Steel Jack Stands for Manufactured Homes A Big Mistake

Nov 20, 2015

Steel Jack Stands or Otherwise Known As “Metal Pier Supports” A Big Mistake

In the Manufactured Home Industry Metal Piers or Steel Jack Stands are becoming notorious. Moreover, they’re a costly mistake to mobile homeowners. Consequently, homes placed with these installed from the 1970s through 2015 are ticking time bombs poised for collapse. Indeed, it’s a wonder we haven’t had much press coverage over these lately.

Before we get started let’s get this straight. We’re talking about stands to hold mobile homes up, right? So, it’s a good idea to inspect under a manufactured home fitted with metal piers. Specifically, looking for the beginnings of rust and corrosion. Not to mention after finding rust going forward another ten years and some will already be disintegrating.

Are “Metal Piers” A Standard That Needs To Go Away?

What was once a standard support component is now under scrutiny in our industry as dealerships, contractors, and municipalities. Hence, they’re distancing themselves from admitting they ever thought they were a good idea. Likewise, contractors and installers retrofitting homes are at risk of installing new manufactured home skirting or Earthquake Resistant Bracing Systems (E.R.B.S.) are crawling under existing homes.

However, finding life safety issues like rusted mobile home jack stands are helping homeowners. Is this an accident waiting to take place? Just imagining, a small earth tremor has the potential to have hundreds if not thousands of homes collapsing.

How To Know If Your Home Has Steel Jack Stands

Every home is required to have a crawl space opening for the purpose to have access to the underside of your home. Finding the access opening on your home take a flashlight and carefully look under the home without placing your body under the home. Obviously, this is an important safety precaution. Certainly, you can see from the photos these kinds of homes can collapse at any moment.

Now have a look. What do you see? Many homes were blocked with 8″ x 8″ x 16″ concrete blocks and wood wedges which is good. If all you see is metal piers then you will need to replace them at some point, although if steel jack stands appear to have any scaling rust then they will need replacing as their engineered ability to support is already below the original specifications.

How Do You Go About Replacing Steel Jack Stands?

Carefully, very carefully. For us at MH Service & Supply, we begin at the crawl space shoring up the beams on either side. Then we work both

Steel Jack Stand through floor after earthquake

After an earthquake in California jack stands like these could be found poking up through the floors.

ways along the first and second beams. With one person on the outside at all times, we begin loading one of our low-profile DURASKIRT™ Retrofit Carts with blocks to pull under the home.

This process can take up to two days depending upon the conditions of the stands and crawl area accessibility. Because of the danger factor and hard conditions, it is difficult to find qualified companies like ours that can be trusted and will do this work both correctly and cost-effectively.

How Much Can I Expect To Pay To Replace The Metal Piers for Manufactured Homes Under My Home?

You can expect to pay anywhere from $3500.00 to $7500.00 depending on the conditions and size of the home. But this is money is well spent when considering the considerably higher costs of life and limb. Supposing you decide to add an Earthquake Resistant Bracing System (E.R.B.S.) for additional peace of mind, you can expect to pay an extra $3000.00 to $5500.00.

However, we do recommend these systems as they proved their worth in 1989 when California’s magnitude 6.9 earthquake known as the San Francisco World Series, and Loma Prieta Earthquake happened. As a result, all the homes with E.R.B.S. were left intact while 67% of the homes with metal piers for manufactured homes collapsed.

Moreover, the homes with concrete blocks without E.R.B.S. fared better than homes with metal piers having a 40% collapse rate. All of the homeowners having earthquake insurance were paying deductibles considerably higher than simply adding Earthquake Resistant Bracing Systems. Therefore, replacing jack stands with concrete blocks is a good idea. In fact, all of this is on record at the California Housing And Community Development – The Factory-Built Housing Program.

Is An Earthquake Resistant Bracing System A Good Idea and Why?

As we’re alluding to above, E.R.B.S. is an excellent idea. Surely, because they’re such a good idea and many consumers are retrofitting their existing homes today. Similarly, adding them to the new home setups. Because of their popularity at this time, it is difficult to find qualified contractors that are schooled in all the systems.

Knowledge and understanding of these systems take years to compile and that is why you need to hire a company like ours for peace of mind. But if we cannot serve you look for a qualified manufactured home installer/contractor who understands the importance of re-leveling manufactured homes and knows what to look for in these systems and their benefits for your home. Then install an E.R.B.S. and be safe.

