Mobile Homes in Florida...

[stetto]

How do they get insurance? Do people who buy and live in these actually go on the life threatening wager that they'll never get hit by a hurricane? Am I alone in the belief that living in a mobile home in Florida (or anywhere in an OBVIOUS high risk area) is basically a death-wish?

Pardon my apparent ignorance, but it just seems stupid...

BTW, how are you guys on the west coast and panhandle (of Florida) faring?

[Grug - American Neanderthal]

I don't know how it is in Florida, but the from the places I have seen that have lots of mobile homes, it's a step up from a tent and about the only option open to low income people. Also when you lose several hundred houses or thousands even at a pop, its a quick way to house people. But they probably don't go empty once those displaced people move out.

[JohnC]

Y'all should go check out the Mobile Home Sales places, it's a real eye-opener. The salespeople insist that they're just as safe as any house. While a modular house might be a little bit safer, I personally wouldn't even consider a mobile home. JohnC

[stetto]

Eric said:

Also when you lose several hundred houses or thousands even at a pop, its a quick way to house people. But they probably don't go empty once those displaced people move out.

...Yeah, nevermind locating these quick ways to house people outside the kill zone of a hurricane or tornado (Oklahoma is another great spot)...

...And of course, since any self respecting insurance company would be insane to cover these boxcar-shaped bullseyes, we can leave it to our tax dollars to pay for these peoples' lives and belongings via Federal disaster relief. Anyone wanna do the math after this is done as to the cost of cleaning hurricane afterbirth as opposed to the same without the expense of the Darwinian factor?

[Grug - American Neanderthal]

Heheh, Well I wonder at the wisdom of it too, but I doubt one state is going to move people to another state, and foot the bill. I saw several building that were supposed to be hurricane proof that are condemned now also.

I have no idea if the insurance companies cover mobile homes or not, but I imagine they do, it just isn't cheap.
I also imagine those who lived in them paid taxes also, I doubt they all were counting on govt intervention if their trailer burned down or whatever. Since most who can afford a stick built house, live in one would a better solution be to have everyone who cant afford a real house live in govt subsidized housing so we can get rid of mobile homes and their cost to the public in case of disater? Probably not.

[stetto]

I dunno Eric, they had a 1000 year flood northwest of here a couple years ago in Grand Forks and points north; the insurance companies either promptly pulled out of the areas affected immediately thereafter, or, as in the case of State Farm, refuse homeowner coverage in the entire state now.

When Andrew or Hugo or some other storm endowed with human attributes (like a name...) came through, our insurance agent (Allstate) guaranteed that we'd never see the effects way out in the wasteland of Wyoming...within three months our premiums skyrocketed, and we were told it was directly related to the hurricane claims. We changed to State Farm that very day.

If the Ins. companies aren't refusing coverage already for mobile homes in high risk states, they will be soon...Does Big Mike have any input on this?

[Cablemender]

Florida has some peculiar laws regarding mobile homes. The ones you see flying around in hurricanes, like Dorthy's house in the Wizard of Oz, are mostly ones that have been grandfathered in as far as anti-wind protection goes. The reasoning in my county is that if they've survived so far, they're probably as sound as they're going to get.

If you put a new on on a slab, however, you have to have special anchors augered into the ground at each corner to keep it from blowing off it's pier blocks. They extend a 2.5" wide steel band up from one, across the top frame members,(the equivalent of a top or header plate in a wood frame construction), then back down to the opposite anchor. They actually work pretty good.. I've seen them hold the mobile home in place while the wind stripped the entire roof off of one. People with any smarts put some kind of retainer also over the roof, the most common being one of those 50-ft dog tie-out leashes. They use a cable clamp to fasten on one end to an anchor, throw it over the roof, and clip the leash end to to opposite anchor. This gives them something to hold both the frame AND the roof down.

Even with that, though, a Cat 4 hurricane will push one wall straight in, so it ends up collapsing within it's own structure. And nothing will keep them from getting squashed into landing gear stock when a big 'ol southern pine lays down on it. When they mandate evacuation, those folks are usually the first one's told to leave.

Every home built in Florida is required to have metal straps to hold the top plates to the studs, and metal brackets to hold the trusses or roof rafters to the top plates. You can't even get a permit to put up anthing larger than a 10' X 10' shed without them, and they DO check.

