re: Retiredat47 - Residing

[retiredat47]

I am kind of doing the same thing. Seems like a number of these homes need to have a lot of work done from a water leak or such. I am pretty much completely redoing an 86 Fleetwood. I only work on it maybe a day a week and a short day at that. But I completely replaced all the water lines with PEX (thanks Greg). Actually that was quite simple. Second thing was I replaced all the windows. So that is all done. I also removed all gas (propane) items and am going all electric. I just got done putting in a new 200A service to it from the street. That should be inspected by the end of this week then I plan to start on the siding. I am going to go with Smartside. I got a few pieces from Lowes and it was only 7/16. Actually it said on the sticker .21 so I am not quite sure. But it is stamped 16" OC so I need to look further into that. I used that for the end of my trailer as it was real bad by one window. But I ordered some 1/2" Smartside (special order) as I was thinking of not replacing it all and the current siding is 1/2" But I am not really thrilled of the 7/16" Smartside as I would just prefer 1/2" So I am still debating on what I want to do. I know the Hardy product is quite heavy so that is why I didn't use it. my exterior walls are 2X4 - 16OC.

Also, my window openings are single 2X4 from floor to roof. On the bottom there is a horizontal 2X4 for the openeing an then vertical 2X4s - 16OC. The vertical 2X4 is doubled from the bottom horizontal 2X4 on both sides (sistered with the 8' 2x4s). But on the top it is the same way. There is a horizontal 2X4 at the top of the window opening and the vertical 2X4s - 16s OC and doubled on the top along the 8' 2X4s. The way it is (on all my windows) is like this so it appears there is only single 2X4 support along side each window. Is this normal. This is the way it came from the factory.

Thanks!

PS. What I was trying to say in my previous message was the way my windows are framed in from the factory they do not have a jack stud supporting the header. The bottom sill (2X4) is supported with a jack stud fastened to the king stud and the cripples are 16" OC like normal. But the top header (again 2X4) just has the cripples from the top plate to the header. There are cripples on both ends of the header that attach to the king stud but no real support for the top plate other than the single king studs. Is this normal? Again, this is the way it came from the factory.

Thanks

[JD]

The lack of jack studs and true headers is very common in older older homes. I have never found that to create a problem though, probably because of the lack of weight above the top plate on an older mobile home.

JD