When it comes to the repair of your mobile home, it does not have to be something hard. Once you get the right tools, the right knowledge, and some good old-fashioned grease, you are well on your way to undertaking some of the major repairs on your mobile home by yourself.
Being able to undertake repairs on your mobile home will help you to save a lot of money in the process.
However, whether you decide to hire a mobile home contractor for your repairs or if you decide to carry out the repairs on your own, there are some things you will have to be able to do yourself if you are planning to keep your mobile home in good shape.
Getting your hands dirty on your own mobile home surely comes with some amount of great feeling.
So in today’s article, we are going to take a look at some of the most common mobile home repairs that you can carry out on your own easily.
For these kinds of repairs, you do not need a mobile home contractor to handle them for you.
In this article, you will get some tips and tricks that will help you with some of the most common pitfalls that many other mobile homeowners fall into.
So, if you are looking to keep your mobile home in the best of shape all the time, then, let us get down to business.
Mobile Home Skirting Repairs
When it comes to the repairs carried out on the mobile home, people normally focus their attention on the interior of the mobile home all the time since that is where they spend the majority of their time when they are home.
However, that does not mean that you should overlook the exterior part of the house. One place that you should pay close attention to is the skirting of the house.
The skirting is the part that protects the underside of the mobile home from the effects of the weather while keeping out pests that may want to log under your mobile home.
Should You Repair Or Replace The Skirting?
If you see that the skirting has only been damaged mildly in just a few places, you can repair that without having to replace the whole thing.
Having a few holes in the vinyl skirting will require some patch-up work before the winter arrives.
Keep in mind that the plumbing of your mobile home is under it so if they are not properly protected by repairing the skirting, they could freeze when the winter seasons arrive. So you should make sure to patch up the holes in the skirting.
The skirting normally gets damaged by weed whackers since it cannot stand up to the spinning string by itself. One way to fix this is by installing some skirt guard along the bottom side of your skirting.
The skirt guard has been designed to stand up to the weed whackers and any other thing that could cause damage to the skirting.
However, if you find out that the vinyl is in really bad shape, you may want to replace it with something stronger since vinyl can be a little flimsy sometimes.
The good thing here is that vinyl is not the only option you have. You can get mobile home skirting such as Reil Rock and Novik Stone and these are strong enough not to get blown out during storms. They can also hold up to weed whackers just fine.
Measuring Your Mobile Home For Skirting
The first thing you will need to measure is the linear footage of the mobile home. This will be the total length of the skirting that will have to go all around your home.
If the floor plan of your mobile home is a simple rectangular one that has no additions and porches, you can just add 2x the length of the home and another 2x the width of the home to cover all of the areas that will need skirting. Here is an example below.
Let us assume that you have a single wide 16 feet wide x 70 feet long.
16+16+70+70 =172ft. This means that you will need 170ft of skirting for your mobile home.
However, if your mobile home has a porch and some other additions to it that will also need skirting, you will have to include those measures in the total measurement that you get.
According to Crystal Adkins, only the length and width of the visible sides will be included. So let us assume that your mobile home of 16×70 ft has an additional porch that is visible and adds another 6ft from the main floor plan, what you will include is a porch depth of 6ft twice.
You would not include the width of the porch since that has already been covered in the total length of the mobile home.
The average height of the mobile home from the ground will also have to be included. The best way to do this is to measure from the ground to about 2 inches from the siding at all four corners of the mobile home.
You will then do the same thing on the middle side of the mobile home on both sides. After that, you add the numbers together and then divide them by 5.
Allowing For Ventilation
Leaving the underside of the mobile home well-ventilated is very important. Although you want the skirting to block out the wind and keep pests out, you should not try to seal off the underside of the mobile home completely.
That is a complete no. doing this will cause mold to grow under your mobile home and I am pretty sure that you do not want something like that to happen.
When you are using vinyl skirting, there is a mix of vented panels and solid panes that you could purchase.
However, you should note that there are some building codes in some states that may not allow the use of vented panels.
Always make sure to check the building codes in the state you are living in before you do anything.
Apart from the vented panels, you can also buy automatic foundation vents. These are vents that open at 70 degrees F and then late close at 40 degrees.
In this way, the foundation of your mobile home is ventilated during the summer season and at the same time protected during the winter season.
Installing The Skirting On Your Mobile Home
There are several types of mobile home skirting and each of them has its unique way of being installed.
We are going to take a look at the steps used in the installation of the majority of mobile home skirting. For installing the skirting, you will need the following tools for the job.
