# help - weight restrictions for mobile home



## oh'mike (Sep 18, 2009)

The floor structure (or your plans) need to be looked at by an engineer or architect---

There are several members who have those skills---post a picture of the plans,if you can---then someone can tell you the deflection (needed for tile) and general strength of your floor system.


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

Every mobile home company has it's own standards. Just no way someone here is going to be able to come up with some general rule of thumb.
Things to look for is things like partical board subfloors, simple to check just remove a floor regester and look.
Tile is all but useless when it comes to a stable floor for tile.
Wall thickness, way to many mobile homes use 2 X 3's or even 2 X 2's for ext. wall studs, I've even seen 1 X 4's used for inside studs and bottom plates. You can make a guess by looking at the jambs of the doors and windows.
Odd ball sized doors, there shorter, and thinner then reguler house doors.
Cheap windows, the biggest heat loser in a mobile home. In most cases they can be change to narrow line double pane double hung windows.
Odd ball sized tubs and sinks. To replace them your going to have to reframe or buy cheap flexing fixtures from a mobile home supplyer.
Quest tubing for plumbing supplys and shut off valves. There's class action law sutes againt the companys that made it that have ran out by now so it's up to you now to replace it with PEX.


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## oh'mike (Sep 18, 2009)

I have also seen some double wides that were really well made and a nice home---

Your plan sheet will help a lot---


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

I've lived in 2 Marlette brand mobile homes that had 3/4 plywood asa subfloor, 2 X 4's in the walls, real house windows, 10" of insulation in the ceiling.
But far to many brands just cheap out so there's no way to tell until someone checks it out.


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## MzMolly65 (May 11, 2012)

We're seeing a mix of good and bad with this place. The basic skeleton seems solid. It has good windows and either 2x4 or 2x6 exterior walls (can't remember what the plans said), but 2x3 interior walls and particle board floors. It does have the old plumbing lines so we're running all new PEX lines and the water heater is in good shape so we don't need to replace that.

It's almost gutted.

There's damage to a lot of the particle board flooring. Water leaks and what looks (and smells) like dog urine patches. We're pulling carpet, lino and laminate and scraping the floor down where the particle board is puffed up due to damage, painting it with Kilz and that's helping with the smell. I want to lay down a 3/4" OSB subfloor before any new flooring goes down. There are weak spots in some corners and along the edge of one bathtub. I'm uncertain if the OSB over the soft particle board is a mistake or not. Not sure if I should remove particle board flooring right down to framing and start completely over or lay the OSB over it. Waiting to figure out weight restrictions before moving ahead with that.

We're having the plumber change the waste water lines to the tubs so we can go with locally available left hand tubs rather than having to special order manufactured home center drain tubs. I was hoping to put in steel but that's one of the things I need to hold off on until I know the load restrictions. We might be limited to acrylic.

I appreciate anyone's advice and just want to make a nice job of this as it will probably be our final home.







I've got a copy of the plans so I'll try and include them in a post soon. Just have to find them in my computer files.


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## oh'mike (Sep 18, 2009)

That will help---As you have learned,particle board makes a lousy sub floor.

I prefer plywood as a subfloor --it is more stable than OSB--however,if the floor will be carpeted or covered with something other than tile,OSB should be fine---


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

Scraping the partical board will do nothing but make it thinner.
I would just remove it.
I use nothing but Advantec 3/4" T & G for subflooring. Super strong and far more water resitant then reguler OSB or plywood..


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## MzMolly65 (May 11, 2012)

joecaption said:


> I would just remove it.


If we just remove it how do we deal with the particle board that's under the walls? What if it's soft as well? 

I've always just laid subfloor over the old floor and not removed the old floor completely. I'm willing to admit I might be in over my head on that one and may have to call professionals in.

(Btw, the reason we were scraping it was to "level" it. It's all poofed up in small hills.)

I found the builder's plans but the pdf is too large for this forum. I'll have to get near a printer to print one page of it and rescan. At least I can see the exterior walls are 6" which is good.


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

You would use a Toe Kick saw to cut out the subflooring tight againt the walls and an ossilating saw to get into the outside corners where it would not reach.
If you try and lay new subflooring over failing partical board the floors going to flex.
Once the partical board get wet once it will never have any strength even when it drys out.
I see no reason why if you pulled the old tub out and ran Advantec under it why a steel tub would not work. 
Water will weigh the same no matter what tub it is and the load is spread out along it's length so the weight per sq. inch is not all that much.


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## MzMolly65 (May 11, 2012)

Thank you so much for that advice. Have researched the Advantec and there's a supplier about 10 miles from us so will look into cost of that. Reading the info on it and it sounds much better than OSB! 

One more question in that regard ... if the particle board is basically solid in most of the house except for a few patches would you still tear it all out and get rid of it since it's a poor subfloor product or would you leave it, repair the soft areas and then cover it all with Advantec over top?


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## MzMolly65 (May 11, 2012)

OK .. another question. I did a small test room in the laundry area because that particle board was a mess of soppy goop. Lifting the subfloor brought another problem to the forefront. RATS! Not here now, thank God but both the heating ducts and the insulation under the trailer show signs of rats so we want to replace both. In the process of removing the particle board I pulled the insulation in that room and now we realized we have a nice breeze blowing in around the new subfloor I laid. The warm weather is already here so we're going to wait and re-insulate closer to fall when our budget will be somewhat recovered from all this. 

How do we seal those edges of the subfloor? Even after the new insulation goes in I think it will be important to have some form of seal to prevent heat loss or insulation fibers drifting in. Any advice?


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