Mobile home subfloor and saggy floor replacement
Soft spots by the tub, a toilet that rocks, a floor that sinks when you step on it. We open it up, fix the leak behind it and rebuild the floor solid.
Why mobile home floors go soft
The floor in most mobile homes is a layer of decking, often particleboard in older homes, laid over floor joists. Particleboard is an approved material under the federal manufactured home code (24 CFR 3280.304), and it holds up fine while it stays dry. Once it soaks up water from a leak, it swells, loses its strength and starts to crumble, and the floor goes soft or sinks.
That's why soft spots show up in the same places: in front of the tub and toilet, under the kitchen and bathroom sinks, by the washer and water heater, and inside the doors where rain gets in.
Signs of subfloor damage
- A spongy or bouncy spot when you step on it
- A floor that dips or sinks in one area
- Cracked or lifting tiles, or vinyl that's bubbling
- A toilet that rocks, or a tub that's pulling away from the wall
- Stains, a musty smell or swelling at the edge of the floor
- Gaps opening at the bottom of the walls
From one section to a full replacement
- Section repair. We cut out the damaged decking back to the joists, replace any weak framing underneath, and lay in new subfloor flush with the rest.
- Full room or full replacement. When the damage runs through a whole bathroom, kitchen or more, we replace the subfloor across the whole area so you're not left with a patchwork that gives out next year.
- Joists and framing. Rotted or broken joists under the decking get reinforced or replaced while the floor is open.
Florida's mobile home repair rule requires repairs to use material and design equivalent to the original (Rule 15C-2.0081), so we rebuild your floor at least as strong as it was built.
Check the support, too
A floor that sags across a whole room is often a pier problem, not a decking problem. Because we do both, we look under the home before we decide, and if it needs a relevel we'll tell you. Every saggy floor and subfloor job comes with our 1-year warranty.
Questions about soft floors
Can you just put new flooring over the soft spot?
No. New flooring over a damaged subfloor only hides it, and the soft spot comes back through. The bad decking has to come out and be replaced with sound material first.
Is my soft floor a floor problem or a leveling problem?
It can be either. A dip across a room is often the home settling on its piers, while a soft, spongy spot near a tub, toilet, sink or door is usually water-damaged decking. We check underneath before we say which.
Will my homeowner's insurance pay for it?
Sometimes. Policies tend to treat a pipe that bursts all at once differently from water that seeped for months, and the slow kind is often excluded. Your policy decides, and we can describe what we found for your claim.
Do I need a permit?
It depends on the job and where you live. Inside the City of Lakeland, for example, new floor covering alone needs no permit, but structural work like replacing subfloor and joists is an alteration that can. We'll check for your job.
A 1-year warranty on every re-level, underbelly and subfloor job.
Every re-level, underbelly repair, saggy floor and subfloor job we do comes with a 1-year warranty. If you have a question about the work afterward, you call Adam directly, not a call center.
Soft spot by the tub? Don't wait on it.
Water damage spreads. Call or text Adam and we'll come take a look. The estimate is free.