Adjustable steel piers and relevelling

[TheStitchWitch]

I have a doublewide Clayton that we bought new in 2008. We live in Texas just outside of Houston. The house is supported by stacked cinder blocks on concrete pads (footers?) I'm not terribly sure of the terminology.

My roof has been leaking along the center line but no shingles are missing and I can't find any damage. Someone suggested that my house may need to be relevelled since it may be that the two sides are pulling away from each other. I have not crawled under there yet but plan on doing that as soon as the ground dries out from the rain we got a few days ago.

I stapled a tarp over the leaky area but it got pulled off during the last storm. Oddly enough, no leak this time it rained while I had a very steady leak the last time about a month ago.

Are adjustable steel piers better than the stacked concrete and are they intended for permanent use? If the home needs to be relevelled, should I add more piers, shim the current ones as needed or replace with steel ones?

Is there a preferred type of jack and do I need more than one to relevel with?

From what I understand, relevelling is something I can do myself with the right tools and information. I would love to pay someone else to do it but I can't afford to. I can probably indenture a few friends to help but I would most likely be doing all the work myself.

Thanks! Michelle

[JD]

If the roof is leaking at the center (marriage) line, the ridge cap shingles are probably failing. They do not need to be torn or missing to leak. A common leak that I see often is when the shingles start curling. Due to the low pitch and a flat 5"-6" spot at the peak, ridge shingles and especially standard shingles cut at the tabs, will tend to curl at the bottom. When they curl enough, water will start flowing sideways. This will usually cause a leak at the peak.

If this is not a "every rain" leak, it could be a combination of curled shingles and wind blown rain. Rain blowing hard from one direction may cause a leak when there is no leak when wind direction is changed.

Metal piers are a lot easier to work with, especially on the original set, but they are not better (or worse) than concrete pier blocks. Metal piers are adjusted by raising and lowering a nut on the pier top. Adjust level with a 20T bottle jack (or two) and tighten up the nut. As long as you are within 2" from the top of the pier (not counting the top) and the frame, you are good to go. If you need to raise the pier to where there is more than 2", you add another pier pad (1 1/2" thick) and then tighten the nut. To adjust concrete piers is basically the same, except instead of tightening a nut, you push the together to make them taller. Here too, you add a pier block to get more adjustment when needed.

I use 20T bottle jacks, and I use a minimum of two. If the home lifts easily with one, then one is cool. But if it feels like the frame of the home is straining, I will place two jacks further apart to make the lift without bending or damaging the frame. I have some expensive bottle jacks, but the cheap one I picked up at Harbor Freight is holding up just as well so far.

Mark, the owner of this web site, has a great article available on releveling homes at the Books & Parts link at the top of this web page.

Hope this helps.