Commercial & strata · Metro Vancouver & the Fraser Valley
Commercial roofing and strata roofing across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley
Commercial roofing here means low-slope membrane work: strata and multi-family buildings, townhouse complexes, light industrial units and small commercial premises. The system we install on them is two-ply SBS torch-on, fully bonded, with a five-year workmanship warranty on the installation and the manufacturer's product warranty running separately alongside it.
The work is priced from a measured roof and a written scope, so a council or a property manager can put our number beside two others and know they are comparing the same job.
The work
What commercial roofing covers on buildings this size.
Commercial roofing is a broad label for a narrow set of problems. Almost everything on a commercial or strata building here comes down to a low-slope membrane, the drains that serve it, and the two dozen places where something penetrates it.
- Strata and multi-family. Townhouse complexes, low-rise apartment blocks and mixed sloped-and-flat roofs where a council or a property manager holds the decision.
- Light commercial and industrial. Shops, offices, warehouse and light industrial units, and the mixed-use buildings lining the arterial roads from Vancouver to Chilliwack.
- Commercial flat roofing replacement. Full tear-off to the deck, deck repair, and a new two-ply membrane with every detail rebuilt rather than reused.
- Commercial roof repair. Leak tracing, drain and scupper work, curb and parapet flashing repairs, and the emergency patch that buys a dry window for a proper fix.
- Maintenance programmes. Scheduled twice-yearly inspection and clearing, with photographs and a priced report rather than a phone call after a ceiling stain appears.
Roofs that are partly sloped and partly flat are common on strata townhouse complexes here, and the transition between the two systems is where those roofs leak. It should be flashed as one job by one crew rather than split between an asphalt contractor and a membrane contractor who each stop at the line.
The system
Two-ply SBS torch-on, and why that is the specification.
Commercial flat roofing in this region has to do something unusual: hold water, on and off, for five months of the year. Most of the annual rainfall here falls between October and March, and a commercial roof is rarely as flat as its drawings suggested after twenty years of settling.
A two-ply SBS modified bitumen membrane is built for that. The base sheet — IKO TP-180 on our installations — is bonded across its full surface to the prepared deck. The TP-250 granulated cap sheet is torched over it with the laps staggered, so no seam in one ply ever sits over a seam in the other. Nothing is fastened through the waterproofing layer, and no field seam relies on adhesive alone.
SBS is the rubber compound blended into the asphalt. It is what keeps the membrane flexible through a cold January and lets it move with the building instead of splitting, and it is the reason the system suits a climate that swings between soaking and freezing several times a winter. How torch-on roofing is built covers the sequence in detail.
The field of the roof is the easy part. On a commercial building the hours go into the details, and so do the failures:
- Drains and scuppers, which are the single most common source of commercial leaks and the one piece of maintenance that decides how long the membrane lasts.
- Parapet walls, where the membrane turns up and has to be capped and counter-flashed rather than simply stopped.
- Equipment curbs, around rooftop HVAC units, exhaust fans and make-up air units, each flashed with its own plies.
- Expansion joints and section transitions, on buildings long enough to move.
- Penetrations, every stack, conduit, anchor and vent, all of which get peel-and-stick and their own flashing rather than a bead of sealant.
Torch-on also takes foot traffic better than the alternatives, which matters more on commercial roofs than residential ones. Mechanical contractors, gas fitters and telecoms technicians walk on a commercial roof several times a year, and a membrane that punctures under a dropped tool is a membrane that will be leaking by spring.
Strata and multi-family
Strata roofing runs on a different clock.
A detached house is one decision by one owner. A strata roof is a council decision, spending money that belongs to everybody, in a building full of people who live there while the work happens. Three things follow, and they shape how we quote and schedule.
A scope written so quotes are comparable
The most common complaint we hear from strata councils is that three roofing quotes arrived at wildly different numbers and nobody could explain why. Almost always the gap is scope, not margin. One includes the permit and another does not. One replaces the drains and another reuses them. One assumes a full tear-off and another a recover over the existing membrane. One prices tapered insulation to correct a ponding area and another leaves it ponding.
Our quotes name every one of those items, including the ones we are not recommending, so a council can lay three documents side by side and see where they disagree. It is slower to read than a single figure on a page, and it is the only version of this that survives an owners' meeting.
Scheduling around the people who live there
Strata work is planned around the building. The roof is opened and dried in section by section, so no part is ever left open overnight, and the sections are sequenced so the same units are not underneath the work for a week. Notices go up before anything starts, with dates for each section. Access, parking and bin placement are agreed with the manager first, because a bin in the wrong stall is a complaint that reaches the council before the roof does.
