what type of wood to use for mobile home skirts

Mobile Dwelling Skirting
Mobile habitation, trailer, doublewide skirting & insulated skirting panels: requirements, types, sources

• Post a QUESTION or Comment about mobile habitation skirting & insulation

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Most mobile dwelling codes currently require a skirting around the unit as well as a moisture barrier on the basis below it.

Add a skirt if none is provided, or audit & repair the existing skirting to stop winds from blowing beneath the unit. In cold climates, install insulated skirting panels.

Folio top: Titan mobile home skirting or foundation enclosure, insulating panels, cited below on this page.

This commodity series discusses how to inspect, diagnose and correct bug in mobile domicile, doublewide, or trailer & camper insulation or ventilation systems.

We also provide an ARTICLE INDEX for this topic, or y'all can attempt the page top or bottom SEARCH BOX equally a quick way to notice information you need.

Mobile Domicile & Trailer Home Skirting & Crawlspace Enclosures

Illustration: Gorilla EPS insulated mobile dwelling skirting panels, cited & discussed beneath on this page.

[Click to enlarge any image]

Mobile Home Skirting Nuts

ane. Crawl surface area ventilation: mobile abode crawl expanse ventilation: with some variation by local codes depending on where you lot alive, some skirting openings are required for ventilaton, oft described as

The skirting of a manufactured home shall exist ventilated by an approved mechanical means, or past openings in the exterior facia or foundation walls. Such openings shall have a net area of non less than one square foot for each 150 square feet of nether-floor surface area.

Venting like this is Not required for mobile homes located in a overflowing patently, though I might argue that openings or alluvion vents might be needed to prevent flood waters from causing the skirting or abode to collapse.

ii. Mobile home clamber space enclosure: A manufactured home must have a skirting around its unabridged perimeter. It must be installed per the manufacturer's installation or, if the manufacturer is not specific, to the standards that take been adopted in the lawmaking jurisdiction where yous alive.

3. Access opening: the mobile dwelling (manufactured home) skirting must include an operable access cover or door or opening to allow admission below the abode (for inspection and repair) .

iv. Mechanical systems that drain or vent such equally a dryer vent or water heater temperature/pressure relief valves must discharge to outside the skirting - that is, you cannot dump these into the clamber infinite.

v. Mobile home skirting materials: must be suitable for basis contact and must be non-combustible (to avert a burn down hazard). That means you can't use materials that will be damaged by h2o, wet, or ground contact.

Typical code details might country: Metal fasteners must be galvanized, stainless steel or other corrosion-resistant textile. Ferrous metallic members in contact with the world, other than those that are galvanized or stainless steel, must be coated with an asphaltic emulsion.

Skirting must not exist attached in such a fashion that can cause water to be trapped betwixt the skirting and siding or trim. The skirting must be recessed backside the siding or trim.

Sentinel out: when working nether a mobile home, manufactured dwelling house, or any tight crawl space in that location may be serious health and safety hazards. More than one reader take reported getting an electrical stupor while working nether a mobile or manufactured home. Hazards in such tight spaces are outlined

at MOBILE HOME CRAWL SPACES and

at CRAWL SPACE Prophylactic ADVICE

Mobile Home Skirting Codes

Oh sorry; I thought we were discussing trailer tie-downs. The skirting requirements for mobile homes that I've institute are not specific nearly the skirting bottom fastener pattern.

Florida specifics on mobile home skirting:

Naught I've plant addresses a Florida Code requirement for specific fasteners to be used at the bottom of mobile dwelling house skirting.

In general, codes model or start with the HUD specifications I'll extract here. For mobile or manufactured home skirting, a wide range of materials are permitted: vinyl, aluminum, plywood, masonry block, faux stone veneers; typical lesser fastening for vinyl skirting is a ground track pinned to the soil with stakes and catching the bottom of the skirting material.

Florida mobile dwelling house codes pertaining to skirting:

8.8 Skirting.

8.8.1 Construction.

8.8.1.1 Skirting, if used, shall exist of atmospheric condition-resistant materials.

eight.8.ane.two Skirting shall not be attached in a style that tin cause water to be trapped between the siding and trim or forced up into the wall cavities trim to which information technology is attached.

viii.8.1.3 All wood skirting within 6 in. (152.4 mm) of the basis shall be pressure treated or naturally resistant to decay and termite infestations.

