Why it is different
Why is a mobile home roof leak different from a house roof leak?
The roof frame is much lighter. Josh Hildebrand says the trusses are only about an inch and a half to two inches thick, and wires can run through the roof cavity, so a repair has to be done carefully.
Josh gets asked all the time whether Coastline does roofs on mobile homes. His answer on camera: "Yes, we do." Then he explains what to watch for: "When you go and you do some of these mobile homes, the trusses are not like normal trusses. You can see it's only like a one and a half, two inch trusses. So when you put your nail through the plywood and it nails to the truss, the nail will blow out. If you have any wires coming through here, you put a nail on the wire, that's a problem."
A truss is the triangle of lumber that holds up a roof. The federal rules for manufactured homes, 24 CFR Part 3280, cover how those homes are built. Section 3280.1 says the standard applies to manufactured homes designed as dwellings. A certification label permanently attached to each section of the home, as defined in Section 3280.2, shows it was built to those rules.
The same rules say roof framing may not be cut for electrical, plumbing or mechanical runs unless engineering supports it, per Section 3280.305(h)(3). That shows the roof frame is not meant to be notched or altered. Why does this matter for a leak? Because a bad repair can create a second problem. A nail that misses the truss does not hold, and a nail that hits a wire is a safety problem inside your walls.
Who does the work, and where? A licensed roofing contractor, on the roof of a home here in Manatee County and across the Gulf Coast, who looks before nailing. Coastline's mobile home roofing page explains how Coastline handles it.