- Vinyl skirting
- Wood stakes
- Hammer
- Tape measure
- Tin snips
- Ground spikes or nails
- Utility knife
- Level or plumb bob
Below are the steps to get the skirting installed on your mobile home.
Level The Ground
If the ground under the mobile home is not level, you will surely have a hard time leveling it.
So before starting the main process, you need to get the ground beneath the mobile home leveled. You can take a few moments and walk around the mobile home to make sure of this.
Outlining The Railing Will Be Installed
The next step will be to outline where the railing will be installed. Mark a spot at each corner of the mobile home where the railing will be installed.
Use the level to make sure that each of the corners meets the ground along the plumb line. A wood stake can also be used in mapping this out.
Installing The Railing
You now install the rail. Make sure that you do this in the right manner because it will serve as the foundation for the whole project that you are working on.
You take a corner piece of the bottom rail and then nail it to the ground. You should make sure that the back end of it is well aligned with the wooden stake that was set up previously. Now, just repeat this step for the remaining corners.
Setting The Top Rail In
You can now start nailing the top rail pieces in place. This is a very simple task although there are some things that you will have to keep in mind while you are at it.
There should be a half-inch of space left between the top rail and each corner. It should not be nailed too tight since you will have to move the top rail a little later.
Measuring
You then start measuring and mark 16 inches on each of the top rails with your tape measure and a pen.
The 16 inches that have been measured are the width of each of the vinyl panels. Use your measuring tape and write the distance down when you reach each 16-inch mark.
They should be written in the order that you took them so you can use them easily.
Installing The Side Panels
After getting the top and bottom railing in place, the next step is the installation of the side panels.
Use thin snips in cutting out the side panels according to the measurements taken in the previous steps. Each of them should be 16 inches in length with varying heights.
Installation
You can now begin installing the corner vinyl pieces around the four corners of your mobile home.
The distance from one panel to the next panel should be measured and depending on that measurement, the spot on each corner will be marked to show where the vinyl piece will bend.
This can be done easily if the vinyl piece is scored with a straightedge. Just be careful so you do not break the piece.
Installing Final Top Rails
Now, you can install the final top rails and be done. This is an easy step. Take the top rail pieces and then slip the tip under the lip of the first top rail that was installed earlier.
You will continue this step until you have covered the whole of the mobile home. Your mobile home skirting is now successfully done.
Repairing The Roof Of Your Mobile Home
When it comes to the repair of the roof of your mobile home, you should not wait for it to get damaged completely before you get to work.
Even when you see that the roof is leaking a little, you should take steps to rectify the issue immediately because it can get blown into a huge problem within a short amount of time.
If you are leaking the roof of your mobile home, it is time to get it repaired or replaced. The spread of the water can be unpredictable and finding water damage in one place does not mean that it is only at that place.
It will not also mean that the leak in the roof is right above the place where the damage is. The leak could be at another location in the roof, running along a beam or another kind of surface before finally reaching where you are seeing it.
Should You Repair Or Replace The Roof?
This will depend on the state of the roof. If the leak is small and you have been able to locate it, then you can get it fixed without having to replace the whole roof.
However, if you find out that you are having multiple leaks in the roof and there are signs of sagging and deformation as well, it may probably be time to get the roof changed.
If you cannot decide for yourself, it would be better to contact a professional roofer who will inspect the roof and then advise you on the best course of action to take.
Repairing Rubber Roofs
When repairing a rubber roof, using peel-and-seal tape can be perfect for the job. It can be cut to the exact size and shape that you need so that you can get around the vents and hatches.
You should make sure to put down some weatherboard primer first before you start using the peel-and-seal so that the tape will be able to adhere completely.
Repairing Shingle Roof
If you see that you have lost a shingle or two, you can take care of this repair on your own. All you have to do is insert the new shingle under the one that is above it and make sure to have it aligned with the pattern all around.
You then nail the shingle in a firm place. If the shingle roof needs a more complex repair, you will have to call in the professionals to handle that one.
Conclusion
So as you can see, conducting some simple fixes on your mobile home is not a hard task at all.
Some of the issues shown in this article are things that can be fixed by you. We only leave the complex problems to the professionals to solve.
In this article, we looked at how you can repair the skirting and the roof of your mobile home easily.
Please remember that if you cannot determine the damage done to your roof, you should call in a professional roofer to get that done for you and allow him or her to fix the roof for you. if you cannot determine the problem, chances are. It is something you cannot fix.
I hope this article has been quite helpful to you. If you also want to attach a garage to your mobile home, then check this article out.