Torch-on work is noisy and it smells of hot asphalt, and nothing removes that. What we can do is tell residents which section is being worked on which day, and why the crew is up there at seven rather than ten — usually the difference between an inconvenience and a grievance.
Working with property managers
Where a strata management company is in place, the manager normally holds the schedule, the notices and the paperwork, and we work to that. WorkSafeBC clearance letters, proof of liability coverage, the permit where required, and the warranty and manufacturer registration at the end all go to the manager as a set rather than being chased afterwards.
Planning
The roof in a depreciation report.
For most strata corporations the roof is one of the largest single line items in the depreciation report, and the remaining-life figure attached to it drives how much has to be set aside each year. British Columbia sets out the requirement and the cycle in the Strata Property Act and its regulations; the province publishes the current rules on its strata housing pages.
A depreciation report is a planning document prepared by a qualified person. It is not a roof inspection, and it is not meant to be. It works from age, type and general condition, and it is usually written without anyone having opened up a detail or tested for moisture in the insulation.
That leaves a gap councils feel most sharply in the years either side of the estimated replacement date, when the report says one thing and the roof looks fine from the ground. A current condition assessment closes it: the membrane, the laps and seams, the drains, the flashings and the deck, walked and photographed, with an opinion on remaining service life and a note of what maintenance would extend it.
It is a document a council can hand to whoever prepares the next report, or use to decide whether this is the year. We are glad to provide one whether or not the replacement comes to us.
A condition assessment is a report on what is there now. It is not a warranty on the existing roof and it does not extend anyone else's.
Maintenance
The cheapest roofing there is.
Most commercial roofs in this region are replaced earlier than they needed to be, and the reason is almost never the membrane. It is water that could not leave.
A flat roof with clear drains sheds a November storm in an hour. The same roof with one drain packed with fir needles holds water over that corner for days, loads the deck, works at every lap it touches, and finds the one detail that was slightly short. By the time it shows as a stain on a top-floor ceiling, the insulation is wet and the repair is no longer a repair.
A maintenance programme is the answer and it is unglamorous. Twice a year, before and after the wet season, the roof is walked: drains and scuppers cleared, debris pulled out of low spots, gutters and overflow scuppers checked, every lap and seam looked at, curbs and parapets and equipment flashings inspected, minor defects sealed while the crew is already up there. Anything larger is reported with photographs and a price, so the council or the owner decides rather than being told.
Two further things get logged each visit and matter more than they sound: damage left behind by other trades who have been on the roof since the last check, and any new penetration that appeared without a roofer being involved. Both are common, both void nothing until they leak, and both are cheap to correct in September and expensive to correct in February.
Repair or replace
Commercial roof repair, and when it stops being worth it.
The question on almost every commercial callout is whether this is a repair or the start of a replacement. It is answerable, and it should be answered before anybody spends anything.
Still a repair
- A blocked or failed drain, or a scupper that has never worked properly
- A split or an open lap in one area, on a membrane that is otherwise sound
- A failed seal or a lifted flashing at an equipment curb
- Wall and parapet flashings that were lapped too low or capped badly
- Damage from another trade — a dropped tool, a new penetration cut without a roofer
- Storm damage confined to one section
Torch-on repairs cleanly, which is one of its quieter advantages. A patch is bonded in exactly the same way as the original membrane, so a properly detailed repair is not a weak point waiting to open again.
Past repair
- Granule loss across whole areas, with the asphalt exposed and going chalky
- Widespread blistering or ridging, rather than one or two blisters
- Wet insulation under the membrane, which a moisture scan or a test cut will show
- Laps opening in more than one place, in more than one part of the roof
- A deck that has gone soft under the membrane
- A roof that has already been recovered once and now carries two systems
When the answer is replacement, it is a full tear-off to the deck. Recovering over a failed membrane traps whatever moisture is already in there, hides the deck from everyone including the next inspector, and adds weight to a structure nobody has recalculated. It is quicker and cheaper on the day and it is borrowing against the next roof.
Where we work
Commercial roofing contractors near you, from West Vancouver to Chilliwack.
Rainfall is not one number across this region and commercial roofs do not wear at one rate. Environment and Climate Change Canada's published climate normals put Richmond near 1,160 mm of precipitation a year, Abbotsford around 1,505, Vancouver Harbour 1,537, Chilliwack Airport near 1,668 and the Capilano station in North Vancouver above 2,500.
That spread shows up on flat roofs faster than on sloped ones. A membrane on the North Shore spends far more of the year under water than the same membrane in Tsawwassen, and a marginal drain that copes in Richmond will not cope in Coquitlam. It is also why a maintenance interval that works for one building in a portfolio is not automatically right for another one twenty kilometres away.
