Skirting alternative

[Jennifer Bayhi Gennaro]

Happy New Year, everyone. My husband and I are fairly new to the mobile home realm, but bought six trailers in the last half of 2014. We are almost at full occupancy, but ran into an unforeseen startup cost. We had a trailer moved to a park, then found out we had to have the trailer raised to comply with new floodplain regulations (all but one other trailer in the park were "grandfathered in," so it's not something that would have been easily noticed). We spent $1500 more (after moving costs!) to have it elevated, and it's now about five feet off the ground. Now we have to install stairs and skirting, and the skirting cost is double what we encountered on a previous fix. Which brings me to my question(s): does anyone know of a more cost-effective solution to common vinyl skirting, and is it necessary to build a wood frame around the trailer then install the skirting to it? We got a quote from a highly qualified mobile home repairman for $3100 for skirting and stairs, and he planned to build a fence around the perimeter then install the skirting to it. Thanks for your advice.

[Paul Ewing]

What I used on my last two I installed and will on all in the future was metal R-Panel.  It is almost as fast to put up as vinyl and lasts a lot longer.  It is also weed eater proof which is a big thing on rentals.  The initial cost will be a bit more. I think I paid just under $3 a foot for it.  The quickest way to install is to use J-Chanel as the top rail and dig a trench about 4-6 inches deep.  Cut the sheets to height (if you have a level pad you can actually order the metal precut to the height you need) tuck under the edge of the J-Chanel and screw the top into the baseboard of the trailer.  If you are in an area with frost heaving or lots of ground movement fill the ditch with pea gravel.  I just filled with sand.  For best results you would run a 2x4 along the ground in the back staked in place to screw into to make sure you are totally plumb to the ground.  I found that bending the metal around the corners looks better and is much cheaper than buying the $1-$2 a foot corner trim.