Mobile Home Skirting Repair in Hot Springs

Skirting closes the gap between the bottom of the home and the ground. It keeps out animals, leaves and wind-blown rain, and it gives us a way in through the access door. Typical skirting repairs run $200 to $800. We fix or replace the panels, track, vents and access doors that have failed, and we look at why they failed.

What goes wrong with skirting here

Storms. Wind tears panels off and pushes others in, and falling limbs crack them. After a storm, torn skirting is often the first sign anyone notices. The piers behind it are worth a look too: see storm damage reset.

A moving home. When a pier settles and the frame drops, skirting set tight under the home gets squeezed and can bow or pop out of its track. Replacing the panels without fixing the pier means doing it again. See pier and footing repair.

Slopes. On a sloped lot, the skirting is short on the uphill side and tall on the downhill side. Tall runs need good bracing, and the bottom edge has to follow the ground.

Ground contact. Panels set into soil that stays wet hold moisture against the bottom edge. In some creek bottoms here, NRCS maps a perched water table 1 to 2 feet down from December to May.

Animals. A gap at the bottom or a broken vent lets animals in, and they can tear at the underbelly once they are under the home.

What we do

1. Walk the full perimeter and mark broken panels, loose track, missing vents and gaps.
2. Look behind the skirting at the piers and the ground. If the home has moved, the quote says so before we touch the panels.
3. Replace panels and track to match where we can, and rehang or replace the access door.
4. Make sure there are vents, so the space under the home is not sealed tight.

Ice and cold

NOAA’s Hot Springs station averages about 59 nights a year at or below freezing, and the December 2000 ice storm left 1.5 to 3 inches of ice across western Arkansas. Falling limbs and ice break skirting as readily as wind does. A closed, vented skirt also helps keep cold air off the underbelly and the water lines in winter.

City rules on skirting

For a manufactured home placed inside the City of Hot Springs, the city’s placement application requires skirting or a curtain wall “constructed of materials approved by the City including, but not limited to: masonry, brick block, rock, vinyl, or fiberglass”. If you are in the city and changing the skirting material, ask the Planning Department first.

Before the skirting goes back

Skirting is the last thing we close on any job under the home. During a relevel or a vapor barrier and underbelly repair, we take panels off, do the work, and put them back. If the home is being bought, our pre-purchase foundation check covers the skirting along with the piers and anchors.

Ask whoever works under the home for their Arkansas Manufactured Home Commission license number and check it. Our typical ranges are on the pricing page.