Tie-downs loose, rusted, or missing: how to check and what it costs

Anchoring is the part of a manufactured home nobody looks at, sitting in the dirt under a home whose skirting hides it. It is also the part that matters most in a storm.

The three-minute check

With a torch, from an access panel or an open corner of the skirting:

1. Is the strap tight? You should not be able to move it much by hand. A strap you can wobble is doing very little. Slack straps are the most common finding, and they come from the home settling: as the geometry changes, straps loosen.

2. Is the metal sound where it enters the ground? This is where they fail. A strap that looks perfect at the frame can be substantially corroded at the soil line, where the strap enters the ground. Same for the anchor head. Poke it.

3. Is there a strap near each end of the home? The federal standard wants one within about two feet of each end, and a missing end tie is a common omission on older installs.

Then count what is there and compare it with the tie-downs and anchors service, which works out roughly what a home your size should have under the federal installation standard.

Why this matters in Mohave County

People take HUD Wind Zone I, the lowest of the three federal zones, to mean anchors are optional here. They are not. The Arizona Department of Housing’s installation FAQ says all mobile homes and all new and used manufactured homes must be anchored with an approved system, and the wind that tests that system is monsoon outflow: the Weather Service warns at 60 mph and notes the strongest straight-line gusts can exceed 100 mph.

The homes that concern us most here are the ones set before the 1994 HUD standards. Those were anchored to a lighter rulebook, plenty of them are still in Mohave County parks with original anchoring, and many have never had it inspected, let alone retrofitted.

What goes wrong, in order

The connection to levelling

These two problems arrive together and for the same reason. Sand under a pier compacts, the home settles, and as it settles the straps slacken. So a home that needs releveling frequently also has anchoring that has lost tension, and a home with slack straps is usually telling you it has moved.

Which is why the cheapest moment to deal with anchoring is during a relevel, when the crew is already underneath and the skirting is already off. Strap re-tensioning is often bundled at little or no extra cost, and replacing individual anchors while everything is open is far cheaper than a dedicated trip.

If you are running the settling self-check anyway, this is the other half of the same inspection.

What it costs

Published on the pricing page.

Licensing, which is not optional here

Arizona defines installation to include providing ground anchoring for a home or repairing it (A.R.S. 41-4001), and the Arizona Department of Housing’s I-10C general installer classification specifically covers ground anchors and tie-downs. Doing that work without an installer license is an unlawful act under A.R.S. 41-4047. Ask for the license number in writing, verify it is current with the Department, and ask separately for the insurance certificate. The tie-downs and anchors page covers the rules in more detail.

This is one of the areas where the licence matters most in practice, because anchoring is invisible once the skirting goes back on. You will not be able to tell good work from bad by looking, which means you are relying entirely on who did it.

What to expect on the call

Photos from underneath if you can get them, roughly how many straps you counted, whether they are tight, what the metal looks like at the ground, the home’s size, and roughly when it was set. If you do not know how to get underneath, say so; part of the free level check is looking at exactly this.

Strap and anchor requests come from Bullhead City, Fort Mohave, Mohave Valley, Golden Valley, Kingman, and Lake Havasu City.