Some Things to Consider When Winterizing a Trailer

It is late September and with Winter on the way again it is time to start checking all the weak points both inside and outside of your home. Living in a trailer that we have been winterizing because the installation of the August, there get been a few matters come up that usually would not in a regular home. Here are a few of them to care for in mind much if you are not in a trailer or doing renovations.

After the initial procedure and since our trailer is an older model, 1960 or thereabouts, we had to make some decisions about its overall condition. The basic factor we decided on was to pull down the ceiling in the kitchen and living and tear out the ceiling cover, plastic barrier and the old, wet insulation so the ceiling could dry. I sprayed the wet areas with bleach water to drown and prevent mold. The rest of the ceiling will be done closest spring. We built twenty nine trusses to levy on the existing roof rather than removing the exhausted roof and rebuilding from scratch. While the roof was being built onto it and insulated with R20, then shingled, the existing vents for the furnace and water tank had to be checked and either reinforced or put in again. Originally there was no garret opening to buy into the roof so that had to be intersect out in the spare room closet and covered. I replaced all the light bulbs with energy savers.

Once we had sufficiently hose down the well to reach the water, more was needed to go from the pumphouse to the trailer to be hooked up for access to indoor running water. The alone way I had access to running drench formerly was by going out to the pumphouse and turning on the noisy generator that was hooked up to the hale pump, back in the house I had to pail enough cold dilute for bag on the stove and for baths after which I went back to the pumphouse and turned the generator off. This, for a month before the hose was hooked up under the trailer and little complete we realize just how much hose a washing machine uses until you have to pail it in, which is why I use only cold aqua for washing! All the electrical as well had to be hooked up for the lights and capacity to the appliances.

That done, we next installed a new 40 gallon propane water tank, that had to be ordered in, to heat the flourishing water and got the electric furnace converted to a propane user; the 250 gallon propane vehicle for the yard was delivered and hooked up by a gas fitter who also had to test the fittings and connections of the propane copper wiring to the trailer. At this point it is good to keep in mind that Alberta regulations are allot so only 80 % of the tank is filled for safety reasons and you admit to manually check the amount of propane left in your cistern and know what the current reward of propane is when ordering another fill to cook it economical to use. Does anyone hear solar panels echoing in their heads! Well, so far, so good.

September has been busy as money and time was spent on cutting to fit and painting some of the OSB sheets that were used for the porch, to skirt in the bottom of the trailer to protect the baptize lines from freezing and keep the mouse, vole, mole and bug populations at bay. Before finishing the skirting and packing dirt along the line and up the skirting all around the trailer, the saturate pipes had to be wrapped with thirty feet of electric drainpipe freeze prevention heating cable, with a plug in and then have insulation taped all around the pipes leaving an access door in the skirting for evident entry. It has taken a month to build the 12 x 12 porch, working on it in the evenings and weekends.

Our trailer is on a inconsequential acreage so there was a lot of wood boards that were still usable and existence economy minded nation on a budget who do not like to waste anything, we spent bout in cutting these boards for use in building the frame and roof of the porch. My hubby and his friend deposit twenty feet of soffet up plus the flashing then framed and built most of the porch and put it together. Finishing the low sloped roof with metal and pulling it into place, securing it with three inch screws. It is detached from the trailer in case of a move. This will be fix up as my winter porch pantry. The electrical is done in the porch for the indoor and outdoor lights and the switches are in. Now we can insulate and sheet the inside of the porch, I can clean and colouring the floor and our freezer, bin, three tier shelf can push in. I still must my two tables, wood/recycle/trash and potato boxes in and the shelving built. Then I can inventory it for my pantry.

After I used closed cell foam tape weatherstrip on the windows and doors, I covered the windows with shrink-to-fit, clear movie window insulator over the all the windows inside, finishing them with a blow dryer to tighten them up and keep the drafts out; Alberta winds can get pretty vicious. Our wood stove has yet to go in; first we need to conformation a raised wood platform in the living room with enough period under and behind it to allow for airflow, then assign light cement board insulation against the wall for added protection. Ceramic tiles activity on the platform, a vent is cut into the wall persist and covered for fresh air, a hole is then cut into the ceiling and out through the insulation and roof so the pipe can be put in place with an added half pipe attached to the existing one, again for added protection. After that the wood stove is connected and fired up, using the furnace fan to circulate the heat from the wood burner to heat the rest of the trailer; this will greatly divide down on our propane use. By the way, one of the best and most economical fire-starters you can use is the lint from your dryer; I save all of mine for decent that purpose.

There is still the pumphouse to insulate and a nine inch portable dish heater to put in to keep it warm for the winter and direct everything from freezing. Thirty six feet of house involve is needed to bang on the out side of the porch to protect the wood over the winter months and the rest of the soffet has to be put on. Adjacent Spring we testament put siding on the porch and attach three inch board insulation to the outside of the trailer walls, then re-side it. Its important to remember that everything you add to a trailer extremely adds to the overall weight of the trailer, that is why when building the roof you can corner only a foot of overhang. Even though there is even work to be done most of the important things are already in place for the coming of winter. Its a good aim to prepare and intendment ahead for trailer renos, a border of credit at your limited hardware store also helps.

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