I lived in a double-wide for two years when I used to live in Orlando. This one had a 3-car, wood-framed garage attached, and they put wood siding all over the mobile home part too, so it looked like a house, not a mobile home. It had the anchors I spoke of. I stayed there during a Cat 3 storm and it was rock solid. The only problem I had was my salt tank blew completely away. I was on well water, and the salt tank, which is really a 30-gallon plastic tank, is used to soften the water. Went out after the storm and it was GONE! Never did find it.

The biggest problem with mobile homes is fire, and of that, the ones that aren't caused by careless smoking are caused by what's called a loose neutral. When 220vac is fed to a home, the phases are split using the neutral as a "return" path, so you get 220 phase to phase, and 110vac phase to neutral. Same in regular homes, except that in a regular house, you have a ground from your riser (aerial feed) or from the meter box (underground feed) via #4 copper to a 6-foot copper rod driven into the ground. In a mobile home, this is done by running that lead to the FRAME, usually at the water heater, and then somewhere on the frame (hopefully, not always) there is a lead running to a ground rod. Those connections to the frame are a clamp-on job and they are notorious for corroding in the high humidity environment down here. When it becomes a high-resistance connection, the house current seeks a better ground.. usually through the shield of cable tv coax or through the phone company's ground wire. More than once I've gotten the Don King hair-do from trying to troubleshoot someone's poor internet connection in a mobile home. One of my coworkers got so scared from the flashing arc he just threw the cable (tv coax) out of his hand and it welded itself to the aluminum window frame. LOL, and the customer is inside the mobile home yelling to him, "Hey, channel 3 looks much better!"

[stetto]

Thanks for the informative post Tom, and I'm damm glad to know you and your family are awright...

[Grug - American Neanderthal]

Heheh, I didn't know Colorado was Hurricane country too! When I was 1st maried we lived in a trailer on our farm, county building code required 4' pylons every 10' with rebar sticking out to weld to the frame of the trailer. I think it was more to keep you from moving it again than damage concern from the weather. Most single wide mobile homes have metal straps that run up and over inside the walls, but I have still seen them with just the floor and frame that was anchored still and the rest of it scattered out for a 1000 yards from tornados.

Any shed more than 120sq ' has to have hurricane clips, alontg wth a permit and inspection.

Thats one reason I moved to Wyoming, you can build from matchsticks or steel cased concrete and the state doesn't care.

[Cablemender]

Thanks, Stetto, we appreciate your concern.

I have a friend at work who is from WY, some place up in the north west part (Cody, I think he said) and the man absolutely pines to be back there. He is all the time telling this story about people there having a different respect for people's property. He says, "why, you could leave a whole set of tools out in your yard and no one would mess with them... they might use them, but they'd put them back where they got them." hehe, don't try THAT around here. Best you could get would be a note left behind that says, "Thanks for the tools."

I travelled through WY once on my way back from where I used to live in Washington. What struck me about western states is how far you could see! Looking at things like Mt. Rainier in WA, thinking that's one BIG mountain, and getting that impression from 80 miles away! Same for a lot of the western states like Idaho and WY. I remember stopping in Cheyenne to eat dinner and it was, I dunno, a couple million degress below zero. I felt like I needed de-icing boots on my eyebrows! Still, cold as that was, it was such a magnificent area to see.

[Richard]

1st place I owned was a mobil home 50'X8' when ever the wing got up over 40 I hightailed it to the neghibors house across the road for safety. The old place is still standing, she must have been a good one or very lucky, as I bought it used in '68.

[Patch]

My Granparents had a place in Big Pine Key, and later in La Belle (my parents have one in La Belle now) He was in construction/cement etc all his life. He had his roof cabled and anchord. During a conversation with him about hurricanes, he said one of the biggest mistakes people make is to not check and tighten the anchors/straps. He told me he's seen trailers get sawed in half by the cables that are supposed to be holding them down because they had stretched and loosened. I can't verify it myself of course, but I don't believe my Grandfather would have any reason to lie about it. La Belle looks to have missed any major damage, so I may have a good weeks vacation this winter ;D

[Patch]

As for Tornado Alley, I swear it's the same guy on the news every year saying "I can't dun believe it happened again......just like the last 12 times huh Maud?"

I think I'd have a big ass underground bunker dug out. When it wasn't tornado season, you could use it for a walk in beer fridge, hide from authorities, or even a hydroponics lab when funds were tight ;D