We work on commercial and strata roofs across Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, Richmond, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, North and West Vancouver, New Westminster, Langley, Delta, Tsawwassen, White Rock, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, Abbotsford, Mission, Chilliwack and Anmore — the full list, with the local conditions that matter on each, is on our roofing service areas page.
We are WorkSafeBC registered, carry five million dollars of liability insurance, are GAF certified, and belong to the ICBA and the BBB. Clearance letters and proof of insurance go out before work starts rather than after somebody asks.
Questions
Commercial and strata roofing, plainly answered.
What counts as commercial roofing?
Anything that is not a single detached house: strata and multi-family buildings, townhouse complexes, low-rise apartment blocks, light industrial units, warehouses, shops, offices and the mixed-use buildings that are common along arterial roads across the Lower Mainland. The roofs themselves are mostly low-slope membrane, often with rooftop equipment, drains and parapet walls, which is a different set of details from a sloped residential roof even when the square footage is similar.
What flat roofing system do you install on commercial buildings?
Two-ply SBS modified bitumen torch-on: an IKO TP-180 base sheet bonded to the prepared deck and a TP-250 granulated cap sheet torched over it with staggered laps, then separate flashing plies at every drain, curb, parapet and penetration. There are no mechanical fasteners through the waterproofing layer and no field seam that depends on adhesive alone, which is what makes it hold up under the standing water and the five-month wet season this region produces.
Do you work with strata corporations and property managers?
Yes. Strata work has a different rhythm from residential work: a council or a property manager is the point of contact, a decision usually needs a meeting and sometimes a vote, and the scope has to be written clearly enough that three contractors are pricing the same job rather than three different ones. We quote in that format, attend the site with the manager or a council member where that helps, and put the conditional items in writing up front so the number the owners approve is the number that gets invoiced.
How does a strata roof replacement work around residents?
It is planned around the building rather than the crew. Work starts section by section so each part of the roof is dried in the same day it is opened, notices go up before anything begins, parking and access routes are agreed in advance, and the areas under the day's work are kept clear. Torch-on work produces noise and the smell of hot asphalt, so residents get told which section is being done on which day rather than finding out from the sound at seven in the morning.
What warranty comes with a commercial flat roof?
Five years on our workmanship for torch-on and flat membrane installations, which is the standard term for flat systems and shorter than the ten years carried on shingle, metal, cedar and composite work. The membrane manufacturer's product warranty is a separate document with its own term and its own conditions, registered per product line. The two are never added together or quoted as a single number.
Can a commercial roof be repaired instead of replaced?
Often, and it is the first thing worth establishing. Most flat-roof leaks we are called to are not failures of the field membrane at all: they are a blocked drain, a split at a curb or a parapet, a failed seal around rooftop equipment, or a wall flashing that was never lapped high enough. All of those are repairs. A membrane that has lost its granules across whole areas, is blistering widely, or is sitting over wet insulation has reached the end of its life and repairs only buy time.
What is a roof maintenance programme?
A scheduled inspection and clearing visit rather than a callout after a leak. On a typical programme the roof is walked twice a year, before and after the wet season: drains and scuppers cleared, debris removed from low spots, seams, laps, curbs and flashings checked, minor defects sealed on the spot, and anything larger reported with photographs and a priced recommendation. The point is to catch the two-hour fix before it becomes a ceiling repair and an insurance claim.
How does a roof fit into a strata depreciation report?
The roof is normally one of the largest single items in the report, and the report's estimate of its remaining life drives how much the strata needs to set aside. A depreciation report is prepared by a qualified person on a defined cycle under the Strata Property Act and is a planning document, not a roof inspection. A current condition assessment of the actual membrane gives the council something more specific to plan against, and we are happy to provide one that a council can hand to whoever prepares the report.
How do you price a commercial roof replacement?
The roof is measured from satellite imagery from the address first, so the area, the number of sections and the drainage layout are known before anyone visits. The site inspection then confirms what imagery cannot see: how many existing layers are up there, the condition of the deck and any insulation, the drains, the parapet and curb details, the rooftop equipment that has to be lifted or worked around, and how material and waste will get on and off the building. That becomes one fixed written price with the conditional items named separately.
Do you provide documentation for insurers and building departments?
Yes. WorkSafeBC clearance letters and proof of liability insurance are available on request before work starts, permits are pulled where the municipality requires them, and the finished job comes with the written workmanship warranty and the manufacturer's product registration. Photographic records of the deck condition and the flashing details are standard, which matters on a building where nobody on the council will ever see the roof themselves.
Next
Get a measured commercial roof estimate.
Enter the building address and the roof is measured from satellite imagery before anyone drives anywhere. The site inspection turns that into one fixed written price with the conditional items named separately, in a format a council or a manager can circulate.