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!
Im tiling a new kitchen backsplash and decided wpuldnt it be nice to also tile the interior edges of the window? Im afraid to take the vinyl covered cardboard down…..whats under it? Please and thank you to responders.
Thanks for stopping by, Kathy.
It's funny, my mom's name is Kathy and she did the exact same thing this year with her window sill when having a new back splash installed!
It looks terrific. However, they just went over top of the old sill and didn't remove any material first.
We did pull up that old stuff when we had our new windows installed and built new window frames. All that should be under that cheap, thin veneer is the wood framing for the window. That's what ours had under it.
I'm sorry for the late reply to this. We're in the middle of a busy remodel and the blog has taken a back seat, I'm afraid.
I hope you've completed your project and you are happily smiling whenever you stand at your sink and look out the window :-)
iam remodeling an old single wide i like this idea so i will be trying it soon i also plan to kilz everything too but their were a few leaks in the cieling so i had to ter out the smelly cieling whatever you would call that material any ideas about replacing the cieiling? i only tore out the few in the kitchen cieling and one bedroom??
Hi Melody! Thanks for visiting our site!
I'm not sure what type of material your ceiling is made of but you might want to check out Lowe's. They have a bunch of acoustic tile choices that might match what you've got on your ceiling. You could also patch it will something similar and then paint it all so it is all new paint. It would be harder to tell there's a difference then. Beadboard is pretty light weight, that might be a good option for ceiling replacement. or you could redo the whole thing with a light acoustic tile.
Please come back and share how you resolve this issue if you would. We love to hear what people are doing. Good luck in your projects!
standard joint compound that comes in the big white tubs. Not the more expensive stuff that sands better. I'm visiting my mom, so can't check for the exact brand. Got it at Lowes.
Mark, which drywall mud did you use? thanks for the video!!