Source: https://inspectapedia.com/Manufactured_Homes/Mobile_Home_Tie_Downs.php
Timestamp: 2017-11-18 00:55:33
Document Index: 789772122

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 3280', 'art 3282', '§3280', '§3280', '§3280', '§3280', '§ 3280', '§ 3280']

Mobile Home Tie-Downs & stabilizing systems: Defects commonly found in the stabilizing systems, cables, & tie downs for wind & storm damage resistance of mobile homes, doublewides, mutiwides, trailers
Manufactured Home & Mobile Home Tie-Downs
Tie-Down Specifications & HUD Wind Zone Maps, Wind Design Pressures, Roof Live Load Specifications
MOBILE HOME STABILIZING SYSTEMS - CONTENTS: how to inspect mobile home or manufactured home stabilizing systems or tie-downs - a measure intended to reduce the risk of overturning in high winds
POST a QUESTION or READ FAQs about wind & storm protection for mobile homes & multiwides using tie downs or anchors.
Mobile home stabilizing systems & tie down requirements for doublewides, mobile homes, multiwides, & trailer.
Here we describe defects commonly found in the stabilizing systems, cables, & tie downs for wind & storm damage resistance of mobile homes, doublewides, multiwides, trailers, risking lack of resistance to wind or storm damage.
We include HUD Specifications for wind zone data, design loads, roof loads & tie-down specifications to protect manufactured homes and mobile homes or trailers in high wind areas.
STABILIZING SYSTEMS - Tie Downs & Stabilizing Systems for Mobile Homes
Our photo shows that although this trailer has been placed on a concrete slab foundation, it still rests on its wheels and on temporary jack stands. No piers, no tie-downs, no permanent support was provided.
Definitions of Tie-Downs or Stabilizing Systems for Manufactured / Mobile HOmes
Stabilizing Devices: all components of the anchoring & support systems
Support System: combination of footings, piers, caps, shims that support the home
Anchoring System: system to resist overturning and lateral movement
Anchoring Equipment: combination of straps, cables, turnbuckles, chains and tensioning devices.
Anchor: device secured in the ground (Screw or other)
After the very extensive damage and flooding caused by Hurricane Irma in Florida in 2017, the New York Times reported that a number of Florida mobile homes had survived the Category 4 hurricane, most-likely due to both the rapid decline in the storm's strength as it moved across the state but also due to "... toughened construction and installation regulations for mobile homes ...". - Treaster, Joseph B., Henry Fountain, "Stricter Regulations, and Depleted Storm, May Have Helped Save Mobile Homes", The New York Times, 15 September 2017 p. A14.
The Times reporters noted that increased building standards put in place in Florida after Hurricane Andrew (August 1992) and mobile homes built to those new standards meant that homes had a significantly-improved survival rate. While carports and awnings blew to smithereens and some building siding and roof shingles were lost, fewer homes in Key Largo Florida, about ten percent, suffered significant roof damage. (Those homes suffered significant water damage too.)
It appears likely that the requirement for multiple anchor cables including over-roof cabling added after Hurricane Andrew protected many mobile or manufactured homes in the area.
Inspection Points for Mobile Home Anchoring Systems
Inadquate piers, incomplete tie-downs: This mobile home frame (photo at left) has been set on dry-laid concrete blocks, with plywood shims. But the blocks rest directly on soil. This is not a reliable support system and may not be permitted by local building codes.
The tie-down cables are in place but we could not find that their free end was connected to anything.
Tie down materials for mobile homes, trailers, double-wides: cable, chain, strap and tensioning device;
Diagonal tie downs for mobile homes, or frame straps, at 45 deg. angle attach to main frame at one end and to ground at other to resist lateral movement; Ground anchor should be about at same angle as the strap;
Tie downs for mobile homes may be vertical;
Diagonal tie downs for double-wide units are required only at outside rails of each unit; Vertical straps or ground straps resist uplift and overturn, required only for hurricane or wind zones;
The number and placement of tie downs for mobile homes and trailers depends on the wind zone in which the home is located and the length of the structure. For example, a 65' trailer would need 2 to 3 vertical tie downs per side, or 4 to 6 tie downs per side if diagonal tie downs are used, depending on which wind zone it's in.
