What is the Best Siding for a Mobile Home

Why You Should Get New Mobile Home Siding?

Your mobile home is your abode that reflects your family’s sense of style and aesthetics, your lifestyle, and preferences. Thus, the type of mobile home sidings you choose to use, being in the exterior of your abode, is an important choice in revealing to the world your brand of visual aesthetics. However, visual considerations are not the only reason you should give primary importance to your mobile home’s sidings. Safety, durability, and budget are top considerations as well in browsing through the market for mobile home siding options.  

The home construction market today is awash with a variety of mobile home siding materials for mobile and manufactured homes. These siding materials are not only pleasantly stylish with a variety of cuts, colors, and shapes but are also durable and last longer as they are insect-resistant and, most of all, help improve your home’s energy efficiency. 

So, if you are in the market for replacing your mobile home siding, simply check out your favorite home improvement store or have a chat with your siding contractor. You’ll be surprised to find out that for mobile home siding options, the sky is the limit. 

Benefits of New Mobile Home Siding

The best advantages of changing your old mobile home skirting with new and more modern mobile home siding materials include a higher curb appeal, lower energy bills, and protection from outside elements which may include noisy neighbors. Replacing your home’s siding material materials could turn out to be a wise investment as it yields a high Return on Investment as the money invested in installing upgraded mobile home siding materials may easily be recouped in resale value and higher energy efficiency resulting in lower energy bills. Below are some ways that investing in new mobile home siding can pay off:

It Helps To Lower Heating And Cooling Costs

One of the best benefits of new siding replacement is bringing down your home’s energy costs. When you upgrade older siding, you bring down heating and cooling costs thereby improving your home’s energy efficiency. Remember, however, that certain siding materials offer higher insulating qualities than others. 

Siding Increases The R-value of A home

R-value simply means how well insulation restricts heat flow in your mobile or manufactured home. Therefore, if your mobile home has a good R-value, it simply means your mobile home’s interior temperature remains more constant for a longer period. Attaining a higher R-value prevents your heating and cooling units from working overtime. Hence, when you cover your mobile home with extra insulation or foam board and then install new siding materials, your home’s energy efficiency is increased tremendously. There will be no need to account for the additional weight, but this is a great alternative especially if you have no plans of moving your mobile homes again, which is usual for 90% of all manufactured homes. 

Note, however, that when choosing heavier siding materials like fiber cement, authentic wood, or brick, you’ll most probably need additional blocking of the foundation to balance the added weight. Consequently, the money you save on heating and cooling costs balances out these additional costs. 

Protection From Noisy Neighbors, Wind, and Animals

New siding can help protect your family from unwelcome and unwanted noise. Noisy or, worse, nosy neighbors are annoying, especially in a mobile home or within the vicinity. When you install new siding, especially if you pair it with upgraded windows and insulation, you can reduce noise levels in your home to more acceptable and comfortable terms. This is especially an important factor for mobile homes in parks that are closely spaced. 

Noise is not the only unwanted intruder in your mobile or manufactured home. Replacing your old siding with a new and upgraded one offers better pest control. Upgraded mobile home siding also offers better pest control. This offers an extra layer of protection from pests and animals such as wood-boring insects, snakes, spiders, opossums, and even pesky birds. An important thing to remember is that the installation process of your mobile home also allows you to repair any cracks, breaks, and holes and provides an added layer of protective material to secure your home from destructive external factors. Furthermore, an upgraded siding for mobile homes prevents the accumulation of moisture, thus protecting you and your family from the growth of mold, bacteria, and dust mites. Remember too that proper ventilation is key to installing good mobile home siding.  

Better Curb Appeal

Concerned about your mobile home’s overall exterior aesthetic appeal or curb appeal? Worry no more! By installing new siding materials to your mobile home, you automatically shave years off your home and give it a brand-new look. Hence, in just a single project, you improve and upgrade your home’s curb appeal in just a nick of time. 

Trending Mobile Home Skirting Options

Your mobile home’s exterior not only gives your abode a touch of style but, more importantly, protects you and your family from the elements. While the roof of your mobile home keeps you drenched from the rain, the siding of your mobile home protects against high wind damage, outside noise, and all sorts of unwanted critters. There is, however, another part of your mobile home that protects you from external elements. That is your mobile home skirting. 

