My mobile home is a 1992 with a garage. I have noticed the only room in the house that's even remotely warm is the small bathroom. I have shut down 3 rooms so far and it's still cold. Plastic has been put up on the windows but it seems there are not enough vents in any of the rooms. The walls are also cold.
Does anyone know if it is alright to close off registers and put blankets on the bottom of the doors in a mobile home?Any advice?
By RD
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Is the underbelly in good condition? Does it have a skirt? Can you take off a piece of wall panel and see what condition the insulation is? Close off the registers and rooms that you don't use.
Hi - I do not know where you live but if you live where it gets really cold then you may have to decide which two or three rooms you can "live" in until next summer - unless you are buying this mobile home and can afford to do repairs yourself or hire a another repair person. Most likely this will also be a problem in summer also (too hot).
I believe you can safely close off vents to unused rooms and place something at the bottom of that room door to stop the "draw" of air. (Do not close off room doors that are being used as your heater or AC use this as return air vents - unless your doors have vents made in the door.)
You will probably find that your walls are very poorly insulated and you may have to find a way to seal-off the underbelly of your trailer home. Plastic on your windows is a good start but there may be air coming in around the windows also. You can try corking on the outside around the window and then maybe try covering the whole window (and frame) inside with insulated curtains or a blanket. Actually, almost any kind of covering will help.
You can try Google with your question as there is a lot of information on this subject.
I hope you find a way to keep warm as I know from experience that it is no fun to be cold all the time and still have to somehow pay a "high" gas or electric bill.
A mobile home needs to be skirted, and it is better to insulate that skirt, or when it snows, bank the snow up around the skirting. By "skirt", we mean that it needs to have the open area under the home boarded off with a permanent "skirt", that will look like a foundation. Plywood or orientated strand board is used. A frame of two by fours is necessary.
You will likely also need to have heat tape wrapped around your water lines. Heat tape is an electrical tape/cord that you wrap around the exposed water lines and keep plugged in. If your mobile home is too cold, then you run the risk of freezing the water lines, which is far more expensive to repair than the cost of keeping things warm. If you do not know about any of this stuff, than you'd best find a carpenter/home repair handyman who can help you winterize your home.
If your furnace is not adequately heating the place at this time of year, than you need to do all these things. I have lived in mobile homes that were very snug - old ones, too, back in the 70's and 80's. And we have temperatures here in Saskatchewan that go to -40F. You should not be shutting off rooms completely, as you run the risk of freezing your water lines, which run through the floors of your home. The cold rooms will not keep the pipes warm enough. I had a renter who caused a lot of problems and burst the pipes because of this very thing.
What is the best insulation to use to put on the inside walls of the skirting. I am going to crawl under and insulate best I can. I also live in Saskatchewan. My pipes always freeze. I have heat tape going from the water heater to ground.
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