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Frost heave is a pain.
Doors don’t shut right, the water won’t completely drain from the
bathtub, food doesn’t cook evenly on the stove, and if you have sliding glass
doors on your shower, they won’t stay closed!
This is just the stuff you notice when it gets cold, or when it warms up!
This is nothing compared to the damage the skirting is doing to your
siding and your plumbing connections can become distressed and…
Frost heave requires two elements to occur, cold
temperatures and water. There
isn’t much you can do about cold weather in Alaska, but there is something you
can do about the water! Landscaping
around your home that forces water to drain away from your lot can help stop or
at least reduce frost heave. It’s the water that
freezes and expands pushing earth and your home that causes the damage.
Keep this in mind when you start planning your spring garden.
Now, if your home is like mine, it sits at the bottom of
a hill and no amount of landscaping short of constructing a large hill under my
home is going to stop frost heave. So
we made some adjustments.
The foundation system is adjustable, so should the frost
heave become excessive, a simple adjustment of the foundation system and the
doors close again. For skirting, we
chose a vinyl system that is manufactured to move with the frost heave, that
stops damage to the siding and structure. For
insulation we use Insulfoam because it is not affected by water, (once
fiberglass gets wet it has little to NO insulation value).
Keeping the home insulated helps reduce frost heave.
How can I tell if my insulation system is working?
The answer is very visible. If
there is space between the snow and your skirting, your insulation is not
working! That space is your money. Click
here to see what your money is heating. Instead of keeping the heat under your home, it’s melting the snow next
to it! A good insulation system
will have snow touching your skirting because there is not enough heat to melt
it. (Click here
to see a picture). That means you
are not paying to heat the neighborhood.
Have a suggestion we can share with other mobile/manufactured home owners? Please call or email us postmaster@reallyneatstuffalaska.com