Doors and windows sticking: what the frame is telling you

When doors in a mobile home start rubbing, will not latch, or drift open on their own, the usual cause is that one or more piers under the frame have dropped and racked the door openings out of square. We find the low piers, bring the frame back to level and reset the straps. If the doors are the only symptom, a straight relevel is usually enough, which typically runs $450 to $800 for a singlewide and $750 to $1,400 for a doublewide. You get a written quote after we have surveyed the home.

Check this first

• How many openings? One door that sticks in summer is often the door. Three doors and a window that started together is the frame.
• Where are they? Sticking openings grouped at one end, or along one side, point to the piers under that area.
• Which edge rubs? Look for shiny wear marks on the frame or the door edge. Where the wear sits tells us which way the opening has racked, so take a photo before you adjust anything.
• Do doors swing by themselves? A door that swings open or shut when you let go is hanging out of plumb because the wall it sits in is no longer vertical.
• Marriage line. On a doublewide, look along the ceiling where the halves meet for a gap or a step.
• Outside. Check whether the skirting is bowing near the same corner, and whether water stands under that end of the home after rain.

Why it happens

A mobile home’s walls sit on its floor, the floor sits on its steel beams, and the beams sit on piers. When one pier settles, the beam above it sags a little, the floor follows, and every rectangular opening above it is pushed slightly out of square. Doors and windows are the first thing to tell you, because they are fitted with small gaps and notice small changes.

Why North Fort Myers homes move

The ground under most of North Fort Myers is poorly drained flatwood sand, soils such as Pineda, Oldsmar and Wabasso, and the water table is often within 10 to 40 inches of the surface for much of the year. When rain collects under one end of a home and stays, the pads there sit in soft, wet sand. That end drops first, and the doors and windows over it are where you notice. Florida Rule 15C-1 asks for the ground under a home to be graded so water does not collect there, which is why we look at drainage when we level.

When to call

Call us if more than one door or window has started sticking, if a door swings on its own, or if you see a gap opening along a doublewide’s marriage line. Waiting leaves the piers next to the one that dropped carrying its share of the load. You can price your home on our relevel cost calculator, read how we do a relevel, or see every range on our pricing page. If the trouble began right after someone else leveled the home, see leveling done wrong.