Manufactured homes
Mobile Home Window & Door Repair
Different windows, different doors, different parts. Most companies will not take the work, and in rural Montana that leaves a great many people with nobody to call.
- Service
- Manufactured & mobile homes
- Typical visit
- One to two hours
- Sizes
- Non-standard, built to fit
- Rural
- Routes planned, not surcharged
The drive is the job
Nobody comes out, so when we do, we do the lot
Manufactured homes across rural Montana sit a long way from anybody who services them, and most window companies decline the work before distance even comes into it. The result is owners being told the parts do not exist and the only option is replacement.
That is rarely true. These windows and doors come from a small number of manufacturers, the hardware or an equivalent is generally available, and the frame is nearly always worth keeping — replacing a window in a manufactured home means cutting into the wall assembly, which is a far bigger job than the fault justifies.
Because we are driving out anyway, the sensible approach is a full walk-round. Every window, both doors, the screens. On a trip of an hour or two each way, the second and third repairs are nearly free by comparison.
On the truck
What rides on the truck for manufactured homes
Specific parts for a specific product, carried because the nearest supplier is usually a long way off.
| What we carry | Why it is on board |
|---|---|
| Slider rollers and guides | Horizontal sliders are the standard window here and the rollers are the standard failure. Carried in the common patterns. |
| Latches, catches and handle sets | For both windows and out-swing entry doors, which work their fixings loose over time. |
| Out-swing door hinges and shims | Doors sag and frames move with the home. Adjustment hardware is most of what fixes them. |
| Weatherstrip and bulb seals | Single-glazed aluminium frames leak badly once sealing has gone, and this is the highest-return item on a manufactured home. |
| Screen mesh, spline and frame stock | Non-standard sizes, built on site where the frame allows it. |
| Threshold and sweep sections | The part of an out-swing door that takes the weather and wears out first. |
Make the trip count
Before we drive out
A few minutes now saves a second two-hour trip later.
Clear the bottom tracks and try again
Sliders here sit in a shallow track that fills with grit. Vacuuming it out genuinely fixes some windows outright, and it costs nothing to find out.
Count every window and door
Including the ones you have stopped using. On a long drive the marginal cost of adding them is small.
Check whether the home is level
Open a door halfway and let go. If it swings on its own, the home has moved on its piers. That is a different trade and we will tell you so rather than charging you to chase the symptom.
Photograph any maker's stamp
Usually on the sash edge or the frame corner. It tells us exactly what hardware to bring.
Measure one window roughly
Height and width. It confirms what everybody already suspects, which is that nothing off a shelf will fit.
What Montana does to it
What Montana does to a manufactured home
These homes take the same weather as everything else with less structure to absorb it.
Wind, and plenty of it
Manufactured homes on open ground take the full force of Montana wind with no shelter. It works fasteners loose, bends screen frames and puts real load on out-swing doors.
Cold on single glazing
An aluminium-framed single-glazed window in a Montana January is doing very little. Sealing it properly is among the most cost-effective work available on this kind of home.
Ground movement under set homes
Homes sit on piers, and frost, settlement and drainage all move them. Doors that will not latch and windows that bind are frequently a levelling issue showing up at the opening.
Ultraviolet at elevation
Hard on the lightweight vinyl and polymer components these homes use. Latches and glazing beads go brittle years earlier than the same parts would at sea level.
Hail
Eastern and central Montana see it most years, and a manufactured home's lighter glazing and screens take it harder than a site-built house would.
By building
The buildings we work in
We work across all four, and tell you honestly which one you are in.
Log and timber homes
Log walls settle vertically for years after they go up, and the windows and doors in them need slip space above the frame to allow for it. Where that space was never left, or has been filled with trim and foam over the years, the opening slowly crushes the unit. A door that will not latch in a log home is often the building moving, not the hardware failing.
Ranch and outbuildings
Shops, barns, bunkhouses and equipment buildings with hardware that has to work in weather and gets no attention until it stops. Usually simple assemblies, usually repairable, and usually a long way from anybody who would come out for them.
In-town housing
Billings, Missoula, Butte, Helena and Great Falls hold a great deal of early-century stock — weight-and-pulley sash, putty glazing and original storm windows — plus post-war and modern suburbs where balances and sealed units fail together.
Manufactured homes
Common across rural Montana. Lightweight aluminium or vinyl frames, out-swing doors and sizes that match nothing in a store. We have a separate page for these because the parts and the advice are genuinely different.
Questions
Manufactured home questions
Will you actually come out to a mobile home?
Yes, and out to rural ones. It is a service we offer deliberately rather than grudgingly.
I was told the parts are not made any more.
Usually not true. These windows and doors come from a small number of manufacturers and hardware or an equivalent is available for most of it.
Nothing at the hardware store fits.
Correct and expected. Manufactured-home openings are not standard sizes. Glass and screens are made to your measurement.
My door will not latch and it is getting worse.
Often the home has moved on its piers. The door can usually be adjusted, and sometimes the right answer is a levelling contractor — we will tell you which.
Is it worth repairing or replacing the window?
Repair, in nearly every case. Replacement means cutting into the wall assembly, which is a much bigger job than the fault justifies.
We are two hours from the nearest town.
So are a lot of our customers. We plan routes rather than charging for the distance.
Coverage
Mobile home window and door repair across Montana
A mobile service covering the whole state. Pick your town below, or call and we will plan a route to you.
Mobile Home Window & Door Repair Across Montana
Related
Other repairs we handle
Windows and doors are the whole business, so whatever has failed, it is on this list — and it can go on the same visit.
Next step
We take the work other companies turn down
Free estimates on manufactured and mobile homes anywhere in Montana.