CNM DESIGN
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I want to bye old house trailers and the lot, then strip it down to the frame and rebuild it with my own design. Has anyone done this or have any information on if it can be done?
Remodeling from the frame up
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Richard
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I've never done it but was thinking...it might be more cost effective to simply raize the building and start from scratch?
MossRoad
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Richard
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Re-read this and now I think I realize you mean manufactured homes? (mobile homes)
OP
CNM DESIGN
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Yes mobile homes. If I rebuild from the frame up will it still be considered a mobile home for tax reasons. I will rent these units.
MossRoad
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Just to be clear, manufactured homes and mobile homes are two different things. Manufactured homes are stick built houses built in a factory and moved on-site. For all intents and purposes, they are not mobile.
Mobile homes are built on steel trailers and are meant to be able to be moved from time to time and are of much thinner and lighter construction.
MossRoad
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I do not know if it would be legal. I know there was an older mobile home park near our airport that the airport bought for expansion and then told everyone they had to move out. The problem was, the homes were so old they were not legal to move anywhere because they did not meet code. So, the owners could not move them, nor could they sell them, so they were stuck and had to abandon them.
You may have to make look into any codes in your area and see if you can make them legal not only as a house, but a mobile home.
And I understand the part about leaving the frame. Lots of folks around here buy trashed houses and leave one exterior wall standing while building completely new everything else. Gets them around a lot of permits and fees and such. Good luck with your project.
EddieWalker
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I'm a General Contractor and Remodeler. I have some experience working on mobile homes, and how they are built.
When you say that you want to "strip it down to the frame" Are you talking about the stud walls? or down to the metal trailer frame that flooring is attached to?
I don't know the numbers, but I can tell you that in every mobile home that I've worked on, it's always amazing how cheaply they are built. Every piece of material is the very cheapest, poorest quality that I've come across. From the sub floors, which are low grade particle board, to the studs, which look more like rejects then anything I'd use in something I'd build, to the electrical outlets and plumbing. Since you are planning on throwing all that away, it wont matter how bad they are built. If you are planing on using any of the existing materials to keep costs down, it's probably not worth the effort.
Your question of if it can be done is yes. If it can be done and resold for a proffit is where I think it cannot be done. They are either cheap alternatives to a real house, or they are quick and affordable temporary housing. Either way, the key word here is cheap. Nobody is going to spend comparable money for a place on a thin metal frame foundation if they can get a house on a cement foundation for the same or a little more money.
If you are buying them for next to nothing, you are still limited to the footprint of the trailers. If you build them in place where they will remain, you don't have to worry about splitting the trailers, so that helps, but you are still paying to build a new home on top of a lousy foundation. You can't build the house any cheaper then a builder can on a cement slab, so I'm at a loss as to how this will be desirable to a buyer?
Do you have a market for this? Do you have an angle that will attract buyers to your homes over convnetional homes in the area? Will a bank finance them so that people can afford to buy them?
Good luck with it, but before you start, be very sure of your numbers and your market.
Eddie
