# What to do? Build home or remodel trailer?



## Dthomasof3 (Nov 5, 2013)

We have a bit of a dilemma. We currently own two homes. Well if you would call it that lol We live in a 1986 mobile home. We moved in an older home (idk what year...maybe 1940's??) to start building our own home and add on 20' to each side because the square footage is the same as the trailer and it's small for a family of 5. Anyways, the problem is...we homestead (duh or i wouldnt be on here lol) and homeschool so we constantly have something going on. It seems we're never going to get into the house. Our trailer needs A LOT of work. At what point would you say a house isn't liveable? we have soft spots in the floors and the roof doesnt leak but needs replaced. The house has been gutted and DH plans to start working on it as soon as we can get a fence around our property...Do we just scrap both houses and pull in a new trailer? Am i being ridiculous? My DH is the patient one so it doesnt bother him at all lol


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## bigjon (Oct 2, 2013)

no matter how much mony u put in trailer?u still have a trailer...we've lived in one for 35yrs,cheap-yes,no taxable value.they suck...I should've built a cabin!


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## Darren (May 10, 2002)

Help us help you. What state are you in? Soft floors aren't a good sign. You're going to have to spend money either way. Might as well spend it on something that will benefit you in the long run. Spending money without reaching a goal, sucks.


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

Personally, I would never recommend spending money on a trailer house beyond superficial things like paint or maybe carpet. 
New roof? New floors? No way. 
You'd be pouring money down a hole. :shrug:


BTW, we're in a similar spot. We have "the new house" which still needs windows!, backfill, wiring and plumbing and live in a 1981 trailer house. But every time I see a new problem in the trailer it just pushes me that much harder to get the REAL house finished. I'm sure not going to blow money on the trailer. It's bound for a bonfire once we're in the house!


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## Dutchofsc (Feb 23, 2014)

Do not buy a new trailer, it plummets in value! Keep throwing band aids at your old trailer but continue to push forward on the house remodel. You could get the utilities complete then finish one or two areas. Move in at that point and keep attacking the house one area at a time. Good luck. 


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

I'd also vote for never put anything into a trailer beyond basic fixup. Trailer manufacturers have cheap down to an art form, and you'll never get around that, no matter how much lipstick goes on the pig.

Quite common around here to turn one "into a house". My neighbor came up many years ago asking about doing it....my response was "Don't.....go right out the back door, build a house, and tow the trailer off when you're done".

He didn't, of course...poured MANY thousands of dollars into it, doubling the width, with the new addition merely propped up on 4x4's stuck in the ground ( no footings, nothing....wow ). The interior of the old half had the sloped ceiling they used to put in mobile homes, connecting to a flat ceiling of the addition. Years later, as the addition began to settle away from the trailer, he decided putting a basement under it was the ticket. So he got some huge wood beams, ran under the whole mess, jacked it up, and dug out a basement underneath with a Bobcat. Laid the block from the inside, could never properly waterproof it that way, and it's leaked from the get-go. Did probably 3 times the work of building a house to start with, and still has a trailer on a leaky basement. Tried to sell it several times.....can't even get back what he has in materials.


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## wharton (Oct 9, 2011)

TnAndy said:


> I'd also vote for never put anything into a trailer beyond basic fixup. Trailer manufacturers have cheap down to an art form, and you'll never get around that, no matter how much lipstick goes on the pig.
> 
> Quite common around here to turn one "into a house". My neighbor came up many years ago asking about doing it....my response was "Don't.....go right out the back door, build a house, and tow the trailer off when you're done".
> 
> He didn't, of course...poured MANY thousands of dollars into it, doubling the width, with the new addition merely propped up on 4x4's stuck in the ground ( no footings, nothing....wow ). The interior of the old half had the sloped ceiling they used to put in mobile homes, connecting to a flat ceiling of the addition. Years later, as the addition began to settle away from the trailer, he decided putting a basement under it was the ticket. So he got some huge wood beams, ran under the whole mess, jacked it up, and dug out a basement underneath with a Bobcat. Laid the block from the inside, could never properly waterproof it that way, and it's leaked from the get-go. Did probably 3 times the work of building a house to start with, and still has a trailer on a leaky basement. Tried to sell it several times.....can't even get back what he has in materials.


I just moved out of a rural hollow where one entire clan was obsessed with the "let's turn the piece of garbage single wide into a nice ranch house" obsession. I got to watch two decades of their antics, and without fail, they created substandard, valueless hovels with structural issues. Finally, the last of the spawn went to the township for a permit, and was told that they can pull the single wide off the full block foundation, double the size of the foundation, and build a real stick house on top, while temporarily living in the old trailer, in the back yard. But, as far as the township was concerned, the silliness of building new houses with trailers hidden inside, has come to an end. About time.


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

Honestly, I hate to see govt regulators step into things like this, because they often become more of an expense and nightmare than the original problem. With home inspections now way more common with home purchases, most buyers shouldn't get stuck with one of these 'makeovers' unless they are aware.

On the other hand, sometimes people almost need to be protected from themselves....ahahahaaaaa...

Another neighbor of mine built his own home ( stick built ) when he was about 17 and knew almost nothing about building. He built a full basement with one long side completely below grade...and the grade of the lot sloped down against that wall. He used 8" block, unreinforced. So, about 6 months into building, just about done, we get a series of heavy rains, the backfill on that side becomes water logged and that whole wall, about 40', falls over into the basement....corner to corner...block, mud, water...a real mess.

