How to Move your Mobile Home: Preparing the Exterior and Interior
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PREPARING THE HOME ON THE EXTERIOR
Remember that the home is going to have a lot of wind resistance on the road. Anything that might blow off will blow off at 50 miles per hour. So remove or secure all of the items that might be impacted.
For example, exterior coach lights by the door are a natural for disaster. If you do not want to remove the whole fixture, at least remove the glass. It will be broken for sure. Similarly, any screw-on or stick on numbers or name plaques will fly off almost immediately, so you are going to want to remove those too.
The doors should be secured and screwed shut by the moving company. Make sure they do this. In transport, the motion of the home will unsecure the doors, even if they are dead bolted, and they will then fly open and rip off the home. You see this all the time.
If you have siding on the home that is loose or weak, now is the time to reinforce it or fix it. At 50 mph, it will surely be ripped off or bent back in the wind.
Imagine your home in a wind tunnel. Whatever looks like it might be in danger of getting damaged that is what you want to get removed or reinforced.
PREPARING THE HOME ON THE INTERIOR
Your mobile home is going to be subjected to a lot of shaking and bumping in its move. It would be the same forces that it would be subjected to in an earthquake – only it is an earthquake that could last for ten or more hours straight! Look around each room and identify things that could get broken in such an environment, such as;
- Glass in ceiling light fixtures. You always want to remove these.
- Expensive (stained glass or leaded glass) light fixtures that hang down.
- Secure cabinet doors. If they are leaded glass doors, you might remove them.
- Closet doors should be secured.
- Toilet tank tops should be secured.
- Shower doors must be secured.
- Anything else that can be broken if shaken violently.