Mobile home is damp underneath
Posted: March 4th, 2013 | 1 Comment »Q. I purchased a double-wide mobile home on 1/4 acre that’s very wet. The home has skirting. I removed some and determined that it’s damp underneath most of the time. Will I have a problem in the future? What should I do?
A. You didn’t tell me where you are located. I am assuming that you do have a concrete pad under the home as is customary.
If you are in a cold climate, remove as much of the skirting as practicable in the warmer weather to let the underneath of your home dry up but you will need to put the skirting back before freezing weather comes along. If you live in a moderate to warm climate where freezing in not a problem, you can substitute a number of the existing skirting panels with ventilated skirting year-around.
Because the concrete pad was probably poured over soil without attention to good drainage, try covering it with 6-mil plastic, fitting it as well as you can around the piers and any other protrusions through the concrete; tape these joints with duct tape. Hold the plastic in place where it meets the skirting track with bricks or stones every few feet.
This should help control moisture from the soil through the concrete, which is a somewhat porous material.
I’ve lived in Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wyoming and concrete pads under mobile homes are definitely not the custom, in fact, very rare. Plastic over the ground is advisable, as well as insulated skirting, ventilation may be needed if moisture continues to be a problem.