Roofing · City of Burnaby
Roofing in Burnaby: repair, shingle replacement and flat roofs
We repair, replace and inspect roofs across Burnaby — from Capitol Hill and Burnaby Heights down through Brentwood, Metrotown and Deer Lake to Edmonds and the Big Bend. Asphalt shingle, metal, cedar, composite and two-ply torch-on. The inspection is free and the estimate is a fixed written price.
The terrain
Burnaby is hills, ridges, a valley and a floodplain.
Roofing companies in Burnaby quote the city as one market. It is four, and the difference between them is elevation. Burnaby Mountain tops out near 370 metres; the land falls to sea level at Burrard Inlet in the north and at the Fraser in the south, with the Burnaby Lake and Still Creek valley running between.
- The northern heights. Burnaby Heights, Capitol Hill, Westridge and the slopes below Burnaby Mountain. Open, elevated, and the part of the city that holds snow after it has gone to rain at sea level. Wind off the inlet finds ridge caps and rake edges here; snow that sits and then melts finds a cold eave.
- The central ridge. Brentwood, Metrotown, Deer Lake, Buckingham Heights, Forest Glen. Mature tree cover through most of the older residential streets, which is the moss half of the equation rather than the wind half. North slopes under a big-leaf maple canopy stay damp for the whole wet season.
- The valley floor. Sperling-Duthie, Government Road and the streets around Burnaby Lake. Sheltered, treed, low-wind, and the roofs here almost never lose a shingle. They rot the deck from underneath instead, because sheltered attics are the ones that go unventilated without anyone noticing.
- The South Slope and the Big Bend. Edmonds down to the Fraser flats, where there is still working agricultural land. Open, low and exposed across the river, with more wind loading on edges and ridges than the valley streets ever see.
Because of that elevation range, Burnaby typically takes more snow in a winter than Vancouver or Richmond do. It is not a Prairie snow load, but it is enough to matter on a low-slope addition, and enough to make ice and water shield at the eaves and balanced attic ventilation two details worth insisting on rather than treating as upgrades.
The housing stock
A city on its second and third roof.
Burnaby filled in as Vancouver's first-tier suburb, and the mid-century vernacular house — bungalow, split-level, or the boxy two-storey with a shallow-pitched hip roof and wide overhangs — is the backbone of the detached stock. A house built in 1958, 1968 or 1978 has been re-roofed at least once and often twice by now, and what we find under the top layer is frequently the giveaway.
Three things turn up repeatedly on Burnaby tear-offs. A second layer of shingles that nobody disclosed at the sale. Original flashings re-used and sealed rather than replaced, particularly where a low-slope addition meets the main roof. And a vent count that was adequate for the house in 1965 and has never been revisited, on an attic that has since been insulated to a standard that traps far more moisture.
What that means for the quote
- Layers get counted at the inspection, not assumed. More than one existing layer to tear off is priced up front rather than found on day one.
- Flashings are replaced, not reused. Every valley and flashing we install is 26-gauge, formed for the roof it is going on.
- Vents are sized to the roof, roughly one per five squares, with new plumbing and HVAC flashings, rather than swapping old vents one for one.
- Decking is inspected as it is exposed. Rot shows up on about one tear-off in ten, usually a sheet or two around a penetration, and the per-sheet price is agreed before the work starts.
Corner-cutting on flashing details, cheap underlayment and insufficient ventilation are the three failures we find behind other roofers' work most often. All three are invisible from the street and all three are why quotes for the same Burnaby roof differ so much.
Permits
What Burnaby asks for before you start.
Burnaby does not publish the plain roofing exemption that some of its neighbours do, so it is worth being precise rather than reassuring.
A like-for-like re-roof on an existing house is ordinarily treated as maintenance. Where the work goes further — structural repair to the roof framing, rebuilding a low-slope section, or restoration after fire or storm damage — the City's home improvement permit guidance brings it into the building permit process, and roof repair is named there explicitly among the restoration items that require a permit.
We confirm the position for your specific address with the Building Division before the tear-off rather than after it. Where a permit is required, we pull it and it sits inside the quoted price rather than appearing as an extra line later. That is the same policy across all twenty municipalities we work in, and Burnaby is one of the places where it earns its keep.
Strata buildings are the other Burnaby case worth flagging. Around Metrotown, Brentwood, Lougheed and Edmonds there is a large stock of low-rise buildings on low-slope membrane, and a strata council needs a written scope it can circulate and vote on. We write it that way by default.
What we install
Roofing services in Burnaby, by roof type.
Sloped roofs
Standard architectural shingle is IKO Cambridge or GAF Timberline HDZ; where a roof is steep, prominent or exposed we move up to Malarkey Windsor, Malarkey Vista or IKO Dynasty, and for a shake look without cedar, IKO Armourshake or CertainTeed Presidential Shake TL. Asphalt shingle roofing and the three tiers explains how the grades actually differ.
Where the failure is local rather than general, roof repair is the right answer and we will say so. Wind-lifted cap shingles on a Capitol Hill ridge, a worn valley, a failed pipe collar — those are repairs, not replacements.
Metal roofing is 26-gauge snap-lock over high-temperature peel-and-stick, and it sheds both snow and needle debris better than anything else we install, which matters on the treed streets.
Low-slope and flat
Two-ply SBS torch-on, IKO TP-180 base and TP-250 cap. That covers the addition over a Burnaby carport, the flat section behind a parapet on newer infill, and the full roof of a low-rise building. We do not install TPO. Our flat roofing page sets out why two-ply SBS is what we stand behind in this climate.
