Methods to Keep Moisture Out of Mobile Home Ceilings

Aluminum Trailer Roof

• The mobile home's prefabricated aluminum roof must be maintained regularly. An aluminum roof coating compound regularly should be applied to the home's metal roof. Especially in areas where a mobile home receives full sunlight, and is unprotected by nearby trees, mobile home roofs should be treated with aluminum roof coatings every five years.

Fiberglass Shingle Roof

• For mobile homes, a less expensive roof shingle often is used when the roof is framed and finished. If the home's roof shingles show signs of curling or cracking at the corners, the roof should be re-shingled. If a roof shows little sign of deterioration, homeowners should check around the base of pipes or skylights protruding through the roof plane. These seams are caulked with a plastic roof cement that can crack, allowing water to penetrate the roof surface.

Bathroom Humidity

• Interior bathrooms that do not contain adequate ventilation will allow water vapor to collect and saturate the room's drywall ceiling. Especially in the case of a large family, continued use of a shower creates water vapor, which condenses on all interior wall surfaces. Interior bathrooms should be ventilated with a ceiling ventilation fan that pushes steam outside the house. Retrofitting a bathroom with a ceiling ventilation fan is a simple remodeling task that can be completed in an afternoon.

Laundry Area Humidity

• A similar situation to steam in the bathroom exists around a home's washer and dryer. The washer creates high amounts of water vapor, and the clothes dryer, if not vented properly, will remove all the water from a load of clothes and send it into the walls and ceiling around the washer and dryer. If water is condensing on the ceilings or walls around a washer and dryer, ensure the dryer is properly ducted to the out of doors with a 4-inch flexible vinyl or aluminum dryer vent kit. Dryers can be vented directly through an exterior wall, or through the interior ceiling, and then vented through the roof. If no other option exists, dryers can be vented through the floor into the crawl space underneath a mobile home.