Trailer homes

Good day. I have a family member in the midwest usa who lives in a trailer home. He recently had an ashpalt/fiberglass shingle roof installed. The existing shingles were removed. This is a "double wide" and the installers tore off one side and threw it on the other. The combination of this and improperly disbursing the new shingle bundles caused trusses to break. The roof caved in like a bowl and so did the ceiling. They then installed the new shingles as is. Homeowner has put temp posts inside to hold up ceiling. Snow is coming. Company is supposed to replace it soon. We will see. Anyway on to my question.....

I did this type of work maybe once in my life several years ago. My vague understanding is that the trusses are engineered to create maximum span with minimal thickness and weight. If i remember right, something like a couple 2x2's with braces between? Anyway is the building engineered to accept the additional weight of dimensional lumber if they go back that route? Or do the same engineered trusses need to be used? I would imagine the span would require at least 2x12? I dont see how that could work. Pretty sure they will show up with 2x4s at best. Id appreciate any advise i can relay. Family member does not go online. Thx

Geez, seems like it would have cost about the same thing to just buy another mobile home. :blink:

Conventional wisdom would have insisted we remove the turbine vent you notice at the ridge. We opted to leave it alone. I can't remember why. I have a feeling it was covering some ancient venial sin. I'm just no longer sure, but we had already seriously over-run the budget as it was. I do remember that part. Everybody parted friends and the bills got paid. One thing that scared me about the project was knowing the dubious history of aluminum wiring in trailers. We made absolutely certain that at no time did anyone even touch, even breathe on, any of that stuff running through the attic cavity.

We went back over with a Polyester FR self-adhered sheet. One base, one or two mid-ply (can't remember which) and the PFR cap with Lomanco Omnivent. At that time the ICC-ES report/req for that particular system gave us a Class A up to and including 1/2 and twelve pitch or we would have had to put quarter inch densdeck down first.

I've done a lot with these fine vessels but Ive never had to peel that roof off. I would think it might smell fishy...

Ok that was bad.

I just put a 12'x14'6" addition on my ~1970 this past weekend. Used all reclaimed lumber except floor and roof deck. Went well....and cheap!

One thing that blew my mind is the installation of pole barn metal over those low slope trailers. I can't believe that it's reliable but it seems to be working well on all of them I've seen.

Those photos gave me nightmares egg. I've worked on hundreds of mobile roofs over the years and my biggest fear was having to peel the metal skin off one of those babies.

Had a young fellow helping me about 25 years ago on one of the old metal skinned relics from the early 60's and he couldn't seem to grasp the concept of stepping on the trusses when walking on the roof. He probably weighed about 225 lbs and the next thing you knew the metal crimped seams were starting to open up. I finally had to tell him to go home as I could finish the job myself. (More like "Buddy your to fat to be walking on this china egg and the shell is getting cracked")

Makes me wonder where old mobiles go to die. Something like birds, millions of them around and you seldom see a dead one. Sometimes a match would be a easy solution but even restoring something like that gives you satisfaction when it is all done. A home is a home. What did you use for a finish product, shingles, membrane or go back to metal?

Not to alter pitch, but yes on the dips. There were a couple of places you can't see from the photo where we installed extremely custom ripped 2X between the 1X and the stringers to level some bad spots out.

But we also used the system to create vent chutes. The new fascia was gapped from the trailer wall (that had zero overhang) and fitted out with continuous screen before the new sheathing went on.

The vertical 1X4 was to give us better attachment than the 1X2 top chords had to offer (!) and it took a bit of time drilling test holes to lock in the exact position of all the trusses as part of the layout.

The stringers gave us something solid to attach the sheathing to.

Came out pretty well for what we had to work with. That carpenter in the picture is slightly-built but probably the best carpenter I have ever known. I brought him in kind of against his will as a favor to me. Had to twist some arm. He didn't want his name attached to such a project as he is quite hoity toity about the type of work he does and he wouldn't care for my even showing his picture here.

But I think he got the fact that we were resurrecting something, which we definitely were doing. I almost ended up buying the place, but it had some well and septic issues that weren't going to be easy to resolve. We set it up so that one could install real siding and decent windows later.

Out here trailers fall under the jurisdiction of HUD. Had to get a permit from the state as the county wouldn't touch it. When I went to call for a framing inspection the state inspector said, "What do you need me for?" It was a job for my GL insurance broker. I usually turn jobs like this down in two seconds flat.

We had to deal with the wall top plates first. Rot had worked beyond the roof.

We had a tough one a few years ago. It had trusses like Woody mentions and a curved lowslope roof plane. Rot made it tough. Trailer held the weight just fine.

Crap job all around. I've roofed afew and never had trouble, not owuld I slam shingles onto any home.

The issue I see is how do you know the contractor will be responsible to fix it correctly.

They will hold the weight. I have put whole new roof systems on top of the existing truss and metal roofs.

clover83 Said: Im in the camp of they are tougher than they look but I just wish they would use better plywood and hire a roofer. We replace the roof on many of them at 6-8 years old.

I'm in the camp of "they are tougher than they look" but I just wish they would use better plywood and hire a roofer. We replace the roof on many of them at 6-8 years old.

A double wide is just two 12' wide sections placed together. The span of the 2" x 2" trusses will be only 12'.

The easiest solution would be to determine how many trusses are broke and purchase some from a mobile manufacturing plant. Any company that sells mobile homes would have the connections to get you some. The plant would probably just ship them out inside the next unit the distributor buys. I've had the misfortune of having gone through a roof and had to purchase a new 4' x 12' textured ceiling panel.

By going through the manufacturer you are assured of an engineered truss as they probably use stress tested wood to build them with. I would probably advise your family member to go this route or get their insurance company involved if only to keep the roofing company on the straight and narrow in getting this repaired.

Mobile homes are built with 2x2's but they are not made out of normal wood. These little 2x2's are extremely strong and extremely difficult to break. Only complete and total idiots could achieve this type of damage. I've roofed many double wide mobile homes over the years and never had a single problem of that nature. I always told anyone helping me to make sure they lay down the new bundles gently, even on a house roof but especially a mobile home. Throwing the tear off from one side to the other is just double work and makes no sense. I'm sorry that your family member didn't find a better company to do the roof for them and hope they get everything fixed properly on the next go around. :(