Roofing · City of Coquitlam
Coquitlam roofers: repair and replacement, Maillardville to Burke Mountain
We repair, replace and inspect roofs across Coquitlam — Maillardville, Austin Heights and Burquitlam at river level, up through Town Centre and Eagle Ridge to Westwood Plateau and Burke Mountain. Shingle, metal, cedar, composite and two-ply torch-on. The inspection is free and the estimate is a fixed written price.
Elevation
Roofing in Coquitlam changes with every hundred metres.
Coquitlam runs from the Fraser up toward the Coast Mountains, and almost everything that matters to a roof here — rainfall, snow, wind, tree cover, lot access — changes as you climb. A quote written for one end of the city is the wrong quote at the other.
- The river level: Maillardville, Austin Heights, Burquitlam. Maillardville was named in 1909, when French-Canadian families were recruited to the mill on the north bank of the Fraser, and it is the oldest part of the city. Small, older houses on modest lots, low to moderate pitches, mature street trees, and a lot of post-war infill and additions with low-slope roofs behind them.
- The middle: Town Centre, Chineside, Ranch Park, Harbour Chines, River Springs. Largely 1960s through 1980s detached stock, now on its second or third roof. Big overhangs, long simple slopes, and attics that were vented to a 1970s standard and insulated to a modern one.
- Westwood Plateau. Crown land bought in 1989 and built out to roughly 2005 — around 4,500 homes between about 60 and 400 metres of elevation. Steep lots, tall houses, complex hip roofs, and original roofs that are now at or past the age at which roofs in this region are generally replaced.
- Burke Mountain and the north. The newest construction in the city and the most heavily treed. Second-growth conifer right against the houses, which means constant needle fall into valleys and gutters, deep shade on north slopes, and moss that establishes years before it would on an open lot.
Climate
How much rain Coquitlam really gets.
You will see confident annual rainfall figures for Coquitlam on roofing websites with nothing attached to them. We would rather give you something you can check.
Environment and Climate Change Canada publishes climate normals by station, and no station inside Coquitlam has any. There is a ring of them around it. Burnaby Capitol Hill, to the west, records 1,946 mm of precipitation a year in the 1981–2001 normals; the Simon Fraser University station on top of Burnaby Mountain records 2,010 mm and Pitt Polder, across the Pitt River to the east, 2,155 mm, both in the 1981–2007 normals; North Vancouver 2nd Narrows, down at sea level, records 1,831 mm. The two Burnaby stations make the point on their own — the one on the mountain is the wetter of the two. Coquitlam sits inside that ring and climbs from the Fraser toward the same Coast Mountains, so Burke Mountain belongs at the top of that band and Maillardville near the bottom of it. Rather than invent a single number for a city with 400 metres of relief, we treat elevation as a design input.
What that means on the roof
- Higher up, snow is a real load. Ice and water shield at the eaves matters more on Westwood Plateau and Burke Mountain than it does in Maillardville, because meltwater refreezing at a cold eave is a genuine local failure rather than a theoretical one.
- Under conifers, debris beats weather. Needles pack valleys and gutters and hold water against the shingles. Valleys on treed lots get looked at first at every inspection.
- Everywhere, ventilation decides the lifespan. A roof cooked from below by trapped attic moisture fails years earlier than the same shingle over a properly vented deck. New vents sized to the roof, roughly one per five squares, go on as standard.
Permits
Coquitlam does not require a permit to re-roof.
This is one of the few straightforward answers in municipal roofing, and it is worth having in writing.
The City of Coquitlam publishes a list of work that does not require a building permit, and installation of a new roof on an existing building is named on it, alongside restoration and repair of building elements that do not affect structural or fire and life safety performance.
The same page carries the caveat that matters: work that does not require a permit still has to comply with the City's bylaws and the BC Building Code. The exemption removes the paperwork, not the standard. That is exactly why the specification on the quote is the thing to read — on a permit-exempt job, nobody is coming to check it but you.
Where the work does go structural — altering roof framing, rebuilding a low-slope section to change its slope, adding a dormer — a permit comes into it, we pull it, and it is inside the quoted price rather than added later.
What we install
Shingle roofing in Coquitlam, and everything else.
Sloped roofs
Standard architectural shingle is IKO Cambridge or GAF Timberline HDZ. On the steep, tall, exposed houses up the hill we usually recommend Malarkey Windsor, Malarkey Vista or IKO Dynasty, where the wind rating and the mat quality earn their place. For a shake look without cedar, IKO Armourshake or CertainTeed Presidential Shake TL. Asphalt shingle roofing and the three tiers sets out the differences.
