'Settling House'

[Unregistered]

I have a four year old manufactured home and have recently had three windows crack due to what I would call settling. The windows have a diagonal crack from one side to the other this has happened to only the windows on the ends of the house. I understand that homes do settle to a certain extent but I don't think it should still be shifting. Does anyone know if this is normal ? I live in a low lying sandy area and I am sure this is contributing to this. I am worried that this will continue and end up in disaster. Any advise?

[Jacksnap]

Where do you live? Sinkholes? Hills? Also, is it a 'manufactured home' or a mobile home? What info can you give about the foundation (what the home sits on, between it and the ground).

If it's a concrete slab foundation you're going to see cracks and crevices in it if it is shifting or sinking. If you are sitting on blocks or pilings, are you sitting on a poured concrete footing that has possiby shifted in the sand?
Run some string from corner to corner of each piling or block. Then, put a level on it to see where the lowest point is. Your going have to determine where the foundation or footing is dropping elevation into the ground. You may get lucky and just have to jack up one end and add additional blocks to bring the home to level again. Then you'll have to check it frequently for any further movement.
This sounds simple but if it continues, your going to need professional help. Have you contacted your town or county engineer to see if they will take a look? That's my take.

[Unregistered]

We live in Northern Indiana, no hills or sinkholes, just farmland and sand. I happen to live in a low area though. This fall and winter has been especially wet and we have had water under the house repeatedly, which we have been pumping out.
We have an approx four foot crawl space under the entire home with pilings and blocks situated under the house in various places and block foundation all the way around. I have not seen any cracks in any of the blocks but havent really examined them that closely either.
It is a manufactured home that we live in.
Calling out a county worker is out of the question, I would have to wait years for them to get around to it. So the professional I would be looking for would be called a structual engineer? I may call them this spring and see what they think. Thanks for the advise.

[Wgoodrich]

There are three kinds of prebuilt homes;

Mobile home; is a manufactured home with steel Ibeams in the middle third of the structure as an alternative engineered home with the IBeams in the middle third supporting that entire structure on those two IBeams set on piers that are not permenant in nature allowing disassembly to move to next location commonly found in a mobile home park but may be found on private land. Skirting is normally the form that encloses the crawl area.

Modular home is a prebuilt home built meeting the International Residential Building Code prebuilt in a factory. These home are without steel Ibeam construction supported but with beams in the middle and outside permeter supported by the middle and outside perimeter by a footing and foundation.

Manufactured home is a moble home with steel Ibeams in middle third of structure same as above only installed on a permenant setting with a footer under each pier with mortar required between blocks on both the piers and the outside permeter designed not to be easily moved but rather a permenant installation same as a stick built home.


Now if you have a manufactured home most manufactured homes in the past could not be supported by the outside perimeter but only by the piers. However in the last few years manufactured homes have been redesigned to allow partial support from the outside perimeter.

You need to look at the outside corner of your home for a red HUD label. if you find this metal red lable this is a home inspected by HUD also being a mobile home or manufactured home.

Difference is a mobile home is not with a permenant installation on temporary piers just stacked and a manufactured home is with a permenant footing and foundation using mortar.

First get the model number of that home and call your manufacturer and confirm if this home is designed to be supported by the middle third placed steel IBeams only or if shared support on the perimeter of the home is the design of support of this home. This is the key thing ! If your piers are not supporting this home properly but rather the outside perimeter is supporting parts and this home is only designed to be supported by those Ibeams. This will bust up your home.

It sounds like you have not installed a proper footing either way for the piers or footer. The footing is the most important part of this installation. If you did not install a footer below the frost line and at least 12" below undisturbed dirt and at least 12" wide and 8" thick to stack or lay you blocks on you have lots of settling ahead.

Just my opinion

Wg

[dremmel]

Why not get in contact with the person or persons responsible for the construction of your foundation? I saw nothing in your posts indicating you did this. So someone did. I would say that if you paid someone to do this, than hold them accountable.