Manufactured Home Roof Repair in Michigan

Homes built since 1976 to the federal Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards, often called the HUD code (24 CFR Part 3280), are not built to the Michigan Residential Code. Michigan adopts the federal standard for manufactured homes sold here: Mich Admin Code R 125.1185 says all new homes sold within Michigan must comply with the HUD construction standards.

For the roof, the federal standard sets the design loads and the weather resistance. Section 3280.307 requires exterior coverings to be moisture and weather resistant, attached with corrosion-resistant fasteners to resist wind, snow and rain, with joints designed to keep out air and water and joints between dissimilar materials protected with a compatible sealant. Section 3280.305 sets wind uplift and snow loads.

Michigan's Mobile Home Commission Act also limits what local governments can add. Under MCL 125.2307, a local ordinance may not contain a manufacturing or construction standard more stringent than the federal one, and may not impose roof configuration standards that apply only to mobile homes. Local building departments still handle permits for work they regulate, so ask yours before structural work or a roof-over.

Many older single-section homes have a low, slightly curved metal roof made of long galvanized or aluminum sheets joined at seams and fastened along the edges. They are light and shed water well when new. They leak at the same few places as they age.

Manufactured homes have shallow roof cavities, and many have no attic access at all. That makes leaks hard to trace and condensation easy to mistake for a leak. The HUD standard requires a ceiling vapor retarder of not more than 1 perm on the living-space side of the roof cavity in its colder thermal zones (Section 3280.504), which is how the design keeps indoor moisture out of that cavity.

When the vapor retarder is torn by a ceiling repair, or a bath fan or dryer vents into the roof cavity instead of outside, moisture condenses on the cold underside of the roof in a Michigan winter and drips back through the ceiling on the first thaw. Before paying for roof work in winter, ask whether the drip appears on cold, dry days or only during rain and snowmelt.

Michigan's Mobile Home Commission Act defines an installer and repairer as a person that, for compensation, installs or repairs mobile homes (MCL 125.2302), and LARA issues a Mobile Home Installer and Repairer License for three-year terms (MCL 125.2321). LARA's application instructions describe it as allowing the business of installing homes or servicing a mobile home for compensation. Licensed electricians, plumbers and mechanical contractors working within their own licenses are exempt unless the work includes general repair (MCL 125.2325).

Whether a roofer working only on the roof needs that license in addition to a residential builder or maintenance and alteration license is a question LARA's Bureau of Construction Codes can answer for a specific contractor. Ask any contractor which license they hold for this work, and check it.

If your home sits in a manufactured housing community, read the park's rules before arranging a roof-over, a color change or any work that needs equipment on the lot. Parks commonly set rules about exterior changes and contractor access, and some require approval in advance.