Inside Gut Out

[Bryce]

My wife and I recently purchased a 66x14 siungle wide trailer in a park. We got it for a good price and financed it with the owner of the park. We plan to stay here for a couple of years and then move it (if possible) to a piece of land we are going to purchase.

My question? Is is possible to gut the interior, room by room, and replace the wiring, rewire for phone and cable, and replace the wall board with drywall. My concern is that once we do the refinishing and then try to move it the drywall will crack.

Has anyone tried this before, or have any advice as to steps that should be taken first. This is our first home and we do not want to create a disaster as we are going to live in it while the remodeling takes place. Also, can a person replace the cheap cabinets in the kitchen and bath with real cabinets?

Thanks for any help,
Bryce

[Tom]

If it were me, and this is just my personal opinion, I would wait until after you move. There is a chance you may see some damage to the walls, how much I could not predict, but its a possibility. If you feel you want to take the chance then by all means go for it. Just make sure the home is level before doing the renovation, particularly to the walls. Tom

[Bill Fry]

If the drywall is taped and textured it will crack when you move the home.This is especially true in older units as the framing in them is pretty whimpy and the house flexs a lot when its moved.If you're going to put the kind of money in it you're describing don't do it until you find it a permenant lot.Once its moved you can do whatever you want to it,cabinets and the whole nine yards.

[Mark]

You can do it now, and yes the drywall will crack when it's moved, particularlly around the doors and windows, but it can be repaired. Even new MH's with drywall get cracks that have to be repaired after setup. My DW modular had about 20 cracks around various windows and doors in the drywall, and the drywall is glued to the studs. You may experience substantially more cracking due to flex if you just nail/screw the drywall up.

As for replacing the electrical, that's a whole can of worms by itself, which will require you to get a permit, meet codes at the time the work is done, get inspections, etc. You will easily spend several thousand just on electrical work.

For the cabinets, you can, but you need to wait until you've exposed those walls, as they will need to be reinforced for the added weight of real cabinets over the pressboard that is so common in MH's.