basement steps

[Mary]

We bought a beautiful double wide manufactured home, put it on a full basement and now have been told we might not be able to put basement steps in becaues of the beams..can this be true??? Luckily, we did put a mandoor in the basement to get in from outside, but what a waste of money if we aren't going to be able to use the basement from the inside of our house!

[Mark Bower]

Generally a beam or two will have to be cut, but if the beam is properly braced on each side of the cut, it should be fine. Of course you don't want to cut the big main beams.

Mark
You gotta see my repair manual!

[Eugene]

Mary,
You should never cut the cross beams that support the home, You can end up with support problems and can lose your warranty.
You should have had the home designed for a basement set, Like a perimeter frame. that is the only right way to put a MH on a basement.
I hope the factory cut the hole in the floor. You should also have a smoke alarm at end of the floor cut out.
You would be better off moving the cross-beam and adding another. If you plan on living there for a long time.

[Rita]

I'm confused. Did you buy your home directly from the manufacturer, "basement ready", and it doesn't have a stairwell in it? Or are there other circumstances that I'm just not clear on? Was the basement an afterthought? I ask because there is a difference between "basement ready" and not basement ready. If your home was not basement ready, it was constructed differently.