Out with the floor!

Just make sure when your cutting the floor out, you set the blade to a correct depth. 1/8th" below the bottom of the plywood..  This allows the blade to cut effortlessly and also prevents you from hitting something underneath like pipes, wires, ducts or even cutting joists!.

I always thought the plumbing running to the kitchen was in the same joist bay as the heating duct, to prevent them from freezing, but as you can see below, they are not in the heating duct bay, but the bay next to the duct.

The kitchen water pipes were sitting on the 1/2" of insulation, I can't believe they didn't freeze and burst!

   The joists in my mobile home run the length so the heating duct & pipes can sit in a joist bay.

  In some mobile homes, the joists are set up different.

Every seam of the particle floor board has a 1x6 board running under it perpendicular to the joists 

(already removed) so the seams could be reinforced.

Just remember when your cutting through the floor board, you will run into the 1x6 support board (you will know when you hit the 1x6, it will put a strain on your saw). I just cut through the floor board first  then went back and lowered my blade to finish cutting the 1x6. 

 You'll probably hit staples, so after your done, your blade will be junk. You can use a cordless saw or I use a cheap corded Skil circular saw with a cheap blade to cut out the big chunks, the use my lightweight Ryobi circular saw to cut across joists and closely along edges.

As you can see on the left, the particle board is flipped over and the 1x6 is glued and stapled.
There is not a possibility of separating the particle board from the 1x6.








I cut the floor out between the joists because the 'press board' is glued to the joists and I figured I would leave a wider place to step. On the right is the outside wall.  Along the whole outside wall last year I had replaced all the 'belly board' with plywood.  It was falling apart and just a wide open door for any critter looking for warmth...

The easy part of removing the floorboards is cutting out the middle, but it's the area close to the wall and around the furnace that was a pain.  What I hate about DIY shows on tv, or even how-to websites, is they show you the easy stuff, not the parts that make you want to curse! So here's some pics of how I did it.  There may be easier ways, or harder ways, but this is how I did it.

Luv my Ryobi w/ Lithium battery

Don't forget your mask

I cut as close around the edge as I could with the circular saw. Just make sure you remove all the staples from around the edges of wall or it will get caught up.

I ran the jigsaw perpendicular as far as I could then finished it with a small handsaw. (Another great tool, the Skil jigsaw).

Left is where I cut out a notch to get a better spot to cut along edge with sawzall.

Right is piece of floorboard I cut off the edge.

Ryobi tools rock!

Update:
After you do something a few times, you  find easier ways to do things.  I found that it's easier cut the outside edge with the sawzall before you cut the rest of the floor. First I drill a hole close to the outside edge then stick the sawzall blade in and start cutting as close to outside bottom plate as possible.  As you pass by each stud, it's hard to get real close. I went back with my dremal multi-max and trimmed those spots.

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The photos below shows where the heating duct had a large split in the seam and cracked across the top.

How much did it cost me to heat the crawl space the last several years!

At first I thought the people who built this MH stepped on it, then didn't bother to repair.  But as I investigated more I realized that underneath this spot is the metal strut (web), and I think that when this was moved, it must have flexed so much that the duct just split.  The thickness of this cheap duct is as thin as roof flashing.  In fact that's what I used to repair it (with 1/2" self tapping sheet metal screws).

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For some reason, some MH's had a

 Outside Air Make-Up Hole. 

"Many mobile homes have a sheet metal connector that links the bottom of the furnace to the crawlspace. The purpose of this connector is to draw air from the crawlspace into the furnace (when it's operating) and distribute it through the duct system. Depending on its size and on its location within the furnace cabinet, the connector can draw a substantial amount of fresh crawlspace air into the mobile home. The decision to seal the connectors off is based upon the overall tightness of the home (if the house is really tight, don't fix it). Even if connectors function as makeup air inlets, the crawl space is probably not the best source of makeup air."

Here's what mine looks like below

I decided to leave the small section of duct that extends into the crawlspace, and close up the rest (photo below).  Since I plan to make this as airtight as possible, I thought extra air would prevent a strain on furnace if cold air filter is not cleaned as often as it should.  I plan to extend the duct to outside of the crawlspace.

I used this heavy duty roof flashing repair tape ( just got at Home Depot in roofing dept -15 bucks maybe).  It sticks like crazy and I repaired a few spots several years ago on the roof, and that stuff is still there and really well adhered. And thats after several years of snowy weather!!  

I might use this to seal my ducts, we'll see...