Mobile home floor question...

18 years ago

Hi. I'm new to this forum, but have dropped in on some of the others. Anyway, my fiance & I will soon be moving into a 14x80 mobile home and I have a predicament... I bought a new washer & dryer set to go directly into the MH, it is being stored @ the store, so I have thoroughly read the manuals. Anyway, these are the stackable w/d's and I want to stack them, but the book says to make sure your floor can support 600 lbs. This sounds like a lot to me, but maybe it's not... So, will a mobile home floor support this? The w/d will be on an outter wall, so I was hoping that the steal beam that everything sits on would help support the weight, but I'm not sure. OK, say we should re-enforce (sp) the floor, how should we do it? We will be installing the skirting ourselves, so could we do it from underneath before putting up the skirting? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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Comments (3)

bus_driver
18 years ago
I think you are wise to give thought to this matter. The overall weight of the units does not concern me as much as does the concentration of weight on a small area of the floor decking panels. If height is not a problem, I suggest that a piece of 3/4" plywood large enough for the feet of the unit(s) be loose-laid on the mobile home floor. The plywood will spread the weight of the units over a larger area and the mobile home decking will not break through under the units.
coolvt
18 years ago
First, they must be figuring the pair with the washer filled with water. I doubt that the two when empty weigh more than 300 lbs. Even when the washer is full, I doubt the pair will go over 400 lbs. This load will be spread over about 4-5 square feet. As busdriver suggests a piece of plywood might be a good idea. Most of the floors of mobiles are particle board. If you ever had a small leak and didn't notice it, the feet on the washer would probably poke right through the floor. Sometimes Home Depot has a bin of plywood pieces so you dont' have to buy a full 4'x8' sheet.
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mc_hudd
Original Author
18 years ago
Bus_Driver~ That is what was concerning me too, b/c I'm sure the floor can hold 600 lbs., but it is very concentrated & I was also thinking about any small vibration from either machine... I don't want my new w/d to fall through the floor... LOL. Thanks for your suggestion. My dad had suggested this too, I was just curious if there was a better way, but this is probably what we'll do.

Coolvt~ Thank you also for your suggestion. I believe the weight is figured w/ the original weight of the w/d plus the washer full of water/wet laundry & the dryer full. As I said before, my dad also suggested the plywood... He said something about "marine" plywood that would withstand any leaks if, heaven forbid, we ever had one. So, I think that's what we'll do. But, the room is only about 5'x10', and the w/d will set w/ backs to the 5' wall, so, I think we'll just cover the whole width w/ plywood, we'll just cut it so it doesn't stick out too much in front of the w/d. Also, the spacing requirements for stacking them are w/d=76" + 6" above, so as long as the ceilings are 7 ft. tall, we're fine. Surely they're at least 7 ft. tall, wouldn't you think?

Again, to both of you, thanks!