Texas Mobile Home Tie-Down Requirements, Plainly

Texas regulates manufactured home anchoring in detail, and most homeowners never read the rule. This page sets out what it requires in Hidalgo County so you can look under your own home and form a view before anyone quotes you anything.

We are installers rather than lawyers, and the official texts control: the federal wind zone map at 24 CFR 3280.305, the Texas Manufactured Housing Standards Act in Occupations Code Chapter 1201, and the Department’s rules in 10 TAC Chapter 80. This is a practical summary current as of September 2026.

Which wind zone you are in

The federal map has three zones. Wind Zone II is designed against 100 mph winds and Wind Zone III against 110 mph. 24 CFR 3280.305(c)(2) names the Texas counties in Zone II, “Aransas, Brazoria, Calhoun, Cameron, Chambers, Galveston, Jefferson, Kenedy, Kleberg, Matagorda, Nueces, Orange, Refugio, San Patricio, and Willacy,” lists no Texas county in Zone III, and says Zone I “consists of those areas … not identified” as Zone II or III.

Hidalgo County is not on the list. Hidalgo County is HUD Wind Zone I. Texas Occupations Code section 1201.256(a) repeats the same fifteen counties and adds, “All other counties are in Wind Zone I.”

That is worth stating plainly because the zone line runs along our eastern county line. Drive east on I-2 past Mercedes and La Feria into Cameron County and you are in Zone II. Willacy County to the northeast is Zone II. The practical consequences are in section 1201.256(b) and (c): a home built on or after September 1, 1997 to Zone I standards may not be installed in a Zone II county, so a Hidalgo County home cannot be moved to Harlingen or Brownsville, while a Zone II home may come the other way, and any home built before that date may be installed in either.

Zone I does not mean no wind. Hurricane Dolly put a 71 mph gust on the Weslaco airport in 2008 and 60 mph on Edinburg’s, and Hanna gusted to 60 mph at McAllen in 2020. Those numbers stayed inside Zone I’s design assumptions, and homes anchored to the table below rode them out. Homes with slack, rusted, or missing ties are a different story, and the water those storms left under homes is what our tie-downs page spends most of its time on.

Who writes the rules

Anchoring sits with the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, Manufactured Housing Division, in 10 TAC Chapter 80. Two rules matter here:

• 80.21, requirements for the installation of manufactured homes, which says every new and used home shall be installed by a licensed installer to instructions appropriate for the wind zone.
• 80.24, generic standards for anchoring systems, the table and specifications below.

For a new home, the binding document is the manufacturer’s DAPIA-approved installation manual. For a used home installed under the state’s generic standards, 80.24 is the rule. Where they differ, the manual for your home wins. That is also why installation work is licensed, which is covered on our installer licensing page.

What 80.24 requires, item by item

Strapping. Type 1, Finish B, Grade 1 steel strapping, 1.25 inches wide and 0.035 inches thick, certified by an engineer to ASTM D3953 and marked at least every five feet.

Tie capacity. Ties must resist a 3,150-pound working load with no more than two percent elongation and withstand a 50 percent overload, 4,725 pounds total. Zinc coating of at least 0.30 ounces per square foot on each side. Ties must be designed so they cannot disconnect themselves when slack.

Anchors. Installed in the direction of load. The anchor head must be flush or no more than one inch above the ground at the insertion point, and the top of the stabilizer plate must be within one inch of the anchor shaft. Rule 80.21(d) requires anchors to be corrosion resistant and bars a licensed installer from using re-conditioned anchors, straps, or clips on a new installation.

Roof pitch. The spacing table applies only to roofs of 20 degrees or less. Steeper roofs need an engineer’s design.

End ties. Ties at each end of the home must be within 24 inches of each end of the I-beam.

Anchor separation. No two anchors within four feet of each other. Spacing may stretch to clear an obstruction as long as the total tie count stays the same.

Vertical ties. Any vertical ties present on the home must be attached to a ground anchor. Vertical and diagonal ties may share a double-headed anchor if the anchor manufacturer allows the combined load.

Longitudinal ties. At each end of each section: one on a 12-wide, two on 14, 16, and 18-wide sections, at the angles the table specifies.

The Wind Zone I diagonal tie table

Maximum spacing between diagonal ties, from 10 TAC 80.24(d)(2). Vertical distance is measured from the anchor head to the underside of the floor joists.

Single-section homes need diagonal ties directly opposite each other on both main I-beams. Multi-section homes need them on the outermost I-beam only. Where the vertical distance passes 48 inches, the diagonal tie connects to the opposite beam.

The rule also carries a count table. On a 14-wide, 76-foot singlewide at 10-foot spacing with the end ties inset two feet, that works out to eight diagonal ties per side, sixteen anchors for the diagonals alone before the longitudinal ties are added, which is why the tie-down cost calculator reports a range rather than a number.

What you can check yourself, in fifteen minutes

1. Measure the strap spacing. Compare it with the row for your home’s width and height. Wider than the table is a finding.
2. Look at the end anchors. A strap within two feet of each end of each I-beam, or not.
3. Grab each strap. If you can move it by hand it is not in tension. Settling leaves straps slack, which is why anchoring and releveling are one conversation.
4. Look at the soil line. Surface rust is normal. A strap thinned where it enters the ground is not. In the shrink-swell clay south of Business 83, look also for a gap opened around the anchor shaft after a dry summer, which is the clay pulling away from it.
5. Find the stabilizer plates. A bare anchor head with no plate is a finding.
6. Count. Diagonal ties per side, longitudinal ties at each end of each section, and anything vertical that is not connected to a ground anchor.

Any one of those is worth a professional look. All of them together on an older home is common, and it is what the free level check covers. The loose or rusted tie-downs page goes deeper on each failure.

Coastal note

Rule 80.21(d) requires non-concrete stabilizing components within 1,500 feet of the coastline to be specifically certified for that use. Nothing in Hidalgo County is within 1,500 feet of the Gulf, so that clause does not apply to a home in Edinburg, McAllen, or Weslaco. It applies the moment the home is moved to a beach lot, which brings back the Zone II rule above.

What it costs

Published on the pricing page.

Get the inspection

Tell us the home’s width and length, roughly when it was set, and what you found on the fifteen-minute check. The inspection is free and the findings come in writing, anchor by anchor, whether or not you hire anyone. We cover Edinburg, McAllen, Mission, Pharr, San Juan, Alamo, Donna, and Weslaco.