A common misconception in the mobile home community is that walls in a mobile home cannot be removed. That is not entirely true. As long as you understand how these homes are built and how they maintain structural integrity, you can remove most interior walls. The key is knowing which walls are load-bearing or shear-bearing and which are not.
In a single wide, with recent construction methods, there are no load bearing interior walls.
The home’s stability and integrity is derived from the roof and the exterior walls. Imagine a spiderweb. Alone, one single thread does nothing for the spider but a bunch of threads together makes a strong home that catches dinner and houses the family safely. The roof and side frames of a mobile home is roughly the same concept. It’s called integrated engineering and there’s many, many ways to design that ‘web’. Some companies use screws that go through the roof studs into the wall studs, some simply staple or glue them.
It’s up to you to determine which method was used to construct your home, and unfortunately, only the manufacturer you purchased it from can provide that information. Don’t hesitate to call and ask questions. If your home’s manufacturer is no longer in business, do as much research as you can online and offline to gather the information you need, and don’t be afraid to keep asking questions.
Here’s a couple of photos to help you conceptualize the way a single wide is manufactured.
Notice how the interior walls are attached to the floor first?
Only staples, nails or glue will be used to mate the exterior wall to the interior walls. Once all exterior walls are placed the roof is laid and it all makes a perfectly strong and structurally sound home that can be pulled on the highway going 55mph!
In this next photo you can see a few interesting things:
- The laminate floor is under the interior walls and tub in the bathroom.
- The wiring will be ran through the ceiling.
- This manufacturer utilizes top and bottom horizontal studs in the interior walls.
If you can learn the same kind of information about your own home you’ll be well prepared to tackle removing a wall in a mobile home.
Removing Walls in a Double Wide
A double wide is essentially 2 single wides joined together. The center line is called the marriage line and is what forms the spider web of integrity.
Each piece of a double wide has to have it’s own integrity and strength, they are simply brought together as one in the end. As long as you’re not messing with the marriage line or the exterior walls and corners, you shouldn’t have any issues when removing walls.
A Word of Caution When Removing Walls in a Mobile Home
Take proper precautions because I can’t guarantee you that every mobile home is the same. One example that you need to look for is if your ceiling changes height or goes from one height to another on the same wall. That could signify that either a shear or load bearing wall is being utilized. Each company did things just a little different and I’m painting with a broad stroke here.
If your home does have a shear or load bearing wall within its interior it’s still possible to remove the wall but you really need to know what you’re doing or your entire home could suffer some very bad consequences (collapsing is always a possibility). You can use a beam and span support system to replace the wall but this is when things start getting serious and you need to have a professional contractor and a licensed engineer on speed dial or in the room. Preferably in the room.
The 5 Steps of Removing a Wall in a Mobile Home
If you are removing an interior wall there is an order in which you should do it. This ensures you don’t start busting through a wall and find out that it is load/shear bearing or full of juicy wires.
- Turn off the electricity in both the room you are in and the neighboring rooms. If possible, turn the breaker off on the entire side of the home you’re working in. If you’re near a bathroom or kitchen or there’s a slight possibility that there could be a pipe anywhere close to where your working, turn the water off as well. Better safe than sorry! Some mobile homes have the electrical walls traveling through the ceiling and down into the walls, some through the exterior walls and some under them. Again, it’s up to you to the homework and research, please do it!
- Take the strips and molding off the wall. Peel back the flooring if needed. Then tear only the paneling/wall board off of one side of the wall very carefully. Start at one corner and make a small hole. Use a crow bar or hammer to gently pull the paneling away from the framing. Do not alter or harm the framing within the wall at this point. Go a little bit at a time to ensure there are no wires, pipes or load bearing frames.
- If all is clear and you only see single 2×4’s (or whatever your home is studded with) go to the other side of the wall and remove the paneling/wall board from that side.
- You’ve only just begun! Now that the wall covering is gone what do you see? Are there vertical studs attached to a top and bottom horizontal stud? Look closely and see what was used to attach the horizontal boards to the floor and ceiling; nails, staples, glue, or screws? You have to figure out how to get those studs away from the ceiling and/or floor without causing too much damage. Easy does it. Think about it first and then do the manual work. You want to do this in a way that causes the least amount of damage to the home. You don’t want to scar the ceiling at all; no holes allowed! Before you begin to cut through the studs, you need to do something with the wires or pipes if there are any. You can take each stud down one by one or the whole wall unit as one. It’s completely up to you. Personally, I try to save the wood in its original length so I can reuse it in another project. I watched one guy just cut right through the middle of the vertical studs, knock them out and then attack the horizontal stud. It worked for him :)
Now that the wall is removed, you need to figure out 3 more things:
- How are you going to fix the exterior wall that the interior wall was ‘attached’ to? It’s going to be obvious that something used to be there. Paint, paneling, and trim are always good ideas. If glue was used, sand it smooth. This is a great time to paint the whole wall or room that new color you’ve been wanting.
- There will be an obvious scar on the ceiling where the wall used to be. How are you going to remedy that? Paint, speckle, new ceiling panels, maybe a faux trim?
- Flooring is going to be an issue too. What are you going to cover it with? Laminate, floating floor and carpet are great ways to cover imperfections in a floor. Just make sure it’s level!
Of course, by removing a wall you’re probably going to be remodeling the room affected by the walls removal so you already have a good idea of exactly what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do. Just make sure you have a plan and nothing is a surprise.
Here’s a photo I found of a double wide that is in the process of being remodeled. It will give you a good idea of what to expect. There will most likely be a horizontal stud on the top but not necessarily on the bottom (it varies with manufacturers) and since this is a double wide, you can see the double studs in the middle that signify a load bearing wall. If you look at the top right, you can see a horizontal stud that looks like some nails are hanging from. That could be where they removed a wall.
