Moble Home Repair Leaky Roof

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I live on 50 acres in NE Ok in a mobile home. I would like to repair it myself, but I don't have much experience/knowledge. Any suggestions on books, websites, etc. would be appreciated.

My main concern is a leaky roof. The trailer is 75' long and has seams every 4' in the metal roofing. I have tried coating it with a latex coating, but it didn't last long. I don't know if I applied it correctly. I had just enough money for one 5 gal. bucked, so I may have applied to little. I am open for any suggestions on how to coat the seams or roof inexpensively. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Carol

-- Carol Stirling (stirling@sstelco.com), November 24, 2001

Answers

aluma coat , , metal roof coating,, mix WELL,,,,,, apply thick THICK,, thats assuming that there arent any holes, tears, rips,, ect, in the roof.

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), November 24, 2001.

I don't know if there is one near you, but if there is a vinyl canvas manufacturer near you you may be able to get a couple of rolls of mistakes for free. and cover the roof with that. it's uv stabalized and will hold up for a couple of seasons anyway. Really other than that doing a roof correctly is never cheap. The only other suggestion is since you seem to have found the right spot, dump more latex on it. Then apply roofing cement to the edges of the latex patch. With the expansion and contraction of the roof the latex will lift eventually unless the whole roof is coated. Roofing cement will form a flexible seal around the latex, and make the patch last somewhat longer. It's really not a permanent fix but will keep your timbers from rotting. Really you need to roof over or do an elastomeric roof.

-- Ed (smikula@bellsouth.net), November 24, 2001.

Where specifically are your leaks? Are they in the seams or around exhaust pipes or vents? In either, I think you should consider getting off as much as of latex paint as you can. Latex is primarily intended for indoor, not outdoor usage, especially on metals. Then give the seams and around any vents or pipes a coating of roofing tar which has fiberglas strands in it. A devil to work with, but it should do the job. Won't be pretty, but should work. If your roof is flat, trying working off of a ladder section to avoid stepping directly on the roof.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), November 24, 2001.

Not latex paint ken roofing latex. They sell it for mobile homes it sticks to metal roofing. But you're supposed to cover the whole roof with it forms a seamless coating.

-- Ed (smikula@bellsouth.net), November 24, 2001.

The leaks are in the seams and around the vents and pipes. The trailer is a 12' wide older model. The latex was a special mobile home roof coating, but I did get on the roof to apply it. I think that walking on it caused most of the leeks, even though I stayed on the 2 x 4 runners. I see at least a dozen water marks on my ceiling. I need some inexpensive way to seal it until I can do better.

I really appreciate the comments. Thanks!

-- Carol S. (stirling@sstelco.com), November 24, 2001.



Carol, I have lived in mobile homes off and on in the past. A good alum mobile roof paint with fibers will help. I also alway used the black patching material first and let it dry and then put the alum coating on over it. You should be able to tell where the roof is leaking and use the patching material there first. There is a really good product called snow roof that works very well also but it is about $25.00 per gallon. There is a lot of dealers in OK that put another roof over your old one, although it cost $1000. up. I built a pole roof over one mobile home and it stopped the leaks and keep it cooler in the summer. Good luck Bill

-- Bill Porter (porboy298@yahoo.com), November 24, 2001.

I have an older mobile home and I sell building materials, this is what I found works best. Take off all the old, loose latex. Brush and/or hose the roof down well to get rid of debris. Then take asphalt roof cement (the trowel on thickness) and roof membrane and embed the roof membrane over all the seams and at any end walls. Patch around any vent pipes. If the flashing around the pipes is bad, buy a new boot. Ant cracks, spits etc can be patched with sheetmetal and zip screws (the kind for metal studs). Don't forget to use the roof cement. Wait a couple of days for this to cure and the go over all the seams with black roof coating. Both roof cement and coating are about $15 a 5gal can at Home Depot or Lowe's. Let that cure for at least 2 weeks and then go over the entire roof with aluminum roof coating (about $35 a 5gal can). You should get between 200-300 sq feet per 5 gal can. Make sure the temp is in at least the high 50's and it won't rain for 24 hrs.

For a temp patch in cold or wet weather you can buy a special roof cement. I did this to my 25 year old place this past summer and not one leak. It took so trial and error over the years (and asking a lot of roofers) to get the method down.

Good Luck, Dark

-- (Darkdakota@aol.com), November 24, 2001.


Hi, Carol. We have a 16x80; we were thinking we'd build new, but decided to just fix this up and add on. When we first moved our mobile here, we had a time with the leaks, too. My husband used a fiberglass roof tar on the seams and around the vents and chimney. It only took him a couple of hours and it worked like a charm. As for the stains inside, I used the Kilz upshot. A tip on that-- plug up the area around your water heater (and turn off the gas, of course) or the draft will suck the particles of the spray onto the burner plate, causing problems. We plan to put a real roof on this spring. Good luck!!

-- Dawn in MN (olsoncln@ecenet.com), November 24, 2001.

My sister repaired the roof on a double wide she had once. I don't know what it was called but it was a wide roll of white tape that she put over the seams and the put a sealer over it. Didn't take long, she did it herself and there were no more leaks after that.

-- Linda (alsangal@brentwood-tn.org), November 24, 2001.

WE used (thick coat) aluminum seal from lowes. When we lived in KY our mobile developed a leak in winter. I bought a canvas tarp from the farmers market. Coated both sides with Camp Dry. and throwed that sucker up on the roof. Looked Really horrible but stopped the leak.

-- Kenneth in N.C. (wizardsplace13@hotmail.com), November 25, 2001.


I have an older 12x70 I've been seeing the websites for an elastomeric covering that you put over unsulating sheets you put on the roof. It looks like a good, inexpensive system. My only question is what type of insulation are they putting under the fabric and what is it attached with, glue? Thanks, Mitch

-- Mitch Laird (milaird@yahoo.com), April 06, 2002.

I have had some success weatherproofing structures with latex paint and old bed sheets! For something like a join in sheet metal I first tear off a few strips of fabric, say 4" wide, and enough to lay right along the seam. I put on a generous covering of paint then lay the fabric over the wet paint, finally I add more paint until the fabric weave is well filled. The fabric gives the paint a bit of strength and allows a much thicker film to be built up, it also bridges any little holes or cracks.

This is not an original idea as it is a variation on an age old technique for water proofing planked boat decks etc.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), April 07, 2002.


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