Mobile Home Setup & Installation

Getting a mobile home to its new site is only half the job. How it is set on that site determines whether doors close smoothly, floors stay level, and the home holds up for decades. Our manufactured home setup and installation service takes over where transport ends and turns a delivered home into a finished, move-in-ready one — blocked, leveled, joined, and secured the right way.

The mobile home setup sequence, in order

Manufactured home setup runs in a fixed order — site prep, footings, blocking, set and join, level, anchor, crossovers, close-up, skirting — and no stage can be done properly before the one under it is right.

1. Site prep. The pad is graded and drained before anything arrives. Where the crawl space will be enclosed, a minimum 6 mil polyethylene vapor retarder goes down over the ground with joints lapped at least 12 inches, fitted around footings and anchors.
2. Footings. Precast pads are 4 inches nominal at a minimum 1,200 psi 28-day strength; poured-in-place pads, slabs and ribbons are at least 6 inches thick at a minimum 3,000 psi; pressure-treated wood and listed ABS pads are permitted alternatives. In freezing climates they go below the frost line unless the design is an engineered monolithic slab or insulated foundation (24 CFR 3285.312).
3. Blocking. Piers are set under the main rails and wherever the home needs perimeter support. The home ends up with at least 12 inches of clearance between the lowest main-frame member and grade.
4. Set and join. Sections are pulled together and structurally interconnected along the mate line.
5. Level. The frame is brought true and shimmed — see mobile home leveling for the procedure and the tolerance it has to meet.
6. Anchor. The tie-down system goes in to the home’s wind zone; the specifications are on our mobile home anchors and tie-downs page.
7. Crossovers. Drainage, supply, duct and electrical connections between sections are made and supported — the most commonly botched stage in the process, and why a brand-new double wide can have a cold back bedroom or a slow drain from day one.
8. Close-up and skirting. Interior and exterior close-up at the mate line, bottom-board repair where the road damaged it, then skirting and crawl-space ventilation.

Perimeter support: where the piers actually have to go

Blocking is not just a row of piers down each rail. The standard requires perimeter support piers on both sides of every sidewall exterior door — entry, patio and sliding glass — on both sides of any other sidewall opening 48 inches or wider, and under load-bearing porch posts and factory-installed fireplaces (24 CFR 3285.311). The same 48-inch rule applies at the mate line of a multi-section home: openings under 48 inches need no pier, openings of 48 inches or more need one on each side, and where the open span exceeds 10 feet, intermediate piers and footings go in at a maximum of 10 feet on center. Where the roof live load is 40 psf or more, a registered engineer or architect has to determine the largest opening allowed without support.

This is the part homeowners never see and the part that decides whether the floor sags in front of the patio door in five years.

What our setup service includes

We handle the complete process from the old site to the new one, and every step follows the home’s own installation instructions and local code.

• Tear-down: utility disconnection, skirting and anchor removal
• Re-set onto piers, runners, or a prepared pad
• Blocking — correct pier spacing and load-bearing support
• Marriage-line join and sealing for double and multi-section homes
• Skirting installation to enclose and protect the crawl space

Single wide vs. double wide setup: the marriage line

A single wide is set as one unit, so installation is quicker: block it, level it, skirt it, secure it. A double wide arrives as two halves that have to be pulled together and permanently joined along the marriage line, and that join is a structural connection, not a trim detail. The standard is blunt about it: once exterior close-up is finished, no gaps are permitted between interconnected structural elements at the mate line. Gaps of an inch or less are tolerated during the work only if the sections are in contact, the mating gasket is sealing, and the gap is closed before close-up is done — and any gap has to be shimmed with dimensional lumber, with longer fasteners so they still bite properly into the receiving member (24 CFR 3285.802).

Some states add a leveling tolerance across the seam as well: Ohio, where we are based, allows no more than 1/4 inch of vertical offset where the two sections meet. That is a tight number, and it is why the halves have to be blocked and leveled to each other rather than independently — the difference between one solid home and two boxes bolted together.

Skirting, ventilation and crawl-space close-up

Skirting is the last stage and the one with the most code attached to it. The enclosed crawl space needs cross-ventilation: openings with a minimum net area of 1 square foot per 150 square feet of floor area, dropping to 1 square foot per 1,500 square feet where a 6 mil polyethylene vapor retarder covers the whole ground surface beneath the home. Vents go as high as practical and on at least two opposite sides so air actually crosses, covered with perforated, corrosion-resistant material that keeps rodents out, and in freezing climates they have to be adjustable so they can be closed in winter (24 CFR 3285.505).

The material itself has to be weather-resistant, or coated to the galvanizing equivalent the standard specifies, and wood within 6 inches of the ground has to be pressure-treated to AWPA U1 Use Category 4A or naturally decay- and termite-resistant. Skirting also must not be fastened so that it traps water behind the siding or stops the exterior covering expanding and contracting — a shortcut that shows up later as rotted bottom trim. Dryer vents and combustion-air inlets pass through it, and drain lines are directed away from under the home.

Setting a home in a community vs. on private land

The two jobs look similar and are managed very differently. In a community the pad, utilities and often the piers already exist, the park sets its own standards on skirting, steps and finish, and the work has to fit around neighbors on both sides — which is where a tracked remote mover earns its keep, because a toter cannot swing a section into a lot that tight. We hold toter access agreements with community owners, so park managers can book us directly. On private land you are building the site as well as setting the home: access road, pad, drainage, footings to frost depth, and utility runs that may not exist yet.

Why choose us for setup

• Installation to manufacturer specs and local code
• Experienced with single wide, double wide, and sectional homes
• One crew for tear-down, re-set, leveling, and anchoring
• Clean marriage-line joins and weather-tight sealing