I'm convinced the ONLY reason the house didn't follow was he had used sawmill 1x for the subfloor.....long boards that he did run at a 45 angle, and the front wall, while it sagged, was sort of springing on that subfloor with the center beam as the fulcrum. 

He got down in the basement, propped up the house with a forest of 2x4's, cleaned up the mess, re-laid using 12" block, and the house is still standing today.

A simple building inspection at the foundation point would have stopped that from happening.


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## wharton (Oct 9, 2011)

I agree, I hate the current code mess in our area, and feel it is way overboard, but as you noted, we no longer have "professionals" out there installing 8" block basements, 2x8 floor joists or aluminum single hung windows. 

Early in my career I lost a job to a really sleazy modular dealer. The customer was a young local couple who were just getting started on raising a family. The husband was raised in nothing but single wides and RVs, never had a decent stick built, and his family was pushing him hard to not "waste" the money on a fancy stick built place. The dealer sunk a long (at least 56') basement deep in a wet area. The unreinforced 8" block lasted a few weeks after the units were set. The foundation collapsed and the dealer walked away. The couple didn't have two nickels to rub together. Fortunately, the bank was smart enough to have the damage repaired and the job completed. In the end the couple spent $17K more than I wanted to stick build the same footage, and a full length covered porch. tough lesson to learn, but you're right, the whole folly wouldn't of gotten past the plan review stage if you tried it today.


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## chuckhole (Mar 2, 2006)

Another vote for not wasting money on the trailer. They get to the point where it will cost more to move them than what they are worth. The only recourse is burn and burry.

I would use the trailer and hobble it along till you are done with the house. If the current house has a good foundation and floor, then start there. If the outside walls are good, leave them as well. If not, I would tear down and salvage what you can for materials for your final build.

Remodeling commits you to the layout you have unless you are ready to make structural changes. Depending on the layout of what you have, you may want to salvage instead of remodel.

A labor savings can be had with a complete build over a remodel if it is an extensive remodel.


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## Rocky Fields (Jan 24, 2007)

Since the old trailer is slowly going to pot and is going to waste money remuddling it, it's time to start working on the small house. The fence and additions should wait until the core house is up to snuff. Then do the fence and additions. Even though it is small, usually you can get by. Let's face it, you don't have a truckload of money, so you have to do it in "logical" increments. A passable place to live is most important!


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## Dthomasof3 (Nov 5, 2013)

Sorry I didn't reply sooner. I'm in central Texas. We haven't put anymore into the trailer and after completing fencing around our property this year, we will start on the house. It's stripped completely. First step will be to felt the roof, lay subfloor after walls/roof are made sure to be straight (it had a huge porch on one side that once moved was pulling the house. We knocked it off and it's not leaning anymore). I don't mind working on it while were in it, it's just HARD seeing everyone else with their nice new homes but I have to remind myself while they may have a nice house they have a not so nice mortgage. All our stuff is paid off and were 29&27 so I consider that pretty good.


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## Skamp (Apr 26, 2014)

I've got a short story to tell, and maybe add a couple more options.


We began in a single wide. Built a barn, fenced, got the garden up and running, etc.

For the next step, we considered another pole barn over the trailer. That was not for a permanent addition fix, only to hopefully gain a bit more time out of the trailer.

We ended up adding an apartment addition onto the barn, moved in, sold the trailer, and our home came a few years after. That addition to the barn has been a major convenience over the years.

I'm with many of the others, only band-aid the trailer. We considered it, but ultimately decided against cannibalizing the trailer for appliances, fixtures, etc. I'm glad we didn't, it was in good enough shape that we got our money back out of it. 

Just take a step back and look at what might be your options.


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## chuckhole (Mar 2, 2006)

Dthomasof3 said:


> All our stuff is paid off and were 29&27 so I consider that pretty good.


That is fantastic. I have been married now for 27 years this June. Three weeks after the wedding, we moved into our home in Houston. It was a FNMA foreclosure. Back then, there were about 400-500 foreclosures a month in Houston so we got it for 40 cents on the dollar.

We filled out the loan papers and such (at 10.5% back then) and got so frustrated with the process that we told the back to stuff it. We liquidated everything for cash that we could and got a personal loan for the last $2500 and paid cash for the house. It did not take long to pay off the personal loan and start feeling the rewards for what we did.

That would have been a 30 year loan so we are still reaping the rewards of NO MORTGAGE. That is the same as a major annual salary increase for all this time. I can not tell you how much it has impacted our life having that disposable income.

Side note: My wife was quick to remind me that we paid more for my truck (new in '06, Chevy 2500 HD, crew cab, 4WD, 6.6L diesel) than we did for the house in '87.


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## giles117 (Jun 22, 2012)

Before I decided to build my home, my Wife and I considered buying a FEMA trailer. After sitting down and calculating the dollar cost difference between the materials for a shell and the trailer, we choose to tough it out and build. 

I am far happier with this decision... though the convenience of a ready built trailer can't be underestimated.


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## Homesteader333 (Apr 29, 2014)

Try to sell your trailer for what you can get and fix up your house! Good luck!!


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

fix the house or build a new one 

trailers will only ever loose value


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