(State of California Sent This Notice Out To Property Owners After The Earthquake)
“If you live in a mobile home…
Mobile homes can easily slide off their foundations if not properly secured to resist side to side motion. Look under your home – if you see a metal or wood “skirt” on the outside with concrete blocks or steel tripods/jacks supporting your home, you need to have an “earthquake-resistant bracing system” (ERBS) installed.

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Call or use the contact form below if you would like to learn more about these systems and their benefits. Or for more information regarding mobile home skirting please visit the DURASKIRT™ home page.

MH Service & Supply – 115 Lind Street, Mount Vernon, WA 98273 – phone: 360-419-9909.

Engineered Skirting For Manufactured Homes

Apr 12, 2015

Is DURASKIRT™ the only engineered skirting for manufactured homes?

Compare DURASKIRT™ engineered skirting with other mobile home skirting choices like, Hardie, Hardie Backer, Cement Board, DUROCK, Treated Plywood. Moreover, read about the differences, misconceptions, and notions about skirting products.

Intelligently Engineered Skirting for Manufactured Homes

DURASKIRT™ engineered skirting for manufactured homes, mobile homes, sheds, decks, park models and more.

Have you spent any time considering skirting products for manufactured homes or mobile homes? If you have, you will know that not all products will perform well outside of their original intended use.

For example, we have seen a few products fail miserably when using the as skirting. Indeed, plywood, Hardie siding, Hardie backer and DUROCK tile backer are some to name a few. More so, skirting is located where moisture, sun and extreme weather conditions are existing. Thus, you need a product designed specifically to handle these extremes.

Hardie or cement board skirting, when used as siding is a great product. Used as skirting exposed to under floor moisture, it begins to warp inward and eventually pulls from the nails and screws. Following the dry summers, it gets brittle then begins to fall away leaving the home vulnerable to rodents and the elements.

DUROCK, on the other hand, is a great product when used properly as an interior tile backer. But when DUROCK is used as mobile home skirting it eventually crumbles to pieces in a rather short period of time. The reason is simple, the netting is not UV resistant thus it rots away quickly. To add to its demise the cement used is not air en-trained for freezing and thawing weather conditions, so it crumbles.

Plywood is another material that is frequently used. Some refer to plywood skirting as “poison plywood.” Treated plywood is another material that was and is widely used as skirting and has proven to not last. In many cases we see rotten rim-joists that is caused by trapping moisture where it connects directly to the home. We also find the plywood eventually rots when back filled with soil.

Before you consider a skirting product please consider these questions:

Is the intended use of this product meant for skirting?
As a consumer what should I be looking for in a skirting material?
Is the product engineered for manufactured homes or mobile home skirting? If engineered skirting, does it meet the HUD Permanent Foundation Code?
Does this skirting product have a proven history for skirting manufactured homes or mobile homes?
Is the product warranted for skirting use?
What are my expectations from the skirting and does the skirting literature cover them?

Making An Informed Choice

Believe me when I say, “which skirting material you use can have detrimental effects.” For this reason, I am writing to inform consumers of problems we’re encountering. More so, for helping new customers quests for making a more informed skirting choice. Because their efforts and money they will be investing money into their homes future.

Since 2000 when I envisioned a concrete skirting for manufactured homes we were one of many thousands of contractors routinely grabbed products from the cheapest sources. Trained like rats we were constructing these materials to fit the manufactured home. Likewise, we routinely did this because it’s how everyone else did it. Nevertheless, this was acceptable to almost every building jurisdiction and thus sold by sales personnel at the dealerships.

Many home dealerships had a series of skirting products showcased for visual aides to offer their customers along with a set of fixed costs for each. Granted, these sales professionals generally had no clue of the products benefits or long-term use. Many of these products had skirting manuals or warranties. Furthermore, after offering DURASKIRT™ engineered skirting publicly we became aware of these other products that were failing and the reasons why.

Over the past thirteen plus years since the first DURASKIRT™ panels were making their way onto manufactured homes we have learned much about our industry and its needs. The product has improved but the purpose remains clear as the day we began. To bring an affordable durable manufactured home skirting product to last the life span of the home itself.

DURASKIRT™ is intelligently engineered unlike many other products.

What I mean by intelligently engineered becomes very apparent as you dissect the way it’s made. We start by using steel molds that are coated with a renewable resource, corn oil. We then use a galvanized welded wire that is set purposely to the back of each panel to take a frontal force. The panels are marked to indicate the back of the panels.

