Unleveling home to make windows and doors more square?
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2015 9:37 pm
Hello everyone, it's good to be here! Hopefully you'll be willing and able to share your opinions about an issue with my home.
I recently had my 2002 Palm Harbor double-wide home releveled, which had never been done to it before. Some windows and a sliding glass door were made visibly less true/square by this; a couple windows barely latch shut and that glass door is even harder to keep closed than it used to be. Also, a sliding shower door now becomes difficult to slide as it reaches the end of its track. And the exterior water heater closet's door sticks out because that door is mounted on a wood piece that now bends outward.
Maybe the steel piers' original levels were set to make the windows and doors work OK, and the installers cared less about the home being level.
I'd rather not have those windows and sliding doors reinstalled and made square with the new level (if that's even practical). That would involve more expense, especially where drywall would need to be redone.
It seems that this relevel wasn't done correctly anyway; my random spot checking suggests the beams might be at least a quarter inch off in places.
I'm inclined to have the relevel at least partially undone, to bring things back to a more usable state. But that would require making the level substantially off near that sliding glass door.
This relevel was done mainly because I saw one footlong crack in the siding near one corner of the home (nowhere near that sliding glass door). I feared it's a stress crack. I releveled also partly because the home's manufacturer and some people online recommend doing it periodically.
This makes me wonder whether it was a bad idea to relevel (a realtor and her civil engineer husband, who were aware of the crack, told me so and predicted these kinds of problems). And the company which installed the home told me that homes normally should never require releveling. Maybe that's because the local (San Diego county) soil is very solid?
How do you all deal with the problems created when you relevel? How much unlevelness do you tolerate to avoid trouble? What should I do now?
Thank you very much for any guidance.
I recently had my 2002 Palm Harbor double-wide home releveled, which had never been done to it before. Some windows and a sliding glass door were made visibly less true/square by this; a couple windows barely latch shut and that glass door is even harder to keep closed than it used to be. Also, a sliding shower door now becomes difficult to slide as it reaches the end of its track. And the exterior water heater closet's door sticks out because that door is mounted on a wood piece that now bends outward.
Maybe the steel piers' original levels were set to make the windows and doors work OK, and the installers cared less about the home being level.
I'd rather not have those windows and sliding doors reinstalled and made square with the new level (if that's even practical). That would involve more expense, especially where drywall would need to be redone.
It seems that this relevel wasn't done correctly anyway; my random spot checking suggests the beams might be at least a quarter inch off in places.
I'm inclined to have the relevel at least partially undone, to bring things back to a more usable state. But that would require making the level substantially off near that sliding glass door.
This relevel was done mainly because I saw one footlong crack in the siding near one corner of the home (nowhere near that sliding glass door). I feared it's a stress crack. I releveled also partly because the home's manufacturer and some people online recommend doing it periodically.
This makes me wonder whether it was a bad idea to relevel (a realtor and her civil engineer husband, who were aware of the crack, told me so and predicted these kinds of problems). And the company which installed the home told me that homes normally should never require releveling. Maybe that's because the local (San Diego county) soil is very solid?
How do you all deal with the problems created when you relevel? How much unlevelness do you tolerate to avoid trouble? What should I do now?
Thank you very much for any guidance.