So, what is Skirting and why is it important? 

If the siding protects the side of your manufactured home, then the skirting protects the underside of your home from water seepage, the accumulation of moisture, growth of molds and bacteria, and pests, and protects the very foundation of your mobile home from damage. You certainly would not want to have your mobile home’s foundation exposed to the elements. To prevent this, your mobile home skirting offers a seamless and smooth finish between your manufactured home and the foundation it sits on. 

Mobile Home Skirting Ideas

The sky is the limit when you are in the market for either simply repairing some damage or replacing your skirting completely. Here are the top four ideas in mobile home skirting for your impending mobile home remodel project. 

Routinely Inspect Your Skirting

Regular inspection is key to keeping your mobile home in tip-top form and preventing long-term damage. As regularly as you can, walk around your mobile home from time to time while paying particular attention to the skirting. 

Check the ventilation. Is there any sign of moisture accumulation or, worse, some form of mold or bacteria growth? Are there holes, cracks, and breaks in any part of the skirting? Can you feel the wind go through certain parts? Is the paint already chipping? 

If your mobile home skirting has any of these signs and symptoms of wear and tear, then it is about time to replace it. 

Repair Damaged Sections

Repairing your mobile home skirting will largely depend on the kind of material it is made of. Minor dents or chips in vinyl skirting, for example, can be easily patched up with epoxy or using a heat gun to butt off these dents and chips on your home’s skirting.  

For larger holes or major breaks, however, you may need to replace entire sections of your skirting depending again on the type of skirting your mobile home has. For some types, it may be as easy as removing and replacing the small section of skirting in question by simply cutting out the damaged piece. For other types, however, the necessary repair may be more complicated as, in some instances, there may be a need to replace entire sections of your skirting.

Power Wash Your Skirting

Your mobile home skirting is not immune to the ravages of time. Dirt, dust, or grime accumulate over some time, thus making your mobile home look old and spent. In this case, all you have to do is power wash your skirting.  

Washing your mobile home skirting may offer some renewed brightness but power washing is a much better, and more effective option as it removes much more grime build-up.

Make sure, however, that your power washing machine is compatible with the material of your mobile home skirting. You may only end up damaging your home skirting by using a power washer not meant for your skirting’s material, age, or durability.

Paint Your Skirting

You may adore the cut, the shape, and the overall silhouette of your mobile home skirting, but the color just wouldn’t do. Then, give your mobile home skirting a major touch-up with a fresh coat of the paint color you prefer. 

A popular option for mobile homeowners these days is painting vinyl skirting. Other types of skirting such as wood or metal may also be painted provided you use the right kind of paint. 

This is an especially useful skirting idea for those who have recently replaced their mobile home siding. Remember, however, to use paint that is meant for outdoor use.

The next thing to consider now would be your mobile home siding materials. Here are examples of what is trending in the market today. These are mobile home siding options that save you energy costs, offer proper ventilation, and are insect-resistant.

Architectural Stone or Brick Siding

A popular choice among mobile homeowners is the Architectural stone siding and architectural brick siding. These are sidings with thin “stones” or bricks that give a stone or brick look but install more like regular siding. They are also known as faux stone or faux brick. Faux stone siding gives a natural look to your mobile home and they are known to last a long time. 

Faux stone is made from colored cement instead of real stones. The colored cement process allows manufacturers to create these panels quickly and cost-effectively. Faux stone siding offers the mobile homeowner a more natural and durable look to the mobile home’s exterior. 

While faux stone siding should last you several decades, it is also one of the more costly options. To trim the costs down, smart mobile homeowners use faux stone siding over certain parts of their exterior and then use a lower-priced option for the upper portion.

Fiber Cement Siding

Another great option would be Fiber cement siding which is made from mixing cement, cellulose fibers (such as little bits of wood), sand, and color. It is also known as cement plank siding or hardy siding.

