static caravan revamp

[junmist]

Has anyone stripped one of these out, as I am thinking of stripping one out and redesigning the space to suit me. And if any of you have what if any was the problem with doing this, I remember a makeover program years ago saying that they had to be careful as some of the inter fixtures kept the van stable, think George Clark with out the gizmos.

[handyandy]

yeah the walls pretty much hold the roof up as I found out several years ago.was given 2 old 40ft mobile homes,used one to crash out in
whilst building house and the other to store cement and other building materials in.only took a few walls down in the storage one and after a windy weekend it had totally collapsed in on itself!lol.
I learnt from my mistake!

[dannytsg]

You do have to be careful as all internal walls are pretty much structural. If you were to want to knock down walls and reconfigure the space I suppose you could use akro props to support the roof and then use an internal spreader beam and posts to keep the structural integrity of where the old walls used to be.

A couple recently did something very similar on the last episode of George Clarkes amazing spaces whereby they bought 2 portacabin offices, joined them together and remodeled the inside to make it a family home. Well worth watching to get an idea.

[adrian007]

We got one a few months back.

I've done houses up - I love them, just use a bit of common sense and it's usually OK.

Statics - completely different ball game - there is no logic to the way they are done. You can't remove walls because they are structural... but it's carpetted before the walls are put in and everything is just stapled together.

If it was a structurally sound cuboid, 12' x 37' I'd say fire away... it's an awesome idea. It's not - it's a flimsey piece of origami held together with staples

Anyway - we are adapting our lifestyles to suit the static...

[preparedsurrey]

Is it a Static or a Park Home? I have had a few modern park homes apart (with an apex roof) and the walls aren't structural in the ones I've worked on, they're only 2"x1" battern faced with maybe 1/4" ply both sides. If anything they may provide some additional bracing but thats about it, if its just a case of moving walls about (rather than removing them altogether) then I would have thought you should be fine. If you replace them with 2x2" and use thicker ply to face one side then its going to be way stronger than the original, you could even put in a couple of diagonals to be extra safe.

Anyway what is it you are planning on doing? By the way if you haven't thought of it you may need some tracking to run it over to tow it to its final location, they've only got little wheels and are prone to sinking rather than rolling on anything less than a good solid surface.

[grenfell]

If you are simply thinking about re shaping and moving walls it would probably be possible to build the new partitions before taking out the old. It would be a bit of a pain but less so than having to shovel the whole thing up if it collapsed. Obviously a more detailed inspection is going to be needed as to be honest we are really guessing here, any chance of a picture or two?

[junmist]

Thanks for the replies this is a future project. Basically it looks like in the next year I will need to find somewhere cheap to live and I am just playing about with ideas at the moment and a static caravan is within my price range. But they never have descent bedrooms so I thought I might be able to move the walls around a bit to reconfigure the space. But that seems to be a bit more work than I can do myself
If not a caravan then I'm thinking of building a bender in someones back garden as that seems simple enough to do and I can add to it as I go along. Hmmmm wonder if you cam cob bender walls

[Moxy]

I run a caravan park and we have caravans ranging from 1987 up until 2014. The differences in design and build quality can be subtle to the untrained eye. For instance the older caravans external walls are only an inch or so thick with very little insulation. Also be VERY careful with the roof. Understand that it was built in a closed factory that is designed to build caravans. If you put a tiny crack or hole in the roof it can prove impossible to find and all your hard work could be ruined. Try and find a way of reinforcing the roof and keeping the walls pulled in. If you can make it work it would be a great little bolt hole. I fully endorse you doing this, just putting a few pointers in.