Retrofit Services and Foundation Upgrades

OnTheLevel offers retrofit services and consulting to residents in existing manufactured homes if they need to upgrade or repair their current support system. Generally the reason for a foundation upgrade is one or more of the following:

1. To upgrade the home to meet or exceed the home's wind and seismic safety standards to give the homeowner peace of mind.
2. To meet conditions of the lender or underwriter in a loan or sales transaction.
3. To meet the requirements of an insurance underwriter for certain insurance upgrades.

What are Foundation Upgrades and Retrofits?

Foundation upgrades or retrofits usually work in conjunction with the existing support components but are "beefier" and engineered to provide greater protection in wind and seismic zones. The existing supports are still designed to be in place for the load displacement and for leveling adjustment flexibility, but the retrofit is generally required to meet loan or insurance specifications for "permanent" attachment, wind resistance, or seismic resistance. The retrofit systems are generally proprietary in nature, meaning that they have been approved and stamped by an engineer. Having been registered as an approved plan with the state, a proprietary system has already demonstrated through testing data that it meets or exceeds certain requirements. When utilizing a proprietary Standard Plan Approval (SPA), plan check fees at the building department can usually be avoided.

-The individual requirements for the different systems are better detailed in the following links.

Retrofit services fall in the following 3 categories:

• Engineered tie-down systems.
• Retrofit Foundation System (433A/HUD Handbook)
• Earthquake Resistant Bracing Systems (ERBS)