I've been helping a buddy disassemble a 12x55 mobile home. By the time he's done he'll have enuf material to build a nice sized shed. About a week of steady work can have one down to the frame and axels. Lumber you can expect to get are numerous 2x3's or 2x4's or even 2x6's if the home is a newer one, alot of 3/4" plywood from the floor, windows, doors, some rinky dink trusses and maybe rinky dink cabinets, and even appliances, plus the axels and frame which will make a dandy tandem axel trailer once shortened. Cost??? $1.00 He got it from a mobile home dealer who has several on the lot that he took as trade-ins but they have no resale value. The older homes have 2x3 wall studs and as the homes get newer the walls get thicker, up to 2x6. If you find such a dealer who just wants to clear up some space on his lot he may even haul it for you cheap. I hauled the 12x55 with my 1 ton truck at the crack of dawn one saturday a m. The 16x70 we'll be doing next, the dealer will haul for $20. Food for thought and a good source for cheap building materials.

-- john leake (natlivent@pcpros.net), May 03, 2000

Answers

Good idea John. Don't forget about the insulation. If it is batts of fiberglass, it will be useful as insulation in something else, even bits stuffed in all the odd spots and holes of your house. They can also work as-is for outbuildings. I've known several people who have used them for bird raising. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), May 03, 2000.

This is a really good idea. Somebody just offered me, free, a nice little mobile home because he is buying a new one and has to get the old one off the lot. The free home is a 1969 and even though he is living in it, my county code won't let ME put it on my own land and live in it because it it pre-HUD. I already have one old home there as storage so I don;t really need another one but I do like the idea of the "free" building supplies. I would like to know more about dismantling a mobile home. I have heard of people using the base of one as a bridge and I have a really deep creek I could use a bridge over. As to the insulation, might it be full of roaches or other ugh unsavory bugs? How hard is it to dismantle an old mobile home?

I'd appreciate it if you all would post more on this topic!

-- Elizabeth Petofi (tengri@cstone.net), May 04, 2000.

Elizabeth, it isn't hard, we've done it twice. The first one we didn't dimantle all the way, just gutted and redid the inside, as we were living in it. It looked much better when we were done! The other one was a 30-footer my brother had hauled up the Alaska Highway to Tok, to house his family when they moved back up there in 1981 (I think). Anyway, he built a 24' x 32' cabin right over the top of it. When we moved in, we built a kitchen in one corner of the cabin - - they'd been using the trailer kitchen -- then tore off the superstructure, and using sheep muscle power, tipped the frame up sideways and got it out the door!! I think my brother guilt something out of it later. We salvaged everything we could out of the trailer before dismantling it, then had to build a floor where it had been sitting in the cabin! It is do-able, if you have a use for the type of materials you will get. My husband wants to get a camp trailer with working appliances and salvage the propane/12-volt appliances for our future home off the grid. Sometimes you can get one that has been in an accident pretty cheap.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), May 04, 2000.

That should be "sheer muscle power"!! We didn't have any sheep at that point!! And my brother *built* something out of the trailer frame, not *guilt* something!! I've got to watch my spelling!! :-)

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), May 04, 2000.

have 1 mobile home, a 1 bedroom in back and a small livingroom/kitchen combo in front and a bath in the middle. What a great animal hospital!

I also have a 23 foot travel trailer we gutted for a barn or storage shed. Walled off half and right now it is doubling as a goat barn and a milking parlor.

-- XRhodes (xrhodes@usa.com), May 04, 2000.

