We purchased a 10 yr old modular about a year and a half ago. It's in very good condition. Owner replaced carpets at purchase. We would like to update the walls. Kitchen and baths are wallboard type material that I think can be sanded and painted just like paneling. The other walls concern me though. They can not be cleaned. They seem like a type of wallpaper over wallboard or ? If they get wet they stain. It's very pretty but impractical. Should it just be replaced with drywall? There are strips of "trim" unevenly spaced on the walls from floor to ceiling. And in every room there is one section that is a slightly different shade of beige.And the ceilings of course are the textured finish with trim strips every 4 feet. Can the whole thing be replaced by drywall in a manufactured home? It is set over a full concrete block basement with concrete poured into the block and steel beams set into the concrete. It is set on a hill, the back part being level with the ground and the front having a raised wooden deck. My concern after reading several threads on here is that it is really a "trailer" and not a modular home. The back door looks just like a trailer door. How can you tell the difference? Any help or advice is appreciated, truly.

Realize that the materials used are there because the 'home' must travel from a manufacturing plant to at least one location. Also, homes (trailers?)such as this are built with lower cost labor so simple and fast is the word of the day for construction.

That is why you have the wall panels that you have.

Now that your home is sitting where it is you can do almost any type of conventional construction you want. Every wall surface can be replaced or skinned over with drywall to give you a smooth, paintable and more 'home-like' wall surface. There are a few downsides:

1. If you ever choose to move your home, drywall will crack during travel.
2. The existing wall surface is likely less than 1/4" thick. Replacing it with drywall or especially overlaying it with drywall will make your walls thicker. This means extending door and window jambs, replacing trim and extending electrical outlets.

What you have is for sure not a moduler.
Moduler never use those strips between the panels, use real reguler ext. doors not the thin shorter door a trailer would use, and there would be no steel frame under them.
You may even see where the trim is plastic not real wood.
I would never count on a skim coat of drywall compound over the walls, but what can work is get yourself an ossilating saw and use it to remove all those strips, remove all the trim around the windows, baseboard and doors.
I use tiny pieces of blue painters tape on the ceiling and floor to mark where the wall studs are. Then I use 1/4 drywall to cover the wall. I first measure to make sure the wall is 8' or less. The seams have to fall on a stud, so the first piece may need to be trimmed. Never have the sheets sitting directly on the floor, leave about 3/8 to 1/2 from the floor.
Always lift it so it's tight to the ceiling and do the top piece first.
Use drywall adhesive under the drywall as well as drywall screws to attach it. I press the sheet tight to the wall add just a few screws at the top and go over the whole panel with a hand floor roller. (a rolling pin will work) This speads out the glue behind the wall, then install the rest of the screws.
It's very important to not have the drywall come all the way out to the edges of the jambs around the windows and doors like you do in a reguler drywall job. You leave it cut back at about 3/4 of the width of the trim your going to use.
The reason being is then you can get away with having to add jamb extentions.

I have a good friend who makes his living rehabing mobile homes in mobile home parks. He is often given them for free. He drywalls each one in much the same manner Joe does, and they are beautiful when complete.

As far as knowing which Type it is.
If you have tires, suspension or skirted metal frame then this is a Manufactured aka trailer.
If it is missing the above parts and you have permanent basement with no crawl space between home and basement ground top then it is Modular. In 2000-2001 these were probably sheathed with OSB, cheapest LO-E white vinyl windows possible, 2x6 outside wall, 2x4 inner walls, 3 tab shingles, drip edge, house wrap not required until Late 2001, vinyl siding.
Inside they could be rocked or would have 4x8 sheets of 'custom' decorator panel which you can actually let selective people choose which style they want during an order. "If i had to. I would choose the white bumpy washable kind and make a water park with silicone. ok jk.
Hopefully yours is Modular but you can sheetrock a manufactured home too. Youtube has some cool vidz about this topic if you were unsure of it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: JB Builder,

quote:

It is set over a full concrete block basement with concrete poured into the block and steel beams set into the concrete. It is set on a hill, the back part being level with the ground and the front having a raised wooden deck

Looks like a real house. No tires, nor skirt or I would have known on sight it was a trailer and not bought it.

Look under it, is there visable steel beams part of the struture? Or LVL's and engineered floor joist.
And to the other poster that thinks all moduler have cheap windows and partical board floors it's simply not true.
Totaly depends on the company that made it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: joecaption,

In 2001 every modular we framed was tongue-groove 5\8 osb floor, "osb sheathing on the walls" or bildrite and had vinyl-lite branded windows, no house wrap was required until late 2001. You are right though. I said "Probably". Meaning not every modular has osb floor or cheapest on market vinyl-lite windows.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: JB Builder,