Mobile AKA Manufactured Homes

[Leta]

If you live in one (or have lived in one) that is NOT in a park, but is on its own land:

What year?

Has it been a good value?

Has it been hard to heat?

Would you do it again?

 

[AL]

I have lived in 2 different mobile homes. The first one was faling apart. Paid $1500 for it. No heat, no AC, no stove. I lived in it for 4yrs. I did install a little window AC in the bedroom. Cold weather - eh... some days were better than others. I would make corn / rice bags and heat them in the microwave, then bury them under the blankets. I would take a hot shower, dress in the steam and then run to bed. LOL. We had record freezing temps here one time (keep in mind, this is Florida) and my shampoo and handsoap froze (well, turned to gel that would pile up in your hand). I would close the door to my little bedroom with me, my cats and my 2 big dogs in there and usually it would get very warm.

After 4yrs and paying off a TON of debt, I bought a 2010 model with central heat and air. And a stove . If I were to do it again, I would be buy a cheaper model or a good model that had been "kindly" used.
The AC does great, and I will freely admit I am a happy air conditioner person. I keep it on 78 during the day but drop it to 70 at night so I can sleep. The heat? I did without for so long it seems wasteful to run it. My friends and family laugh at me because I say I "cranked up the heat last night" and they know that means I set it on 58. My ac/heat vents are in the floor. Pain in the butt because every speck of dirt, drop of water (or puppy pee), dust balls, cat hair etc goes in those vents. Then you have to unscrew the cover and vacuum / clean / sanitize. Pain in the butt.
Even with the vents in the floor, the floor stays cold except right around the vent itself. I have vinyl throughout because of the animals and my dirty shoes.. so your mileage may vary with carpet or area rugs.

Regardless of insulation (practically none in Trailer 1, up to code in Trailer 2) it seems a mobile home is like a tomato can laying out in the sun. In the summer it retains the heat of the day and works the AC. In the winter it retains any warmth from the day and saves teh heater.... *shrug*.
ETA - your insulation codes would be different in the colder climate, but I have no trouble staying warm. The main thing would be floor coverings if you have all vinyl.

 

[i_am2bz]

I bought a foreclosure 1999 with all applicances, in good shape. I just get nervous in bad weather...the meterologist says, if you're in a MH, get out...so, you're better off OUTSIDE IN THE STORM, then inside a MH!! Yikes! The heating is electric, it was costing us a ton, so we got a used kersosene heater, that made a big difference in the winter. When the a/c unit finally broke down, we put in 3 window units...it isn't really COOL but it was cheaper than running the central air...

 

[hqueen13]

We don't own this one, so I can't answer all your questions....
We have lived here for 4 years now, though, and it was manufactured 2002. It is a Liberty home 16' x 80' (singlewide) 2 bedroom/2 bath with a sunken kitchen.

When you come in, at first appearance, it is really cute. The kitchen appears spacious, and the living room is nice and big with a fairly large "entertainment center" built in. The master bedroom is large, with 2 closets (one is sort of walk in), a garden tub and standup shower. The second bedroom is tiny, barely holding a full size bed (which is a short futon style bed that folds up, so it isn't even standard bed height, if it was, it would make the room feel SO much smaller!), and the guest bathroom is nice with the toilet and shower being behind a second door, which makes it nice for guests.

However............. After you live here a while, you begin to notice how cheaply made the house is. ALL the "wood" is pressboard laminate. The ceiling is "vaulted" so that it gives the impression of extra height. Reality is that the lower edge of the wall is only about 4" above the top of the door frame. The peak of the ceiling is higher than a standard 8' ceiling, so it gives the impression of extra space. As the house has settled, it has shifted, and some of the windows do not seal well, nor do the doors. We are in a fairly secluded area, so we don't feel the pressing need to lock the back door religiously, and its a good thing because frankly it wouldn't matter, the house is just plain not secure.

At first look, the kitchen seems big. Until you start trying to organize in it. All the cabinets have deep edges that prevent you from easily using the space inside, the width of the cabinet and the width of the cabinet doors are not the same, so there is a LOT of wasted space. The cabinets are also awkward, with deep corners not being used efficiently.

The "mud room" at the back door is also the laundry room, which means if you live on a farm the dirt is tracked right past the washing machine coming in the back door, and so heaven forbid you drop anything from the washing machine into the dryer, or out of the dryer.

It is also tough because NOTHING in the house is standard. The framing in the walls isn't standard, the appliances are off brand no-name companies, the parts for the sinks and spigots aren't standard measurements, everything is unusual.

The biggest issue we have with the house has to do with the outside. The house does not have eaves or gutters, so when it rains, the water streams straight down the outside walls. Over time, it has worked its way between the siding and the wall, and now leaks in the windows. I have to keep tubs in the windows with rags perched everywhere to catch the drips, and sometimes streams of water coming in. When I can't catch the water quick enough (if I'm not home, or for whatever reason), the water lands on the window sills, which are only pressboard, so over time they have swelled and deformed now. The front of the house has a roof peak over the front door, and at the point where the peak comes down to meet the straight roof line, the water runs down the wall in a more concentrated amount, and so in that area, which is on the outside of the wall where there is a desk in the kitchen, the water is actually coming in on the floor. The barn manager, who owns the trailer, has known about this since we moved in. We have always kept telling her how bad it is, and she just hasn't done anything. She is FINALLY putting gutters on the house this week, so we will see if that corrects any of the issue now that it is so far along. I suspect the house would be ok if she had done this a long time ago, but she decided to be in denial and ignore the problem instead.

