Five Tips for Using a Pit and Retaining Walls Under Your Mobile Home
If you decide to live in a mobile home permanently, you typically remove the wheels, place the home on piers and pads, and hide the trailer with skirting. However, that is not the only option. If you prefer a more permanent look, you may want to put your home on a pit lined with retaining walls. Here are some tips to keep in mind if you go that direction:
1. Don't use pits in wet, marshy areas
If you are moving your mobile home to an area that is relatively wet, you may want to use the traditional pier, pad and skirting method rather than a pit with retaining walls. In particular, if the water table level moves close to the surface of the land at any point, the pit can easily turn into a swampy mess. That can lead to mould or other damage in your mobile home.
2. Leave room for maintenance under the home
In most cases, the ductwork or plumbing in the mobile home needs to be accessed from beneath the house. To make this possible, your pit should be deep enough and the retaining walls should be high enough so that someone can get under the house, crawl around comfortably and do the needed maintenance work.
3. Don't forget about ventilation
When you put a mobile home on a pit, an excavation crew digs the pit and lines it with a retaining wall. The wall supports part of the home, but it also prevents the dirt from around the edges of the pit from falling back into the pit and destabilising the mobile home. Ideally, however, these walls should not be completely solid. Instead, they should feature small openings for ventilation.
4. Don't forget interior piers
Although the retaining wall supports some of your mobile home, you still need to ensure that the middle of the mobile home's frame is supported. To do that, use piers just as you normally would under a mobile home. After the mobile home has been placed on the retaining walls, someone should crawl under the home, into the pit and position the piers in place.
5. Think about fun retaining wall blocks
Retaining walls can be made of lots of different designs and materials. With many designs, a small part of the retaining wall is visible beneath the perimeter of the mobile home. To create a decorative look, don't use plain, boring retaining wall blocks. Instead, use colours or textures that add something special to your home.