Here we collect tips and tricks for mobile home owners. These are experiences of mobile home owners from our holiday centre Heidenau and from the internet. Of course, you can also send us your tips at any time so that we can include them here.
Improve the bathroom.
It doesn’t always have to be tiles to embellish your bathroom or just the back walls of your shower. Decorative panels, which are available in a modern stone look, also look very nice. Here is an example from OBI…, Repatex, Dumaplast or from Fibo. Similarly, you can embellish your bathroom completely joint-free with aluminium panels (AluDiBond) and large photos of your own choosing. Here are examples from Showmeister, YourPlate, or Rückwandshop. All panels are usually easy to work with, even by non-professionals, and especially very easy to maintain later. A great tutorial for a do-it-yourself bathroom renovation can be found in the Woodworker blog.
Installing an air conditioner.
As it is now getting warmer and warmer, you need an air conditioner in your mobile home in the summer. With mobile units, you always have the disadvantages of weaker performance. the exhaust hose always needs an open window, and the noise level is very high. And in winter the thing just stands around. The best thing to do is to install a split air conditioner that can cool, heat and dehumidify. You have a small unit in the house, and a second unit directly connected to the outside of the house. A well adjusted split air conditioner cools a room down to the desired temperature in only 10 minutes. The cooling load for medium-sized units is 2-3 kilowatts, and can be used on normal lines without any problems. For a “normal” mobile home, a unit with 12,000 BTU output (approx. 3.5 KW) is sufficient. To make it easy to install yourself, you should buy a Quick Connect air conditioner, where all the lines are already filled and the unit can be easily connected. Here is an example…
Renew roof
If you need a new roof, you should also include at least 2.5 cm of insulation (wood fibre insulation). Metal or plastic can be used for the roof, but you should bear in mind that a metal roof can be much louder than a plastic roof when it rains or hails. There are simple trapezoidal metal sheets, metal tiles in anthracite or also Metal tiles Andalusia in Spanish style. In addition to a beautiful new roof look, you can also save about 40-50% on heating costs. Great instructions for a do-it-yourself roof renovation can be found in the Woodworker blog. Anyone who would like to receive regional advice is in good hands in Heidenau at Dachbaustoffhandel Eckhoff.
strong>Using an open patio in winter.
With special films (truck tarpaulin with belts to roll it up) or Plexiglas panes (5mm), you can also use your covered terrace in winter. Weatherproof transparent foils in the form of weather protection roller blinds are also available. You can see many photos of film roller blinds here at a Polish supplier. Other interesting solutions can be found here at Wetterschutzrollos.de. If you already have a closed wooden veranda, you can use Plexy glass panes as Flexy panes. Just have them cut to fit, and screw them all around with angles, so you can take the panes out in the summer so it doesn’t get too warm. Here is an example of a fixed plexy glass window.
Renew the floor
The easiest way to freshen up your mobile home is with fashionable click laminate. Just make sure that you choose vinyl laminate for the bathroom area and possibly also in the kitchen, because it is more moisture-resistant. Vinyl is made of 100% plastic, while laminate is 99% wood. Vinyl is softer and warmer underfoot, making it more comfortable to walk on than laminate. Here’s some more info…
Making a mobile home winter-proof
There should always be sufficient antifreeze in the heating pipes of a central heating system, and this is not drained in winter. If you do not use your mobile home in winter, you should still leave the heating on low. If possible, the temperature inside should never drop below 10 degrees so that no moisture can collect. Otherwise it will quickly smell musty in the mobile home in spring. The water pipes on the outside of the house must be empty, otherwise the pipes can burst at high frost temperatures. If you have an exposed water supply pipe, you should protect it from frost with a pipe trace heating. Here’s some more info…
Insurance for the mobile home.
Like a normal house, a mobile home should also be insured against risks. There are only a few large German insurance companies that insure mobile homes. For example, CampingAssec has many good ratings. Another well-known permanent camper insurance is the RMV.
Gas heating system
It is very important that the heating system is inspected and approved every 2 years. The inspection report must then be presented once at the reception.
New paint for outside.
