Complete Guide to Moving Your Mobile Home - Page 2
ESSENTIAL MOBILE HOME PREPARATION FOR TRANSPORT
Just like preparing a surface for painting ensures a successful end product, so does the correct preparation of the home to be moved. If you do not use good planning, you will waste substantial funds in repairing unnecessary damage to your home.
TERMINATION OF EXISTING MOBILE HOME LEASE AND NOTICE OF MOVING HOME
The first thing you need to do, if you are moving your home, is to start the clock on terminating your existing lot lease (if you are in a mobile home park). Most park leases require at least thirty days advance written notice to move out and, if you fail to do this important step, you may forfeit your deposit for failure to give timely notice. Ask your park manager, or consult your lease, to find out how much time is necessary. In addition, you will want to contact your local taxing authority to see if there are any unpaid property taxes on the home. If so, pay them immediately and get a paid receipt. In most states, you cannot transport the home, or get a permit to transport, if there are any property taxes owed.
Some parks will also have conditions on when a home can be moved, so be sure you know these and can tell the mover.
TERMINATION AND REMOVAL OF UTILITY CONNECTIONS
When the mover shows up to move the home, this is NOT the time to start shutting off utility arrangements. You will need to give reasonable advance notice to all utility providers (water, sewer, trash, electricity, gas (natural or propane), cable tv, telephone, etc.) and have a firm cut-off date. Yes, you may need to stay in a hotel if you guess wrong, or if the mover is delayed. But that is all part of the game. Be sure to have a knowledgeable, insured individual do the actual disconnection of the utility to your house. Many an idiot has electrocuted themselves trying to be an amateur electrician and not noticing that the power has yet to be turned off, or caused a major water leak. Yes, you’ll save a few dollars disconnecting things yourself-unless you make a mistake and rack up a ton of money fixing it.
REMOVAL OF MOBILE HOME SKIRTING
Now here’s one you can do yourself, it you’re handy. Removing skirting can be literally done by kids - we’ve seen them do it - but normally not when they’re supposed to. The essential thing to remember on removal of skirting is to leave the track on the home alone (you can reuse it when you arrive at the new destination, as well as the track on the ground. If you are very lucky, you can actually get away with using the same skirting (though not normally all of it) at the new destination, if the height of the home above ground is roughly the same. It’s a lot cheaper to buy some extra skirting to finish the job than to have to buy a whole new kit. You’d be amazed at how many people just leave the skirting on the ground when they leave!
CUTTING LOOSE THE HOME, JACKING IT UP, ATTACHING AXLES AND TIRES AND THE TONGUE FOR TRANSPORT
Here’s all you have to know; LET THE PROFESSIONALS DO IT! You will prove to be a first-class idiot if you try and do this yourself. This stuff weighs a ton (actually several tons) and you do not have the know-how or equipment to do it properly. If you don’t kill yourself, you will probably wreck the home. We have NEVER seen anyone complete these steps themselves… successfully – but we’ve seen many people make a disaster of it! We won’t even tell you how they do it, because we don’t want anyone to even consider this task. It would be like performing your own heart surgery on yourself – once you get into it there’s no turning back, and no chance for survival.
PREPARING THE MOBILE HOME ON THE EXTERIOR
Remember that the home is going to have a lot of wind resistance on the road. Anything that might blow off will blow off at 50 miles per hour. So remove or secure all of the items that might be impacted.
For example, exterior coach lights by the door are a natural for disaster. If you do not want to remove the whole fixture, at least remove the glass. It will be broken for sure. Similarly, any screw-on or stick on numbers or name plaques will fly off almost immediately, so you are going to want to remove those too.
The doors should be secured and screwed shut by the moving company. Make sure they do this. In transport, the motion of the home will unsecure the doors, even if they are dead bolted, and they will then fly open and rip off the home. You see this all the time.
If you have siding on the home that is loose or weak, now is the time to reinforce it or fix it. At 50 mph, it will surely be ripped off or bent back in the wind.
Imagine your home in a wind tunnel. Whatever looks like it might be in danger of getting damaged that is what you want to get removed or reinforced.
PREPARING THE MOBILE HOME ON THE INTERIOR
Your mobile home is going to be subjected to a lot of shaking and bumping in its move. It would be the same forces that it would be subjected to in an earthquake – only it is an earthquake that could last for ten or more hours straight! Look around each room and identify things that could get broken in such an environment, such as;
- Glass in ceiling light fixtures. You always want to remove these.
- Expensive (stained glass or leaded glass) light fixtures that hang down.
- Secure cabinet doors. If they are leaded glass doors, you might remove them.
- Closet doors should be secured.
- Toilet tank tops should be secured.
- Shower doors must be secured.
