Putting steel wool around excess holes

[bguy49]

I bought a 20 yr old mobile last year and it had steel wool stuffed around all the plumbing excess holes, under the bathroom and kitchen sinks. I removed all of them after I had pipes freeze up last winter in the belly. I did not think much of this until a friend told me they do this to keep the cold drafts and mice out. I live in central Wisc. and would like to know if the steel wool trick is recommended? Has any one heard of this? Do I need this air flow to keep the pipes from freezing?

Dave

[JD]

People use steel wool to keep critters out of those holes all the time in my area and it seems to work. I would think the steel wool would do better than spray foam for airflow, but pipes freezing should be addressed with floor insulation, underbelly and sometimes skirting.

JMO
JD

[bguy49]

Another mobile owner told me to address freezing pipes by leaving the vanity doors open during sub-zero weather......I assume this is to get warm air down there?.....which I did and had no more freeze ups last winter........if I drilled small holes( 1" or so) in my duct work, would that help keep the belly warm enough that I can at least close the doors in real cold weather, or would I just be wasting heat? I was told that some of the newer mobiles actually have heat flow into the belly space. There is some insulation in the belly....varies from 1"-3"...does not seem like enough for Central WI.....we get -30 temps at times.

Would like to know how others address pipe freeze ups......I know that letting the water run is a NO NO!

[Greg]

The key to freeze ups and critter problems is to make sure the underbelly & insulation is in good shape with no holes AND the skirting is in place with no holes or gaps. You need to keep the critters from getting under your home to start with.

The heat comes off of the heat ducts as the furnace runs, the plumbing (from the factory) is run near the ducts to keep them from freezing. There should be no reason to drill any holes for extra heat if everything is in place as it was when it left the factory. 1-3" of insulation is no where near what you should have in your area, 6-8" is closer what you need. Knock on wood, but I very seldom have any freezing problems and we seldom use the furnace since we heat with a Monitor unit. Greg

[bguy49]

Thanks to JD and Greg for the reply's! The air ducts in my MH run close to 1 of the long steel beams and the water lines run close to the "other" steel beam, not sure this qualifies as close. I am not sure that I want to add insulation at this time, but is probably needed. I have a lot of venting in the skirting and I wonder if I should consider closing those off in the colder months....seems like there has been some discussion on this forum about doing this. My skirting is viynal and and has a vented section every 5-6 panels. Any good tips on how to adapt an inexpensive shut off method to these....othger than a bale of hay!! LOL... I still am considering the 1" dia. holes in the heat ducts, maybe 3-4 along the length. Anyone out there heard of this before? I have a plumber friend who tells me that he see's MH's from time to time that do have heat ducts going to the space down under.

Dave

[Greg]

Has someone moved the water lines? Everyone that I have seen run within a foot or so of the duct. Greg

[bguy49]

I think they are factory installed like this. When I had a water leak last summer I had to open up the underbelly to dry out the insulation and there were no previous cuts in the liner. Don't know if you remember the old joke about getting a lemon car that was either built on a Monday or a Friday, well maybe my MH is a Monday or Friday MH? Anyhow, maybe that is why I have freezing pipes issues?
Wish I had the time to crawl under, open the liner up and take pic's.


Dave

[Greg]

Anything is possible, with good insulation and belly wrap it may be OK. After 20 years I guess that a problem would have showed up by now. Greg