Mobile Home Leveling in Mount Ida and Montgomery County

Montgomery County is mobile home country. The Census counts about 1,700 mobile homes there, close to three homes in ten, and most of them are outside Mount Ida. A relevel here typically runs $450 to $800 for a singlewide and $750 to $1,400 for a doublewide. We look under the home first and quote in writing.

The county

Mount Ida is the county seat, where US 270 and AR 27 meet, about 36 miles west of Hot Springs on US 270 and about 33 in a straight line. The town has only around 100 of the county’s mobile homes, so about 94% are outside the town. The county’s median age is about 51, older than Garland’s, and about 18% of all homes in Montgomery County are held for seasonal or occasional use. The local economy includes ranching, poultry, timber and tourism around Lake Ouachita.

MHVillage lists communities in and near Mount Ida including Joplin MHP on Cedar Springs Road and Mount Harbor MHP.

The ground

Around Mount Ida the NRCS maps mostly Littlefir-Bismarck soils, very rocky, on slopes of 8 to 35 percent, with Mazarn silt loam in some bottoms. Littlefir formed over tilted, fractured and folded shale. NRCS describes it as moderately well drained and slowly permeable, and says “These soils are saturated above the bedrock for one month or more, most years.” Its depth to bedrock ranges from 20 to 50 inches and is “extremely variable within short distances”. Bismarck, mixed in with it, is only 10 to 20 inches to shale.

So on a Mount Ida lot, one footing can be on rock, the next on clay that stays wet over the rock part of the year. We look at each one. See pier and footing repair and water under the home.

Cold and wet

NOAA’s Mount Ida 3 SE station (1991 to 2020) averages about 58 inches of rain a year, wettest in May, and about 90 nights a year at or below freezing, many more than the Hot Springs station’s 59. It also averages about 4.4 inches of snow. Cold nights matter for water lines under a home with a torn belly; see vapor barrier and underbelly.

Storms and floods on record

The federal storm record for Montgomery County includes a mobile home blown off its foundation in a 2006 storm, and a mobile home with substantial damage in a 2016 tornado at Mountain Harbor. On June 11, 2010, a flash flood on the Little Missouri River rose more than 20 feet in 4 hours through the Albert Pike Recreation Area in the national forest, a reminder of how fast creeks here can rise. If a storm has moved your home, read storm damage reset.

What Arkansas requires here

The Arkansas Manufactured Home Commission licenses installers statewide. For used homes, its specifications call for piers no more than 8 feet apart, concrete footings of at least 16 by 16 by 4 inches on undisturbed or compacted soil, and mandatory anchoring with new parts when anchoring is replaced. See the Arkansas rules page and tie-downs and anchors.

Ask whoever works under your home for their AMHC license number and check it. Typical costs are on the pricing page, and mobile home leveling explains how we work.