If you want to repaint the mobi home, there are many recommendations for weatherproof paints. Favourites are often weather protection paints from Renovo (Hagebau), Consolan (Hagebau) and from Obi. A good paint should protect the wooden house against sunlight (UV protection), rot and pest infestation. If there are cracks in the wood, water can penetrate and damage the wood from the inside. If you do not value the visibility of the natural wood structure, you can apply classic varnish, which is usually acrylic-based, directly on top of the existing paint. Before doing so, however, all the wood should be lightly sanded so that the new varnish adheres well. The acrylic paints retouch small defects and irregularities in the wood. And by the way, please never clean the house before painting, this brutally destroys the entire wood structure and therefore does more harm than good.
Outdoor cladding.
New insulation and cladding? Maybe install plastic panels at the same time so that you never have to paint again? The first thing to do is to install simple vertical battens so that the longitudinal panels can be attached later. For insulation, Styrodur panels are available in many thicknesses. As façade panels, there is now a lot of choice on the market. Here are many examples from Planeo… or the Canexel panels from RP Bauelemente. For a great tutorial on do-it-yourself re-panelling, check out the Woodworker’s Blog. A large selection of curtain wall cladding with explanations can be found at Biermann Baustoffe.
Gas cooker or ceramic hob?
Opinions often differ on this point. Which is better for use in a mobile home. Basically, you can say that a gas cooker does not unnecessarily burden the rather scarce power lines (16A) in contrast to an electric cooker. Therefore, a gas cooker would be better, but the cleaning effort of a gas cooker is also significantly higher. You can connect a ceramic hob via 230V, but then usually only two hobs can be operated at full load at the same time. An induction hob could also be a solution, because it consumes much less electricity.
Floor heating in the bathroom.
If you always complain about cold feet in the bathroom, you might like a heating mat. The mat can easily be laid under the laminate and later be conveniently used as underfloor heating via WLan and an app. These heating mats allow the heating system to be controlled optionally via the operating modes “maintain temperature”, “programme mode” and “frost protection mode”. Here is a provider…
Vacuum sewage system
If your mobile home is connected to the vacuum sewage system, then absolutely only water-soluble substances may be disposed of in the toilet or waste water. Repairs to the waste water system are always carried out at the expense of the polluter. Please always report malfunctions and persistent suction noises immediately to the reception to avoid damage. In the holiday centre, the houses in Waldweg, Heideweg, the sanitary blocks and some houses in the roundabouts are currently connected.
Banned are: Sanitary napkins, chemicals, disposable panties, disposable flannels, leftover food, wet wipes, wet toilet paper, kitchen tissues, handkerchiefs, tampons and much more.
In the photo on the right, you can see a manhole filled with faeces. The damage to sanitary building 3 was caused by carelessly disposed disposable wet wipes. It took several hours until the shaft was pumped empty and the burst pipe was repaired.
Have lawn mower blades sharpened.
If the blades on your lawn mower become blunt at some point, you can have them sharpened in most cases. In the immediate vicinity of the holiday centre there is agricultural machinery dealer Günther zum Hingste, in the Vaerloher Str. 20 in 21258 Heidenau. In addition to lawnmower blades, he also grinds lawn trimmers and chainsaws. More Infos…
Waterproofing and sealing.
Water is well known for wooden houses “poison”, so you should attach importance to a good sealing by silicone. Here you should not necessarily choose the cheapest hardware store product. In the worst case, the cheap silicone becomes brittle, lasts only 1/2 years and can perhaps not even be painted over. For windows and sanitary areas, “Soudal Silirub” or “Ottoseal” is often recommended. You can get a good selection of specialty silicones from specialist Northe.
Install a new toilet.
Replacing the old toilet with a new one should be well planned. As a rule, the standard seat height of toilets is between 40 and 42 centimeters. However, especially in old age, it can be more comfortable if the toilet is a little higher. It is recommended to plan for a height of about 48 centimeters. All measurements apply from the floor to the upper edge of the ceramic. The toilet seat does not count as part of this, it accounts for a further 2 centimeters. Ultimately, however, it always depends on the size of the user.