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Back about 4-5 months ago, I had a water leak in my mobile home and it was repaired by a plumber for a few hundred bucks. I'm not 100% on the continued integrity of the rest of the existing system, though, as I think it is 25-year-old PB lines. I'm sort of thinking about doing the replacement myself, though. But mobile homes tend to have so many differences from regular homes in terms of everything from materials to codes, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to replace all plumbing from the plumbing from the main shut off valve to every hook up in the trailer if I were to do it myself. I'm thinking Pex to replace what I think to be an entirely PB set-up throughout, and eyeballing the overall setup of everything, I think I have a pretty good idea on things can maybe work. I know I'm likely going to have to go to the city hall tomorrow and find out what sort of codes or permits I need to follow to do this. But, are there some specific good sources for mobile home-specific installs like this I should look at to make it easier to get an idea of big issues before they crop up?
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Sep 23, 2014 00:39
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 17:37 |
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I think I'm about 60% planned out on my mobile home repiping. I'm holding off on checking out the last few things because it's the things I least want to do: Getting underneath the trailer and looking at how everything is coming off the main once I can tear into the underbelly and crawl around. I already feel like someone's about to tell me I'm getting ahead of myself with what I'm thinking... However, the only local Pex I can find is some brand from Lowe's with a name I forget at the moment (Apollo, I think) and Nibco and their Dura-Pex. Sharkbite is also some I can buy driving out of town a bit about 30 minutes. (any of these a good option, though?) This is just a rough diagram of what I'm looking at, if this is okay: code:I've been thinking of a few things and I'm not sure how permitted or logical it is. Put a manifold in cabinets beneath bathroom sink. Drill small hole in wall between water heater/bathroom and bathroom/kitchen to fish through water to manifolds above floor, feed lines to both sinks above floor, then feed tub/toilet/washing machine connections into floor and through the underbelly. My logic is that if I maybe had more tubing inside I could both see any leaks happening to those lines sooner and keep them a more regulated temperature during the winter. But is that even advisable? For the tub/washer/toilet, I was sort of debating that one. Run them all from the manifold as individual lines (messy, I almost think), or just run single trunk from the manifold. and branch off as needed? edit: A sort of new development. I finally got a chance to look beneath my trailer and I'll try to post the picture soon, but the main water comes in at a different place/different way than I thought. It's actually entering the trailer from next to the water heater as I initially thought, so I assumed I'd only need to figure out connections from that. Turns out the main water supply is about 15 feet to the right of the kitchen sink with a line coming off of it, running to a shut-off valve beneath the water heater before going into the trailer. And honestly, I can't tell the condition of that line at all. It looks like whatever kind of line it is, it's wrapped with duct tape from one end to the other and drooping. I'm almost tempted to have someone else replace that whole part to make sure the heat tape and piping is good, then do the insides myself. JediTalentAgent fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Oct 2, 2014 |
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Oct 1, 2014 10:47
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I don't really know why I have a bug up my rear end to redo the plumbing here, it seems to be 'fine' so far and at this point I'll maybe just skip it for a while longer and let the feeling pass. It must be because I have time off work and need to do something. Sort of small/low quality, but just to give a glimpse.  This is how I think water is coming into my mobile home: Top left: Point where water enters trailer. Heat tape plugs in and shutoff valve. I've always used this valve to shut off all water. It connects to a line that is running about 15 feet away. (Not pictured: That line) Top right: Where water comes out of the ground, about 15 feet away. Bottom: Hole where water comes out of the ground. At first I felt a valve in the insuluation of the ground connection and figured it was another shut off valve, but it seems to be an outdoor bibcock I never knew about. I didn't want to try fiddling with it. I'm assuming I'll need to get the lot owner to shut off my water supply from something on his end. If I were to start replacing this, though, what would be the best way to connect the PVC to the metal valves? edit: Or should I be using CPVC? I can't seem to get a good answer because it seems the material (written, anecdotal, and actual physical products) I find about it for what I want to do seems like neither/both fit into what I want to do. PVC seems like there are far fewer available connectors out there for it, but it also says on everything that it's for 'pressurized cold water' (which I'm not sure how much pressure my incoming supply would have. It's also a more rigid pipe than the CPVC and I'm not sure if that makes connecting a heat tape to it safer or not. JediTalentAgent fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Oct 7, 2014 |
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Oct 6, 2014 18:24
