My Re-leveling Experience

[canman47]

This weekend I finally did the re-leveling of my double wide and thought I would write about it for those who are thinking of doing it themselves. It was a long dirty weekend but not as hard as I feared. I'd recommend a good dust mask. sturdy gloves, and the best knee pads you can afford. I was on hands and knees for 20+ hours and even with the pads it gets uncomfortable. I used the deluxe waterline level sold on this site and highly recommend it. It's very accurate and you can use it with one person. With a hose type level you would need someone to sit at the zero point for hours on end. I got two 20 ton jacks at Harbor freight fo $40 a piece. Jacking plates were recommended to protect the frame but I couldn't find any so I bought 2 pieces of 3" steel channel from a steel shop for $7. No kinked frame. I was a little concerned about lifting so much weight up in the air but the jacks made it easy and it felt pretty safe since you usually only have one or two piers suspended at a time. I used large wooden blocks to raise the jacks up high enough. 8x10,6x8 and such. That worked fine on my hard ground with no sinking at all. I had a low end which I raised first and then I just went down each beam, one pier at a time. After doing that for all 4 beams I went back to the beginning and found that the other lifting had changed the height of what I had done earlier so I went through again and had to adjust 8 or so piers again. I'll wait a week and check it again before I put the skirting back on. When I started I had a variation of 1and3/4" form high to low, now it's 1/8" so I'm happy with it. About 15 years ago I hired a company to level it and I was a bit shocked but their shabby work. They used anything around the yard for blocking-bricks, some 2x4's and in one place a rock. One end was not supported at all. So I wanted to do it myself and know it was right. One thing I didn't expect is that now my front and rear entry doors dont work. I had cut the front door myself years ago to fit the non square opening. I had to cut it again to fit the now square opening. Stranger to me is the back door which is the original metal door. The floor is level but the frame isn't square to the floor. Don't know if these flange type doors can be adjusted and it's metal so I can't cut it. All in all it was a dirty and exhausting weekend but I'm glad I did it.

[Greg]

Glad you had so much fun!!! You should be able to remove the door frame and re position it so it is square. It may take some work to get it out since it may be caulked as well as screwed in place.

Greg