Manufactured Housing

Handymen must learn new tricks

By LEN BONIFIELD
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 1, 2003

First of three parts.

This is the first of a three-part series on repairing or maintaining your manufactured home. Today I'll point out some of the unique problems faced by residents of manufactured housing. In part two, I'll talk with an expert contractor who specializes in manufactured home repair. In part three, I'll enumerate some routine maintenance chores residents need to do and offer some resources.

Those of us who have owned manufactured homes for several years have learned that being the handyman or handywoman around the house is different from being the fixer-upper around a stick-built home. Manufactured homes are built differently and have distinctive characteristics.

The first time you attempted a repair -- such as replacing a doorknob -- you quickly learned that you can't just run to Home Depot and pick up a knob off the shelf. When a knob failed on my pantry door, I made the Home Depot run and was amazed to discover that the knob I bought didn't fit. I had to return it and find a retailer who specializes in mobile home supplies.

Fortunately, in the area from Tampa to Orlando, there are many such suppliers. I found one close to home, purchased the new knob and quickly installed it. Job completed, but only after the frustration of going to Home Depot, trying to install the wrong knob and hunting in the Yellow Pages for a mobile home supplier. Then off to the supplier and back home to finish a simple job that should have taken about an hour but instead took more than half a day. Talk about learning the hard way!

Now I know I should check with a mobile home supplier first or call a knowledgeable contractor. Wouldn't it be great, when we first purchased our manufactured homes, if the salesperson advised us that simple repairs would be different from what we were used to?

Shortly after we moved into our manufactured home, my wife and I thought how nice it would be to install a combination storm door for our main entrance. We could leave the door open and have light flowing into the living room, and in the spring and fall the screen would let in those pleasant breezes. No big deal, I thought. Go buy the door and either install it myself or hire someone to do the job. Wrong! The door casing is different from a typical casing and required major alterations.

I bought a good-quality door and hired a repairman with a lot of experience installing storm doors in manufactured homes. It took him the better part of a day to dismantle the existing frame, build a new one and install the door. Before I found the contractor who did the work, I spoke with two others who wanted no part of the job. That door cost us an arm and a leg to buy and have installed. We enjoy the light it provides in the living room and, for what it cost, we'd better like it!

When we purchased our home, we made a mistake in not asking to have double-paned windows installed during manufacturing. After two winters of fighting with condensation on the inside of the windows, and two summers of heat and sun coming through the single pane, we decided to replace the windows.

Again, it is not as simple as going to your local home center and ordering windows. Manufactured home windows are special sizes and must be special-ordered. Pricing those windows and finding an installer was a revelation. Some window specialists wanted me to raid Fort Knox. Some did not do replacements on manufactured homes. Others sold poor-quality windows. I had to go as far as Ocala to find a contractor who supplied a name-brand, quality window at a reasonable price.

Like most new owners of manufactured housing, when our house was built in 1995, we thought we would enjoy our screen room year-round. Boy, were we wrong! It was too hot in summer and too cold in winter. We took the advice of several neighbors and had vinyl windows installed at considerable cost. Then we found that not only were vinyl windows a real pain to clean, but the room was still cold in the winter and hot in the summer.

We finally installed double-paned windows and had heat and air conditioning run to the new room. Now we have a great year-round sun room with windows that can be opened to enjoy those spring and fall days. Just think of the frustration and money we could have saved by installing them when the house was built.

By now, those of you who are considering purchasing a manufactured home or who have recently done so are wiser than I was when we bought our home. There is preventive maintenance you can do that will save you frustration and money; easy repairs you can make; and places to find the materials you need. More on that in part two of this series.

- Send comments or questions to Len Bonifield at elb@gate.net, or fax to (863) 853-8023, or phone (863) 858-1557. Please include your e-mail and mailing address. Bonifield is a manufactured home resident and a past HOA president and former officer of the FMO District 1 board of directors.

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