The objective of this project is to expand SBRA's Guide to Foundation and Support Systems for Manufactured Homes to address design and construction performance in multi-hazard conditions, including floods, seismic and high winds. This work will be done in cooperation with FEMA as they revise their publication Manufactured Home Installation in Flood Hazard Areas (FEMA 85).

SBRA will work with FEMA to develop a number of foundation designs suitable for construction in flood plains. Design, construction, cost and performance data will be collected about these designs. Those designs that are expected to be most attractive for manufactured home installation will be constructed as demonstration projects. Approximately two to three demonstration projects are expected to be built. These demonstrations will be fully documented, analyzed and included in the supplement to the Guide to Foundation and Support Systems for Manufactured Homes that will be published as a result of this work.

Unlike the site building industry, manufactured housing uses a very high proportion of premanufactured proprietary foundation systems. The most popular are anchor type systems but other foundation products are becoming more popular and are expected to grow market share as the industry trends towards more permanent foundation solutions.

As part of this effort, SBRA will work with suppliers of high performance proprietary foundation products providing guidance and advice on ways to improve the design of their systems to better perform in multihazard environments. There are about 20 such companies providing products to the industry.

The information developed above will be made part of two publications: a supplement to the Guide to Foundation and Support Systems for Manufactured Homes, and FEMA 85. The intent of this task is twofold: to provide industry with design and construction guidance for foundations to be used in locations that might be exposed to natural disasters and to provide consistent and interlinked information across products published jointly by industry, HUD and FEMA.