On Tue 07 Oct 2008 05:53:55p, aemeijers told us...

Wayne Boatwright wrote:
On Tue 07 Oct 2008 04:49:42p, aemeijers told us...

gecko wrote:
I have a double-wide trailer in Delaware and need to replace all my
rugs due to an errant dog who has now passed.

I am thinking of trying hardwood flooring or laminates, but I have to
wonder if I can do that. I am thinking that my sub-flooring might
not handle hardwood flooring. Laminates might be possible since my
understanding is that they can be installed as 'floating'. I am not
sure I really care for laminates however.

I guess what I am looking for here is any advice pertinent to my
concerns - even 'don't do it'.

Thanks

-GECKO
How dry is it under that trailer? Most trailers I have seen aren't
real solid on the bottom, and hardwood does not cope with moisture
well. Not to mention the problems with the floors getting taller on
all the doors. I'd go with a good grade of textured vinyl and area
rugs, myself.

--
aem sends...


Again, age, manufacturer, and method of installation of the double wide
unit are key to its construction and the various characteristics that
some folks are criticizing/evaluating without knowing all the details.

Modern manufactured homes, in this case a double-wide, often exceed the
specs used for stick built homes. They go through rigorous
inspections, are well insulated, have sturdy subflooring, and are
extremely well sealed from the underside.

Unless the OP states otherwise, I rather doubt that this qualifies as a
"trailer".

Manufactured homes, whether they are installed above grade or "ground
set" at grade, have no more moisture underneath them than a stick built
home with a crawlspace.

I think we need to hear more from the OP to accurately make any kind of
recommendation.

OP did state otherwise- he called it a 'double-wide trailer'.

I'm sorry, but I actually did miss that statement. Still, in some areas,
manufactured homes are referred to as trailers, since their method of
arrival is on a removable wheelbase.

What you are describing is, around here, called a 'modular' home. I
never hear the term double-wide applied to those. Basic dividing line
seems to be, is the house designed for use in a 'manufactured home
community', or as a alternative to a stick-built house?

In our area, "modular" refers to a home built from various multiple units
that end up joined together, often with as little as an individual room
being a module. Manufactured homes cover everything else, except those
that are true "trailers".

I'm old fashioned- if it has metal floor joists, it is a trailer,
AFAIAC. Yes, most of them are a lot better than they used to be. But by
virtue of the price point they have to make, they all compromise
somewhere. Flip side of that is, few stick-built houses are as good as
they used to be, unless you have the money and knowledge to make the
builder build it properly.

Our manufactured home has 2 x 6 wooden floor and wall joists. All of our
joists, including ceiling, are 16" on center. We have 3/4" plywood
subflooring and 5/8" thick drywall, along with better insulation than we
had in our stick built house that was built in 2000. I do not consider it
a trailer by any means. It arrived in two segments which were then joined
down the middle line. There are also triple and quad wides that are
similarly assembled, and may be as large as 3600 sq. ft. Their
construction is quite substantial.

And as to the moisture underneath- unless they are on a real foundation
with proper drainage, yes, they are prone to being damp underneath.
Skirting is decorative, if it only goes down to ground level. Most crawl
spaces I have seen are damp, too, since almost nobody bothers to address
drainage in those either. I'm lucky- on this half-ass addition I am
sitting in as I type this, at least they did the crawl right- deep and
dry, with correct grading on the outside. More like a 3 1/2 foot tall
basement with a dirt floor. Sure wish they would have spent the extra
few thousand to make a real basement attached to the original basement,
though.

We have an approximately 3 1/2 foot tall crawlspace below the house, with
concrete block and pour concrete stem walls. It has a dirt floor, but
there is a central drain which flows to our septic tank.

One advantage we also have is that we live in the desert, so moisture is
seldom something one needs to consider, with or without a drain.


--
Wayne Boatwright
(correct the spelling of "geemail" to reply)

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Yakko, Oh...enuf said