8.8.ii Ventilation.

viii.8.ii.i Ventilation shall be provided for the crawl space with skirting as follows:

(i) At a minimum of ane ft2 (0.1 m2) of free surface area for every 150 ft2 (14 m2) of the home'due south flooring area

(2) Except in arid regions with dry soil atmospheric condition, the following shall be permitted:

(a) A uniform 6-mil (0.fifteen mm) polyethylene sheet fabric or other acceptable vapor bulwark material shall be permitted to be installed on the ground surface beneath the home to further reduce moisture.

(b) Where an adequate ground vapor barrier is installed and ane such ventilation opening is within 3 ft (914.iv mm) of each corner of the abode, the full area of ventilation openings shall be permitted to be reduced to 1 ft2 (0.1 m2) for every 1500 ft2 (140 m2) of the home's flooring surface area.

eight.eight.ii.ii Ventilation openings shall be placed at or near each corner of the dwelling house and as high as practicable.

viii.viii.ii.3 Openings shall be located on at least two reverse sides to provide cantankerous-ventilation.

eight.8.three Admission opening(s) not less than 18 in. (455 mm) in whatsoever dimension and not less than iii ft2 (0.28 m2) in area shall be provided and shall be located so that whatever water supply and sewer drain connections located under the home are attainable for inspections.

8.8.4 Dryer vents, air conditioning condensation drains, and combustion air inlets shall pass through the skirting to the outside.

Above excerpted from

• HUD Model Manufactured Home Installation Standards 2003 Edition [PDF] original souirce: US HUD world wide web.hud.gov/sites/documents/225HUD.PDF
  

U.Due south. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) - Most of FL is wind zone 2; the bottom-most counties are air current zone

three. Some homes have a "D" sticker added for extra resistance for littoral construction.

The Hernando Canton clerk posted this guide from the state cap in Talalhassee Florida

• ORDINANCE NO. 92-5 covering a potpourri of subjects including AMENDING APPENDIX A, Commodity IV, SECTION two(A) (four) (k), PROVIDING FOR NEW MATERIAL TO BE USED IN MOBILE HOME SKIRTING, - and other mobile home provisions hernandoclerk.com/filebrowser/download/1774

No mention of specific fasteners is therein.

General Lawmaking citations on mobile home skirting

15.58.060 Installation instructions.

A manufactured dwelling must have a skirting effectually its entire perimeter. It must be installed per the manufacturer'south installation or, if the manufacturer is not specific, to the standards in this section. Information technology must be vented to allow access to the under-flooring area per the manufacturer's installation instructions or per the standards in subsection (C) of this section.

C. Skirting must exist of materials suitable for ground contact. Metal fasteners must be galvanized, stainless steel or other corrosion-resistant textile. Ferrous metallic members in contact with the earth, other than those that are galvanized or stainless steel, must exist coated with an asphaltic emulsion.

Skirting must not be attached in such a mode that can cause water to be trapped betwixt the skirting and siding or trim. The skirting must be recessed behind the siding or trim.

D. The skirting must be vented every bit follows except for manufactured homes sited in a flood plain. For homes sited in a overflowing plain, contact the local jurisdiction for proper ventilation.

Skirting must be vented by openings protected from the entrance of rodents by being covered with corrosion-resistant wire mesh with mesh openings of one-quarter inch in dimension. Such openings must have a net area of not less than i square pes for each 150 square feet of under-flooring area.

Ventilation openings must be located as shut to corners and as high as practical. Openings must be located to provide cross-ventilation on at least two opposite sides.

Eastward. Access to the under-floor surface area of the manufactured home must take an opening non less than 18 inches by 24 inches and must be located so that all areas nether the manufactured dwelling are available for inspection. The embrace must be of metal, pressure-treated wood or vinyl.

