moving a load bearing wall in a doublewide

[Kenshin911]

Hello,

I'm looking at buying a house, and I found one that's a good deal, except for one thing. In the bathroom There is a load bearing wall that was not possitioned correctly over the floor supports when the house was first built. Because of this, the floor in the bathroom sank three quarters of an inch. The house needs new flooring anyways, so I'm not concerned about that, but if I were to buy the house, I think I would like to move the wall so that it supports the roof properly. Is this difficult to do, and how is it done?

 

[OCGuy]

Just wait for the tornado.

 

[mugs]

I have no idea how trailers are constructed, but perhaps it would be easier to add supports for the floor under the wall?

 

[CrackRabbit]

Do yourself a favor and just stay away from trailer/mobile/pre-fab homes. You will be kicking yourself a couple years down the road when it starts to fall apart and its value drops like a turd in an outhouse.

 

[rudeguy]

I don't know. I have worked on mobile homes before and they are easy to fix up.

Adding supports under the wall would be hard, since the bottom of those things are pretty well boared up and there is more than likely a ton of insulation, heating ducts and stuff in the way.

A huge business right now is buying repo'd mobile homes and refurbishing them.


That's just my 2 pennies though.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
Do yourself a favor and just stay away from trailer/mobile/pre-fab homes. You will be kicking yourself a couple years down the road when it starts to fall apart and its value drops like a turd in an outhouse.

YOu know, that is what everyone says but I do not think that is always true. I moved into a 35 year old mobile a couple of months ago and have been fine with it. There are certainly downsides but it is not particularly bad in any area other than insulation.

 

[Kenshin911]

There is a crawlspace underneath this one, I haven't gone in it though since it's only about 3.5 feet high.

Tornadoes are very unlikely in this part of the country.

I'm aware that prefabbed homes don't do as well on the market as stick built homes. That's one of the reasons I'm interested in this one. I think it could have a lot of potential:

It's on 3.7 acres of wooded property that's mostly flat. It has a well and a septic system. It has a new heatpump. It is 1600 square feet. List price is $80k.

I think it's a steal considering how much land there is to the property. I'm just not sure what I would do about this wall if I get it.

 

[Eli]

Pass.

 

[ScottyB]

This is going to end badly.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

OP,

There are two different questions here:

How are you going to support the load while moving the wall?
and
How will you support the load in the long term?

I would assme that the only places you can support the load in the long term is by placing the load bearing beam directly above one of the steel trusses? running underneath. Is it close to one?

 

[Kenshin911]

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf
OP,

There are two different questions here:

How are you going to support the load while moving the wall?
and
How will you support the load in the long term?

I would assme that the only places you can support the load in the long term is by placing the load bearing beam directly above one of the steel trusses? running underneath. Is it close to one?

I'm not certain, but I believe that moving the wall about a foot will place it over the truss. I'd have to crawl under the building to be sure. As for how is the ceiling supported while moving the wall, I was hoping one you you all had an idea.

 

[AlienCraft]

Why not support it properly where it is now? and not mess with moving it ?

 

[bctbct]

mobile home or not I doubt you are dealing with a load bearing wall. they dont cut corners on the design like that.

 

[Tylanner]

Code probably demands 1.5x the necessary support, just do as you like.

3/4 inch plywood under the bathroom flooring should be about right

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
Do yourself a favor and just stay away from trailer/mobile/pre-fab homes. You will be kicking yourself a couple years down the road when it starts to fall apart and its value drops like a turd in an outhouse.

not true.

there is a huge diffrence between a trailer/mobile home and a pre-fab/modular home.

i have seen pre-fab/modular homes that are great. there is a sub-division i know of with pre-fab/modular homes that are $80-140k and very very nice.

 

[Perknose]

Originally posted by: Kenshin911
Hello,

I'm looking at buying a house, and I found one that's a good deal, except for one thing. In the bathroom There is a load bearing wall that was not possitioned correctly over the floor supports when the house was first built. Because of this, the floor in the bathroom sank three quarters of an inch. The house needs new flooring anyways, so I'm not concerned about that, but if I were to buy the house, I think I would like to move the wall so that it supports the roof properly. Is this difficult to do, and how is it done?

OP, I think you need a licensed local professional (or a similarly knowledgable good friend) to give you an estimate, which would of course involve a survey of what actually needs to be done.

If you go this route, please be upfront with the guy that you would like to do this yourself, pay him something for his time, and give him every opportunity to talk you out of doing it yourself.

Home repair of this magnitude is not some insignificant topic like emergency personal medical care that can be easily and safely handled remote control by strangers on an off topic internet forum. :thumbsup: