Storm Damage Reset for Mobile Homes Around Hot Springs

When wind or a falling tree moves a mobile home, the piers and straps underneath can take the hit before anything you can see. A reset is priced from what we find: the relevel range for the home’s size, plus each pier we rebuild and any anchors we replace. We check it, write it up, and set the home back on sound supports.

Ask whoever does this work for their Arkansas Manufactured Home Commission license number and check it. State law defines installation as work done to stabilize, support or anchor a home, and the Commission’s rules require new anchoring parts when anchors are replaced.

What the storm record says

The federal storm records for this area name mobile homes again and again.

• Lake Hamilton, early on May 8, 2024. An EF2 began near Amity and Orbit Roads west of Lake Hamilton. Near Thunder Road it “damaged several mobile homes, overturning one, and pushing several off of their blocks”, then crossed the lake and damaged floating docks.
• April 25, 2011. An EF3 from Ozark Lithia to Fountain Lake destroyed about 25 houses and 21 mobile homes, by the Red Cross survey. An EF2 from Maddox to the Sunshine community destroyed 8 mobile homes and damaged 13 more.
• Hot Springs Village, March 14, 2024. An EF2 from Mountain Valley into the Village, with winds estimated at 115 mph; many homes were damaged mainly by falling trees rather than by the tornado’s winds.
• Near Pearcy. A 2005 tornado “rolled a mobile home into a tree”, and in 2007 a mobile home was “blown off its block and split in half”.

What we check after a storm

1. From outside. Skirting pushed out or torn, the home sitting off line with its steps or porch, straps hanging loose, anchors pulled up.
2. Under the home. Piers kicked over or leaning, caps and shims knocked out, footings tipped, the I-beams sitting off center on the piers.
3. The frame. Level readings along each beam and, on a doublewide, the marriage line, where the two halves may have moved apart.
4. The anchors. Each strap and anchor for stretch, bending and pull-out.

We write down every finding, with what we propose.

How we reset a home

We support the beams on jacks, take out the damaged piers, and rebuild them on firm footings within Arkansas’s specifications: piers no more than 8 feet apart, concrete footings of at least 16 by 16 by 4 inches, no more than 7 inches of caps. We bring the frame back to level in small lifts. Then we replace the anchors and straps that failed with new parts, since the state rules say anchoring parts may not be re-used, and tension them.

If the home has been moved off its site or badly racked, it may be a bigger job than a reset, and we tell you that plainly.

Ice and trees

In the December 2000 ice storm, western Arkansas took 1.5 to 3 inches of ice and Hot Springs lost water service. A heavy limb or tree on the roof can add load to the piers along that side. After any storm that drops a tree on the home, have the piers under it checked.

Related work

Torn skirting is covered under skirting repair, and damaged bottom board under vapor barrier and underbelly. The anchoring rules are on the tie-downs and anchors page and the Arkansas rules page. Prices are on the pricing page.