modular home repair questions

[Chris C.]

I am looking at purchasing a modular home, but has two repairs that it needs first has some soft spots in the floor would it be easier to put new flooring on top or just cut out the soft spots and replace them? Second question is in the kitchen it has a small pipe coming out of the floor that has a small leak but not sure what that pipe is, any ideas?

[Chris Adams]

Modular home subfloors are typically made from particle board and usually start out as 3/4". But over the years they begin to delaminate and grow around an 1/8". This is the same material found in the cheap furniture you have to assemble your self from Ikea and Walmart.

It is the cheapest possible material available, and thats why they use it. This material has 0 tolerance for humidity of any type, and will explode like a sponge if it gets wet a couple times.

I have seen situations where homes are closed up all summer due to foreclosure and large portions of the floor start to swell and buckle just from excess humidity and no A/C. I'm talking about the entire living room and dining room areas.

Honestly I have purchased a few mods with this problem, and I will continue to do so. In some cases I have cut out the entire subfloor up to the wall edge and laid new subfloor. In one case I replaced the really bad part and then laid another layer over the entire floor to fix wavy spots. It came out great and I still own this home.

Identifying the source of the leak and repairing that is super important to prevent more problems.