Your brick skirting

Always check to make absolutely sure that your home does not rest on, or touch the brick skirting.

If it does, you have no damp proof course and damp may rise from the brickwork up into your home. Always make sure there is a small gap between the two all the way around.

Sometimes it is difficult to see, as manufacturers design the home with a lip at the bottom of the exterior wall purposely, to cover this small gap. Just so that it will look better.

This is just common sense really. Just the same as, if you were to have a traditional house built on an incline, some owners may level a flower bed so that it covers the damp proof course, which of course, means that over a period of time damp may rise and set in eventually to the inside of the house in extreme cases.

Ed.

It may seem a minor point but you need to take your brick skirting into account when calculating your reinstatement sums insured for Insurance purposes.  You would be amazed how many people tend to forget this simple fact when working out their sums insured. 

It is my understanding that when insuring your home you have to insure it for its replacement value fully inclusive! And in all fairness the only people that can tell you how much it would cost for a similar home fully sited on park is the park owner! Am i correct? And if so

According to the Policy of a very well-known Park Home Insurer, skirting is included, subject to the usual exclusions:

'Home; The structure of Your Park Home which is occupied by You and Your Family
as a private dwelling and its
a) domestic outbuildings, garages, porches, sheds and skirting
b) permanent fixtures and fittings, service tanks, pipes and cables
c) paths, drives, terraces, walls, hedges, gates and fences all contained within the
boundaries of the Land
Land; The Land belonging to the Home.'

Chris
Chassis Doctor Ltd

... and on this very subject....

....here's some pix from a home in Bedfordshire we were engaged to re-support and respray the Chassis on last week...

... the Home had already been surveyed by a very well-known and long-established Park Home Surveyor engaged by the Client who wanted a pre-buying report. The Client had been advised in the Survey to have the Home (a 30 y/o Stately Albion) resprayed and supported and advised that there was a crack in the base. All fair points.

However, how any Park Home Surveyor could miss the fact that the tyres were hard on the base and there was no air gap for around 80% of the Home is beyond me. Smaller points like the mis-supported waste pipes, missing floor insulation, unlagged 15mm & 22mm water pipes, loads of flammable rubbish/old DIY projects and inadequate ventilation were also missing from the survey...but that's another post, another day!

We met the Client in the local Pub on the day of the exchange - a cracking little Charlie Wells country inn with wonderful food - and gave her the not-so-good news with some photographic evidence. We agreed a price to rectify all the above and booked two/three days next week for the work.

Luckily, the home doesn't have any attached extensions/porches so the raising shouldn't be too much of a problem. The only fly-in-the-ointment will be what happens to the top course of the brick skirting when we lift, seeing as the majority of the Home's subframe has been sitting on the skirting for donkeys' years....

.... I'll let you know what happens

Chris

Hi redsnappa
If a 32' concrete base was being extended in one direction to 36' (to site a larger unit), what would be the minimum acceptable method of dong this, and what method would you prefer.?

Thanks for pointing out the brick skirting/air brick Point. Now I have another question, when sited do the wheels have to be on or off the ground, as here you say" the tyres were hard on the base".
Surveyors, you say the one this person had was a well known one for park homes, so how do I know I get one who will point out all the wrongs and do I need one for a new home?
Some of the questions I am going to be asking may sound daft but I know nothing about park homes and want to get thing right before buying or not.
I am beginning to think I would be better putting my money into bricks and mortar :-((

Marge

Hi jah,

I'm no expert on concrete bases, but this is, apparently, the minimum standard for a concrete base:

"A hard core base to a minimum depth of 150 mm, well consolidated and topped with 100 mm of concrete (mix as BS8500-2:2006 ) shall be used. The finished raft must be generally level with due allowance for surface drainage. Where the ground conditions so require, thickening or the introduction of reinforcement of the raft may be necessary."

Now this would have been the perfect opportunity for parkinsider's knowledge to come to the fore

Chris

Hi redsnappa
If a 32' concrete base was being extended in one direction to 36' (to site a larger unit), what would be the minimum acceptable method of dong this, and what method would you prefer.?

-jah

This can be done, but needs to be done by someone who really knows what they are doing. It is not enough just to add another 4' slab adjoining the existing base. It must be tied in to the existing base as well.

If not, it is possible down the line with frosty weather etc that one part will move, whilst the other may not. This could result in the home being out of alignment.

Ed.

Hi Chris

Absolutely spot on with regards to the spec of the base. Most park owners I know generally reinforce their bases as well, under any circumstances.

Ed.

Thanks for pointing out the brick skirting/air brick Point. Now I have another question, when sited do the wheels have to be on or off the ground, as here you say" the tyres were hard on the base".
Surveyors, you say the one this person had was a well known one for park homes, so how do I know I get one who will point out all the wrongs and do I need one for a new home?
Some of the questions I am going to be asking may sound daft but I know nothing about park homes and want to get thing right before buying or not.
I am beginning to think I would be better putting my money into bricks and mortar :-((
Marge

-marge

Hi Marge,

I wouldn't lose sleep over these various problems with some Park Homes if I were you - after all, my point is about a 30 year old unit which was poorly sited in the first place, poorly maintained and then examined by a Surveyor who was obviously having an off day ;)

You would certainly not come across these problems on a new Home as long as you do your research and get the right site - just the same as you would with a new build Bricks and Mortar home.

