Whenever you’re doing your exterior inspection of a mobile home before the purchase, make sure you’re thoroughly checking the roof. Because one of the most expensive repairs in mobile homes investing is the roof repair.
In this blog you’re going to learn about the three major signs that the mobile home you’re looking to purchase needs a roof replacement.
The reason fixing the roofing in a mobile home
can be expensive
By now you might know about the big five repairs on every mobile home: the AC, electrical, the plumbing, the sub-floor, and the roofing. The roof is actually one of the more expensive repairs out of the big five.
The reason for that is because you don’t only have to fix the roof itself. A lot of the time you’re going to have to fix the ceiling as well. So you’re talking about a two for one – double the cost – compared to fixing a single item out of the big five.
If you’re not sure about what you’re doing when you’re purchasing your home, you can waste a lot of time and money just trying to get your home market ready and getting the roof fixed.
We think it’s very important for you to know three things so you can do your roof inspections without even having to walk on the roof.
Inspection Item #1
Is there a Tarp?
The first thing you would look for is any type of tarp. It’s usually some type of plastic material or any type of trash bag material. You’re usually going to find a white tarp or a type of black or dark blue tarp.
The reason this is important is because most of the time the seller is using this to keep leaks from coming into the home. They’re usually covering up some type of damage or some type of soft spot. So make sure you walk the entire premises of the home and check for tarp anywhere on any section of the roof.
Inspection Item #2
Are there any damaged or missing spots
that are visible?
On any type of shingle roof, metal, or foam roof, you want to make sure to check if there is any missing roof material. Is there damage? Because if there’s damage on the roof then chances are there’s issues with the ceiling and there’s some water damage going on that you’re going to have to attend to.
Inspection Item #3
Are there any signs of water damage
on the ceiling?
Usually with water damage there’s going to be discoloration going on. So our rule of thumb is the darker the color, the longer the water damage has been there. The lighter the color, the newer the water damage. If it’s a dark brown and stretches across most of the home then that lets me know that there has been a problem for a long time.
We’re also checking for any type of sagging going on with the ceiling. A lot of the time we see this towards the center of the room. The sagging comes from water being built up on the roof over time. It can only hold so much. Over time it generally starts to sag and that’s going to be a huge problem. That’s a huge expense that needs to be fixed as soon as possible because it can fall at any moment.
And then the last thing is we’re always checking the seams of the home. The seams are right in the middle of the home, particularly if you have a double-wide home. You’re going to want to check the seams because this is where the two homes connect. In a lot of double-wides, you can sometimes see cracks where the roots connect.
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