The homes are not the problem, builder says

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/09/2010 (5675 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A manufacturer of modular homes says there’s nothing wrong with the homes themselves — just some of the parks they are put in.

Keith Bowes, who built his first mobile home 61 years ago and is owner of Bowes Polar-King Homes on the Trans-Canada Highway about three kilometres east of Portage la Prairie, said the homes he manufactures can easily hold up to a Manitoban winter.

“You might not believe this, but they are actually warmer than a newly built house,” Bowes said on Monday.

“It’s because they are insulated in the bottom, too. They have the same amount of insulation in the walls and ceiling, but the floors are insulated, too.”

Bowes said a house typically loses one-third of its heat downward so it costs mobile home owners two-thirds of the cost to heat their homes.

On the outskirts of Portage, there are more than 100 modular homes opposite Bowes’ plant.

Bowes said unlike mobile home parks that have run into trouble with water and sewage lines — such as the White Horse Village near St. Francis Xavier — this area near Portage is fine because it’s all hooked up to the city’s water supply, and the area itself has its own lagoon system for sewage.

As to why in a city like Winnipeg, with an extremely low vacancy rate for apartments, more mobile home parks aren’t opening up with more people buying the units, Bowes said he knows the answer.

“People just don’t know the facts (about modular homes),” he said.

“They’re not like the American-built ones they use in the south. Ours are built for our climate.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca