Just wanted to revisit this. What are your thoughts and comments about leveling homes when you are inheriting bulk POH. I have typically as a matter of practice, when going to skirt a home, level it and then skirt it. Are you doing this when a home doesnt have skirting or just skirting it? I just assume that most dont do leveling as part of maintenance or probably been a few years…
Any comments on this is appreciated.
Now onto skirting. I have been doing just white vinyl MH skirting but then enough time and people not caring. You get hit with weedwhackers and looks junky. Im considering doing maybe like paneling, that gets painted with vents added. Its a lot more expensive but looks 10x better and durability… Im not sure , probably have to read a home manual , if this venting is “sufficient” for what it is.
And then some middle ground i have seen treated timbers or this one looks like 1x4 as the base. Maybe its worth the extra money?
Maybe sticking with Hardi for new homes and doing the middgleground for used POH .
I have only releveled homes as part of my plan to re-skirt them. Only once did the home actually feel like it needed leveling. A marble would roll from left to right in that one. A note of caution is that even after releveling there can be some settling after a year or so…and my new skirting bows out a little bit on that one soft side.
When I did the reskirting I tried two materials for four homes. Two of them I used metal R panel found on craigslist for .50 cents per foot and the other ones I used thick vinyl privacy lattice. The metal takes more labor to install and you have to manually install vents in them, but the stuff lasts forever. The vinyl privacy lattice has held up really well, but was more expensive ($800) than the metal panels ($500), but was installed in about 50% of the time and allows lots of ventilation.
There is no perfect answer as long as its durable, and looks good. If I was in the north I’d probably only do the metal R panel. Here is photo of the vinyl since it’s a less common solution.
I level before skirting and always skirt with white roofing metal. I sell my homes and want to make sure my work survives long term. I am also focused on upgrading the quality of my community when I renovate homes.
I dig a trench about 8-10 inches deep and fill it with 1/4" pea gravel. The skirting goes about 4" down into the pea gravel. Shifting and frost heave which is very common in my area has never effected my skirting.
