Mobile Home Makeover - Posted by Tony Colella
Posted by Tony Colella on September 06, 2011 at 08:59:27:
There has been a great deal of discussion about what we will do when repo?s are no longer available at affordable prices or in sufficient volume. The conversation includes the lack of new homes that are affordable and what if any will be produced in the future to meet a reasonable price point and quality expectation.
I recently visited an old, old mobile home that had been completely rebuilt. This home was the typically boxy 12 wide, 2 bed one bath with an almost flat, metal roof. This home even had the old tie down straps that go over the roof of the home and anchor the home into the ground on either side. This is unusual in our area but may have been code for this home when it was originally installed. I would guess the home to be a 1960?s model.
I don?t believe we would all go to this extreme or choose the same upgrades but here is what this guy did.
The home was the boxy, metal on metal that had deteriorated for decades. It looked more like an old storage unit than a home. He took the walls completely out, one section at a time, replacing any and all bad wood. He then reframed the walls to accept modern stick built housing type windows (much better look and R-value).
He wrapped the exterior of the walls in house wrap, upgraded the insulation with rolled insulation and then added drywall to the interior. For the exterior he chose to use T-111 which I personally do not prefer but I will admit that they color he chose and the way he framed out the windows looked quite good. He gave it almost a nautical look.
Personally, if I was doing all this work I would have vinyl sided the home and be done with it. T-111 holds up for some time but not nearly as long and over time the nicks and dings swell, rot and look terrible in my experience.
He removed an old, decayed bay window in the front of the home and framed in better windows and added more cabinets (this was the kitchen window). He completely replaced all cabinets with oak cabinets and tiled the counter top with the larger floor tiles and made a backsplash out of them, one row high. It looked great.
Laminate floors throughout the house.
He framed in a window a/c unit through the wall and placed it up high and just before you enter the narrow hallway. With the sheetrock drywall, house wrap, new windows and insulation (he also re-insulated the floors) and new windows I was impressed just how cool this whole house was with just one window unit.
He had not completed repairing the roof at that time. I believe I would go with corrugated metal roofing but use the higher quality material that is the kind used for the metal carports and garages.
This owner told me a couple of different figures for what he had in the home so I am not certain exactly but let?s say he put $8,000 into it. That was one of his numbers but I am not sure what all he was including.
You can do a lot to a mobile home with $8,000. I will say that at that price it was worth not having to demo this home, buy another, get all the permits and inspections and move another home in, set it up and repair it. You would likely be into another home for that much or more and still not have as nice a home or as well insulated.
I don?t expect to do this for every home but for the homes that are hard to replace such as homes on small lots, this is the time of makeover I would like to work towards.
Tony