Incidentally, I'm pretty sure if there are any similar Forums about for Bricks and Mortar and folk looked into buying Bricks and Mortar with the same penetrating gaze they give to Park Homes, then we'd all be living in wigwams!

Chris

Hello  chris  maybe the  reason  why   people  look  with  penetrating  gaze   towards  parkhomes  is  because  of  the  bad  press  " bad  site  owners  create ", the  majority  of  bricks  and  mortar  are  freehold  although  some !  are  leasehold.......the  problems  start  mostly  with  whoever  owns  the  ground...........fairness  on  both  sides  gives  contentment  all  round.............site  owners  that  couldnt  care  less  start  bleating  once  residents  start  getting  frustrated  with  the  status  quo........unfortunately  for  the  good  guys  park homes  suffer  more  than  most.  Im  not  ready  for  a  wigwam...Ive  only  just  perfected   smoke  signals....evergreen

Hello  chris  maybe the  reason  why   people  look  with  penetrating  gaze   towards  parkhomes  is  because  of  the  bad  press  " bad  site  owners  create ", the  majority  of  bricks  and  mortar  are  freehold  although  some !  are  leasehold.......the  problems  start  mostly  with  whoever  owns  the  ground...........fairness  on  both  sides  gives  contentment  all  round.............site  owners  that  couldnt  care  less  start  bleating  once  residents  start  getting  frustrated  with  the  status  quo........unfortunately  for  the  good  guys  park homes  suffer  more  than  most.

-evergreen

All very true evergreen, it's just a pity that the folk who live on a well-run Park don't feel the need to shout about it on the various Forums...but then that's just the way of the world!

On that site in Bedfordshire I referred to in my post above, I met the manageress in the course of work - if possible, we always let the site owner/manager know that we are on their Park working, out of courtesy and with due regard to the fact that it is their land - and she was brilliant, knew her stuff and very friendly. That's not always the case at some Parks, but then I can only call it as I see it!

I rent a Bricks and Mortar home at the moment and have a great Landlady, but can honestly say that in the past I've had some right tyrants as Landlords/ladies, so I think it's only fair to say it's the same all over, except for, as you say, when you have a Freehold property, but then again, you could always get a dodgy neighbour move in next door and make your life hell!

Im  not  ready  for  a  wigwam...Ive  only  just  perfected   smoke  signals....evergreen

-evergreen

Wigwam life has never been the same since the white man slaughtered all our buffalo eh Pocahontas?

Chris

Hi  chris  well  at  least no  neighbours  will  move  in  with  a  herd  of  buffalo  lol...evergreen

Well, we're up all round by 3/4" - 1 1/4".

Neither the base nor the skirting is level so that's as good as we could get it. All the tyres are off the base and the floor is sitting properly on the chassis now - no need for those jacks under the centre of the home (where the two units join.)

A tip - if you have jacks/supports that are directly to the floor bearers/floor - in fact anywhere but on the chassis itself, it's a sign that the home is not raised high enough. If the home is at the right height, then gravity pushes the floor into position and gets rid of 90% of squeaks and creaks and bouncing.

We didn't have so much of a problem with the top course of bricks in the skirting when we raised the home.... the problem was further down, where the corner steadies (wind down legs) had been mortared into the skirting ! When we raised, the brickwork went up with the home... so here's Mitch rescuing what's left of the poor Client's brickwork!

More pix when we finish the job tomorrow....

Chris

Better late than never!

We commenced work on Friday amidst a blinding snowstorm - luckily we had some work to do under the home until the snow/sleet laid off! The mortar had dried luckily, so we were able to paint the skirting.

Unfortunately the photos I took aren't exactly David Bailey quality, but they'll give you an idea of what can be achieved even when all looks lost beneath a Park Home!

You may wonder where the floor supports have gone..... there's actually no need for them once the home is raised, supported and levelled properly. Gravity does all the work. Supports placed randomly beneath a floor are always evidence that the home has sunk or was never sited properly in the first place.

Happily, the client is going to have a top end refurb in the future, as there was some evidence of rot on parts of the sub-frame from where the home had been sitting on the skirting for so long. The addition of a proper drip-rail around the edge of the home will also help.

We'll be back to adjust the levels in 12 months time, because the home will settle after being out of position for so long - it's not so different from us humans - adjusting a chassis  is like physiotherapy!

Chris

Hi  Chris...Talk  about  before  and  after, that  is  supurb,  seeing  the  first  pictures  you  would  never  think  it  could  look  so  transformed....even  a  hip  replacement  couldnt  have  been  achieved  to  that  standered  lol  plus  the  awful  weather  you  have  had  to  contend  with.  Today  its  good  to  see  people  who  take  such  a  pride  in  their  work ...well  done ...evergreen

looks pretty smart under that unit now.