Gary Miller, 72, is poking around in his shed, behind the 70ft home where he has lived for 27 years. "It's quiet. There's no bunch of drunks hanging around having parties. After the five kids got off on their own, we moved down here. It's the first property we ever owned. I would rather live in a house, it seems safer. In storms, you have to watch these things but we don't have that many big ones."
Again, the mobile home gets a facelift and finally gets its name, “mobile home.” The width is increased to ten feet and it’s more box-like than ever. These homes were constructed with aluminum panels, painted before installation.
The eight-foot wide homes could be moved around by the owner’s vehicles. However, the ten foot wide homes required a professional moving service and special permits for relocation. They were meant to be much more stationary due to the hassle of relocating them from place to place.
Welcome to the 60s. Here we have the introduction of the ever popular and design-flexible double-wide.
Along with this new chapter in mobile home history, we have the American National Standards Institute (ANSI.) ANSI began to develop construction standards for mobile homes, helping to change the tide in mobile home quality.
Interestingly, one of the biggest turning points in mobile home history is in the 1970s.
It’s here that forty-five states adopt ANSI’s standards. In addition to ANSI, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Code is set in place. Through these two standards, the bar is raised for mobile home construction is continuing decades.
The HUD code gives manufactured a set of minimum requirements in their construction. This affects the home’s durability, efficiency, and safety.
During the 1980s and 1990s, the HUD Code undergoes a period of refining. Problems such as formaldehyde emission are dealt with and thermal-zone maps require changes.
In 1980, the U.S. Congress officially changed the name “mobile home” to “manufactured home.” However, the general public continues to use the two terms interchangeably.
The stigma of the dingy mobile home is due to the mobile home of years gone by. It’s part of the growing pains of the mobile home’s history.
As a result of the HUD laws re-instated in the 1970s, manufacturers continue to step up their quality in design and construction technique.
With an estimated 20 million Americans living in mobile homes, it’s good to see more people are realizing we’ve come a long way. The flimsy shelters of the 1940s are no longer deemed appropriate by manufactures. Seeing the affordability and quality found in the mobile home, it’s no wonder people are paying it more notice as a viable housing option.
Compared to the mobile homes of the 1970s, today’s mobile home is often difficult to distinguish from the site built home.
So we hope you enjoyed the whirlwind tour through mobile home history. Did it surprise you? For something as simple as housing, the mobile home has seen much throughout the years. While its past includes gypsies and WWII veterans, its future is likely to be just as exciting. Time-traveling can be fun, but how about a bit of world-traveling to see what mobile homes look like around the world?
Comments
Please Join Us to post.
0