SKIRTING 55. Designing for Live-Load Deflection – Skirting

Source: And from HUD www.huduser.gov/Publications/PDF/Report_DRM.pdf

Discussion

In a traditional pier and tie-down foundation, the sidewalls of the domicile are supported on the cantilevered floor joists assisted to some extent by steel outriggers.

The cantilever must deflect nether alive loads until the joists and outriggers deform enough to conduct the loads.

Information technology is very likely that the skirting will be installed at a fourth dimension when the maximum live load is not in identify. Therefore, it can be expected that the sidewalls of the dwelling house will deflect under design live loads, mayhap as much as an inch or more than.

Skirting must be designed to accommodate this deflection, which is sure to have place.

There are three ways it can do this:

(1) accept and support the boosted loads;

(ii) flex out of the style; or

(3) be designed with a slip joint that allows the deflection without loading the skirting. In support of the start option (which is condign increasingly popular), the MII needs to include the worst-case expected alive load that needs to be supported. In back up of the last pick, the MII will need to include the separation required to allow the needed flexure under combined floor and roof live loads.

In the case of the expected deflection, resistance to flexure in the floor system occurs as a result of composite action of the joists, floor deck, and outriggers. These data cannot be calculated by the installer.

In the case where the skirting supports the load, withal, standard tables could be used, equally the loads depend simply on the tributary load distance of the floor and on the live and dead loads. As no life safety issues are involved, these could involve only a minor safety factor to prevent textile groovy.

Possible Activity

Require MII'south to include tables showing the loads that need to be supported by structural skirting (unless the manufacturer chooses to prohibit such skirting); and include the amount of deflection that needs to be accommodated by the skirting if it is not-structural.

Advantages
Provides needed information to the installer for the proper use of a multifariousness of skirting options. The needed clearance for sidewall deflection is now provided by some MII'southward.

Disadvantages: Adds some complexity to the MII.

To understand the condition of mobile habitation insulation and thus to decide what steps are worth taking to reduce habitation heating or cooling costs for mobile homes, doublewides, and trailers, we need to audit the construction focusing on leaks, water damage, and particularly air leaks around windows and doors. Start reading

at MOBILE Domicile INSULATION & VENTILATION

Manufactured Home (mobile home) Skirting & Insulated Skirting Suppliers

• Crawl Space MOISTURE CONTROL, [PDF] U.S. Department of Energy
• MOBILE Dwelling CODES & STANDARDS - including insulation & skirting codes
• MOBILE Dwelling INSULATION Belly WRAP - how to repair or add together insulation under a manufactured or mobile home or trailer.
• Thou.H. Service & Supply Co., [no physical address found], DuraSkirt mobile domicile skirting boards, cobweb cement, Tel: 360-419-9909
• Mobile Abode Advantage Co., 4255 Westbrook Drive, Unit of measurement #226 Aurora, IL 60504 USA Website: store.mobilehomeadvantage.com/ Tel: (800) 853-7119

  provides Thermal EverRock and like products that simulate stone (same vendor) and Rapid Wall Insulated skirting

• SkirtingDirect.com 6676 Gunpark Dr. Boulder, CO, 80301 USA, (mailing address only) Tel: 1-800-843-3336 Website: SkirtingDirect.com

  Provides EverRock, EverBrick, EverLock, thermal insulated and other domicile skirting materials and foundation coverings including the Gorilla foam board insulated mobile dwelling house skirting shown above on this folio.

• Manufactured Housing Institute, 1655 Fort Myer Dr, Arlington, VA 22209 Usa, Tel: 703-558-0400 E-mail: info@mfghome.org Website: http://www.manufacturedhousing.org

...

• Rustique Rapid Wall Insulated Mobile Home Skirting Panels (shown above) provided by various vendors including Mobile Habitation Outfitters, Website: https://mobilehomeoutfitters.com/ Tel: 720-779-2358

  Website extract:

  The Rapid Wall Insulated Skirting Organization past Rustique is a maintenance-free, styrofoam-backed foundation system with a 25-year warranty. It's vinyl-clad structure over 1.5" R9 styrofoam delivers the appearance of a traditional concrete foundation without the expense.

  Rapid Wall installs in a affair of hours and the additional purchase of access doors allow for easy under-home access at any indicate along the perimeter of the home.

