Installing skirting on older homes

Tips For Installing Skirting On Older Mobile Homes

If you’ve been researching how to install mobile home skirting on your manufactured home, there are some important factors to consider before you start your project. While DIY mobile home skirting is an option and this kind of project certainly can be completed by homeowners, it’s important to note the proper considerations and prepare in advance before jumping into this job.

One of the first things you’ll need to do is consider the age of your manufactured or mobile home. New homes or houses fresh out of the factory will require different preparation than homes that have existed for 15 or 20 years or more. If your home is new, check out our article on tips for how to install mobile home skirting on new homes, here. The following tips will focus on older homes and how to prepare to install mobile home skirting on an aged manufactured or mobile home.

Tips for Preparing Older Homes for Mobile Home Skirting:

1. Inspect the Rim Joist – First, inspect the rim joist around the entire perimeter of the home. Often, the rim joist can become rotten or damaged.
2. Repair the Rim Joist – Not all older homes will have rim joist wear and tear, but many do. So, repairing it now is vital before installing new mobile home skirting. To make repairs on a rim joist, you’re going to have to cut some siding off.  Take care to set your blade depth because there are metal stops that come down into the rim joist. Moreover, setting your blade too deep, your saw blade will cut those off. Then, you’ll need to pull those stops up to get to the rim joist properly. Once you do that, you can start pulling the rim joist off and begin repairing it.
3. Inspect and Repair the Material Behind the Rim Joist. – For any part of the rim-joist, you need to repair, inspect the material behind it. If the material behind the rim joist is rotten, that will need to be repaired, too. Now place a new rim-joist in its place.
4. Level the Ground – The next thing to check is the soil, gravel, or dirt around the perimeter. Thus, ensuring a level surface is important. You’ll want the home skirting to fit evenly all the way around the home, so make sure the earth is level, first. Here’s a tip: measure 31 inches on your shovel and mark it with a piece of tape. Then go around the perimeter of the home and you can easily measure and see where some soil may need to be dug away or leveled better.

Once these checks and repairs are completed, house skirting can be applied to the home. For more information on DIY mobile home skirting options, get in touch with DURASKIRT™ at (360)419-9909. We’ll be happy to assist you and get you ready for your own mobile home skirting project.

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