Posted by Mike Scarbrough on September 23, 2011 at 12:27:18:
Hi Steve, glad you liked the DVD’s. Thanks for purchasing. The metal roof over would be great info to add. The DVD set I sell now is over 5 1/2 hours long. It was originally meant to be an hour or two, but it kind of took a life of it’s own and I had to eventually end somewhere and just put in what I thought were some of the most common and cost-effective repairs/rehab info into it or it would have been a never ending project.
The bellyboard section in the video is not a particularly long section. There’s just not much to it. The sticky belly board repair is for small areas.
As we discuss at the end of that section, I recommend that people use belly board black fabric (that you can get from any of the MH suppliers) for large or complete home repairs (it is not adhesive). I have had crews use this for big areas and it works great. This can be stapled on after the batting is secured. This is a quick and easy way to go.
I am a big believer that mobile homes, like people, need to breathe. The belly board material aids in this process.
Posted by Steve-WA on September 22, 2011 at 21:26:06:
was also hoping for a little more on belly repair/replacement. I searched youtube today and found a guy who had been hired to fix a water leak, then replace insulation and belly below where the leak had trashed everything.
This guy took a 8’x14’ blue tarp, spray-glued the paper facing side of R-19 to the tarp, and wire-supported this blanket right up to the bottom - a little bit redneck to me, and the tarp is likely not breathable, but then a lot of the bellies around here are not the black woven plastic belly, but the black pressed paperboard - that ain’t breathable either.
I have tried the styrofoam insulation as a removable replacement belly, but there’s just too much pipe and wire and axle hangers and blah blah in the way to do it cleanly.
On a previous house, when I had a guy working for me, he had used that shiny R-10 or whatever thin foil bubble-wrap looking stuff. Pretty lame, but after I had taken over, and had to go under to reinstall a lot of that and put new batts in where the rats had ruined, that stuff stapled up OK as belly.
There are apparently a lot of options. I’m curious if Mike and his crew use the same type of black plastic woven fabric material if there is a large area of belly to replace (not repair with a glue-over), or if y’all use something else.
I’d be interested to hear what anyone else has done - especially Clinton and lando - those guys are pretty creative - and sound pretty successful - with repairs.
I have a pretty large area to insulate next week - I think I’ll staple the batts as planned, then see what kind of clearance I really have to install something.
Posted by Steve-WA on September 24, 2011 at 13:15:36:
There is another mobile-home repair manual out there that describes black woven poly belly material as similar to a blue tarp, but it is impregnated with petroleum oil to repel bugs and rodents, AND checking the product specs at mobilehomepartsstore.com, it is not flammable - a tarp would burn.
My local supplier carries Mobile-Flex material for the same price as mhps.com, and it is more apt than a tarp, so I got a roll. 30 inches wide by 100 feet long for $40. Not sticky, as is the repair material, but it will staple up to cover two joists wide, much like the silver bubble wrap insulation I previously described.
Steve, the videos cover exactly what your talking about at the end of the section. I recommend Flex-Mend brand and hold up a roll for viewers to see what it looks like. Mobile-Flex is another brand and of the similar product. Either brand will work great.
I have found a "house wrap"at a local lumber yard that is a woven plastic type material that is pretty cheap when re-insulating big sections. I too use flex mend on the smaller fixes.
Been having a devil of a time getting registered on the new formatted site . . . that’s why there’s an extra dash . . .
I was surprised to find that the insulation batts were run perpendicular to the joists, not stapled in between, leaving an air space between the insulation and the subfloor - ok, weird, doesn’t make sensse to me, but I’ll roll with it . . . most of my replacement went the same way, and the belly was run parallel to the joists (30" wide, remember), tucked under the I-beams and tacked when possible to the wood joist every 16"; 30" belly strips overlapped about 6" and spray glued.
That got it done - I do not feel confident in the repair staying put under the weight of a cat or a bunch of rats that want to crawl up in there, but we’ll see.
I shoulda took some photos; evidently I can post them here now? I need to see about that . . .
I too have tried many belly board replacement schemes. Even resorted to paying the mover to fix the belly board after he put it in place. Used spray glue and pieces of tyvek. It was fine for a few days, just long enough for the check to clear. It would have been better to build a fire with the money to keep warm. I did find a solution that is cheap though not permeable. If you stop in at your local billboard company, they will generally have old signs that they don’t need. These are essentially tarps but they are free. They are concerned with the public display of their advertising materials but if you present yourself professionally, its likely they will give you the material that they will be throwing away anyway. I use this material along with a 1" ring shank roofing nail to secure it to the joists underneath the trailer. Its like a nail combined with with a large washer to spread out the stress and keep the material from ripping.
I was price checking some cedar at the specialty cedar lumber yard the other day, and I noticed that their pallets of boards were wrapped with material that looked awfully familiar . . . bet it would work too. I see the same thing at Lowe’s . . .
BUT - the 30 inch x 100 foot rolls are easy to manipulate, and are only $40. They also sell replacement bellies that are like 14x70 for re-doing the whole thing (gawd forbid), but they’re pretty pricey.
The insulation is run under the joists to provide a space for warm air flow from around the furnace duct to keep the pipes and the floor warm. If you run it right up against the floor you impede air flow and may have trouble with frozen pipes and cold floors. Not to mention moisture and mold growth. As far as Belly board goes. If you are replacing less than 15% or so of the total floor space I would not worry about it being able to “breathe” the other 85% will breathe enough. I normally use fan fold insulation and screws with scrap pieces of skirting for washers. IMHO
Don