Mobile Home Leveling in Coleman, FL

Coleman is the small city on US 301 southwest of Wildwood, 642 people at the 2020 census on 2.24 square miles, about ten minutes from our crews. It began as Fort McClure in 1840, was Warm Springs by 1853, became the Town of Coleman in 1882 for Dr. B.F. Coleman, and by 1923 was calling itself the cabbage capital of the world. Today the biggest thing near it is the Federal Correctional Complex on 1,600 acres of unincorporated Sumter County between Coleman and Wildwood, which opened in December 1995, holds about 7,200 inmates across four facilities and a camp, and employs more than a thousand people. Relevels run $450 to $800 for singlewides and $750 to $1,400 for doublewides, the same as Wildwood, and the level check is free.

Who lives in manufactured homes here

Coleman is a working town. The prison complex is one of the county’s larger employers, the farms and ranches on the county roads around it are still working, and the manufactured housing reflects that: owned-land homes on an acre or two, small family parks rather than golf-course communities, and a good share of older singlewides that came with a job rather than a retirement. That is a different call from a Wildwood 55+ doublewide. More pre-1994 homes on the old Type I anchor standard, more homes that have never been under a water level, and more homes where the owner is at work when the crew comes, which is fine; the survey is done from outside and under the home.

The ground, from Coleman’s side

Coleman sits at 59 feet, lower than Wildwood at 85 and lower than Oxford at 105. The Sumter County soil survey maps this part of the county in the same sand-over-limestone that runs through Wildwood, with the higher spots in Candler, Arredondo, and Kendrick sands and large areas labeled with a bouldery subsurface. Being lower means more of the wetter units: Sparr fine sand with a seasonal water table at 23 inches from June through September, Adamsville at 33 inches from June through November, and the Sumterville soils with clay in them and a moderate shrink-swell rating.

What that means under a home: on the high spots, loose sand that compacts a little under a pier footing with every summer storm; on the low ground, sand that stays saturated for months and yields under the footing rather than compacting. The NOAA normals for the region put 55 percent of the year’s roughly 50 inches of rain into June through September. A relevel every three to five years handles the first pattern. The second usually means pier rebuilds on larger footing pads, priced per pier at $150 to $400, because a taller stack on a sinking pad is back where it started next summer. A pad on the clay soils moves with the season instead, rising in a wet summer and dropping in a dry winter, and the survey reads that the same way, pier by pier.

Wind

Coleman is HUD Wind Zone II. The Weather Service’s Sumter County narrative for Hurricane Milton on October 9, 2024, put peak gusts at 40 to 50 mph, with the county’s maximum of 46 mph measured near Center Hill, the next town east, at 9:05 that evening, and 5 to 10 inches of rain with the Withlacoochee in flood for weeks afterward. The county’s evacuation order was for mobile homes and low-lying areas. The 2007 EF-3 tornado started near Wildwood, a few miles up the road. 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 longitudinal ties at each section end that a lot of older owned-land homes never got. Tie-down inspection is part of every free survey, and strap re-tensioning is part of every relevel.

Permits and licensing

Setup permits on the unincorporated land around Coleman go through Sumter County Building Services on Powell Road in Wildwood, which issues the mobile home permit only to a licensed installer and wants the foundation and blocking diagram with the manufacturer’s tie-down schematic, a skirting diagram, stair and deck details, and, on a home fifteen years or older, the county’s pre-permit inspection first. The county’s zoning rules set a 1981-or-later model year for a Class B home. Lots inside the city limits should check with the city before assuming. Florida law under section 320.8249 requires a state-licensed installer for the work itself, and all work arranged through us is performed by licensed, insured Florida mobile home installers at the published prices.

What Coleman homes call us for

• Releveling, often on homes that have not been under a water level in years.
• Pier and pad repair on the low ground.
• Tie-downs and anchors, Zone II retrofits on pre-1994 homes.
• Vapor barrier replacement where the crawl space stays wet.
• Transport and setup onto family land, with the county package handled.

Ten minutes down 301

Coleman is one of our fastest response areas. Same-week level checks in normal seasons, and the crew writes the quote at the home. If a floor has changed since the summer in a home off 301 or one of the county roads, request the free level check, or read the FAQ first. We also cover Bushnell further south and Oxford up the other way.