Manufactured Home Repair Projects

This is a companion site for Mobile Home Doctor. It is a place where we can showcase mobile home repair projects with better pictures and possibly videos than were possible on the original site.

This mobile home was a HUD repo. That means bidders could inspect it before making their offer but the inspection had to be done without any utilities connected. That means there is no way to know if the appliances work, if the pipes had frozen, or there were electrical issues. When you buy one of these deals you are buying "As Is, Where Is".

The pictures on this page are from before renovation started. I was able to take pictures of the home before, during and after the renovation was complete. Clicking on the thumbnails will open a large picture so all the details are visible.

Front Entrance North Facing
This home sat empty without power, heat, or water for over a year in the harsh New Mexico climate. It was “weatherized” at some point, but who knows if it had frozen before the water lines were drained.

You can see the broken window, the access to the belly wide open, the damaged cooler on the roof, and the paint damage above the door.

On the other hand, someone had cared for the home at some point. The entry steps are attractive and in good condition. You can see the cement edging on the flower beds. There is a large cottonwood in the southeast corner that shades that end of the house.

Back Side - South Facing
The south facing side of the house has many broken windows and lots of weeds. The boarded up window raises the question of how soon after the glass was broken did it get boarded up. Mobile homes are easily damaged by water. If the window was broken during our August & September monsoon rains there could be serious damage on the inside. If you look closely, you can see where the foundation has separated from the wall. This will allow water to drain under the house and needs to be sealed.

Is this porch worth keeping?

It is on the east end of the house and is shaded on the south by a large cottonwood tree. There are no neighbors to the north and there is a good view of Thunder Mountain and the Sandias. In other words it is a great place for outdoor grilling and enjoying the evening.

On the other hand, it is obviously made from un-treated scrap wood and is weathered and decaying. There is some question whether it will hold several people safely and it looks pretty ugly.

I doubt that a new deck would add enough to the value of the house to recover the cost. Replacing it would add several thousand dollars to the cost of the home and that might limit the number of qualified buyers.

However, it’s hard to know what matters to potential buyers and what they will pay for. This might be a case where picking up the trash and driving a few nails would be enough. Make sure you know what a new deck would cost. Then, if a prospective buyer really wants a deck, and can afford it, you can offer to have the work done as part of the sale.

Storm Door Damage
This storm door has had a hard life. It’s on the north side of the house and the winds really blow out there. Clearly, the kids or someone didn’t get the door latched all the way and the wind got it.

New Mexico, where this home is located, gets cold enough in the winter a good storm door is important. The question will be if the time, effort, and parts it will take to repair the door is cheaper than buying a new one. If you or a handyman you hire has the right skills repair will probably be cheaper. On the other hand, a nice air lock storm door may make an important impression on a prospective buyer.

No matter if you choose to repair or replace you will want to make the stop that keeps the door from opening to far a lot stronger. Bigger screws, more of them, and heavier components would all be a good idea.

There are always lots of choices to be made when renovating a mobile home. Finding the right balance between cheap & quality is always a challenge.

Mobile Home Security
Investors who buy HUD homes typically inspect a lot of houses and get impatient with trying to set up appointments to see the house and wait for theHUD rep to show up. It SO much easier to take a screwdriver and open the door without a key. As you can see, it’s a little tough on the door though.

Stock mobile home doors might keep out a determined cat, but they won’t even slow a burglar down. You need to install at least a dead bolt to have any security at all.

Kitchen Island - Back Side
There is always lots of dirt and damage in repo houses that sat vacant for a long time. The side panels on the island were probably loosened when the weatherization guy drained the water lines. It’s not obvious in this picture, but on the other side of the island there are the remains of lots of mouse activity. That creates a smell problem and requires deep cleaning to remove.

This picture illustrates several kinds of interior wall & door damage.

On the left you can see the vinyl covered wall board has been patched but the seams were not sealed. Since you can’t buy matching replacement wall board your repair choices are limited. The easiest process for most people will probably be to fill the seams with drywall compound and then prime and paint the walls.

The door may have to be replaced. If it were me, I would try scraping off the stickers and then painting the door. However, I suspect it will be hard to get to a smooth surface. Paint will probably show lines where the edges of the stickers were. If you want to keep the look of natural wood, scraping followed by a belt sander and stain might do the job. I guess the quickest method would be to test that on a small area. If it works, great. If not, buy a new door.

I looked at my high resolution original image to confirm that really is a keyed entry lock on the door. That plus the stickers makes an interesting statement about the interpersonal dynamics of the former owners.

Damaged Vinyl Flooring
Mobile home manufacturers like vinyl flooring because they can put it down so quickly and easily. They just unroll it on the floor and set the walls in place on top of it. No nasty time consuming edge work. Only carpet is easier, because with carpet you don’t even have to care if the subfloor is smooth.

When it comes time to repair or replace vinyl, it’s not as much fun. For starters, you will NOT be able to match the pattern. You will have a lot of edgework to get a good fit around the walls and builtins. If you are trying to avoid seams you will be cutting on a large unwieldy sheet of vinyl.

A repetitively recent alternative to sheet vinyl is laminated wood flooring. That is what was selected as replacement flooring for this house and you can see how it was done and the results at Installing Laminated Flooring. I strongly recommend you consider wood laminate if you are replacing carpet or vinyl in your home.

Damaged Bathroom Wall
This kind of wall damage is common in mobile homes. The most likely cause is some sort of leak around the bathroom shower faucets. It is possible it is the result of careless showers where water frequently splashed out and got the floor wet. However, before you repair it you will want to make sure there are no leaks.

If you are planning to paint the walls you can repair this with several layers of drywall mud. That will bring it level with the rest of the wall. Multiple layers will reduce problems resulting from shrinkage and cracking of the mud.

If you are hoping to not have to paint you might be able to fill the hole with drywall mud and cover it with a wide baseboard trim strip.

Damaged Vinyl Floor
The previous owners tried to repair their floor using the self-stick vinyl squares sold at the home improvement places. You can tell from the duct tape it didn’t work to well. In my experience, the self-stick ties don’t stick! They might have a chance if the surface you are sticking them to is absolutely clean, dry, and smooth. That is usually not the case.

That said, most homeowners can’t handle sheet vinyl, so what choice do they have? A few years ago the answer was “Very little”. Now days I think the answer is laminate flooring. Laminate flooring looks great! It is not hard to install. You can see how it turned out in this house by clicking on that link.

Rusty, Lime encrusted Toilet
In New Mexico the water is usually very hard and often has a lot of iron in it. When the water is turned off but the toilet isn’t drained you see this kind of problem. There are probably cleaners that would dissolve this ugly layer of lime and rust. Before going to the effort I would want to make certain the toilet had not froze and cracked before it dried out.

In my opinion new toilets are not that expensive. They are easy to install and look nice.

The Belly of the Beast
It’s always amazing to see what gets stored under mobile homes! However, the belly also provides valuable clues as to what kind of renovation problems you are likely to find. In this case, look closely to see the insulation hanging down just past the white plastic bucket. That tells you there were plumbing problems in this area at some time in the past. Water or sewer lines leaked, the insulation filled with water, and the weight tore the belly material and let the insulation hang down.

That also opened the belly of the home to an invasion by mice, rats, cats etc. In this case the dishwasher with all the mouse droppings is located just above this damage.

I always avoided buying used mobile homes that might have froze because I was concerned about the possible cost of having to fix the frozen lines. I mentioned that to the investor who bought this house and was told “The lines usually freeze in one place, split, and the rest of the water drains out through the break. So we just turn the water back on, find the leak, and make one repair.” Makes sense.