Connection requirements for mobile home and trailer tie downs: the mobile home tie down is connected to the steel I-beam at specific locations provided by the manufacturer; typically strap wraps around the I-beam.
Tie downs for mobile homes, trailers, double-wides are usually expected to be placed and connected according to details provided in the mobile home installation manual (have you ever seen one?). If you know your mobile home or trailer model name and perhaps serial number, you may be able to contact the mobile home manufacturer to ask for an installation manual.
Watch out: HUD-7584 prohibits dependence on screw-in type tie-down anchors commonly used in manufactured home anchorage systems.
Links to more detailed mobile home or trailer tie-down installation specifications, methods, and advice can be found at Structural Advice.
HUD Codes on Manufactured & Mobile Home Tiedown Systems for Wind & Earthquake Damage Protection
MANUFACTURED HOME CONSTRUCTION AND SAFETY STANDARDS, Part 3280 contains 10 subparts pertaining to General (data plate and certification contents and locations), Plans (dimensions, exits, etc), Fire Safety, Body and Frame, Testing, Thermal Protection, Heating/Cooling and venting systems, Electrical, and Transportation (axles, springs, drawbar).
Excerpts below describe wind zone specifications & requirements for manufactured homes.
HUD Wind Zone Map for Manufactured Housing
Part 3282 (the document link just above) discusses preemption of state laws, among other things, and requires a new unit to be delivered with a "consumer manual" containing required information about the unit. Thanks to NHFireBear for this update, April 2015. Retrieved 9 April 2015, original source: www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2001-title24-vol5/pdf/CFR-2001-title24-vol5-subtitleB.pdf [note this is a very large PDF that contains other sections. Our live link above has excerpted the Manufactured Home standards section from the HUD document Ed.]
Excerpting from the above:
§3280.305 Structural design requirements [for Manufactured Housing]
Each manufactured home shall be designed and constructed as a completely integrated structure capable of sustaining the design load requirements of this standard, and shall be capable of transmitting these loads to stabilizing devices without exceeding the allowable stresses or deflections.
Roof framing shall be securely fastened to wall framing, walls to floor structure, and floor structure to chassis to secure and maintain continuity between the floor and chassis, so as to resist wind overturning, uplift, and sliding as imposed by design loads in this part.
Uncompressed finished flooring greater than 1/8 inch in thickness shall not extend beneath load-bearing walls that are fastened to the floor structure.
(b) Design loads
(1) Design dead loads. Design dead loads shall be the actual dead load supported by the structural assembly under consideration.
(2) Design live loads. The design live loads and wind and snow loads shall be as specified in this section and shall be considered to be uniformly distributed. The roof live load or snow load shall not be considered as acting simultaneously with the wind load and the roof live or snow load and floor live loads shall not be considered as resisting the overturning moment due to wind.
(3) When engineering calculations are performed, allowable unit stresses may be increased as provided in the documents referenced in §3280.304 except as otherwise indicated in §§3280.304(b)(1) and 3280.306(a).
(4) Whenever the roof slope does not exceed 20 degrees, the design horizontal wind loads required by §3280.305(c)(1) may be determined without including the vertical roof projection of the manufactured home. However, regardless of the roof slope of the manufactured home, the vertical roof projection shall be included when determining the wind loading for split level or clerestory type roof systems.
(c) Wind, snow, and roof loads—(1) Wind loads—design requirements.
(i) Standard wind loads (Zone I).
When a manufactured home is not designed to resist the wind loads for high wind areas (Zone II or Zone III) specified in paragraph (c)(1)(ii) of this section, the manufactured home and each of its wind resisting parts and portions shall be designed for horizontal wind loads of not less than 15 psf and net uplift load of not less than 9 psf.