  Rapid Wall comes in 4' x 12' panels and is available in 4 different color options - white, almond, dirt or gray panels. No warranty restrictions for dorsum fill and ground contact.

Reader Comments & Q&A

@Alans Services,

Thank you lot for the question; just we do not recommend using conventional fiberglass insulation in the skirting of a mobile home where there is any possibility that the insulation volition come into contact with water or moisture or basis surface.

In our Opinion a better mobile habitation insulated skirting uses solid foam insulation in skirting panels.

Depending on the country and city where you live yous can purchase insulated mobile abode skirting panels at building suppliers similar Lowes or Menards as well as from companies specializing in mobile habitation skirting.

Insulated mobile home skirting is also sold past online vendors similar skirtingdirect.com who distribute the Gorilla foam board insulated mobile home skirting we illustrate above.

Other mobile dwelling house insulated skirting includes Thermal EverRock and similar products that simulate stone (same vendor) and Rapid Wall Insulated skirting distributed by shop.mobilehomeadvantage.com/ (800) 853-7119 - quit a bit less plush than the Gorilla product we listed first.

Typically these products use two-inch Expanded Polystyrene or EPA foam lath that has amend wet resistance than would fiberglass.

Other mobile home skirting products include fiber cement board products like those sold by duraskirt.com who claim, incorrectly in our Stance that cement board provides the all-time thermal insulation.

Beneath is an image of DuraSkirt fiber cement mobile home skirting; it's gray in natural color but can be painted (white every bit you specified).

It does not, in that fiber cement has a much lower R-value pr inch than styrofoam or other actual insulating materials. For example, fiber cement mostly has greater thermal electrical conductivity than EPS board.

However fiber cement is durable material and for areas where moisture exposure or other harsh weather are nowadays, cement lath is a good culling skirting for mobile homesl, and it can also exist made to appear as if a home sits upon a masonry foundation.

Another online vendor of mobile home skirting (all of these companies also provide skirting vent openings) selling Titan two" insulated foundation panels for mobile homes is https://mobilehomepartspro.com/

Where to find white skirting with fiberglass insulation

Connie

I'll be glad to try to assist just I demand to understand what we are talking almost. I don't know where you are installing 1 by fours or what we are venting.

In general I would caution that 1/eight in spacing betwixt boards is non probable to vent annihilation in whatsoever location particularly considering as humidity levels change around or in the structure those boards may increase in size and close at opening completely.

If I use 1x4's would 1/8" space between each be enough venting

Using Bladen County NC as a data source we find the NC code for manufactured homes in Chapter 29 - MANUFACTURED HOMES AND TRAILERS[1]

"Insulation" is non mentioned in that lawmaking.

The code besides does not specify skirting textile.

I would distinguish between a foundation - that actually supports a structure - and skirting that is simply an enclosure, regardless of what materials are used.

In NC a "Foundation" may be piers (underpinned construction) or a permanent foundation; typically a doublewide is supported on piers that sit on footings;
IN that case the skirt effectually the domicile's perimeter is not structural, even if built of bricks.

A supporting foundation for a doublewide has got to deport the steel beams that actually support the floor of the structure and that originally carried wheels to move the structure to the site. Commonly those are not just around the perimeter where skirting is attached.

Sec. 29-95. - Skirting Code for Mobile Homes

Each manufactured home shall be properly installed with skirting that is anchored down and of the blazon that is manufactured specifically for such use.

The skirting shall be made of a textile uniform with the siding of the manufactured domicile.

(Ord. of 2-one-1999, art. XVI, § J)

Before you complete the job you want to be sure you're code compliant on other construction-related topics like tie downs.

In NC, Sec. 29-87. - Placement and anchoring.

Operators shall be required to supervise the placement of all manufactured homes to guarantee that they are properly anchored and attached to utilities. All manufactured homes within a manufactured home park shall be properly anchored or provided with necktie downs, in accordance with the state regulations for manufactured homes.

Technical assistance will be provided by the county building inspection office.

All manufactured homes in manufactured home parks will exist set up and anchored co-ordinate to manufacturer's instructions or state requirements.

