Mobile Home Pier and Pad Repair in Palm Desert

A pier holds one point of the home’s steel beam off the ground. It sits on a footing, sometimes called a pad, and the footing sits on the soil. When the footing sinks, tips or cracks, the beam above it drops and the home goes out of level. Rebuilding a pier with a new footing, blocks and cap typically runs $150 to $400. Reshimming one during a relevel typically runs $75 to $150. We write the count and the total on your quote after we have seen them.

Changing a home’s load-bearing supports counts as a reinstallation in California (Health and Safety Code 18613), and a reinstallation needs a permit. Ask about it before work starts, and ask for the contractor’s CSLB C-47 licence number.

What we find under Coachella Valley homes

Footings on loose sand. Most of the valley floor is Myoma fine sand, which NRCS describes as loose and single grain, formed in sand blown from recent alluvium. On the north side, Carsitas sand and gravelly sand. A footing placed on sand that was dug, raked or washed out, rather than firm undisturbed soil or compacted fill, can settle unevenly.

Footings near water. NRCS notes that irrigation or seepage can create a seasonal water table 2 to 5 feet down in Carsitas sand and that perched water is common where Coachella soils are irrigated. A footing next to a sprinkler line or a dripping supply pipe is the one we check first.

Tipped stacks. Block piers that were stacked off-center or never capped properly can lean over time. A leaning pier still touches the beam, so it looks fine from the access door, but it is carrying the load at an angle.

Too much height. California caps piers at 36 inches. If an old set-up has a tall stack at one end because the lot slopes, we measure it and tell you whether the work brings in the foundation-system rule, which applies when more than a quarter of the home is 3 feet or more up.

How we rebuild a pier

1. We support the beam on a jack beside the failed pier.
2. We remove the old stack and footing and look at the sand underneath.
3. If the ground is soft or disturbed, we take it down to firm soil or compact it before the new footing goes in.
4. We set the new footing level and size it so the load on the soil stays within the 1,500 pounds per square foot Title 25 allows unless higher values are approved.
5. We stack the pier plumb, cap it, and shim it tight to the beam.
6. We recheck the readings along the beam, because changing one pier changes its neighbours.

If several piers have gone, a full relevel is usually better value than fixing them one at a time, and the quote will say which way makes sense.

How this shows up inside

Pier trouble tends to show up as doors and windows sticking or a soft or bouncy floor near the low point. If someone already reshimmed the home and it got worse, read leveling done wrong.

After the rebuild

On a permitted job, the skirting goes back on only after the underfloor work is approved, so we close the skirting last. If water was part of the cause, fix the sprinkler or the leak too, or the new footing will be sitting in the same wet sand. Our typical ranges for every related job are on the pricing page.