Toxic Chemicals in Manufactured Homes

[makinleesmom]

I'm looking for information on the chemicals used during the building of manufactured homes. I also need to find out how to minimize and clean these toxins out of a home. Our newly purchased home was hit by a tornado in November and we are just starting to rebuild. We are thinking of purchasing a manufactured home to live in while rebuilding.
TIA

[welldone]

This is an interesting topic. Most new homes, manufactured or not, are made of many, many toxic materials. Things I can think of, right off the bat:

-pressed wood all over (formaldehyde-based glues), including kitchen/bathroom cabinets and counter tops
-carpet, carpet treatment, carpet padding
-vinyl flooring
-paint

There's so much more, but those are the obvious ones. We're considering the purchase of a new home through a non-profit organization that seeks to revitalize run down neighborhoods. Problem is, once we start changing things that are toxic to the home and putting in what we want, the "affordable" part goes out the window!

Here's what we'll probably request (prior to building to avoid wasting new materials) to help minimize off-gassing :

-switch carpet floors and put in FSC-certified hardwood floors and/or bamboo
-in lieu of vinyl flooring, we'll put natural linoleum, cork, or ceramic tile in the kitchen/bathrooms
-we'll have them leave the walls unpainted so we can paint them ourselves with low- or no-VOC paint
-if we can afford it, we'll switch the pressed wood cabinets and countertops for hardwood cabinets (or just plain shelves, if we can't afford cabinets) and maybe granite or ceramic tile countertops
-instead of the big cabinets under the bathroom sink, we'll request an all-ceramic pedestal sink and put in wood shelves for storage

I don't know how much of this you can do with a manufactured home. The best thing you can do for the health of your family, no matter how old your home, is open the windows at least once a day to get some fresh air in. Even in winter. Indoor air is much more toxic than outdoor, even in the city.

I'd love to hear more from someone connected to the building industry.

[makinleesmom]

What you are doing sounds exactly the products we are using to build our new home. But with the manufactured home we have been able to get them leave the flooring bare so we can add bamboo & tile ourselves. This is the ONLY thing they will do for us. I guess it is better than nothing. The walls are pre-papered sheet rock so there will be no paint. I'm afraid to ask about the adhesive they used for the paper. The cabinets are pressed wood and the counter tops are formica(sp?). They will not leave the cabinets out so we may end up tearing them out ourselves. I did add several extra windows for natural ventilation and we also hope to add some type of air purification system in our heating and cooling system. I guess we are going to go ahead and purchase the manufactured home because we have to have somewhere to live while our new house is being built. At least it will only be temporary...maybe 9 months. Thanks for all of the information and ideas.

[Silliest]

Can't you rent?

Older homes will at least have outgassed most of the formaldehyde.

I can't even go to a manufactured home *lot* without feeling the effects, so I'd choose a hotel first, but if you're not as medically sensitive to the stuff you might be able to survive it... still, that doesn't mean it's healthy.

We are in a 35 year old house now. It hasn't had any interior work done in over 5 years. That was one of our criteria for buying. No new stuff. <LOL!> The agent thought we were insane.

We're planning to build in the next 5-10 years, and have many of the same ideas mentioned. It does bump the cost up a bit, but there are things that can be done to offset some of the costs, and we've already started trolling freecycle, garage sales, and dumpsters for some of the fittings and materials to help keep the costs as minimal as we can. The more recycled materials, the better from many angles.

Pedestal sinks and open shelving (high up where the kids can't get at it) and ample closets *with ventilation* are big items with us, as we are all mold/mildew sensitive adn this is Texas ;-p

I don't know what the housing market is like where you are, or what your DIY skills/time resorces are like, but I think I'd have a builder slap up a frame, a roof, and some safe siding, have someone run the wiring & plumbing (if I could get PVC-free) and then do the rest myself before I'd buy manufactured housing <LOL!>

[welldone]

Ooh, I forgot about PVC plumbing...is that standard? Yikes. All that toxic leaching into our water!

I'm concerned about the formaldehyde off gassing. Not fun. But it's that versus lead paint in older homes (and the lead dust is abundant during renovation, which we'd need to do to make the homes in our price range liveable).

What kind of siding do you like, Silliest? I think we're stuck with vinyl, as these homes are being built en masse "affordably."

What gets me is this: what's cheap now will not only cost us and our children later, but also costs in 5-10 years. Vinyl floors, for example, have to be changed roughly every five years, maybe sooner. Linoleum lasts 40-50 yrs!

[Silliest]

Siding? Ugh. The choices are not great, IMO.

What we're planning to use is totally not avialable on the new manufactured home market. Recycled stone. Pretty sure we even know where to get it relatively cheap when the time comes. If I had to choose a siding type for a new MH, I just don't know. I might go with metal if I could get deep eaves to shade the walls from too much sun. Or I might just go with whatever has the best resale value and hope for the best.

A builder friend of mine said he'd view their refusal to leave out the cabinets as a bit of a red flag. Cabinets are a PITA. It would be much cheaper and easier for *them* to simply install some sturdy open shelving. Since they won't do so, he is suspicious that they will not be finishing the walls properly in that area of the home, and if you want to take the cabinets out later, you may have a real big job ahead of you getting that area finished properly.

You'd have to ask your builder about the PVC plumbing. We mostly have galvanized, but there's some PVC, too (all on the drain side, which doesn't freak me as bad as it would on the faucet side). I don't know if that relfects the ages of the components, or changing standards, or what.

Also you might want to ask if they nail or glue up the drywall. Some people are now using glue in the center, and only nail the edges, which could be introducing interesting chemicals to your airspace as well :-/

here's a site that looked interesting
http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/Qan...turedQandA.htm

and my state has some incentive programs for builders that comply with certain energy efficiency and environmental guidelines. I can look up the program and find a list of businesses that participate. Maybe there's something similar where you are?

[melissa17s]

I think pvc pipes are not up to code in most places... it is a cheap do it yourself material. Plus they are not used for the water coming into the house, but what goes out.

[Silliest]

It would not surprise me in the slightest to find substandard work in this house <LOL!>

[melissa17s]

The current Natural Home mag has an article about converting a mobile home into a green living home... might check out some of their ideas.

[makinleesmom]

We live in a very, very rural area(understatement)...no hotels and there is nothing avaliable for rent as everything is taken. There were several towns and communities hit by the tornado and all of the contractors are booked for at least a year. We thought (at my last post) that we were about to start building. Today we learned we there is an elderly couple living in a hotel that doesn't have wheelchair access so we dropped our position and let them have it. We are currently living with my mom and dad but this is a horrible situation. We talked today with another manufactured home builder and they are willing to just build us a box (for lack of a better term). This means there will be a metal frame, windows, and either metal or vinyl on the outside. We will finish the interior ourselves. My husband is a jack of all trades so I'm sure we will have it finished in no time.

Melissa thanks for the mag info.

[Gunter]

A list?

We are looking at a house built in the 1950s that has been rennovated several times in the past few decades. Definately not a green machine but we would like to change that!

You all listed so many good questions to ask about the materials. Are there websites that would have a full lists of things to watch out for or a list of questions to ask the realtor?

TIA and hope I am not hijacking!