a manufactured housing repairman over to look at why my hot water heater pilot kept blowing out. When he heard the insulation was removed he was shocked, because it is beneficial for the 6 months of cold weather we have. What do you think?

I too live in South Dakota and this year I added 6" of fiberglass insulation behind my skirting. You definitely need ventilation during the warmer months, but during the winter the more insulation you have the warmer your floors and home will be.

Mark

Typically, every manufactured home company requires one sq. Foot of free air to ventilate the crawl space for every 150 sq foot of floor area.
You need to be careful when you close off all the ventilation winter or summer, you will still get moisture in the crawl space in the winter, and if it can't escape to the outside, it will escape into the floor.
Please know the home is designed to perform without insulated skirting. Maybe your foundation it utilizing the insulation to prevent frost heave.
I would not put fiberglass in the crawl space, it can collect moisture and can cause problems with rodents,

Most who insulate the skirting keep extra vent panels for summer use, which easily solves that problem. Tom

Skirting material is not required to be insulated or would I recomend it. The insulation can possible cause ventilation problems within the crawl space. Eugene stated moisture is present in the ground even in the winter is right! Crawl spaces need to be ventilated year round.

Those who live in the far northern parts of this country would respectfully disagree with you. Insulating skirting is a common practice in those parts, and for obvious reasons. Tom

There is need of some form of insulation in the north. If none is used, even with heat tape, the pipes and sewer can freeze as well. Theory and practice don't always agree.

In colorado there are certain frost heave issues witch require insulated skirting, if your footing where placed on grade not below frost depth

Eugene is absolutly correct. There are real problems with poor ventalation. We deal with these on regular basis. We are stoneskirt dealers and see these issues first hand. Mold, rotting floors and verious other issues can result but when you live in the north it is important find the balance between r value and ventalation.
I would recomend using a foam based insulation and using vents the open and close. If you have any questions please call us at 320-492-6981 ask for cory.

The fiberglass insulation I used for skirting is encapsulated (sp?) -- meaning surrounded with a plastic barrier. You can't get that kind of insulation value with styrofoam skirting. The plastic covering helps protect it from moisture and my skirting is more than secure enough that I don't have a rodent problem.

I live in the cold north. During the warmer months I have six big skirting doors that double as vents. Then around November 1 (gees -- that's tomorrow!), I remove the vents and put in solid doors. I have several other small vents in the skirting which should take care of any winter moisture. One of the vents is close to where the gas water heater will need to draw in air.

Insulated skirting makes such a huge difference in keeping floors warm during the winter.

Mark