Mobile houses are a great place to call home. Whether it’s because of their affordable prices, with its typically low-maintenance nature and reduced property taxes, or because they give owners the ability to pack their houses and move across the country without the size limitations of a camper or an RV, mobile houses are becoming an increasingly popular housing choice across the country.

PICK THE RIGHT TYPE OF MOBILE HOME WALL FOR YOU

Living in a mobile home can be comfortable or frustrating depending on the type of wall you pick. Mobile home walls come in many different materials which can change the way your living room looks, regulate the temperature of your house and affect how easily it can be repaired or replaced. What type of wall is ideal for you will depend on many factors like the size of your house, your budgetary constraints, and the place where you live.

A good wall material should balance both its practical functionality and its aesthetic appeal, giving your home a pleasant appearance that will charm visitors and residents alike, while at the same time making your house a cozy place to live in. When choosing what type of material to use in your walls, striking the right balance is crucial. Good walls should be easy and inexpensive to maintain, and at the same time contribute to your home’s visual appeal.

FOUR TYPES OF WALL MATERIALS EVERY MOBILE HOME OWNER SHOULD CONSIDER

There are dozens of mobile home walls materials available in the market, each of which come with their own set of pros and cons. But when it comes to striking that perfect balance between aesthetic appeal, price, and functionality no other materials come close to reaching it as artificial wood, drywall, ceramic tile and plaster.

Older manufactured homes that were built around 1960 and 1970 tend to be built with artificial wood paneling. These mobile homes were the type that went up like tinder boxes, before industry standards were in place.

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Artificial Wood is a composite material made using wood byproducts, such as wood chips or sawdust, and artificial ingredients like plastic, resins, and adhesives. These ingredients are blended together using a combination of heat and pressure, which creates a strong, durable material that resembles the appearance of natural wood but can resist the natural elements almost as good as other walls made using artificial materials.

Artificial wood panels are highly resistant to weather, which makes them a great material for both inner and outer walls. They are also very stable over a wide temperature range, which makes them an ideal material to use in every kind of climate. Artificial wood is also insect resistant, making it a great option if you want a house with that traditional wooden hut look but without having to deal with termites and other pesky critters.

However, artificial wood also has its own disadvantages. While it looks like almost as natural as the real deal, it costs almost twice as much as real wood making it an expensive choice for people on a budget. Artificial wood also tends to fade with time but this can often be offset with a little painting. Overall, artificial wood is a good material for people who want their walls to be easy to clean, durable, stylish, and can afford to spend a little big extra in them.

Drywall is another popular material which can be found in many homes, mobile or not. Drywall panels are made using gypsum plaster which is then pressed into a vertical frame to make a drywall. This type of wall evolved as a simpler, quicker alternative to the traditional lath and plaster walls. While a plaster wall may take up to a week to get dry, even an amateur carpenter can set up a drywall and have it ready in two days.

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In addition to being easy to install, drywalls are also one of the most energy-efficient wall materials out there. Drywalls keep the house insulated from the outside which translates into a cooler house during the summer and warm during the winter. Drywalls are also an economic option, being simple to maintain and repair because you can take out the section that needs to be replaced instead of having to replace the entire wall.

However, drywall can also be very expensive to paint since the panels tend to absorb much of the paint, however this can be somewhat offset by using drywall primer and a generous amount of painting. Drywall can also be damaged by too much water exposure, which can soften the paper and the plaster inside it. But a more serious consideration is the sulfur content found in some drywall brands (specially Chinese), which can cause serious negative health effects in addition to bad smells.

Ceramic tiles are a popular material used to finish mobile home walls thanks to its durability and visual appeal. Ceramic tiles come in many shapes, sizes, colors and designs, which gives decorating enthusiasts plenty of options to use when designing their homes.

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Since they are water resistant and smooth, ceramic tile walls tend to be extremely easy to clean and maintain, which is great for people with naughty kids and little time to clean. In addition to that, they also have some insulating capacity, and because they tend to stay cool they are an ideal option for people who live in warmer weathers.

However, houses with ceramic tiles walls can be very cold during winter, which can make for some very uncomfortable Christmases and increase the price of your heating bill. Painting ceramic tile walls can also be expensive, since it requires extensive preparation before the painting can settle on the tiles. They are also hard to install, requiring the help of a skilled professional to avoid making your walls look uneven.

Perhaps the biggest drawback to ceramic tile walls is that they are difficult, if not impossible, to transport. Being so hard they have a tendency to break if the wall is experiencing too much vibration, like that caused when removing a wall or when a truck is towing a mobile through a difficult road.

Plaster is a building method which involves applying plaster over narrow wooden strips or a board which is nailed to a vertical frame or wall stud. Although lath and plaster used to be the most commonly used method to make plaster walls, it has been almost entirely replaced by using a special blueboard as a surface which can be covered with plaster.

Image Credit: Houzz.com

Plaster walls have several advantages, such as being easier to mold into unusual shapes. For those who can’t stand their noisy neighbors, plaster walls have excellent sound-proofing qualities which help reduce the amount of noise getting inside the house. Finally, plaster walls are also easy to paint, so it’s easy to change the mood of your home by just changing the color of your walls.

On the downside, removing plaster is difficult and uncomfortable, since it involves creating a sizable amount of dust which will cover every furniture and appliance in your house, therefore requiring people to remove or at least cover their furniture while they take out the walls.

What has your experience been like with these walls? We would love to hear about it.

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