Paint and Waterlines

[wunjott2be]

Hi all I have a 1985 Champion .I moved it where it is 2 years ago and just this month finally got septic and water.Well of course the bottom sprung many leaks-well actually only 2 that we saw because my brother has decided to redo the whole thing with the PEX line.He is a car mechanic not a plumber but he thinks it is something he can tackle.Do you all think its do-able? He got all his stuff from PEX????.com. This trailer has no cut off valves so he wants to make those handy for the future.Is it easier to just have a central area where all lines are together or can he put cut offs under the 2 sinks,tub and I think hot water heater? Are they easy to do? Also the other question---When all this is done I would like to paint the trailer Do people paint them and if yes what would I use? Thanks so much Sue

[Brenda (OH)]

Hi Sue,

I have learned to do plumbing repairs with pex this year, after I saw it done it a few times, and with a little coaching. It is pretty forgiving stuff.

that said, if your brother can plan out the repair with someone who has already redone a MH, it may be a lot easier. There are manifolds available that can be used to branch the lines off of the supply line that I have seen but not used, that may be helpful for a total replumb job. You also may want to consider paying a little extra to use the blue and red pex lines as a way to identify hot vs cold water lines.

If you are keeping any of the original water lines, some types are easier to join up to than others, and may need different types of connectors. If there is copper pipe, there are again different connectors needed to join it to the pex.

all very do-able, but in my case, every type I needed was sold at a different supplier. Some common stuff at home depot, more specialized stuff from the RV supply store, other very special stuff only available at the MH store across the county, or by catalog order. (of course, this website has lots of stuff too, but I found it after I did the first set of repairs lol)

There are also things about running the pex above the insulation, and next to the heating ducts, etc that someone with experience may be able to lend advice about that would make it mostly a one shot repair, not trial and error! also, Mark's repair book goes into a lot of the details to help make it a one time repair.

I wonder if alot of the underbelly wrap is shot, if it may be worth taking it off, doing the replumbing work, check and recheck for leaks in the new and old lines, then do a thorough job reinsulating the underbelly, and repairing the belly wrap to protect the new plumbing, and save a lot on heating costs.

so, overall, I like pex plumbings, what I save on the cost of using it myself for some repairs vs calling a plumber has more than covered the $$$$ spent for the tools I have bought to do the work.

Personally, the thing that was the most complicated in my plumbing projects was redoing the bathtub. I hired that out to a MH repair guy, and when I heard him cussing at how the previous drain had been mis installed, I did not regret paying him to figure it out in the least lol.

Brenda (OH)

[Mark]

Good answer Brenda! Unless the underbelly is totally gone, I would not remove it. Huge headache installing a new one. Installing plumbing lines is childs play compared to replacing an unberbelly.

I usually made small holes in the underbelly and fed the pipes down along the heat duct. When the pipe stopped feeding because it hit something, then I'd estimate how far I had pushed the pipe, cut another small hole, feel for the pipes and push them some more.

When feeding pipes, I would get by with a slit in the belly just big enough to put my hand up in the insulation and feel for the pipes. If I had to make connections, then I'd need a little bit bigger hole. On a good job, I could feed pipes from one end of a home to the other with about a half dozen small slits plus a couple larger ones to install T's.

My Dad once had a mobile home he rented out. He lives several hours away from me. He hired a plumber who cut open the entire belly. I about hit the roof (and so did my Dad!)

Mark