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I know this is a pricey/ineffiecient option, but I'm wondering about using a small point-of-use tank (not tankless) water heater for a mobile home in the 2.5-10 gallon range as solution for an uncertain timeframe. However, due to mobile homes being mobile homes, I shouldn't (can't) use anything unless specifically approved for mobile homes. So, are there any approved POU Water Heaters approved for mobile homes? When I do find something that says, "Approved for manufactured housing" on one site, another site has zero listing stated for it that it is approved on the manufacturer's site. An info card on a display at a store will say 'approved for manufactured housing', but nothing in the product information, etc. The backstory is my 11 year old water heater I think has been leaking and I'm looking at doing a lot of gradual repairs over the next few weeks for water damage, and also do some repiping with PEX to replace some 30 yo PB stuff, etc. However, I don't really use a LOT of hot water in a day: About 5 minutes for a shower, some dish washing and hand washing, but beyond that I go through almost nothing. There's an available free typical 120v wall outlet about 4 feet from where my old water heater is/was installed, so putting a small WH right about there while I get everything done and MIGHT be capable of serving as a longer-term solution for what I do until I get done with my work and finally find a full-sized replacement MH Water Heater that will fit in the permanent location.
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Oct 12, 2015 18:20
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XmasGiftFromWife posted:Why not get an on demand unit? I thought about those, but I don't think any of the tankless have any approval for mobile homes, perhaps due to just the fire hazard issues. In addition, I think all the ones I've seen have much higher wiring and circuit breaker requirements than I currently possess.
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Oct 13, 2015 06:12
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The other problem with finding anything for a mobile home is that so many things that I CAN find that qualify I think are sort of too big, they're physically too large around to fit into a 19" opening in a 20" alcove.
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Oct 13, 2015 17:32
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A question on pex piping as I'm getting ready to replace my water heater, and I think I've asked this before: Can I install pex lines above the floor? Thanks to the location of 75% of my hot water outlets, just drilling 3 quarter-sized holes in the thin walls would allow me to a run a straight line through the water heater utility closet and beneath two sets of undersink cabinets straight to kitchen and bathroom sinks. Meanwhile, I could actually place the tub hot water supply behind/underneath the tub along the floor/wall. (I almost never use hot water for washing clothes, so I'm in no hurry to figure out how to eventually fish that through the floor/wall.) Nothing would be visible unless you moved the tub and/or opened the doors below the sinks.
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Nov 22, 2015 06:16
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Motronic posted:I want to just say "yes" and move on, but the fact that you're even asking gives me pause. Agreed, it's an odd question, but given how everything runs below the floor right now I wasn't sure if it's better/worse/acceptable to have as much of the pipe above/on the floor as I could. Also, I didn't know if due to the nature of Pex being plasticky and running along/close to the floor as opposed to in the underbelly if it is sort of more prone to inviting rodents to gnaw on it. (A dry, warm house is probably more comfortable than a cold, damp underbelly) Does the risk/benefit of having it above the floor make potential leaks more damaging, or does having it above the floor make identifying leaks and breaks so much easier that in the long run the damage is lessened.
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Nov 23, 2015 20:42
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Rd Rash 1000cc posted:You can do it legally but i'd support it ever 32 inches . And it can't hook directly to a water heater. You have to use a copper or stainless steel flex line. (18" minimum length of flex) Strangely enough, I don't think I even had that before. Both the hot and cold plastic PB pipes I think connected with pretty short copper connections.of about under 10 inches each to the water heater. I bought a premade pex-to-water heater connector with a shut off valve that seems to measure exactly 18" from the tip of the pex fitting to the end of the connection to the water heater on the other.. Other than that, I only have a pair of 15" copper flex pipes I got in a WH install kit on clearance. It'll probably be just as cheap and easy to buy another 18" pipe if need be than to try to figure out a way to salvage those. In the long run, though, I might hold off on repiping the old stuff with Pex because I figured out a reason why putting it above the floor might be an issue: I'm still doing some on and off floor repairs. Putting it above the floor is going to require removing it somehow any time the need would arise to do something with the floor. Doubtful I'd have to any work again any time soon, but it's enough of an issue to make me seriously reconsider. I'm still probably going to use a length of Pex to transition between the existing PB lines and the flex pipe on the water heater, though. It was pretty difficult getting the old connectors to come off the old water heater and I'm not sure if everything will fit right with the new heater's location without making some sort of adjustment to the PB tubing, anyway.
