Mobile home leveling cost calculator for the Hot Springs area

Six questions, one range. The calculator takes the typical prices from our pricing page and fits them to your home: its type and length, how far out of level it seems, what you know about the piers, how easy it is to get under, and where it is, plus any extra work you tick. The answer is a range, not a quote. We write your quote after we have seen the home.

Getting the answers right

Home type. A singlewide rests on two main steel I-beams. A doublewide is two halves joined at the marriage line, with piers under that seam as well as under the outside beams, which is why it costs more to bring into one plane. A triplewide adds a second seam.

Length. A longer home has more piers. Arkansas specifications for used homes put piers no more than 8 feet apart along each beam, with the first within 2 feet of each end, so every extra 8 feet of home is at least one more pier per beam. If you are not sure of the length, pace the outside wall and pick the nearest band.

How far out of level. A door that has just started to rub is the low end. A floor where a dropped marble rolls away, or a gap along a doublewide’s ceiling seam, is the high end. HUD’s federal benchmark for an adequately leveled home is no more than 1/4 inch between adjacent piers, with exterior doors and windows that do not bind. The doors and windows sticking page helps you read the signs.

Piers. “No idea” is a fair answer if you have never looked under the home. If you have looked through the access door and seen leaning stacks, cracked blocks, or towers of shims and caps, pick that. Arkansas caps shims at 1 inch and cap blocks at 7 inches combined, so a tall stack is a sign of trouble. See leveling done wrong.

Access. A low frame, ductwork in the way or water under the home slows a job. Around Piney and Royal, NRCS maps Mazarn silt loam in the bottoms with a perched water table 1 to 2 feet down from December to May, so a wet spot under the home in spring may be the ground itself. If yours is wet, read water under the home.

What moves the number

• Rebuilt piers. Each failed pier typically adds $150 to $400. A footing that has sunk or tipped is rebuilt on undisturbed or compacted ground, not shimmed. Around Hot Springs, NRCS maps much of the ground as 10 to 20 inches of soil over tilted shale or sandstone, so what a footing sits on can change from pier to pier. See pier and footing repair.
• Tie-downs. If straps or anchors need replacing rather than re-tensioning, tick the tie-downs box. Arkansas makes anchoring mandatory and requires new anchoring parts, never re-used ones. See tie-downs and anchors.
• Storm damage. A home pushed on its piers by wind or a tree is priced from what we find; the calculator gives the relevel part. See storm damage reset.

Before anyone starts

The Arkansas Manufactured Home Commission licenses installers, and state law defines installation as work done to stabilize, support or anchor a manufactured home. Ask whoever you hire for their AMHC license number and check it with the Commission. The Arkansas rules page quotes the specifications.

Once you have a range

Send it to us with the quote form; your answers go along with it. We come out, read the frame at the piers, look at the footings and straps, and write you a price. If the home needs pier and footing repair more than a full relevel, the quote says so.