Recommendations on 86 Fleetwood I just acquired.

[retiredat47]

Hello, have been perusing the forum but this is the first post. I have some questions and am looking for recommendations from the forum members.
I recently inherited an 86 Fleetwood (14X70) Broadmoor model. It is on a lot in the city, which I inherited as well. There were a couple of water leaks so I replaced entire bathroom floor with ¾” Advantech. Took down most interior walls as well. My first question is that it has the gray poly-whatever water lines and am thinking of replacing them all with PEX or CPVC. The leaks were not caused by the lines themselves but one was the shower valve and one was the shutoff valve for the washer. All joints seem fine with no leaks but was going to replace them for a superior product.
Second is that the walls have 3/8” sheetrock with a plastic film that looks like wood. Plant to get rid of that look so was looking at possibly replacing all the sheetrock with new sheetrock. Is there a problem going with ½”? A number of the windows have leaked in the past and who know what is down underneath the windows although the floor is neat and clean I stripped all vinyl and carpet out in the entire house so now just have the particleboard floors. So am thinking of replacing all the sheetrock as ¾ of the outlets have been pulled out of the walls. While I am doing that I will just put regular outlets in boxes on the studs. Recommendations?
And also, it appears somebody tried to mud the seams in the ceiling with sheetrock mud in one bedroom. So at a minimum that ceiling will have to come down as you can’t sand it as it is like a foam type material. The trusses are on 16” centers so I will most likely just put up sheetrock. Again, could I use ½” without any problems?
I will be able to do all this work myself as I have built my own house here in CO as a homeowner builder. So I could do all this myself as well. I am certain I will have additional questions as time goes on. The house is in very good condition with the exception of what has been noted.

[Greg]

Hi & welcome. By the sounds of it you are basically going to do an entire rehab. Personally I would do the demo first so there are no surprises. Once you know what you are dealing with you can really see what you need to do.

The first concern to be aware of is weight. If you crawl "Downstairs" you will see how your home is supported by 2 I beams. The floor joists extend about 1/3 the width of the home past the beams and carry all of the weight of the home. It is common to have the joists bow down if excessive weight is added usually from roofs, but walls can add weight also. 1/2" sheet rock should not be a problem, but I would shy away from 5/8" I like to use 3/8" on ceilings due to the weight issue, but there can be issues getting it to lay flat also.

Plumbing, PEX, with lots of shut off valves, Don't forget to add a MAIN shutoff inside in an easy to get to location for emergencies.

Electrical, Now is the time to do upgrades with the walls open, Many Mobiles use a "Scotch lock" type connection that simply pierce the wire to make connection, just my opinion here but I feel they should be banned. Stay with regulation stick built electrical fixtures. Greg

[retiredat47]

Thanks Greg,

I will probably go with 1/2" rock thoughout and put 3/8" on the ceiling. If it is too wavy then I will go1/2" throughout. Most interior walls are down so I plan to redo them with 2x4s instead of the 2x3s currently in it, some are even 1x3s. Do these flex more than a typical house and will I spend the rest of my life fixing sheetrock joint cracks?

I will redo the water with PEX when it warms a little. The bellywrap is in good shape but will have to be opend about 2/3 of the length. So is this something that can be taped up with the tape they sell on this site if it is that long of an opening? Unless when I pull the gray tubing out I can pull the PEX in at the same time threading it through with the gray pipe.

Yes, my electrical connections were what you described. The back snaps on and punctures the wires for hot & nuetral, and ground. That is why I decided to go with a regular outlet and put it in a box on a stud like in normal building.

Also, plan to have a main water shutoff as I will probably only stay there a few months a year. I plan to put the valve knob up into the house next to the hot water heater so I don't have to get underneath to shut it off everytime.

[DCDiva]

Hello and welcome to the group--It looks like you are on the right track--we are currently doing the same thing to 2 MH 73-74 models--I highly recommend all the above and replacing the windows,if in the budget--I actually found new windows for $ 25 each for singles and 50 for doubles and many of the doubles could be made singles--many of the habitate/good will/at the factory--I have 2 major factories close to my house and we remodel many homes and always replace the windows we usually pay between 70-75,just found a wonderful deal on the MH---the Mh had new single pane windows from the weatherization program from our state--they were @ 2 years old but were not installed correctly and still leaked--when you install your own windows you can insulate/caulk them to besure they are weather tight--keep checking on my post as we are doing many of the same things--we finally got the permits to work--long story but I have them in my hands lol--now to get my kids spring sports out of the way to start working again--I just want to get done lol
Melissa

[Greg]

If the belly is in good shape, you can carefully cut it open and use the belly tape that Mark has here. JD uses another method to seal the belly that works well for him, perhaps he add some here or you could do a search to find it.

Cracks in the sheetrock are caused by movement, depending on what you have for a pier system for support you may not have a problem, Some here have repaired any cracks with paintable caulk since that will allow for some movement. Greg