Removing interior Wall

[MisfitMom]

Good morning gang!

My 22 year old has recently bought a 2005 Breckenridge Park Model. It is the model with the bunkroom on one end. The floor needs to be replaced from about the edge of the kitchen cabinets to the end of the rv. My question is, she wants to removed the wall to the bunkroom and make that the living room area, and would like to know how to tell if this is a load bearing wall. I've read that most interior walls in RVs are not load bearing, however, I thought I would ask you experts here!
Thank you in advance!!

 

[Rene T]

Welcome to the forum neighbor. I’m from NH next to Rochester. Where are you in Maine?
I could answer your question as to what I think but I’ll leave that up to others. They’ll be around soon. The building process for a park model could be different than a rv. Have to be cautious for snow load.

 

[MisfitMom]

Welcome to the forum neighbor. I’m from NH next to Rochester. Where are you in Maine?
I could answer your question as to what I think but I’ll leave that up to others. They’ll be around soon. The building process for a park model could be different than a rv. Have to be cautious for snow load.

Thanks! We're in western Maine, around Jay. That darn snow load is always a concern. It does definitely seem more of a mobile home than rv, it has better cabinets and storage than my darn house.

 

[Onyrlef]

Good morning gang!

My 22 year old has recently bought a 2005 Breckenridge Park Model. It is the model with the bunkroom on one end. The floor needs to be replaced from about the edge of the kitchen cabinets to the end of the rv. My question is, she wants to removed the wall to the bunkroom and make that the living room area, and would like to know how to tell if this is a load bearing wall. I've read that most interior walls in RVs are not load bearing, however, I thought I would ask you experts here!
Thank you in advance!!

Most every wall in a manufactured home with at least a 3/12 pitch is load bearing, the trusses are engineered and resting on every perpendicular wall is a truss or at least blocking between the trusses. If you remove the wall you'll eventually have a ceiling sag develop in that area. However you can remove the wall, but you'll need to replace it with a header. Support the ceiling between removing the wall and completion of the header. The header can be in the living area or the attic if you have access, makes no difference.

 

[Rene T]

Thanks! We're in western Maine, around Jay. That darn snow load is always a concern. It does definitely seem more of a mobile home than rv, it has better cabinets and storage than my darn house.

I worked in one of the paper mills back around 2000. I worked for an optical alignment company called OASIS. I Spent many days in Fraser Paper in Madawaska.

 

[MisfitMom]

I worked in one of the paper mills back around 2000. I worked for an optical alignment company called OASIS. I Spent many days in Fraser Paper in Madawaska.

Interesting! No mills left in Jay, just the Rumford one now. Madawaska is out there!

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

A park model isn't an "RV", at least not in the context of your question about typical construction. A park model is built to different construction standards than a mobile RV but still short of a "manufactured home". One of the relevant differences is that a park model can be up to 14 ft wide, while an RV is limited to 8.5 ft. That means the roof needs a lot more support and is typically peaked to provide better runoff for rain & snow. That generally means either the use of engineered trusses or load-bearing walls. RVs and park models generally do not use load bearing interior walls because there is no basement or slab under the wall to support it. All the strength is at the sidewalls, where the load can be transferred to the steel frame underneath. I'd say the probability is high that it has full width trusses rather than load-bearing walls is high, but "high" isn't a guarantee.

Some clues as to load-bearing often aren't obvious without opening the wall to see the construction. A continuous wall all the way across (with a door or arch for pass-through) is more likely to be load bearing than a partial wall, but a partial wall can still have a solid (load bearing) post near the room centerline as well. A non-load bearing wall generally has a simple 2x4 header and footer, with vertical studs to attach & stiffen the wall covering. A load bearing wall usually has more substantial header, e.g. a 2x6 or 4x6, and at least one 4x4 or larger post supporting the ends of the header. If this terminology is just technobabble to you, you should probably get some onsite advice from a construction pro.

