A visitor recently wrote with their solution for manufactured home wall strip removal. By far, this is the single most frequent question we get asked when people write to us or comment on our blog. It must just be that everyone hates this one thing about mobile homes wants to remove them. I am amazed, after the millions of manufactured homes that have been built over time, that they haven’t perfected a better and more attractive way to do the walls. We’ve sent people to the moon for crying out loud! We can’t build a mobile home without putting strips in between the wall board sheets?

Well, I liked this visitor’s solution so I thought I ‘d share it with you. We have gotten so many suggestions from visitors and many of them have still been challenged with cracking once they have filled and covered the seams with drywall mud or some such other filler. This one seemed like it just might do the trick so I’ll share it here. He also included a video link for the texture method he used over the wall once the seams were filled. I hope this is a helpful solution for some of you. I know we will probably try this myself! Take it away Visitor Mark!

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MARK WRITES:

I removed my strips, removed my carpet, painted everything with Kilz (Max-like shellac based) primer to seal away smoke, water damage and pet pee. Then, I used paintable caulk in all the grooves and smoothed it with a putty knife.

 

Then I took fiberglass webbed tape and set it over the seams of the paneling every 4 ft, using caulk, and a four inch blade. I then used drywall mud over the taped seams with a 6″ or 8″  blade, and spread a light coat over all the grooves filled with caulk. This will be the last time the grooves will show.

 

There is a little shrinking if you just use the drywall mud, hence using the caulk first. Then I did two more coats of mud with a 12″ blade, then a big blade..not sure how big it is 18-20 inches at least.

 

Then, here is the trick: take drywall mud, mix water in it until it is like a nice pancake batter. Then, use a Rust-Oleum Restore Roller (used to roll wood stain). It is black plastic and the best way to describe it is that it looks like a stippling sponge make-up artists use to create day old stubble. You roll that thinned mud on and it looks like orange peel.

 

After it dries, don’t sand it. Take your 12 inch blade and just just lightly knock off some of it to a smoother texture (actually backwards orange peel texture). It is unbelievable!

 

I had one little crack down the wall where I didn’t use tape, behind a door. I took caulk, put it on my finger and pushed in the crack, then wiped off the excess, so the texture was still there, then when it dried I painted it. It hasn’t showed back up in the past 6 months. : )

VIDEO OF THE MONTH

Thanks, Mark, for this terrific step-by-step instruction of what you did with your wall strips!

Please check out the video Mark shared below by YouTube user 77Avadon77. He found the video on Youtube and had great results when he tried it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4QWbG8no_I

YOUR SOLUTIONS

Have you used this method before? Did you have success? Let us know in the comments below.

Would you like to have your experience shared on our site? If you’ve had great success with a project you’ve completed, please contact us at the Contact link above. We’d love to feature your work!