mobilehomerepair.com

hi everyone ,great website , its neat to have place to get advice / help and learn new things & talk about our homes .I have posted in the past and gotten help which i really appreciated .
I would like to ask a few questions for 2 of my friends , we all own double wides .heres the deal , we recently had hurricane here , 2 of my friends older double wides received damage to shingle roofs, roofs are older so its time for new roofing . Both are considering metal roofing for their double wides but we need advice .
1 of these friends owns a 1987 double wide [ dont know make / model but will ask him if info is required ] home sits on blocks no slab underneath , located in Louisiana .He has purchased commercial corruagated tin from place called Muller ,sheet size is 3'w x 12'8' long ,he says weight of each sheet is about 30 lbs .
He has small crawl space in attic , he looked in there and says he sees what he thinks is 1/2 thick roof decking , under roof decking is 1 x 2 rafters . he says under the 1 x 2 rafters appears to be some sort of metal straps that look similiar to what they use to tie mobile homes down with . Then vertical 2 x 4 supports every so often .
I am to help him with this job , I am wondering if the homes outer walls are strong enough to hold the weight of the commercial corragated tin roof ? He says the the home has 2x 4 in walls and team plate .
Also he had wanted to just place 1 x 4 lads down on top of the old shingles then secure the new commercial tin down . I told him i question doing that as I feel that it would be best to remove the old shingles due to their added weight might not be good for homes walls and also that they may hold condensation and rot causing future deck damage .I also am worried that leaving the shingles may hinder the tin causing uneven fitting or seating of sheets - perhaps even effect how secure roof is by not allowing tin screws to penerate properly ? i could be wrong on that one what are your thoughts on all this ? I really appreciate all the help and advice any one can give us ..
My other friend , who also has a messed up roof , is waiting to hear answers to these questions before she bothers to purchase any materials .
Thank you

Hi

I would remove the shingles and the old felt. This will allow you to eyeball the wood and repair any damage/rot.

I had my '88 MH done by the pros. There was lots of rotten wood to repair. They put 2 layers of roofing felt and lots of tin cap and of course drip edge by the local code.

JMHO

Good luck to you guys over there.

Harry

Jennifer, They may want to go one step farther and remove the decking. As Harry said the first thing to do is remove the shingles and see what there is to work with.
There is a section in Mark's book that deals with installing a metal roof. Greg

I wish this mobile home had a metal roof. But alas I have a two shingle roofs overhead. My deck has a metal roof and I love to sit out on it when the rain is pouring down.

I also think you should remove the old shingles and repair any water damaged decking. The metal roof as you describe should weigh less than 1lb per sq ft, but it is still added weight. The old shingle roof weighs a lot more than the metal roof you want to install, so by removing the shingles, you ensure that you are not adding too much weight.

You will then be able to see and repair any damaged decking. Another major advantage is you will be able to mark the location of the trusses to be able to attach the lats direct to the trusses and not just the sheathing. If it were me, I would put screws in at 8" o.c., having a screw in each truss and one in between in the sheathing.

Removing the shingles is a hard job but the only cost is a dump fee The roof materials you want to add will also cost quite a bit. I don't think you would want to put all that money down on an "iffy" situation. Much better to try to obtain the best results possible for least amount of money spent.

I think you have the right ideas of how to handle your roof project.

JMO
JD

jennifer,
im on louisiana also [ gonzales] i want to add metal roof to my double wide also