Good morning, all, been a while since I’ve been here!
A year ago my wife and I took over my parents’ farm here in Maine. We’re living in a mobile home they put on the foundation of the house that used to be here.
The trailer is 35 years old and has pretty well had it. We plan to build a new house in the next year or two, but will be in it at leats one more winter. The problem: The windows in the trailer are no good, they don’t keep the Maine winter wind out. So I want to cover them with some kind of ad hoc storm window. We tried plastic last year but our dogs, when they jumped up to look out the window, tore the plastic.
I was thinking about building wood frames that would fit over the window frames and put plexi in them. Thoughts on this idea, or any others you might have? Thanks!
– Chad
Replies
Since you said a year or two before you build your house I would replace the windows. When I did weatherization for big brother way back when I had a wholesale supplier of mobile home parts. I could get my windows for $30-$50 a piece.
What you propose to do would probably work, but what would you do if your house caught on fire? You really need to have the extra way to get out. Being a fire fighter also I can tell you that a mobile home that old can burn to the ground in less than an hour.
This is the company I used fro my supplies.
http://www.blevinsinc.com/
bambam,
One considereration may be that the moble home may have deteriorated far enough that new windows will go into rotten or near rotted wood. OR stripped screws and other problems would make a simple task extremely time consumming
Ugly as it seems plastic taped to the outside may be his affordable solution for heat rentention. If taped to the outside dogs can't get at it and yet it will help seal the cold out..
If taped to the outside that also allows him egress in the event of a fire. He should use an extremely good tape to ensure a decent weather seal. Tyvek tape is one such brand that will do what he wants. hold well all winter.
I agree with the plastic as the cheapest, but he's wanting to put plexi on them. That stuff is hard to break even in good conditions.
Being that it is 35 years old he's probably got roll-out windows which would make it harder to get out too.
bambam,
There is little that plexiglas will do that plastic won't. Plexiglas will discolor and cloud just like plastic. He could also tape simple glass to the exterior or interior to build a sort of storm window. Then the old break glass in an emergency would apply.. Budget limited he can find simple glass much cheaper than he could buy plexiglas. Tyvek tape spounds crude buy works extremely effectively. I know of no other tape I'd count on for a weatherseal like I would Tyvek.
If he wantedto make it look a bit more professional he could cover the tape with a wood trim and thusmake the window look nicer..
Thanks, all. I believe that plastic, taped or nailed with lath, over the outside may be my best and most affordable option. We do in fact have roll-out windows on the trailer and. even with replacement window prices being so reasonably priced, funds are limited just now and I'm not inclined to sink too much into trying to turn this sow's ear into a silk purse.
There's an addition on the back of the trailer that my dad and I built many years ago and I have a couple of replacement windows that I'm going to put in there, but the trailer proper is just a POS at this time and it's very hard to polish a turd, and the reults are usually less than satisfactory.
Thanks again!
There is a thing called interior storms which can be fitted with plexiglas or real glass, go in and out easily.If you are in the Midcoat area, call Dirigio glass in Belfast.
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I read a book about energy efficiency once, and the guy had an interesting idea for windows.
He made frames out of 2X2 that were just a hair smaller then the window openings. Then he filled the middle of the frames with styrofoam. He covered everything with some sort of fabric on both sides, so they'd look decent.
These things were hinged, so you could close them at night to keep the heat in. During the day you could open 'em up and swing them around against the wall on the inside, so they were sortsa like "interior shutters".