The concrete mix is designed for exterior adverse weather conditions with en-trained air, super plasticizes, and shrinkage reducer to prevent warping high cement ratio that is considered a waterproof concrete mix. The concrete mix also has fiber reinforcement added to prevent cracking.

Another addition and first is the use of Geo-tech fabric for holding the panels in place for back-filling. The use of a Hidden-Vent is also a breakthrough for manufactured home skirting. As you can see we have been hard at work developing a superior product for our industry.

What is also a first is a concrete skirting product that is packaged for the DIY consumer.

DURASKIRT™ panels weigh less than 65 lbs. each and can be installed by the average consumer. This saves tons of money. Whether your project is large or small DURASKIRT™ is suited to meet most home sets. The panels are 30” x 37” x ¾” and can be ordered with the fabric on either end. This allows DURASKIRT™ engineered skirting to be used on homes that is set an extra block high. Being ¾” thick the panels fit easily on homes that are not foundation ready. This saves money because some factories charge more for ordering your home foundation ready. One other added benefit is that non-foundation ready homes experience less drywall damage during shipping saving the dealership and home manufacturers repair costs.

DURASKIRT™ has an easy to follow manual and installation videos that make it the most popular DIY skirting in the industry. Our goal is to set the industry standard for excellence in manufactured home products.

How do I order DURASKIRT™?

DURASKIRT™ is priced by the height of skirting and lineal foot of the perimeter of the home. Measure your home and call for pricing. Use the Pre-Order form to make it clearer what you need. A customer service agent can help you fill out the sheet and either fax, mail or email us a copy. Phone numbers are listed on the website as are emails.

For more information about mobile home skirting products visit DURASKIRT™ home page.

A Silvercrest MO7 With Concrete Skirting

Jan 5, 2015

Concrete Skirting – Silvercrest MO7

How did we get to skirting a Silvercrest MO7? Beginning our journey in 2000 after applying for patents for a concrete skirting product for mobile homes. Moreover, the idea was not a new one to the industry. People were pouring 2” slabs of concrete, very heavy, then tilting them into place. Obviously, people were desiring a concrete foundation look without the costs.

The Problem & Solution

An equitable method of creating these concrete skirting panels was lacking. Most certainly, this was a problem. So, we invented a solution and a company was born. Furthermore, the product was named DURASKIRT™.

Original Panels Were Heavy & Bulky – Why Silvercrest MO7?

Our solution began with constructing heavy concrete panels. Of course, although cumbersome, installing these concrete skirting panels was quick. As a result, one of the first homes getting skirting was a Silvercrest M07.

More so, the corners were numerous and finishing it the owners were pleased. Additionally, you can see from these photos DURASKIRT™ was still using the plastic vents which became obsolete in 2010. Additionally, designing the “Hidden Vent System” and implementing the cut-able filler panel into mass production.

: Concrete skirting panels. Sivercrest MO7

A New Concept Was Born

Beginning DURASKIRT™ in 2000 we needed a filler panel we referred to as “the cut-able filler.” Indeed, it was entirely different in its construction and production cycle. Obviously, the giant heavy (165 lb.) panels became obsolete to these 65 lb. panels. Especially when we began inserting a Geotec fabric into the bottom of the filler.

“A scaled down version of a commercial tilt-up concrete wall.”

Soon we decided to call the fillers DURASKIRT™ Pro version. Furthermore, they were a premium version made with the newest concrete add mixtures and galvanizing wire reinforcing. In a basic sense, these panels were like constructing by exactly scaling down a tilt-up wall. Comparatively, many commercial buildings employ a tilt-up concrete panel system.

Concrete Board or Cement Boards

More so, the great thing was using these panels for replacing the original panels works. Besides, this is not the only positive outcome as marketing them for other uses is now feasible. As they became popular some people started calling them Concrete Board or Cement Boards.

Not only for skirting a Silvercrest MO7. Now, these concrete panels are now finding their way as skirting on decks, park models, wainscoting on pole buildings, covering insulation on commercial structures, manufactured home skirting, shed skirting, mobile homes as mention before, modular trailers for offices or classrooms and more. Creative Concrete Products, LLC is planning more for its uses and the future will tell the story as it unfolds.

For more information about our concrete skirting panels please visit www.Duraskirt.com or call 360-419-9909. We are based in Washington State, but can easily ship to most areas.

Other Articles:

DIY Park Model Skirting Installation

Rock Skirting Products for Mobile Homes

DURASKIRT™ Warranty for Manufactured Homes

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