A manufactured home is sturdy and relatively easy to maintain, but if the underside of the home is not protected by a curtain wall (i.e., skirted), then you may have problems. Pets and animals can damage insulation under your home, pipes can freeze, wind-blown debris can build up, and children can be tempted into dangerous places. There are many materials available to skirt your manufactured home, but a cinder block wall is the sturdiest and most permanent. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Check your homeowners ordinances and insurance. Skirting is prohibited in some communities, while in others it is required or limited to certain choices of materials.
2. Determine whether you want the sturdiness of a cinder block skirt, or just the look. If your concerns are only aesthetic, investigate panels designed to look like block or brick, often made of resin, foam or pumice. Two prominant brand names are Nailite and Pumcrete.
3. Pour a concrete footing for your skirt wall directly under your manufactured home's perimeter. The footing should be twice the width of the blocks you intend to use (i.e., 16 inches wide for 8-inch blocks) and deeper than the frost line where you live. Stake footings from 2x4s and allow for drainage and utility lines.
4. Build your wall on your concrete footers. Since a skirt wall is not intended to be load-bearing, dry blocks can be stacked a few levels high, or you can lay courses of block using mortar similar to building a concrete wall.
5. Finish your block skirt with stucco, brick veneer, plastic stone or outdoor paint.
Tags: manufactured home, block skirt, cinder block, skirt wall, under your, your manufactured, your manufactured home