(ii) Wind loads for high wind areas (Zone II and Zone III).
When designed for high wind areas (Zone II and Zone III), the manufactured home, each of its wind resisting parts (including, but not limited to, shear walls, diaphragms, ridge beams, and their fastening and anchoring systems), and its components and cladding materials (including, but not limited to, roof trusses, wall studs, exterior sheathing, roofing and siding materials, exterior glazing, and their connections and fasteners) shall be designed by a Professional Engineer or Architect to resist:
(A) The design wind loads for Exposure C specified in ANSI/ASCE 7–88, ‘‘Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures,’’ for a fifty-year recurrence interval, and a design wind speed of 100 mph, as specified for Wind Zone II, or 110 mph, as specified for Wind Zone III (Basic Wind Zone Map); or
(B) The wind pressures specified in the following table:
HUD Table of Design Wind Pressures for Manufactured Housing § 3280.305
(2) Wind loads—zone designations.
The Wind Zone and specific wind design load requirements are determined by the fastest basic wind speed (mph) within each Zone and the intended location, based on the Basic Wind Zone Map, as follows:
(i) Wind Zone I.
Wind Zone I consists of those areas on the Basic Wind Zone Map that are not identified in paragraphs (c)(2)(ii) or (iii) of this section as being within Wind Zone II or III, respectively.
(ii) Wind Zone II.....100 mph.
The following areas are deemed to be within Wind Zone II of the Basic Wind Zone Map:
Local governments: The following local governments listed by State (counties, unless specified otherwise):
Alabama: Baldwin and Mobile.
Florida: All counties except those identified in paragraph (c)(1)(i)(C) of this section as within Wind Zone III.
Georgia: Bryan, Camden, Chatham, Glynn, Liberty, McIntosh.
Louisiana: Parishes of Acadia, Allen, Ascension, Assumption, Calcasieu, Cameron, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Evangeline, Iberia, Iberville, Jefferson Davis, LaFayette, Livingston, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Vermillion, Washington, West Baton Rouge, and West Feliciana.
Maine: Hancock and Washington.
Massachusetts: Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, Nantucket, and Plymouth.
Mississippi: George, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Pearl River, and Stone. North Carolina: Beaufort, Brunswick, Camden, Chowan, Columbus, Craven, Currituck, Jones, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Pender, Perquimans, Tyrrell, and Washington. South Carolina: Beaufort, Berkeley, Charleston, Colleton, Dorchester, Georgetown, Horry, Jasper, and Williamsburg.
Texas: Aransas, Brazoria, Calhoun, Cameron, Chambers, Galveston, Jefferson, Kenedy, Kleberg, Matagorda, Nueces, Orange, Refugio, San Patricio, and Willacy.
Virginia: Cities of Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Princess Anne, and Virginia Beach.
(iii) Wind Zone III.....110 mph
The following areas are considered to be within Wind Zone III of the Basic Wind Zone Map:
(A) States and Territories: The entire State of Hawaii, the coastal regions of Alaska (as determined by the 90 mph isotach on the ANSI/ASCE 7–88 map), and all of the U.S. Territories of American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands.
(B) Local governments: The following local governments listed by State (counties, unless specified otherwise):
Florida: Broward, Charlotte, Collier, Dade, Franklin, Gulf, Hendry, Lee, Martin, Manatee, Monroe, Palm Beach, Pinellas, and Sarasota.
Louisiana: Parishes of Jefferson, La Fourche, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. Mary, and Terrabonne.
North Carolina: Carteret, Dare, and Hyde.
(iv) Consideration of local requirements. For areas where local building code requirements exceed the design wind speed requirements of these standards,
§ 3280.305 the Department will consider the adoption through rulemaking of the more stringent requirements of the State or local building authority.
Additional Structural Requirements & Specifications for Manufactured Homes
See MOBILE HOME STRUCTURAL DEFECTS
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