Mobile Home Leveling in Bushnell, FL

Bushnell is the Sumter County seat, a city of 3,047 at the 2020 census on US 301 with Interstate 75 along its western edge at exit 314, about twenty to twenty-five minutes south of Wildwood for our crews. It became the seat by nine votes over Wildwood, 657 to 648, and the courthouse went up between 1912 and 1914. It is cattle and farm country with the county’s school district headquarters and South Sumter High, Dade Battlefield Historic State Park on its edge, and manufactured housing in RV-and-mobile-home resorts, small parks, and on owned land along the county roads. Relevels run $450 to $800 for singlewides and $750 to $1,400 for doublewides, the same as Wildwood, and the level check is free.

Where the homes are

The biggest name in Bushnell is Red Oaks, a 130-acre RV community with more than 1,000 full-hookup sites, rental homes, and permanent home sales, with a 55+ requirement for longer stays. Tranquility MHC is a small manufactured home community on a cul-de-sac in a country setting. Beyond those, Bushnell’s manufactured housing is what a county seat in ranch country usually has: owned-land homes on acreage off CR 48 and CR 476, older singlewides that came with farm and packing jobs, and family parks rather than golf-course communities. That is a different kind of call from a doublewide in a Wildwood 55+ park. More pre-1994 homes, more homes on the old Type I anchor standard, more homes whose piers have never been under a water level.

The ground, and the river

Bushnell sits at 62 feet, lower than Wildwood, and the county drops toward the Withlacoochee River on its west side. The Sumter County soil survey maps the uplands in the same Candler, Arredondo, and Kendrick sands that run through Wildwood and Oxford, over the Ocala Limestone, and it maps large areas with a bouldery subsurface. Toward the river the picture flips to units like Sparr and Adamsville, somewhat poorly drained with a seasonal water table at 23 to 33 inches through the summer, and to the mucks in the sloughs.

After Hurricane Milton on October 9, 2024, the Weather Service’s Sumter County narrative recorded 5 to 10 inches of rain and flooding along the Withlacoochee “for several weeks following the event.” A home on ground that stood in water for weeks does not sink from compaction so much as from bearing failure in saturated soil, and it settles in a wetter, more uneven pattern than a home on the high sand. The relevel is the same procedure, but the survey more often finds pads that have sunk rather than shims that have compressed, which means pier rebuilds on larger footing pads, priced per pier at $150 to $400. The crawl space stays wet too, and a torn vapor barrier over that ground does damage fast. The water under the home page covers what to do when the ground under the piers is still wet in spring.

Wind

Bushnell is HUD Wind Zone II. Milton’s peak gusts across Sumter County ran 40 to 50 mph, with the maximum of 46 mph measured near Center Hill a few miles east of here, and the county’s evacuation order that night was for mobile homes and low-lying areas. Florida Rule 15C-1.0104 puts Type I anchors, rated to a 3,150-pound working load, on homes built before July 13, 1994, and Type II at 4,000 pounds on later homes, with diagonal ties no more than five feet four inches on center and longitudinal ties at each section end. A lot of the older owned-land stock around Bushnell is on the wrong side of that date. The tie-down inspection is part of every free survey, and anchor shafts in ground that is saturated for months corrode where nobody sees them.

Permits and licensing

A setup permit for a Bushnell lot goes to Sumter County Building Services at the Villages Sumter County Service Center on Powell Road in Wildwood, not to the courthouse. The county issues the permit only to a licensed installer, wants the foundation and blocking diagram with the manufacturer’s tie-down schematic, a skirting diagram, and stair and deck details, requires an engineered diagram and elevation certificates on a lot in a flood hazard area, and requires a pre-permit inspection on any home fifteen years or older. That flood-zone rule is a real consideration near the river. Florida law under section 320.8249 requires a licensed installer, and all work arranged through us is performed by licensed, insured Florida mobile home installers at the published prices.

What Bushnell homes call us for

• Pier and pad repair, the wet-ground specialty near the river.
• Releveling after every wet summer.
• Vapor barrier replacement on low lots.
• Tie-downs and anchors on older owned-land stock.
• Transport and setup onto acreage, with the flood-zone question answered before the tow.

Twenty-five minutes down 301

Bushnell is the southern end of our normal range in the county, and it gets the same crews and the same prices. Level checks generally schedule inside the week, and the quote is written at the home. If a door has stopped latching in a home off CR 48 or on a lot that was wet all winter, request the free level check, or read the FAQ first. We also cover Webster to the southeast and Coleman back up 301.