- Anything else that can be broken if shaken violently.
REMOVAL OF FURNITURE & FURNISHINGS
If you have already been living in the home and you will be moving it to a new location then you will also need to consider whether to move your furniture and other furnishings. Without detailing every possible scenario the best advice is to remove as much as possible to reduce the weight of the home and avoid potential damages to the home or the furnishings themselves. If you have heavy furniture the mover will often require that it be removed for transport. You will not want to leave your dishes and glasses in the cupboards because they will break. If you have clothes hanging in the closet you will need to put them on the floor so the closet rods do not fall off the walls. Remove any flammable items and chemicals to mitigate explosions or stains. Basically remove everything that you don’t want to be broken (televisions, lamps, pictures, etc).
This book is focused on moving your mobile home, but it is worthy to note that if you are moving an occupied dwelling you will also need to move the contents. While there are many different options for moving your mobile home contents, one of the worst ideas is just leaving them in the home and hoping they arrive in one piece. Often, this is just exactly what they don’t do.
When your mobile home is moving down the highway, it rarely goes in a straight line. As the wind blows it about, the driver re-corrects the steering and so it proceeds in a shaky forward path. Every time it moves slightly from side to side, it shifts the lad and can cause things to slide across the floor and ultimately fall over, crash into each other, or shake apart. This makes for less than ideal shipping conditions. On top of that, when the home turns corners or goes into a curve, it is even worse. A box you put in the far corner of the living room can easily end up in the kitchen upon arrival.
So if you want your furniture and fixtures to arrive in one piece, use your money and time to pack them and move them like anybody else would. Be advised that things left in the mobile home are likely to arrive after hours of being shaken and shifted, and they may well be broken.
If you are moving a multi-section home, it is never a good idea to move items within the home. One wall of the multi-section is always going to be a plastic sheet, flapping in the wind as the home races down the highway. This plastic is likely to break loose in transit, and will offer you no defenses from your contents flying right off into the highway.
One more note. It is not unheard of for homes to flip over in transport because a driver drives off the side of the roadway. If that happened, obviously, your contents would be completely destroyed, and strewn about on the edge of the highway.
In summary, if you care about your belongings pack them and move them conventionally. If you take the shortcut of moving them in the home, be prepared for an unpleasant ending.
MOVING A MULTI-SECTION HOME, SUCH AS A DOUBLEWIDE OR TRIPLEWIDE
This book focuses on the costs and problems with moving a single-wide, since that is the most common type of mobile home move project. However, we need to discuss some of the additional concerns of moving a multi-section home, since they have some additional risks and problems.
Everything in this book applies to both single section and multi-section homes. There are some additional items, however, for multi-section owners to consider:
The cost of moving a multi-section home is roughly two to three times the cost of moving the single section. Not only is there the cost of shipping two objects as opposed to one, but there is the huge cost of fitting them back together at the end.
Site preparation is even more important on a multi-section, as any shifting the home does will cause even greater problems since you are trying to match up two pieces. On a singlewide, shifting can cause doors not to shut. On a multi-section, shifting can actually wreck the house over time.
All that will protect your home from the elements on the move is a plastic sheet. Make sure that it is thick and well attached. There is a lot of wind load on this plastic at 55 mph. If it rips off, which does happen, you will get rain and tar and dirt and everything else on the highway into your home.
If you have any doubts on the mover, a multi-section is definitely not a good home configuration to gamble on. There are endless ways to wreck a multi-section with a bad mover, from damage in transport to damage in improper sitting. Stick with a professional who has credentials and insurance – or you will regret it.
Other than these issues, moving a multi-section is not much different from a singlewide, and you should give it equal or greater attention.
MOBILE HOME MOVING INSURANCE
Make sure that you fully understand the insurance situation on the move. Your mover should have insurance but, even then, it may not cover a lot of items – and maybe not even your house! You have GOT to have insurance. We have seen many a home roll-over due to driver error or other problems and be completely destroyed. Don’t let this happen to you without fair compensation.
DIRECTIONS AND POINT OF PLACEMENT
Although we are going to discuss how to install your home in a couple chapters, it is still important that you have a handle on several items before you home pulls out.
- You need very solid directions for the driver. You can’t just give him a city or street name; he needs the full address and lot number (if applicable). That way he can plan the correct route. Homes often end up at the wrong lot due to poor customer directions.
- Make sure that the lot you are going to has been prepared before you arrive. Preparation should include drainage and removal of obstructing trees and vegetation, as well as installation of necessary utility connection access (set a power pole, etc.)
- You have a rough idea of where you want the home placed on the site, and in what direction (which end goes where).
Once you have these issues resolved, it is time to focus on selecting a mobile home transporter.