While Fiber Cement siding is a strong, long-lasting siding that was in demand for a while, its popularity took a dip after many mobile homeowners, especially in the South, experienced moisture problems using the fiber cement siding. Hence, there have been companies that make this type of siding that have played around with the mix used to hopefully rectify and prevent these moisture issues. 

Fiber cement siding is thicker so just like vinyl siding, you can still put a hole in it. It is stronger, like your thicker vinyl, so you are not in huge danger of finding holes in your siding. Be prepared, however, because it does happen sometimes. The better side to it is that when something hits your fiber cement siding to make a hole, the hole is generally smaller than what you would find with vinyl siding.

Fiber cement siding, being concrete, never warps. It is a good, long-lasting type of siding that is a step up from the cheaper vinyl siding. Since the siding is mostly concrete and sand, it is also a more fire-resistant option.

Vinyl Siding

Having been around for more than 60 years now, Vinyl Siding is reasonably durable, inexpensive, and retains its look for a long time. Good quality vinyl siding on the exterior of your home will most likely look the same 20 years from now as the day it was first installed on your mobile home.

Many vinyl sidings are designed to last a minimum of 20. This, of course, depends on the grade installed. There should never be any need to paint your vinyl siding, and other than occasionally washing dirt off, it is generally considered maintenance-free.

There is a wide range of different vinyl siding quality levels. The easiest way to determine the quality of your vinyl siding is by its thickness. 

You wouldn’t want a  “builder’s grade” vinyl siding that has a thickness that can run from .35mm to .40mm. You could easily have a hole the size of a golf ball should some stick go flying and hit your vinyl siding. Also, this type of vinyl siding is more likely to warp when exposed to high temperatures Hence, the money you thought you saved in buying cheap siding will later get gobbled up by the constant need to repair the siding later on.

A .44-46 mm thickness vinyl sliding would be a good residential siding option. This grade of vinyl siding will be more durable and stand the external forces better. Remember that thicker grade sidings also naturally help insulate your home a little better than the thinner grades.

Furthermore, premium grades of vinyl siding with .52 mm or more in thickness may be only 30% thicker than the builder’s grade but it makes a world of difference in durability and therefore the longevity of your siding.

Installing a vinyl sliding in your mobile home will cost around $600.

Smart Panel Siding

Admittedly, the Smart Panel Siding is everyone’s favorite siding. With over more than a 20-year presence in the mobile home market, the Smart Panel Siding is strong and long-lasting. Using wood fibers, similar to fiber cement siding, and mixed with industrial waxes, resin, and zinc borax, the Smart Panel siding is one of the options mobile home customers consistently choose because its value and beauty are worth the little bit of extra expense for an upgrade.

The smart panel siding is designed to withstand wind gusts of 200mph and hail bigger than a golf ball. It is also made in such a way that it does not warp even under high temperatures. Moreover, the smart panel siding will last at least 50 years and is available in wood grain finish and many other different colors. 

Wood Siding

Finally, we have wood siding which is fairly easy to install and imbues your home with a more classic, old-world feel. With wood siding, which is inarguably strong and durable, you will discover that you have an unlimited number of choices of colors for your stains, paints, or other finishes.

Your wood siding will hold up against strong winds and even flying objects without you having to get concerned about getting a hole in your siding. However, be prepared to deal with the downside of wood siding. One, you run the risk of having termites, wood-boring insects, and other pests wanting to dig through your wood siding. To prevent this, you will have to treat your wood siding regularly to keep it insect-resistant. 

Also bear in mind that with wood siding, there is the risk of water damage and rot especially when your paint or finish gets old. Most mobile homeowners need not deal with this problem if they add a fresh coat of finish on the wood every few years.

Your wood siding is the easiest siding style to repair if it ever gets damaged. All you have to do is simply cut out the damaged part, put in new siding, and coat the new siding with the same paint or finish you originally used.

So this article has shared with you the benefits, trends, possible options, and reasons why you should get a new mobile home siding. Again, worry not as the market today is awash with a variety of siding materials. We hope we have provided you with ample information to help you in achieving the look and style you wish for your mobile home exterior. What is the best siding for a mobile home? Again, the choice is for you to make! Good luck!