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Nov 24, 2015 07:34
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I think one last question on Pex. I have crimper that does both 1/2 and 3/4" and a go-no-go tool. On all my 1/2" pex connections I've done in the last few months, the tool seems to have been working as it should: Go slides over okay, no-go doesn't get on at all. But with the 3/4"s I've just done, all the GO checks seem to pass, even the No-Go seem to pass when I come down at a 90deg from two different sides of the crimp. But I can get the No-Go to fail if I rotate it while trying to slide it over and/or put a different amount of force on trying to slide it on or come in at different angles. I can tell that with I'm scraping the crimp ring with the tool when using the No-Go test, so I'm not sure if maybe I'm making it 'fail' because I'm applying force and making it fail, the tolerances of the tool might be a little bad (I might grab a second Go-NoGo while I'm out to see how they compare), or since I'm not sure about the adjustments issues grab a pocket crimper just for these and start over on and see how they work. However, it looks like the plastic fittings seem to have this happen with much less force than the metal fittings require to have them fail. edit: I bought a new Go-No-Go: Old tool had separate Go and No-Go for each size gauges: Random fails. New One has single Go and No-Go for each size: Everything seems to pass. I'm going to go with the new tool's judgement, I guess, but I wonder if there's just a slight defect in the first tool or that I widened the gauge of it slightly when I forced it to check the No-Go and it screwed up every measure after that. JediTalentAgent fucked around with this message at 00:27 on Nov 25, 2015 |
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Nov 24, 2015 20:54
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Undersink drain vent question and I'm probably over explaining. Everything is ABS. The drain line comes straight out of the floor and was installed at the kitchen sink cabinet directly below one side of the sink. At the very top of this is the vent. The base of vent is 4 inches above the branch that connects to the trap for the drains. Vent adds another 2 inches or so of height. The top of the vent is about 4.5 inches from the top inside of countertop and with the original sink it was probably just a few mm from touching the bottom of the sink. Any new sink replacement, even replacing cabinet/counters, is still going hit the vent with the sink where I have it. It's literally just about 2 inches too close to where the sink will be. I've got a few ideas and not sure if any are acceptable. Can I cut the line ABOVE the branch and offset/divert the vent away from the sink with a pair of 45 degree angles? It would clear the sink area and still give me plenty of room for 4" vertical distance between branch/vent and keep the vent horizontal when installed.
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Mar 24, 2024 02:57
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Sorry about that. Here's an image. Red box is about where the sink will be after installed. Idea A was to make a straight line away from the sink at the top for the vent about 6-12 inches from the sink with enough pipe/couplers to make it 4" Idea B: I might have to do some adjustment at the trap, anyway, for the drain on new sink, so maybe just cut below the where it branches off and install a whole new non-ABS trap/vent kit with an adapter fitting and run the drain line a bit longer. Edit: The photo probably is hard to see, but the bottom 6-8 inches of the line is a fitting with a clean out port on it. JediTalentAgent fucked around with this message at 06:11 on Mar 25, 2024 |
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Mar 25, 2024 06:03
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 17:37 |
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Nitrox posted:Either one of your solutions will work just fine. The only mistakes you could make is put it in front of the trap, or install it too low, which you are not doing. Thanks. I was so focused on the top vent part the whole time I didn't even initially realize that just cutting off below the T-connector and installing the new vent/trap kit would have probably solved my problem giving me more space below the sink, anyway.
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Mar 29, 2024 16:27
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