Every roof gets synthetic underlayment, peel-and-stick at all penetrations, 26-gauge custom flashings and valleys, and new vents sized to the roof. Workmanship warranty is ten years on shingle, metal, cedar and composite and five years on torch-on and flat, with the manufacturer's product warranty running separately and longer.
Getting started
Roofers near you in Burnaby, and what to ask them.
Burnaby is wetter than most people who live here think. Environment and Climate Change Canada's Canadian Climate Normals record 1,946 mm of precipitation a year at the Burnaby Capitol Hill station over 1981–2001 and 2,010 mm at the Burnaby Simon Fraser University station over 1981–2007, against 1,189 mm at Vancouver International Airport over 1981–2010. Both Burnaby stations come in above the 1,538 mm recorded at Abbotsford Airport, an hour east up the valley — the ridges do that. Add real snow at elevation on top of a long wet season, and both are hard on the same three details.
So when you are comparing quotes, ask what underlayment is included by name, ask whether the flashings are new metal or the existing ones re-sealed, and ask how many vents are going on and why that number. Those three answers explain most of the spread between one Burnaby quote and another.
A quoted replacement from us includes tear-off, ice and water shield and underlayment, the product installed to manufacturer specification, new hip and ridge, existing attic vents replaced with new, new pipe jacks and flashings, full clean-up of job debris, the permit where one is required, licensed and insured crews and the written workmanship warranty. New decking, a second existing layer, difficult access, skylight replacement, chimney flashing and gutters are named and priced at the inspection.
We are WorkSafeBC registered, carry five million dollars of liability insurance, are GAF certified, and belong to the ICBA and the BBB. Over five hundred roofs completed across the region. If there is water coming in now, roof leak repair is the page to read first.
Questions
Burnaby roofing, plainly answered.
Do I need a permit to re-roof a house in Burnaby?
Burnaby does not publish the blanket roofing exemption that Vancouver and Coquitlam do, so the honest answer is that it depends on the work. A like-for-like re-roof is usually treated as maintenance; anything involving structural repair to the roof, or restoration after fire or storm damage, is handled through the City's building permit process. We confirm with the Building Department for your address before the tear-off, and where a permit is required it is pulled by us and included in the quoted price.
How much does a roof replacement cost in Burnaby?
It is decided by measured area, pitch, access, the number of existing layers and the material, so a single figure for the city would be invented rather than useful. Our roof replacement cost guide for Metro Vancouver sets out what each material involves, and the online estimator measures your roof from satellite imagery and prices it on the screen. The free inspection turns that estimate into a fixed written price with nothing held back for later.
Can you repair shingles instead of replacing the whole roof?
Often, yes. Shingle repair makes sense where the field of the roof is sound and the failure is local: wind-lifted or creased shingles on an exposed ridge, a worn valley, cap shingles gone along a hip, or damage around a single penetration. It stops making sense when granule loss is general, when the mat has gone brittle across whole slopes, or when there are already two layers up there. The inspection answers which of those you have, with photographs.
Does Burnaby get more snow than Vancouver?
Yes, and elevation is why. Burnaby Mountain reaches about 370 metres and Capitol Hill and the Burnaby Ridge stand well above the inlet and the Fraser, so the higher neighbourhoods hold snow after it has turned to rain at sea level. That matters for roofs in two ways: accumulated load on low-slope sections, and meltwater refreezing at a cold eave. A properly ventilated attic and ice and water shield at the eaves are the answer to both.
How long does a roof last in Burnaby?
About twenty-five years is the regional working figure, and Burnaby spreads out on either side of it. An open, sunny ridge-top roof with good airflow dries quickly after every system and often runs past the average. A north slope on the shaded side of Burnaby Mountain or under the mature trees around Deer Lake stays damp from October to May, grows moss in the keyways and gets there sooner. Ventilation moves the number more than shingle brand does.
Which Burnaby neighbourhoods do you work in?
All of them. Burnaby Heights, Capitol Hill, Willingdon Heights and Westridge in the north; Brentwood, Lougheed, Sperling-Duthie and Government Road through the middle; Metrotown, Deer Lake, Buckingham Heights, Forest Glen and Central Park to the south; and Edmonds, the South Slope and the Big Bend flats down by the Fraser. The exposure changes noticeably between them, which is why the inspection comes before the price.
Do you install flat and torch-on roofs in Burnaby?
Yes. Burnaby has a great deal of low-slope roofing: additions over carports and family rooms on mid-century houses, the flat sections on newer infill, and the low-rise apartment and commercial stock around the four town centres. We install two-ply SBS torch-on, IKO TP-180 base and TP-250 cap. We do not install TPO. Workmanship warranty on torch-on and flat systems is five years, with the manufacturer's product warranty running separately and longer.
How long does a Burnaby roof replacement take?
One to three days for a standard detached house, and two to four for something larger, steeper, cedar, winter work, or a job where decking has to be replaced. Rot turns up on roughly one tear-off in ten, usually a couple of sheets around a penetration, and it is priced at the inspection so a find does not become a renegotiation. Steep hillside lots in Capitol Hill and Westridge sometimes add a half day for access alone.
Next
Get the number for your Burnaby roof.
Type the address and we measure the roof from satellite imagery and price it on the screen. The free inspection that follows turns that estimate into a fixed written price.