Mobile home and Manufactured home communities provide desireable lifestyles at affordable costs, however, the nature of such community style living requires that each homeowner be responsible for maintaing their home and their lot to ensure that the community remains free of any illegal health and safety hazards.

To ensure that each Mobile Home park remains free from these hazards,  legislation was put into place in 1991 that ensures every mobile home park in the State of California is inspected every 5 to 7 years.

In the course of their research, the Department of Housing realized that most of the violations exist because home owners and park operators simply do not realize that the violations are illegal and dangerous. However, the following examples of common violations are offenses that must be corrected to ensure the safety of the home owners and the general public:

Broken Windows

Missing Steps

Combustibles stored under homes

Blocked emergency exits

Another common fire safety violation is the construction of a combustible accessory structure, such as a shed. The easiest way to remedy this violation is to remove or relocate the structure.

Awnings and screens that are attached to homes sometimes are added by homeowners that don’t realize that the home was not manufactured to support additional weight. For this reason, adding an awning or screened in area to your home must be done with a construction permit.

Other common violations are missing handrails and guardrails along the steps and porches of manufactured homes. The law states that handrails must be present if there are more than two steps attached to the home. Guardrails must be present on porches that are 30 inches from the ground. While these handrail and guardrail requirements seem strict, statistically most injuries in manufactured home parks are caused by falls in and around one’s own home.

These are the typical, correctable violations that are most commonly seen in mobile home parks.

Lastly, when an inspector visits your park, you should know that the inspector is not allowed to enter your home without your permission, however, the inspector is required to enter your lot for the inspection. The inspector must inspect the condition of your lot, your utility hook uips and the exterior of your home.

In the Manufactured Home Industry, there has been much talk recently surrounding the iHouse, manufactured by Clayton Homes. Clayton Homes has dedicated a website, ClaytonIhouse.com, to showcase their newest, eco-friendly, pocket-book pleasing homes.

From Mnn.com, ”The Clayton i-house is available is in two sizes at two different price points: The 723 square-foot, one bed/one bath i-house I starts at $74,900. The 1,023 square-foot, two bed/one bath i-house II starts at $93,000. Both homes can be configured in at least seven different ways and include eco-friendly and energy-saving features like low-e windows, dual-flush toilets, butterfly style rainwater-collecting roofs, tight insulation, zero-VOC paint, and more. Not included are optional bells and whistles like solar panels, bamboo flooring, etc. and the cost of shipping the prefabricated home to the placement site. ”

These purchase prices may yield monthly mortgage payments as low as $575 – $700!*

Right now, these small sized, economically made homes are of increasing consumer interest. In a less than stable mortgage market, the trends towards purchasing a reasonably sized home with a low-moderate sized mobile home mortagage couldn’t be more appealing to consumers, especially with homes this gorgeous & ec0-friendly.

*O.A.C, inquire for more details at (800) 882-1999 or visit http://www.camhf.com/

Mobile Home Transformation by Trailer Wrap

Trailer Wrap projects make affordable and ecologically concious remodeling efforts possible, transforming  used 1970′s “trailers” into beautiful, environmentally sound modern homes (that could be featured in model home magazines).  From TrailerWrap’s website “TrailerWrap is a collaborative, design + build project that addresses issues of sustainable and affordable design in the context of the ubiquitous American trailer park. At the scale of an individual building, the project explores the potential for augmenting this affordable housing typology with outdoor living space, improved, energy efficient construction and high volume, light-filled interiors. At the urban scale the project reexamines the mobile home park as a model for equitable, high-density alternatives to suburban sprawl. In pushing the envelope of adaptable reuse, the TrailerWrap project seeks to create exciting, small scale, high density, and affordable architecture with a social and environmental conscience.”

On the flip side, some might say that such a project detracts from one of the main benefits of manufactured housing; the controlled environment that the homes are produced within, which ensures quality, affordability and reduces environmental waste.

Trailer Wrap Interior Photo

Other’s may be conerned with the reduced functionality of the actual mobile aspect of this type of home. However, Trailer Wrap has prepared for such concerns and ensures that the homes remain mobile by definition and compliant with goverment mobile home codes. The Trailer Wrap website purports, “This project conforms to the code governing mobile homes because it doesn’t require traditional foundations and the unit retains a functioning chassis. Substantial concrete piers and demountable steel connections serve as wind tiedowns, but those tie-downs are permissible because they do not emerge above the ground plane and they can be disconnected from the chassis.”

More information on the Trailer Wrap project can be found on the informational pdf offered at Trailer Wrap.Net