is it expensive to re insulate the belly of a mobile home?
Manufactured Homes July 19th, 2010all the floors in our mobile home are so cold in the winter. i would like to re insulate the belly. is it very expensive? there has been some water damage from leaks and such so i am sure some of it has to be taken out.
July 19th, 2010 at 5:57 am
Practically everything is difficult to do on a mobile home, including accessing the insulation. Because mobile homes are made in a factory, many repairs are very difficult to do, and floor insulation is one of those things. There’s a "cardboard" like material underneath most mobile homes that must be removed in order to access the insulation. After the insulation was replaced, it would have to be protected by some new product, to keep animals out of your house. It’s not easy to do that, because everything on a mobile home is installed over the metal frame and outriggers, and it’s not easy to fasten to these materials, or get on top of them, either one. I’ve only worked on mobile homes, I never replaced the floor insulation on one, but it looks very difficult to me. I bet this job would be quite expensive to do right.
July 19th, 2010 at 5:57 am
Is your home closed or open under if its open you should close it first how ever you could do it your self for a couple hundred dollars
July 19th, 2010 at 5:57 am
You need to crawl under & look at how bad the fabric liner has been torn up. If, as you say, a lot of the insulation has been removed for repairs, you can replace that & close up the openings.
Closing up the openings in the fabric liner is much like ironing on a patch to a pair of jeans, except that you will be using contact cement.
When the weather will be 50 degree or higher for at least 8 hours, you can apply the patches. Get yourself some landscaping fabric (not the cheap stuff though) & cut your patches to about 1 foot (all the way around) larger than the torn openings.
Next, get yourself a gallon of water-based contact cement. With contact cement, you paint both surfaces with the cement (only around the perimeter of your patches & corresponding holes in the liner.
Read your contact cement directions carefully as you have a working time with these adhesives. When the glue i dry on both surfaces & ready, put one side on & press it into place. Next, pull the patch across the opening & press it to the opposite side.
You may want a couple of cut open paper grocery bag to keep the glued surface apart until you are ready to press them together. Also, it would probably be helpful to have another pair of hands to help keep things apart because once the glued surfaces touch each other, you may not be able to get them apart to re-position them if need be. The extra hands are good for holding insulation in place too.
Once you have the ends of the patch stuck to the liner, do the same with the remaining sides.
For replacing missing insulation, you’ll want unfaced R-30 batt (small roll for 16" centers) insulation & just tear it off as you need it. Gloves, long sleeved shirts & masks are a good idea for this project.
Once all the holes have been closed up, you should be able to tell a difference in floor temps.
Good luck…
July 19th, 2010 at 5:57 am
Not if you do it yourself. Just ask the guy at Home Depot/Lowes/ Hardware Store how to do it(it’s east) but dirty itchy work. Once the insulation is applied make sure you skirt the trailer so no air can flow, tape, chaulk, seal and don’t store anything you might need under there.