Mobile Home Question

[Black wallnut]

We live in a late 70's mobile home. It is time to replace the back door. The first problem is the current door is not a "standard" size which would require a custom made size costing up to twice what a standard door would be. The second problem is I want to replace it with a pre-hung door of "standard" size. How are these homes framed? Has any of our members done such a thing? Was it a PITA?

[shoottx]

Our gun club used a double wide for a club house. Any time we wanted repairs we went to a place that specialized on mobile home repair. At least in our case the wall thickness was not even standard so a pre-hung door would not work. DAMHIK

[Ed62]

I didn't Google it, but you can probably get a typical drawing for framing online. If you want to go with OEM products, you shouldn't have a hard time finding them.

Ed

[Tom Slick]

What is your wall material? can you cut a hole or pry it back and look at the framing?

side note:
premade, in stock, doors from HD or lowes are cheaper in standard sizes. if you have to order anything then they usually all cost the same (more), odd size or not. I found that out when I needed a door with a different swing (hinge on the other side) then what they had in stock, the price doubled. the local door shop is actually cheaper and have better build quality if I need to order it.

[iceman61]

I rebuilt a door on a trailer last year. The bottom interior wood had started rotting & it was falling apart. Completely tore the door apart & replaced all the wood with treated wood. Planed it down due to the non-standard framing wood sizes used in trailer doors & walls. I think they are 1 1/4" x 3 1/4".

You can replace the door with a standard door as long as you have good height clearance. Changing the rough opening to a standard size won't be much more of a problem than retro fitting one in a house. Trimming the exterior metal would be the biggest job, but just a small job with a reciprocating saw. You would also need to account for the difference in wall thickness by adding a wood strip around the door on the top & sides on the interior wall. The strips would need to be just wide enough to butt against the inside of the frame on the interior side of the frame & be even with the outside of the door trim you will add to the inside. The down side is that the door will stick out from the wall an extra 1/2" to 3/4".

You could also do as shoottx suggested & find a company that repairs trailers & buy a door from them. Alot of trailer sales lots do their own repair so you could try there also if you want that instead.

[iceman61]

I almost forgot about this side note. Last week I started remodeling some commercial property & had to install a new bathroom door. The door was just a stock interior door & nothing special except for the fact that the frame section was expandable so it would fit different wall thicknesses. I don't know the max or min of it's limits but it may fit a trailer wall without having to do any filling in for the back of the trim.

[cabinetman]

A few years ago, I modified a mobile home into a condo sales office. Besides making displays and room divider type cabinetry, doors and windows were changed. The basic construction was stud framing with interior and exterior covering. Pretty basic. The difference being that the studs were not standard sizes, and the walls were not standard thickness.

Standard doors and windows can be fitted with some changes. If you buy a pre-hung door, it will come with a standard width jamb. When the opening is cut in the walls, a narrow jamb can be fitted to the existing stud width. This can be accomplished with resizing the pre-hung jamb, or buying just the door and making your own jamb.

This particular mobile home had metal door trim specifically for this application. Looked similar to the type that's used on trailers and RV's. If you make a jamb, you can install inside and outside trim to accommodate the surfacing materials used. What is important is to weather seal however you do it. If you have board overlay type siding, it should be cut back to allow for the trim width, while keeping the substrate full to fit the trim. This would be the most natural look, without looking "re-engineered".
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[dbhost]

Mobile home construction varies WIDELY. The cheaper ones use pretty much everything non standard sized, the more expensive MFGs pretty much build everything to standard and then some...

I don't think there is any one standard for manufactured housing construction, which is a pity. So I doubt that a 1970s vintage home would adhere to any real standard. HOWEVER, if the manufacturer is still around, like perhaps Fleetwood, or Fuqua, one of those guys, you have a much better chance of getting specs on how it was built, from the guys and gals that built it...

I would try to track down your original specs to find out if your walls etc... are standard sizes. Maybe you could move some studs around and hang a pre-hung door in there...

[Black wallnut]

Thanks for the replies! I removed the inside trim to see what I have. It appears to be wood framing. The inside panelling is glued to the studs around the existing door opening, so I'll its gonna be a pita to remove without damage. I'll have to cut a larger opening, reframe the rough opening, and make trim and spacers. It is gonna be a pita but we should have a much nicer and more secure door when I'm done.