Racking of the Home

[fredtawney]

I have a question our 2007 Redman home was not racked correctly. As a result the floor is about 3/4 out of level in one end. We have contacted the WV division of manufactored Housing and they have done an inspection and we are currently waiting on repairs. We have found out from one of the contractors that the dealer and someone at Redman homes knew of these problems from day one and choose not to do anything about this unless it was discovered. Do we have legel recourse as our home is almost a year old and is still not right?

[rmurray]

The HUD violations the WV inspector found are NOT limited to only the 1 year warranty...The licensed set crew the dealer contracted with will be obligated to correct the set and make it up to code. If he ignores the state's write up he risks his license to do business..

You probably have signed an arbitration agreement with the dealer and Redman (or parent Champion Home builders)..These probably would stop you from going to court..For your legal questions and procedure for the arbitration process see an attorney..

[David Oxhandler]

All structures experience settlement. The vast majority of problems that MH Owners experience is due to settlement. It is not necessarily true that the installation was done wrong... your home may have been perfectly level when installed but has settled unevenly.. that is way it has taken a year to become really noticeable.

This is NOT a construction problem and is generally not covered by factory warranty. When I was in retail we used to offer a free relevel any time in the first year. Most dealerships today are working on a shrinking profit as overhead is soaring, so you wont find many that have this kind of policy these days.

You may just find that you will have to pay for a relevel. The cost is different in every market but it should not be too obnoxious. Get competitive prices from 3 or 4 licensed installers if you find the one that set your home is not obligated to relevel. What ever the cost it will be considerable less than the list of repairs you will face over years if you dont get the home level.

On most soil types once a home has settled for a year the major settlement has compacted the earth below the foundation piers enough to make future settlement insignificant. So once you have the home releveled your problem should be resolved.

You should NOT try to level your home by yourself. The operations involved in jacking and raising the home can be very dangerous and should be attempted only by experienced individuals.

Check Out the Releveling Kit from Aberdeen Repair It includes complete step-by-step instructions and a waterline level. Use these instructions and the enclosed waterline level to determine how much your home is out of level. This will make you a better-informed consumer and give you the upper hand when it comes to hiring a contractor to do the job, or requesting home warranty service.

The detailed instructions will teach you the causes of why your home becomes unlevel learn how simple it is to set-up, calibrate and read a waterline level (included with the kit) determine where your home is unlevel and by how much learn what to watch-out for before, during and after releveling your home

[trmimo]

The term racking has nothing to do with floor alignment. The floors are bolted together before the home is racked. Racking is done to align the walls. Redman is not involved in the on site installation of your home. If it were 3/4" out of level between the 2 halves from the start, you would have noticed it immediately. It does indeed sound like the house has settled.