(Ord. of 2-1-1999, art. XVI, § B)

Tie downward ways galvanized steel cables or strapping which tie a manufactured home and its steel frame to anchors embedded in the ground. - Source

https://library.municode.com/nc/bladen_county/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=COOR_CH29MAHOTR

As long equally you're confident that you lot tin make the area dry that may not exist an event with your local code official who, as I note, is the final legal say-so who interprets and applies code where you alive.

As a person in the trades you may feel as I do that asking the code guys in accelerate about what y'all desire to do also gets them "on your side" and can avoid an embarrassment after.

My double wide already has a brick foundation, some people call it skirting. So if I encapsulate it similar some folks do on a site built home, I don't see what the problem is. Merely request about the code aspect. I am in the trades myself, so price is negligible across materials to practice so as I am capable of doing information technology myself..

A crude calculation, ignoring the infinite for mortar joints, would be to calculate the full area to be enclosed

Trailer length x height of each of the four sides, in inches, divided by the face expanse of your block (8 x sixteen inches)

Only beware: depending on where you alive, codes, and other requirements, you may need to have ventilation under the home, and y'all certainly need like shooting fish in a barrel access for inspection and repairs.

Why are we using block instead of a more mutual mobile home brim?

Wondering how many 8x8x16-in block I would demand to lay nether a double-wide trailer to frame it in

Thank you for asking near mobile home skirting codes, Tim - you question pointed out that information technology was not every bit piece of cake every bit information technology should be to find the answer here.

OPINION: I speculate that a local code inspector won't object to "holes" in the skirting in general as information technology could exist argued these are for venting, equally long as the "holes" are screened to go along out rodents (rats, mice, squirrels) or other animals; for example, I've seen mobile homes in which ALL of the skirting was made of perforated aluminum panels.

Wanting to know what is the maximum size hole I tin have in my skirting on my mobile home in New Mexico

Question: do I have to put skirting on my mobile home and practise I accept to change to vinyl siding to sell the home?

Hello could you guys tell me if on my 1974 mobile home trailer practice I need to take new vinyl siding and sideskirts to sell it? They tell me it's code that I take to earlier anyone tin buy my trailer n it even so has the aluminum siding in pretty good shape - J.D. 2017/11/24 by private e-mail

Answer: skirting yes, siding, no.

Most likely HUD volition NOT certify nor finance a home congenital earlier 1975 / 76. THat doesn't hateful y'all can't sell the home, but it impacts the ability of a potential buyer to finance it - equally your attorney will probably confirm.

It would be common in many jurisdictions to require a skirt around a mobile dwelling.

I would be stunned learn that someone insists that you take to re-side any home in guild to sell information technology - that sounds weird and wrong to me. I haven't plant whatsoever legal source claiming that to sell a mobile home you accept to change its siding from aluminum over to vinyl. Notwithstanding if the siding were in poor condition then repairs or replacement might exist needed or recommended.

The local building code official or edifice department where you alive (y'all didn't requite that info) and HUD regulations (that touch on the ability of a buyer to finance a domicile) will exist the concluding legal government to answer the questions you lot pose. Let me know what your edifice department says.

Got information technology;

Nosotros'll movement this discussion and provide details

at MOBILE HOME SKIRTING - you are on this page

Give thanks you for that, just I am referring specifically to some new code that relates to the skirting only and how it must be installed with something other than those spikes they commonly utilise in the bottom runner.

Mobile home tie down requirements are detailed at

MOBILE Habitation STABILIZING SYSTEMS

In regard to Florida mobile homes. I have been told there is a new lawmaking for tying downwardly the skirting. Does anyone have data on this?

Skirting is required by most mobile home model and local codes - a common local code requirement. The local lawmaking official is the final legal authority. Go ahead and have the skirting installed.

Question our mobile abode has passed inspection on water gas&electric.the inspector at present tells me as tin't movement in until the skirting is effectually the mobile home

The Skirting that I most often encounter who is made of aluminum or vinyl siding or soffit roofing type material supported past frame. Nonetheless I'm not enlightened of a specific cloth required by Hud for mobile home skirting. Nosotros will research this further.

what type of skirting can I use that is hud approved?

...

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