Exploring Hydraulic Machinery Repairs and Maintenance

If you live in a mobile home in a cold climate, you may feel like you spend an inordinate amount of time heat-taping your pipes and taking other measures to ensure your plumbing doesn't freeze in the onslaught of fierce winds and subzero temperatures. However, in many cases, poorly insulated skirting could be rendering your additional heating efforts all but futile by permitting your pipes to be exposed to frigid air and high winds, robbing your household's water supply of warmth and potentially even causing the pipes to freeze and burst. Here are  the best mobile home skirting options for cold climates. 

Insulated vinyl skirting

This skirting looks like typical vinyl skirting, but is substantially thicker and much better able to block the flow of wind than other skirting types. Not only will this help keep your pipes thawed all winter, it will improve the efficiency of your water heater by ensuring that the heated water flowing through your pipes isn't exposed to subzero temperatures while traveling below your floor's surface. 

Insulated vinyl skirting is available in a wide variety of colors, patterns, and price points, ensuring you'll be able to find the perfect match for both your home's exterior appearance and your wallet -- and because this skirting is thicker than other varieties, it's also more impervious to cracking and other forms of damage that can allow drafts of cold air to flow through.

Flexible plastic skirting

If your home is on slightly non-level ground, you may find that the skirting you install tends to warp and bend each winter as the freezing and thawing ground shifts shape, allowing frozen air to seep through the cracks and sometimes requiring you to make skirting repairs at the coldest possible time of year. Replacing your existing skirting with a thicker (but flexible) plastic skirting can help you avoid this shifting and cracking problem while still effectively shielding your pipes from the cold weather.

Electrified skirting

Those in climates where the ground is frozen more often than not may find an additional benefit in heated skirting. This skirting is heavily insulated, like vinyl skirting, but also contains heated wires (much like those used to melt glass in auto windshields) that can provide some heat to pipes to prevent them from freezing. By turning on the heating wires only when temperatures drop to record lows, you'll avoid raising your electricity bill while still protecting your plumbing and preventing a utility interruption.