In the early 1970s I was a saleman for residential-grade SIPs (Structural Insulated Panels, though were were so early in the development of SIPs, that the term had not yet come to light).
Not only did I have to sell the product, I had to oversee and train the installers on the installation.
I was called to a site in a small town in Rhode Island (I cannot recall the name of the town).
I would often allow the installers to get a jump start and tell them to hang the hanger system (extrusions) to the wall before I arrived. With these instructions: The lag screws had to penetrate the stud by 2-1/2”. That meant that if it had aluminum siding (1/2” thick) and sheathing (1/2” thick) then the lag bolts had to be 3-1/2” long.
Of course no one told me that we were attaching to a mobile home. [eek]
So when I arrived the “home” owner asked, “What am I gonna do with all those coat hooks in side? A 20 foot long addition has “coat hooks” (lag bolts) 14” on center.
Worse, I insisted that they peel back some of the siding so we could determine that we were penetrating the studs. The “structure” was 1-1/2” x 3/4” pine. The aluminum skin was the sheathing. Pre-finished 1/4” panels were the interior sheathing. The studs were seemingly randomly placed. And the kicker was that all the electrical wiring was don with light gage extension cords with the plug ends cut off and connected to the wall outlets.
I called the home office for guidance. Do we allow our SIPs to be attached to the mobile home? We did. Emphasizing that we stood behind our product only. Our warranty did not extend to the attachment to the mobile home.
At the time, there was no governing agency overseeing mobile homes. The town building codes assumed that the DOT was setting standards, and the DOT was ignoring it completely.
A friend of mine lived in an immovable mobile home in the middle of a mobile home park. It could only be removed by crane as there were too many homes in the way to exit the park.
You could not get me to live in one of those things.
