Pre-Purchase Foundation Check for North Port Mobile Homes

When you buy a mobile home, you are buying what is underneath it too: the piers, pads, straps and anchors, and the ground they sit in. Those are hard to judge from inside the home, and once you own the home, fixing them is your cost. We go under the home before you buy, read the level at every pier, check the piers, pads, straps, anchors and underbelly, and give you a written report. It typically runs $150 to $350.

Why it is worth doing here

Several of the parks near North Port are long established. In Warm Mineral Springs, about two in three homes are mobile homes and the median resident age is about 72. Harbor Cove has been on the Myakka since 1962, and Holiday Park dates from the 1970s. Many homes went through Ian in 2022 and Milton in 2024. At Holiday Park, about 200 of 865 homes were demolished or set for demolition after Ian, and the state’s survey of Englewood parks noted that the older homes still standing in Mobile Gardens mainly showed no noticeable damage to their piers, stabilizers and anchors. Before buying, you want to know which kind of home you are looking at.

The ground matters too. The City’s soils are poorly and very poorly drained flatwood sands with a water table that can come within 6 to 18 inches of the surface for part of the year, and low spots pond.

What we check

• Level. A reading at every pier, so you can see whether the frame is in one plane or has dropped somewhere.
• Piers and pads. Cracked caps, shifted blocks, tipped or sunken pads, and over-shimmed piers.
• Straps and anchors. Tension, rust, spacing against Florida Rule 15C-1’s 5 foot 4 inch limit for diagonal ties, and any coral anchors, which the rule says do not meet Wind Zone II or III. Sarasota and Charlotte counties are Zone III.
• Underbelly and ground cover. Tears, sagging, wet insulation.
• Water. Standing water or signs of ponding under the home.
• Attachments. Where carports, lanais or porch roofs are fixed to the home, since those took much of the damage in the state’s Ian survey.
• Skirting and access. Whether we can get under the home, and what the skirting says about settling.

Questions to settle before closing

1. City or county? If the park is in unincorporated Warm Mineral Springs, Sarasota County handles permits. If it is inside the City of North Port, the City does. The Sarasota County Property Appraiser can confirm.
2. Flood zone. About 30% of the City’s area is in a FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area, and several park addresses sit in AE zones. Inside the City, a manufactured home placed, replaced or substantially improved in a flood hazard area must have the bottom of its frame at or above base flood plus one foot. In Sarasota County, elevating a home takes a replacement permit, and in a flood zone the county asks for an elevation certificate or 50% Rule paperwork.
3. Park rules. Ask the park office about its own rules on set-up, skirting and attachments.
4. Tie-down history. In Sarasota County, set-up and tie-down work needs a building permit and a licensed installer, so ask the seller whether there are permit records for past work.

The report

You get a written report of what we found, pier by pier where it matters, with typical costs for anything that needs doing. If you want a written price for the repairs, we write a quote. The report is yours whether or not you hire us. Our pricing page has every typical range, and if the home needs work, see mobile home leveling and pier and pad repair. Ask whoever does any work for their FLHSMV mobile home installer licence number and look it up.