 

[MisfitMom]

A park model isn't an "RV", at least not in the context of your question about typical construction. A park model is built to different construction standards than a mobile RV but still short of a "manufactured home". One of the relevant differences is that a park model can be up to 14 ft wide, while an RV is limited to 8.5 ft. That means the roof needs a lot more support and is typically peaked to provide better runoff for rain & snow. That generally means either the use of engineered trusses or load-bearing walls. RVs and park models generally do not use load bearing interior walls because there is no basement or slab under the wall to support it. All the strength is at the sidewalls, where the load can be transferred to the steel frame underneath. I'd say the probability is high that it has full width trusses rather than load-bearing walls is high, but "high" isn't a guarantee.

Some clues as to load-bearing often aren't obvious without opening the wall to see the construction. A continuous wall all the way across (with a door or arch for pass-through) is more likely to be load bearing than a partial wall, but a partial wall can still have a solid (load bearing) post near the room centerline as well. A non-load bearing wall generally has a simple 2x4 header and footer, with vertical studs to attach & stiffen the wall covering. A load bearing wall usually has more substantial header, e.g. a 2x6 or 4x6, and at least one 4x4 or larger post supporting the ends of the header. If this terminology is just technobabble to you, you should probably get some onsite advice from a construction pro.

 

[MisfitMom]

Thank you! I do understand your terminology, being the child of a professional carpenter. However, the differences of the construction of an RV versus a Park Model versus a mini Mobile home, if you will, is what has me wondering about the ideosyncrasies of this particular wall.
It is a full wall with a narrow door. I guess I can do some investigating on the headers and footers.
Thank you!

 

[Onyrlef]

I was an engineer for the 3rd largest manuf. home builder in the country. I promise you, engineered trusses or not, ceilings in manufactured homes will develop sagging over time if not supported, especially if sheetrock ceilings and even more so if decked and shingled. An engineered truss in a manufactured home is ordinarily constructed of 2x2's w/OSB gussets, not 2x4's and except for brands like Palm Harbor certainly not 2x6's. A park model with a pitched roof is just a short manufactured home and they can range to 16' wide. It's a mistake to conflate an engineered truss for site built construction with engineered trusses in manufactured homes, apples and oranges. Want proof? Stand off and look at the roof of a 10 year old manufactured home, every sag you see up there means a sag in the ceiling below, just think suspension bridge, same principle.

 

[MisfitMom]

I was an engineer for the 3rd largest manuf. home builder in the country. I promise you, engineered trusses or not, ceilings in manufactured homes will develop sagging over time if not supported, especially if sheetrock ceilings and even more so if decked and shingled. An engineered truss in a manufactured home is ordinarily constructed of 2x2's w/OSB gussets, not 2x4's and except for brands like Palm Harbor certainly not 2x6's. A park model with a pitched roof is just a short manufactured home and they can range to 16' wide. It's a mistake to conflate an engineered truss for site built construction with engineered trusses in manufactured homes, apples and oranges. Want proof? Stand off and look at the roof of a 10 year old manufactured home, every sag you see up there means a sag in the ceiling below.

Thank you! This model does not have a pitched roof. I appreciate your knowledge! I will have a carpenter take a look at it before we do anything.

 

[Onyrlef]

Thank you! This model does not have a pitched roof. I appreciate your knowledge! I will have a carpenter take a look at it before we do anything.

Then you don’t have trusses either, good luck with it.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Agree with Onyrief; your description sounds more like that wall is providing at least some support to prevent ceiling sag.

Having owned and done a lot of work on a 1979-vintage double-wide manufactured home, I too can testify that the roof "trusses" are nowhere near what would be found in a site built home. Mine were 2x3 lumber and calling them a "truss" is charitable, but they did the job. A double-wide has the advantage of a longitudinal support wall down the centerline so my greatest span was 12 ft. None of the cross-walls were load bearing.