Mobile Home Tie-Down & Anchor Cost Calculator

This works out roughly what an anchor job on your home will cost, and along the way tells you whether what is under it now is obviously short.

It reports a range, never a single number, because the binding anchor count is the spacing table in your own home’s installation manual. Anything claiming to know the exact count without that manual is guessing.

Why anchoring still matters in Wind Zone I

Hidalgo County sits one county inland from the Wind Zone II line. 24 CFR 3280.305 lists Cameron and Willacy among the fifteen Texas counties designed against 100 mph winds, and Occupations Code section 1201.256 puts every other county, ours included, in Wind Zone I.

The storms that reach us have stayed inside those assumptions so far. Dolly in July 2008 gusted to 71 mph at the Weslaco airport, 60 at Edinburg’s, and 52 at McAllen Miller. Hanna in July 2020 gusted to 60 at McAllen, 59 at Weslaco, and 54 at Edinburg. A home anchored to the table rides that out. The trouble is the water those storms leave behind: Hanna dropped 14.40 inches at a gauge northwest of Mission and left 18 inches to four feet of water standing east of Edinburg, and saturated ground holds an anchor differently from dry ground. The tie-downs page covers what the survey looks for afterward.

What the Texas table actually says

Under 10 TAC 80.24, the Wind Zone I spacing for diagonal ties depends on the home’s width and how far the I-beam sits above the anchor head. A 14/28-wide home with a 30 to 40 inch vertical distance may have diagonal ties up to 10 feet apart; a 16/32-wide up to 12 feet; a 12/24-wide only 8 feet. The end ties must be within 24 inches of each end of the I-beam, no two anchors may be within four feet of each other, and each end of each section needs longitudinal ties, one on a 12-wide and two on anything wider. The full table is on our Texas tie-down requirements page.

Count it out on a 76-foot singlewide at 10-foot spacing and you get eight diagonal ties per side before the longitudinal ties are added. That is why the width and length questions move the estimate more than anything else.

What goes wrong with existing anchoring here

Corrosion at the soil line. Straps and anchor heads rust where damp soil meets air. A strap that looks fine at the frame can be substantially gone where it enters the ground.

Loss of tension. As a home settles, the geometry changes and straps slacken. On the shrink-swell clay south of Business 83 the home also heaves in a wet September and drops in a dry August, so straps that were tight in spring can be slack by fall.

Clay pulling off the anchor. Harlingen clay’s cracks stay open 150 to 210 days a year. A crack that opens along an anchor shaft leaves the anchor holding less soil than it was driven into.

Missing end ties. The rule wants a strap within two feet of each end of each I-beam, and that is the most common omission on older installs.

Re-used hardware. Rule 80.21(d) bars a licensed installer from using re-conditioned anchors, straps, or clips on a new installation. If somebody offers you anchors pulled from a torn-down home, that is your answer.

What to do with the number

Go and look underneath, or have somebody look. Count what is there, measure the spacing, grab each strap. If the count is obviously short or the straps are slack or rusted, that is worth dealing with regardless of whether anything in the home is sticking. The loose or rusted tie-downs page walks through the three-minute check.

If you are having the home releveled anyway, that is the cheapest moment to deal with anchoring, because the crew is already under there and re-tensioning is included with every relevel. The leveling cost calculator prices that half of the job, and the pricing page has every range in one place.

We cover Edinburg, McAllen, Mission, Pharr, San Juan, Alamo, Donna, and Weslaco.