Hand Texturing: The Best Interior Update for Mobile Homes
By design, there was a certain amount of flex built into the walls of older mobile homes. Light-weight grooved paneling or walls of vinyl-covered panel board was the industry norm. The paneling or vinyl wall board was attached with tacking strips stapled to wall studs.
There’s a limit to the weight an older mobile home’s floors and frames can safely support. Some people prefer to update their older mobile home by replacing all the cheap paneling with larger wall studs and sheet rocked walls. This may not be the best solution.
First, adding new sheet rock walls to an older mobile home is expensive, time consuming , and unless already vacant–a home disrupting process.
Second, the floors and frame of an older mobile home may not safely support excess weight. Adding stronger wall studs and sheet rock requires tearing out the flooring and adding extra supports to the floor joists underneath. Then hope the added weight isn’t going to bend the mobile home’s steel frame. And, believe it or not, it can happen. Oh, and did I forget to mention, you now need to add in all these extra costs for replacing the mobile home’s flooring and floor coverings?
And finally, thanks to your older mobile home’s on-going depreciation, you better accept the fact you’ll never fully recoup your remodeling costs should you sell the home. So before spending considerable time, energy and expense, not to mention headaches and home disruption, maybe you should look at hand texturing the walls in your older mobile home. It’s as an inexpensive option for updating an older mobile home’s interior, especially if you do the texturing yourself.
You may think painting on top of old paneling is the cheapest method to update walls in an older mobile home. You would be right. But, grooves in the paneling often look tacky and unattractive when painted. This can produce less than satisfactory results. And what do you do with the tacking strips between each wall section? What if the paint doesn’t always adhere properly? It can happen, especially if the paneling isn’t properly cleaned and primed before painting. There’s also a tendency for paint to peel off some vinyl coated walls. There should be a better solution for updating mobile home walls.
I began experimenting with hand texturing methods several years ago while remodeling my stick-built home. Afterward, a friend asked me to use my hand texturing technique in her home. Everyone loved the results. Since then I have used my hand texturing in several homes for friends and family. So whenever I was asked if my hand texturing technique would work on paneling in an old mobile home, I decided to give it a try.
That was six years ago. I modified my hand texturing method to specifically accommodate grooved panel walls in older mobile homes. Hand texturing with drywall joint compound is a little messy. It’s also somewhat time consuming due to required drying time. The inexpensive price of hand texturing panel walls should offset any inconvenience, especially for someone on a fixed income or tight budget.
Hand texturing is fairly easy to learn, but I still would recommend you start with a closet or less-viewed area. It never hurts to have a little first-time start-up practice to help you get in the swing of things. You will soon be mastering the hand texturing technique before you know it. The more wall practice you do, the more consistent your texturing results will be. Unlike expensive spray-on texturing that doesn’t cover grooves in paneling, hand texturing is unique to each application. It produces a custom hand textured finish making paneled walls in an older mobile home look like they were new textured sheetrock.
Besides putting less strain on an older mobile home’s floor and frame, hand texturing is cheaper than new sheetrock. The savings is significant for anyone willing to take time to learn the hand texturing technique and do it themselves. Hand texturing starts by using general purpose drywall joint compound and inexpensive supplies. These are all readily available at your local hardware store. Significant savings and the pleasure of doing it yourself are added reasons why I believe the best method for updating the interior in an older mobile home is hand texturing the walls.
