Is it that they are simply of poor quality?
Is it because they are often owned and lived in by lower income people and maintenence can’t be kept up?
How do modern ones compare to older ones?
In: Engineering
Kinda depends on how you define suck. But mobile homes aren’t really built for long term habitation. They’re built with very different criteria in mind than a house.
For example, they’re meant to be moved. That means they have to fit on the road. They have to be lightweight enough to move easily. They’re not designed for permanent grid hookups (electric, sewer, gas, water).
And that means a lot of choices are made that you wouldn’t make for a conventional home. Like thin, lightweight walls that don’t insulate heat or sound very well. Plastic is lighter than glass, wood, and stone. So the building materials often look and feel less luxurious.
This also means wear and tear hit these structures a lot harder than a conventional home. At the same time maintenance is a lot harder. If the paint peels on your wooden house or the brickwork on your stone house need some attention, you put some work into it and it looks great again. If mobile home panels start to peel, it’s not as easy to fix.
And at the end of the day, lifespan expectations and production methods for these structures match. No manufacturer builds mobile homes with the idea that four generations of your family will live in it.
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