Skirting or Underpinning
Mobile home skirting makes the home look better, helps keep cats, dogs, kids and other forms of wildlife out from under your home and is required by mobile home parks and communities. In some parts of the USA it is also called underpinning.
Mobile home skirting comes in more varieties than it used to. Beside the traditional vinyl are assorted fake rocks, hardboard and metal. Depending on your taste and budget you have a good selection.
Unfortunately, size and weight make skirting awkward to ship. For this reason, most suppliers won’t admit to carrying stock — except to local customers. This makes the internet a terrible place to find prices and availability. Plus there is the challenge of possibly trying to match existing skirting or finding a style that is no longer common. There are places around that make custom skirting to match; the trick is to find them.
{ 8 comments… read them below}
Mike King
We are looking for underpinning that looks like rock we have a brand new palm harbor home we live in Yoakum,tx 77995 is our zip
Paul
Skirting is one of those really frustrating products that doesn’t ship well. That means your best source will be to look for a local supplier. You might try a Google search for Yoakum+skirting and see what you find.
Or look under Mobile home supply in the Yellow Pages.
justin from minnesota
hi i am doing some work on a tralier house for my friend and he needs skirting done badly and doesnt want to spend alot on it the existing skirt is wood and it was screwed into the metal siding of the house and has a 2by4 frame on the ground held in with a few steaks. some of the wood sheets ripped out of the siding and are being held there by the frame on the bottom. i would say only half of the sheets of wood r bad or starting to rot and the other half is salvagable do you have any suggestions on how to go about it
Paul
There really isn’t much I can add. Your budget, how sensitive you are to appearance, etc. are all pretty much individual choices.
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Rochelle
Hi Paul,
My mobile home is about 7 years old. It is installed on a pier foundation with vinyl skirting. We are purchasing the home / land and are looking into making it look more permanent. We are considering replacing the skirting with concrete blocks (leaving venting and adding a door for access). Then our thought is to increase the grade level and add terraces to the front and sides. Do you think this is a sound plan, or should I just start from scratch and try to have it reinstalled on a permanent foundation? Thank you very much for providing the information on this page. Rochelle
Paul
Lots of tough questions in that paragraph So the correct answer is “It depends.”
Having the house on a permanent foundation will increase it’s value and make it easier to sell when/if the time comes. There will be more loan sources available.
You say you are purchasing the home. I expect you would need permission from the current lender to make the foundation permanent, especially if you need to borrow to cover the costs.
The longer you plan to stay there the stronger the argument for doing it right from the beginning and doing the permanent foundation. Ten years from now, after all the planting have matured, i think there might be some regrets.
Bill
Yes, block it in place. I did one and and couldn’t jack it up high so we measured it so the block would be a half inch to high, we jacked up the Mob. Home an inch and slide last block in with no mortor on bottom, we lowered home onto block. We used a congrete blade to cut out a 5/8th mortar groove on bottom of last bloc, mudded it, then edged it, looked really nice. We couldn’t raise home up higher because of plumbing and electric lines.
