By TrueBuilt Home Services Team
Related service: Mobile Home SkirtingSkirting — also called underpinning — is the panel system that encloses the crawlspace between the bottom of a mobile or manufactured home and the ground. It is not decoration. It carries the ventilation the crawlspace needs, preserves access for anyone who has to work under the home, and takes the abuse of mowers, weather, animals, and ground that moves with the season.
This guide covers what the job actually involves, whether you are doing it yourself or deciding what to ask a contractor for. If you would rather hand it off, TrueBuilt installs and replaces skirting across North Texas.
What mobile home skirting is, in one paragraph
A skirting system is three parts working together: a top rail fixed under the edge of the home, panels that span from there to the ground, and a bottom rail or track that holds the panel bottoms and is usually set slightly into the grade. Vents are cut into the panels, and at least one removable access panel gives entry to the crawlspace.
How to install or replace mobile home skirting, step by step
1. Measure the perimeter and the height
Measure the full perimeter of the home, then measure the height from grade to the underside of the siding at several points. This is the step people skip, and it is the one that matters most: on almost any real site the height varies, sometimes by several inches, because the ground is not flat. Order to the tallest measurement and plan to cut down.
2. Sort out the ground first
If water runs toward the home, fix that before the panels go on. Grade should fall away from the skirting line, not into it. Ground that collects water at the base accelerates rot, panel failure, and movement, and once the skirting is up you will not want to redo it.
3. Set the top rail
The top rail attaches under the siding, following the line of the home. Get this straight and level relative to the home rather than relative to the ground — the ground is the thing that is uneven, and a top rail that follows the dirt will make every panel look wrong.
4. Set the bottom track to the ground
The bottom track follows the grade and is typically set an inch or two into it. This is where the height differences get absorbed. Panels are cut to meet it.
5. Cut and hang the panels
Panels drop into the top rail and seat into the bottom track. They are meant to float slightly rather than being pinned rigidly at both ends — vinyl in particular expands and contracts a surprising amount between a July afternoon and a January night, and panels fastened tight will buckle or crack.
6. Cut in vents and at least one access panel
Vents get distributed around the perimeter — see the calculation below. The access panel needs to be somewhere a person can actually reach and large enough to get through with a tool bag, near whatever is most likely to need service.
How many vents do you need for mobile home skirting?
The federal model standard for manufactured home installation addresses crawlspace ventilation, and the figure commonly applied is 1 square foot of net free ventilating area for every 150 square feet of under-floor area. Some assemblies allow a reduced ratio where a ground vapor retarder is installed. Your home's installation manual and your local authority are the final word — check both before ordering.
Worked example for a 16 × 76 single-wide:
- Under-floor area: 16 × 76 = 1,216 sq ft
- Required net free area: 1,216 ÷ 150 = 8.1 sq ft
- Converted: 8.1 × 144 = about 1,170 sq in
- If each vent provides ~50 sq in of net free area: 1,170 ÷ 50 = about 24 vents
The trap is that phrase, net free area. It is the actual open area after the louvers and insect screen, and it is far smaller than the vent's outside dimensions — often less than half. A vent's packaging usually lists it; if it does not, assume less than you would like and check the spec sheet.
How to insulate mobile home skirting
Two different things get called this, and they solve different problems.
Insulating the skirting panels — insulated skirting panels, or rigid board added behind standard panels — moderates the crawlspace temperature and helps with frozen pipes during a North Texas cold snap. It is a real benefit in a hard freeze.
Insulating the underbelly — the floor insulation and bottom board beneath the home — is what actually affects your heating and cooling bill, because that is the surface between the crawlspace and your living space. If the bottom board is torn or sagging and the insulation is wet or missing, no amount of skirting insulation compensates.
If you are opening up the skirting anyway, that is the moment to look at the underbelly. It is the only time it will be easy to reach.
Important: do not seal the crawlspace up tight. Trapping moisture under a home causes far more expensive problems than a cold floor. Insulate, but keep the ventilation.
How much does mobile home skirting cost?
We do not publish a figure, because a number quoted without seeing the home is one you cannot hold anyone to. What drives it is measurable, and you can ask any contractor to break it out:
- Perimeter length and average height
- How much the grade falls across the run
- Material — vinyl, metal, insulated panel, or a masonry or simulated-stone system
- Whether any existing system can be partly reused
- Vent and access-panel count
- Any ground or drainage work needed first
- Whether anything behind the panels needs attention before closing up
Two quotes that differ by thousands almost always differ in what was included — grade work, disposal, access panels, substructure repair — not in the price of the panels. Ask for those as separate lines. Our guide on comparing written scopes goes further on that.
Should you repair or replace?
A few cracked panels on an otherwise sound system is a repair, and a good contractor will tell you so. The complication is matching: profiles and colors get discontinued, and a panel that is no longer made turns a small repair into either a visible patch or a full run.
Replacement usually makes more sense when failures are spread across several sides, when the framing the panels attach to has deteriorated, when the grade has moved enough that the bottom track no longer meets the ground, or when ventilation and access were never right to begin with.
We cover the decision in detail in Repair or Replace Mobile Home Skirting?, and the material tradeoffs in Mobile Home Skirting Options for North Texas Homes.
Doing it yourself, honestly
This is one of the more approachable jobs on a manufactured home. If you are comfortable measuring carefully, cutting straight, and working on your knees for a couple of days, a vinyl system on reasonably flat ground is within reach.
The things that turn it difficult are worth knowing before you start: significant grade fall across the run, masonry or simulated-stone systems, homes where the existing substructure has deteriorated, and anything that turns out to need attention once the panels come off. Discovering a soft floor frame or a failed bottom board mid-job is common, and it changes the project.
Where it stops being a DIY question entirely is the regulated side. Set, level, and anchoring are installation functions Texas regulates, and they belong to a licensed installer. If your skirting will not meet the ground evenly because the home itself needs releveling, new skirting will not fix that — and it will move again.
Who installs mobile home skirting near me?
If you are in the Dallas–Fort Worth area or North Texas more broadly, TrueBuilt Home Services handles skirting installation, damaged-section repair, and full replacement from a base in Justin, in Denton County. Estimates are free, scopes are written before work starts, and general liability insurance is carried with a certificate available on request.
Send the home's approximate age, the perimeter condition, and a few wide photos — wide first, then close-ups — and you will get a straight answer about what the job involves. Request a free estimate, or call or text 940-255-6343.