Your mobile home isn’t balanced and has a sagging issue? Want to jack it up to make it level? No worries, this article will help you how to jack up and then balance your mobile home.
Your mobile home’s pillar could sink into the soil anytime due to environmental changes. That’s why the doors get stuck, or sometimes you will not be able to close the windows. Or you may notice a sagging floor. In order to tackle the issue, you’ll need to jack up your mobile home for leveling.
Without further ado, let’s jack up your mobile home.
- Find the Sagging Surface Inside Your Mobile Home
- Notice the Uneven Area Under Your Mobile Home
- Find the Jack Point below the Beam
- Slide a Wedge Between the Beam and the Pillar
- Check the Level Again
- Remove the Jack
- Video Tutorial
- How often does a mobile home need to be leveled?
- What Size Jack to Lift a Mobile Home?
- How can you tell if a mobile home is unlevel?
- Conclusion:
How to Jack up a Mobile Home; 6 Easy Steps
Find the Sagging Surface Inside the Home
Look for the sinking spot in your home before going under. You will easily find the point under the house once you know where the sinking or structure problem above is. If the issue is in the window, door, or a crack in a wall, you’ll have to level the area around it.
A bubble level will be handy to notice the uneven spot. Say, if you see the floor sagging, place it in that location. If the bubble is not in the middle, then you’ve found the sagging.
To make the job easier for you, let’s hear a bit about the spirit level. If the bubble is towards the left of the level, the sagging spot is to the right of the spirit level, and vice versa. A laser is also helpful if you don’t have a bubble level. Check the video below for using lasers to spot sinking areas.
Locate the Uneven floor Under the Mobile Home
Since you’ve spotted the bulging area inside the house, it’s now easier to find it underneath your mobile home. Get under the house and reach the area that is sagging inside your home. Then locate the pillar near or around the spot that causes the sinking.
Find a Jack Point below the Beam
Place your jack under the beam, near the pillar that’s causing the problem. Lift the shaft with the jack. Raise the area just a few inches to prevent over-raising. In some cases, lifting one pillar may not be enough to level your home. If that’s the case, check the other pillars as well. And you may need more jacks for multiple beams.
Slide a Wedge Between the Beam and the Pillar
Fill the gap with a wedge or a block after raising the beam. The wedge should be strong enough to support the weight. And the wedge should also be of enough size that you can easily fill the void. Don’t tighten the wedge for now.
Check the Level Again
After placing the wedge, come out of the crawl space and get inside your mobile home. Check the sinking area with the tool or the method you’ve used before. If the problem was in a window or door, check out whether that works better now.
Remove the Jack
If you’ve solved the issue already and there is no more sinking, get under the home and tighten the wedge you’ve placed before. Hit the wedge with a hammer so that it sticks in the gap. After doing your job, lower the jack and remove it.
But if there still is a problem. Place the jack under another beam nearby. You can guess which other pillars would have sunk in the soil. Then raise the beam and again check whether you’ve resolved the issue or not.
Video Tutorial
How Often Does a Mobile Home Need to be Leveled?
It’s not essential to level your mobile home often. The sagging problem could happen at any time or may not occur for months. When you notice that there’s a problem with the leveling, then go for it.
Usually, natural disasters cause sagging in your mobile home. Environmental issues: earthquakes or flooding could cause it. The underground soil layer sliding and soil sitting also sag your mobile home.
What Size Jack to Lift a Mobile Home?
Take a jack with enough load capacity to lift home. You need to know the weight of your home – including all the materials inside. In general, a jack with a 10 – 30 ton load capacity has enough potential to raise a house.
Use a bottle hydraulic jack. Having two or more jacks is better than one. Because sometimes you can’t level home with one jack. You’ll need at least two jacks to balance it. For lifting your mobile home, you can use best bottle jack for RV.
How Can You Tell If a Mobile Home is Unlevel?
- The doors of your home, including closet doors, get stuck, or you can’t open or shut them.
- The same problem is with windows as with doors.
- The cabinet or closet doors move freely in a particular direction when you open them.
- Cracks in the walls or maybe in ceilings mean that the home is not level.
- Floor sagging
- If water flows in a specific direction, there may be sagging ground.
- House seems uneven from the outside.
Conclusion:
Now you know how to jack up your mobile home. You can jack up your home and level it once you know where the sagging is. Use a bubble level to locate the uneven area. You have to keep a spirit level and a jack or maybe two in your mobile home all the time. Because you don’t know when you’ll need them, and you can’t level and jack your home without them.