I don't know what she paid for in the house, but I guess if you've GOT to have something mobile, then its alright. But if you don't need the mobile quality, then it is MUCH more economical in the long run to go with something else. This house is just not quality made, and maybe some mobile homes are, but this one is clearly not. The info that we have seen says that these homes are supposed to last 30 years. I would NOT want to be in this house 15 years from now... I can't imagine what would need to be done to it to make sure it is still a good home.

If we had a choice and the ability to do it, we would build modular. Many modular builders build ABOVE what the required spec is for homes since the manufacturing cost is inexpensive (being able to 'assembly line' a product makes it much more cost effective and efficient!), and the home can be transported and then put up in a matter of a day, rather than spending MONTHS putting up a standard 'stick built' home. There is a house on my way to work that is going up, granted its a ginormous house (stupidly huge, I am so sick about it, the little house they tore down to build this one was beautiful... so wasteful!!), but it has been under construction now for MONTHS, I think since close August, maybe even earlier. A average sized modular home goes up in ONE day. Some friends of my parents have a modular, and when we visited them they showed us quite a few things. The roof is built of 2 x 6 boards, rather than the standard 2 x 4s. The construction is sound, and the home is beautifully made. You can order it as "nice" as you wish - granite counter tops, wood flooring, vaulted ceilings, etc etc etc.

 

[deb4o]

We are in our second MH--the first was a 1984 model 3 bdrm 2 bath single wide, it had a woodstove and electric base board heaters(useless) we put new windows in it and lived the for 7 years, Heating was cost effective becouse of the wood stove.


We have now bought a 2004 double wide 5 bdrm 2 bath amnd a family room(which we didn't have in the old one) we have central heat and air and I would never live without it agian, we had window AC in the old one. Our heating bill(along with everything else electric, which is everything) runs us about 150.00 at the most during the coldest winter months. we are having some cold days now average of 25 degrees and colder at night. I keep the temp about 65degrees at the highest,like to keep our electric bill down to 100-125$
We have great insulation. and here you have to put block shirting so our is contured block kind of like cinder block,it does wonders for keeping heating in check, verus metal skirting.

We love our home and the value was great,got more of a house than I would of if we had bought and stick home.

Our value of the house hasn't decreased that much over the last few years.

We would buy another one in a heartbeat.

If your thinking of buying one be sure to check around,get a good quaility brand.Our is a palm harbor which is very highly rated even in hurricane areas.It has a concret type siding and shingled roof, with what they call an alaska pack(means the roof load for snow is really high and the insultaion is thick).We have 2x6 floor josts(sp)and 2x4 wall studs just like a stick house.

 

[hqueen13]

If your thinking of buying one be sure to check around,get a good quaility brand.Our is a palm harbor which is very highly rated even in hurricane areas.It has a concret type siding and shingled roof, with what they call an alaska pack(means the roof load for snow is really high and the insultaion is thick).We have 2x6 floor josts(sp)and 2x4 wall studs just like a stick house.

I guess reality is that you get what you pay for, and there are cheaply made things everywhere. I would HATE to live in ours in a colder climate than MD. It gets cold enough here and this thing leaks like a sieve!!

I am curious what a trailer of that design/style costs? It sounds much fancier and better built than the one we live in. I wish ours were that nice!!!!

 

[the funny farm6]

Our first home was a 60-something trailer. Water pipes were constantly freezing, windows let in so much air you didn't know if they were open or shut, no cabonet space, roof leaked ( it was flat and we did tar it when we moved in), floors were always cold.... the list could go on! Lived there 2 years and glad to go hated that place!

Our third home was a "double wide" circa 1978. It was better, but windows still leaked, the "wood" on the floors was partical board. So in the bathroom, laundry room, kitchen after it got wet a time or two the floor was gone! The pipes froze a couple of times. but it was better that the first moble home. Lived there 7 years.

In both the walls were very thin after moving out of each I remember thinking- wow you can't hear the wind and storms don't seem half as bad.

 

[SSDreamin]

The house we just moved from was a doublewide, a first for me. I really hated it, but not because of the way it was constructed or anything like that. Like bz's comment, I lived in fear of the weather. Winters were fairly warm, summers were fairly warm (no a/c), and other than very little counterspace it was OK. My inlaws also lived in a doublewide. I was well built, always warm in winter (even though she swore they never turned the heat up above 62) and all appliances and cabinetry were standard. Guess it all depends on the brand of MH you are interested in. If I were to do it again, I would get one on a basement. I would've been much happier with a basement.

 

[Beekissed]

I've lived in trailers before and am living in one~sorta~now(this one has a cabin built onto the front and heats with wood). I think if I had to invest my money into one to live in for any length of time, I'd get an older one and just take measures to add more insulation, remove and replace cabinets, flooring, windows, etc., build a roof over it, along with a porch the entire length of the trailer.

 

[TTs Chicks]

We have an 4 bed/3 bath 07 double wide, we got a good deal cause we bought a lot model at the end of the year. We have lived in some trailers that were really bad (and some houses that were just as bad). My only real complaint is trying to keep the temp comfortable without a $450 / $500 light bill. The way the duct work is run it goes from one end to the other and the end it starts at will be hot/cold while the other end is cold/hot. We have a fireplace but it is in the end that is actually comfortable. I plan to put a gas heater on the opposite end and hope that between it and the fireplace this winter will be warmer We've done pretty good with just the fireplace (the thermostat on the central unit is set on 60 and only comes on in the middle of the night when the temps are in the 30s).

I haven't been scared/worried about the weather living in our home. I love our home and Lord willing will be in it for many years to come.