Performance of mobile homes data acquisition and analysis methodology

Abstract

In a study at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) , funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) , methods for inspecting mobile homes to identify performance problems, recording the problems and analyzing the problem data were developed. Maintenance work orders for 2881 mobile homes, a part of 12,500 provided by HUD for emergency housing in the aftermath of Hurricane Agnes, at Wilkes-Barre , Pennsylvania, were reviewed and computer coded by an inter-disciplinary team of engineers. Also, performance data were obtained from State and other Federal agencies for over 967 privately owned mobile homes. A second task was the field inspection of 257 mobile homes to assist in the determination of the causes and consequences of the problems identified in the data acquisition task. Computer techniques were developed to process the data and print out problem summation tables, graphs to establish trends, compile data on obvious problems and ferret out those problems which may not be obvious. This first report documenting the data acquisition and analysis methodology will be followed by a series of reports which will present results and relate them to current standards, the regulatory and insurance processes.