The way we did it was we gutted the inside first. You'll need a flat bar, hammer, crowbar and a screw gun is very helpful. A few misc wrenches for the plumbing, and some wire cutters for the wire. Remove the paneling, ceiling tiles, cabinets, interior doors, insulation, appliances, windows, electrical outlets and fixtures, basically everything so you have a roofed shell left. Next we removed the outer skin. Before you do that strongly advise you to nail some diagonal braces on the long walls cause things get real interesting (wobbly and snakey) without them. Also a good idea to block the fron and back of the frame to stifen things up. Next we did the roof. Its usually galvanized tin stapled to the outside vertical wall. At this point you're ready for the trusses. You'll have to examine them to see how they're attached. Once we figured it out it was pretty simple and easy. The only time we spent on the roof was when we took the roofing off. The rest of it can be done from a short ladder or step stool from inside the trailer. As the trusses are removed it's a good idea to put additional diagonal bracing from the walls toward the center of the floor. The trusses keep the walls from spreading so the diagonal braces will have to do the same. Now all thats left of the structure is the wall framing. We took it down in sections cause they'll be reused as sections, thus avoiding the dismanteling and reassembly labor. Last is the floor. Theres usually a 2x6 rim joist around the perimeter and it is bolted to the frame with long carriage bolts which have to be removed. This is a little difficult but doable. The one we just did had 2x4's and 2x2's as floor joist. The 2x4's were laying flat and glued to the underside of the plywood floor. We'll be cutting the floor into 8x12 panels and using them in one piece rather that trying to separate them from the floor plywood. I won't say its not alot of work but most of the work isn't real heavy work. Have fun and good luck!

-- john leake (natlivent@pcpros.net), May 04, 2000.

John, I think you have hit on the homesteaders new motto: "I won't say it isn't a lot of work, but most of the work isn't really heavy" Beauty! Whom, but a homesteader, would describe the complete disassembly of a mobile home as not heavy!

-- Rachel (rldk@hotmail.com), May 05, 2000.

Rachel: Heavy is a VW with a carrying handle. Its not that. Its just big.

-- john leake (natlivent@pcpros.net), May 05, 2000.

Oh, I don't know, John. Way back when, I had a VW and I didn't exactly have parallel parking down. My friends and I hopped out and arranged the VW as needed more than once. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), May 06, 2000.

I really love this thread! But what a disappointment about the sheep power! I was trying to think how many sheep and what kind of harnesses and what kind of training was required and which breed did you use and were sheep as good as goats and ..... oh, rats! You did it yourself with sheer power! OOOps lets me out. I am old and frail. Now, I wonder if .....

-- Elizabeth Petofi (tengri@cstone.net), May 08, 2000.

Elizabeth, we did it ourselves with the sheer muscle power of at least half a dozen grown men -- a thirty foot trailer frame is heavy!! Even with the axles already off!! So if you have to pick one up and move it out of a building, through a people sized door, get yourself a crew of big, strong friends!!

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), May 09, 2000.

I have a used mobile dealer in my area that has started recycling old beatup mobiles into hay sheds and horse barns! Depending on the size, style, etc. For hay sheds they cut off the front of the building leaving just the supporting structures, remove all interior walls & furnishings, remove and board over windows/doors. Makes a tidy & cheao hay shed, but not super pretty. The stalls were built by retaining the exterior walls, but enlarging door & window openings to make horse sized doorways. The interior walls were redone in plywood and all other interior features were removed. One I would have liked to have made a nice 3 stall bard with a big tack room. of course, this dealer then sells these formerly worthless mobiles for $1500 - 2500 depending on the work done. I'm keeping this idea on hold until my hubby & I can finally afford enough land to make it worthwhile. Currently we have 1 1/2 acres, but are not allowed to put this sort of thing up. Elle

-- Elle (hotging@aol.com), May 09, 2000.

Before I built my house (it's still unfinished, of course), I decided not to get a mobile or a trailer, because I didn't want to deal with trying to unload it or have to look at it or tear it down later. I bought a used 8x20ft steel shipping container. I had a 4x8ft skylight put in the top, and two windows on the side that would be facing south when it was placed on my property. These shipping containers are engineered to hold 40,000lbs and stack eight high! If a tree fell on a trailer i'd be smooshed, but in my container, I'd be safe. When I was done with it, I could use it for storage, or workroom, and I'm going to put a carport off one side of it. The only problem was insulation. In the summer it was great, but when the wet weather came back, things started furring up with mildew. Next time, I would insulate it somehow. I built a strawbale house, and when the bales were delivered, I took some and stacked them all over the outside of the container. That helped a lot, but I didn't have time or energy to cover them with tarps, which would have helped the insulating. Containers come in 8x20 and 8x40 and sometimes 9.5x26 or 40. Mine cost, $1600, plus another maybe $650 for the alterations and delivery.

-- snoozy (allen@oz.net), May 15, 2000.