FAQ about removing walls in a mobile home
Can you remove the marriage wall in a double wide?
Reader’s question: I have the dreadful marriage wall running right through the center of my house. Family room on one side living room on the other. A real separation in the home. Is there any way I can take out the marriage wall? I’d settle for taking it out and putting in two columns to support the overhead.
Answer: Great question but unfortunately the answer is no. Your marriage line is always load bearing. That doesn’t mean removing it is impossible, but it would be an expensive and delicate job that would require an engineer with proper knowledge of load and shear bearing construction techniques in manufactured homes. Even when the experts are brought in there will usually always be some kind of issue that arises in the future.
If you have any questions or if you’ve removed walls yourself, please comment about your experience. Every little bit we can share can help someone out there get one step closer to their dream home and that’s a pretty awesome thing to help someone do.
As always, thank you for reading Mobile and Manufactured Home Living!
You talk about removing interior closets. I want to remove the interior clothes and kitchen pantry closets that are separated by a common wall and also remove the wall in the kitchen that connects them. Can I do that without touching the marriage wall? Removing the closets will obviously enlarge the kitchen. I should also mention that I removed the old cabinets and want to install new flooring that continues from the living room. Is there any way to remove part of the marriage wall and replace it with a post or beam?
Hi Barbara,
It all depends on the layout of your home. Are these closet walls a part of the marriage line? If so, you should leave it alone – the cost and the future issues you would incur is just not worth it. The new cabinets and flooring are a great way to update your home so def go with that. I’m just not a fan of anyone touching the marriage wall regardless of reason – you’ll never be able to move the home again and you’re essentially disrupting the entire structural integrity of the home.
I like to remove a section of my marriage wall that separates the living room from dining room. It has a 8” or so header in the opening lid like to leave that and install a column under it. Is this feasible?
Hi Carrie,
Good question! To be honest, I’m dead against any kind of modification to a marriage line. It’s absolutely possible to do what you want but every time I’ve seen a home with any kind of mod to the marriage wall an issue of some sort eventually happens (sagging roofs, leaks, etc.). It’s just to big a chance to take in my opinion. Sorry to be the Debbie-downer!
I have a 16 x 80 single wide (93) i think.its a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom. In the 2 small rooms in the back i removed wall and made into one big room.wall studs were 3×1, no load. Hard part was relocate of 2 wall outlets. But all in all took about 1 day
Hi Billy!
I’d love to see pictures of your process. You wouldn’t happen to have any would you? I love to see people make their homes better suit their needs! Thanks for reading!
Hi,
We have a double-wide in the Harvey disaster area, it was built in ’98, we are having a hard time finding VOG suppliers, I asked about rebuilding with traditional paper faced gypsum but it was suggested cost might be higher, I don’t mind a little higher, since walls would look much better. Even Googling for answers has not turned up much and our interior has been demolished and ceiling and walls are ready to go up. Do you have any supplier options for VOG, and you mentioned XRoc but when I search all I find is some junk sites and can’t find that manufacturer or a supplier for XRoc, is XRoc thin like VOG 5/8″? Any help would be greatly appreciated, we are trying to get my elderly mother back in her home after being in hospital for over 6 months including having been evacuated 3 times during the hurricane. Thanks again from Victoria TX
yes my husband and I are looking to take out a counter top in kitchen to open it up it is between the livingroom and kitchen will that be diffacult to do and are they attached to the floor it is what I call a wrap around counter that devides the kitchen living room we want to open that up but we have to do that ourself cause we definetly cant pay to have contractor come in and do the work please if anyone is familiar with that let us know send an e-mail ty so very much for your help
Hi Gena,
Removing counters isn’t as difficult as a wall but it’s not as easy as most think. You need to consider electrical and plumbing first. Subfloors and joists will also need to be considered (patching any holes, etc). You will probably have scars on your flooring and any connecting walls, too. A big open floor plan is a great thing to have these days – everyone wants them so it may make selling your home easier in the future.
Best of luck!
When remodeling, can regular gypsum board be used to replace the vinyl wall material? (This is a big remodel that will affect all the interior walls.)
Second question: You mentioned carpet, laminate and a ‘floating floor’ <— what is that? Also, when it comes to upgrading insulation, what have you found most effective?
Third question: I have a collection of favorite books; while planning my remodel, built in shelves are an item I want to discuss with my designer and contractor. Have you seen this done nicely anywhere? Got any photos to share?
Thank you for answering my questions! I am brand new here, and I am so glad I found mobilehomeliving.org. I appreciate the diagrams, photos and lists. This is clearly a work of love.
Hi Cynthia,
It’s a great idea to replace VOG with sheetrock or XRoc, or whatever brand you choose. You can rid of the strips that cover the seams of the VOG.
The different terms is a common problem because different parts of the country use different names for products. In WV, laminate flooring is also called floating floor and I use both terms interchangeably. It’s the flooring that interlocks together to create a single plane and the perimeter is covered with trim. It’s a good DIY product.
As far as built-ins, I’m kinda against them. You never know when you’ll want to change the space around and built-ins are pretty expensive. I’d go with bookshelves or braces and boards or floating shelves.
So glad you found us! Please take photos of your project!
We would like to add a framed room to the back of our double wide and then take the wall of the mobile down. Can this be done. Bruce
Hi Bruce, you can absolutely build an addition to your home. You will just need to build the foundation separately. Then you’ll just seal the roof, siding, and door between the addition and the home. Here’s an article called Building Mobile Home Additions that may help.
Best of luck!