Flood Damage To Mobile Homes – Part 1: Depending on the year manufactured, mobile homes can be set onto a foundation, concrete footings, or concrete block with no footings. In this picture, the mobile home was set on concrete blocks laid on the ground. This technique is no longer allowed, but can still be found. One of my structural concerns was the flow of water undermining the concrete block columns. After the water recedes, these columns can still shift from the ground being saturated. These concrete blocks will need to be monitored for months to come for further movement.
In this specific mobile home, the flood caused about 6′ of water to push into its side. This massive pressure caused the mobile home to shift. My other structural concern is the strapping that secures the frame of the mobile home to the ground. There are typically 4-6 straps per side. In this picture, the strapping is loose. These are supposed to be tight. The straps down both sides need to be tight. If the structure shifts to 1 side, one side can still be tight while the other is loose. In this case, the structure shifted in both directions and I found loose strapping on both sides of this single-wide.
If your mobile home is set on concrete footings, these same concerns with undermining, shifting, and loose strapping exists.
See Part 2 for my other concerns regarding water damage if it was high enough to come into the mobile home.