Keeping an Exterior Door in Square.

If you own a mobile home, you've probably had a reason to replace a window or a door. With everything else, there are many right ways and wrong ways to do something. This post deals exclusively with Mobile Home Exterior Doors, not Combination Doors.

This is an issue even for the author. The last exterior door I replaced was out of square. The door would pop open, and shutting it was difficult. It was pulling one way, rather than opening and closing smoothly. Many things can affect the squareness of the door..

• Offset Studs
• Rotten Studs
• If the home has set (USE A LEVEL)
• The order in which screws are screwed into the frame...

Regarding the last one, try this:

1. Check the studs and floor with a level. Sit door.
2. Place one screw beside the hinges on one side (opposite of the door knob)
3. Install the door knob and open and shut the door. 
4. If the door pulls or pops, make your adjustments till the door operates smoothly.
5. Screw in the frame around the door knob.
6. Place reset of the screws.

Weatherizing your Mobile Home - Insulating Water Heaters!?

People who own older homes (70s models) will find this blog post more useful. 

Every opening, seam, utility and light bulb represents a potential energy drain. Even curtains have an impact

on your heating and cooling cost! Water heaters are often over looked. 

In older model homes, the water heater was only accessible outside through a metal door.
The only thing between your water heater and the cold is a metal door!

As such, water heaters represent a potential energy waste. In the winter, the elements have to kick on

more often to keep the water warm, costing more in electricity. Purchasing a newer more efficient water heater won't fix the problem. You need to insulate the water heater.

Insulate the water heater? What magic is this? Isn't my water heater insulated already!?

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Yes, but you can make it better. Check out:

Hot Water Heater Insulation Jacket

The insulation jacket works just like a..jacket. It is an additional barrier between the elements are your 

hot water. Just like in the snow, layering helps!

Flair-It Shut Off to a Flexible Hose (correct way)

My previous post had been on a way to go from a Flair-It Shut Off to a flexible hose. It involved cutting off the nipple of one side of the shut off, to leave only threads.

We'll that's an extra step now! Check out the item below:

Find it here @ Ashvillemobilehomes.com

Remember, hard work pays off. But smart work pays for itself.

Rigging a Pex Shut Off to work with a flexible Supply Hose

Have you ever installed a shut off under a sink? It's not fun. The angle is painful, and the supply lines probably aren't aligned with the faucet supply lines. Pex Pipe is not flexible over short distances.

You have a spark of inspiration, and decide to use a flexible 1/2" hose to bridge the gap...and then find 

out that you can't hook the flexible hose to the pex shut off.

What do you do? It just won't fit. Look at the picture below. Cut the nipple off at the black line with a hacksaw. Clear any sheared plastic bits, and apply a layer or two of teflon tape! 

And there you have it. A Pex Shut Off working with a female flexible hose!

Ashville Mobile Homes Newest Employee - Chewy!

Ashville Mobile Homes Newest Employee - Chewy!

This magnificent cat you see pictured came to us as a little flea covered kitten who lived at a local Huddle House. He crawled under Trailer John's truck and rode back to work with him. 

He is 7 months old now, and spends his time biting customers and getting belly rubs from the staff. When not biting customers (hence the name Chewy), he spends his time sleeping near the front desk, snoozing in an office chair on a towel, napping on the counter and eating.

Replace the whole mobile home faucet or look for washers?

Replace the whole mobile home faucet or look for washers?


Your bathroom or kitchen faucet is leaking. Your Options:

1.  Try to replace the washer or valve. 
2.  Drop $20 dollars and replace the whole faucet 

Let us break these options down, if you don't want to read any further, just replace the faucet.


Options 1 (and why it is bad):


Why replace spend $20s when the o-ring is 50 cents? Finding the exact o-ring is equivalent to finding a
$1000 dollar bill on the ground. It's out there..somewhere..waiting for you to walk past it. Good Luck.

99% of the time (1% margin of error), everyone who turned down a replacement faucet come back and
buy the replacement faucet in the end. It is nearly impossible to find the exact o-ring, sorry.

This is what your will look like at the end of option 1:

Option 2 (the correct answer):

Remember the saying 'do it right the first time', 'measure twice, cut once'? This is just like that. Replacing a mobile home faucet takes about 30 minutes, and you have a new faucet, not the old worn one which has already broken once.

Replace it quick and easy and get out of there before your wife decides to do any more renovating!

Mobile Home Plumbing - Which Type of Pipe do I use?

Plumbing a mobile home is not fun: imagine army crawling in a compressed space with nothing over head but
rusty metal and coal black bottom board fabric (or if you are unlucky, wet torn insulation).

Mobile homes are plumbed with a variety of piping from CPVC, Polybutylene ('that gray stuff') and PEX to name a few. We at Ashvillemobilehomes.com suggest PEX pipe for numerous reasons.

Why Pex?

1. It's awesome.When I moved in my current home, the first thing I did was re-plumb the entire home from polybutylene to pex - Best.Decision.Ever. We had a hard freeze a few months later, and my water pipes froze solid (how did this happen? I didn't patch my skirting). After 48 hours of being frozen solid, the weather broke, and my pipes thawed. Only a metal shut off had broken.
2. Easy of use - Pex pipe can be cut with a hacksaw, or a pair of pipe cutters. It is flexible and can easily turn a 90 degree angle without the need for an additional elbow fitting. 
3. No Glue Required - You don't have to worry about your repair men sniffing the pipe glue instead of working. Most PEX fittings are reusable also.
4. Hot and Cold Use - PEX pipe doesn't care. Water is water, and so long as it doesn't undergo a phase change into another state due to temperature (water to steam), PEX will handle the water pressure like a boss.
5. Durability - Pex will not shatter, nor crack like PVC or CPVC nor is it degraded by direct sunlight (I'm looking at you CPVC).

Long story short, use PEX pipe when you can. If you need to transition between CPVC or Polybutylene, use a speed fit.

Who is awesome?