Where the failure is local, roof repair is what we quote. Lifted caps on an exposed Plateau ridge, a valley worn through, a failed pipe collar — those are repairs, and saying so costs us a bigger job and keeps the relationship.
Standing-seam metal roofing is 26-gauge snap-lock over high-temperature peel-and-stick. On a Burke Mountain lot under conifers it sheds needles and snow better than anything else we install.
Cedar and low-slope
There is still original cedar on older Coquitlam houses and on some of the larger Plateau homes. Where it is finished, the conversion is the same everywhere: cedar removed, a full new plywood deck laid, and an architectural or designer shingle installed over that. Our cedar page explains how we decide between keeping and converting.
For flat and low-slope work, two-ply SBS torch-on, IKO TP-180 base and TP-250 cap. We do not install TPO. Every roof gets synthetic underlayment, peel-and-stick at all penetrations and 26-gauge custom flashings and valleys. 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.
Choosing
Roofers near you in Coquitlam: what separates the quotes.
Because a re-roof here is permit-exempt, the written scope is the only real specification the job has. Read it closely.
Ask what underlayment is included, by name. Ask whether the flashings and valleys are new 26-gauge metal or the existing ones re-used and sealed. Ask what the vent count will be and why. Corner-cutting on flashing, cheap underlayment and insufficient ventilation are the three failures we find behind other roofers' work most often, and all three are invisible from the ground.
Our quoted replacement includes tear-off, ice and water shield and underlayment, the chosen 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 rather than left to surface mid-job.
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 water is coming in now, start with roof leak repair.
Questions
Coquitlam roofing, plainly answered.
Do I need a permit to re-roof a house in Coquitlam?
No, for a straight re-roof. The City of Coquitlam publishes a list of work that does not require a building permit, and installation of a new roof on an existing building is on it. The City also notes that work not requiring a permit still has to comply with its bylaws and the BC Building Code, so the exemption covers the paperwork rather than the standard. Structural work to the roof framing is a different matter, and where a permit is required we pull it and include it in the quoted price.
Is Westwood Plateau due for new roofs?
Much of it is. The Plateau was developed from 1989 onward and largely finished by 2005, which puts the earlier phases past the twenty-five years roofs generally run in this region and the later ones close behind. The houses are also steep, tall and exposed at 200 to 400 metres, so they weather harder than the same shingle would at river level. If your original roof is still up there, a free inspection will tell you how many winters are left in it.
How much does a roof cost in Coquitlam?
It comes down to measured area, pitch, access, existing layers and material, and Coquitlam varies more than most cities on three of those five. A Maillardville cottage and a Westwood Plateau house on a sloping lot are different jobs at the same square footage. Our Metro Vancouver roof replacement cost guide sets out what moves the number, and the online estimator prices your roof from satellite imagery before the free inspection makes it a fixed written figure.
How much rain does Coquitlam actually get?
More at the top of the city than at the bottom, and there is no Environment and Climate Change Canada station in Coquitlam to settle it, so we bracket it with the ones around it. Burnaby Capitol Hill records 1,946 mm a year in the 1981–2001 normals; the Simon Fraser University station on Burnaby Mountain records 2,010 mm and Pitt Polder, across the Pitt River, 2,155 mm, both in the 1981–2007 normals; North Vancouver 2nd Narrows, at sea level, records 1,831 mm. Coquitlam climbs from the Fraser toward the Coast Mountains and sits inside that band, with Burke Mountain at the wet end of it. We would rather bracket it honestly than quote a city-wide figure nobody can source.
Can you repair a Coquitlam roof instead of replacing it?
Often, yes. Repair is the right call when the field of the roof is sound and the failure is local: lifted or creased shingles after a windstorm on an exposed ridge, a worn valley, missing hip caps, or a failed pipe collar. It stops being the right call when granule loss is general across slopes, when the mat has gone brittle, or when there is already more than one layer up there. The inspection answers that with photographs rather than opinion.
Which Coquitlam neighbourhoods do you work in?
All of them. Maillardville, Austin Heights, Burquitlam, Chineside, Harbour Chines, Ranch Park, Coquitlam Town Centre, Eagle Ridge, River Springs, Westwood Plateau and Burke Mountain, plus the acreage properties north of them. Exposure, tree cover and elevation change dramatically across that list, which is why the inspection comes before the price rather than after it.
Do you install flat and torch-on roofs in Coquitlam?
Yes. The low-slope work here is mostly additions and carport roofs on mid-century houses through Maillardville and Austin Heights, the flat sections on newer builds, and low-rise commercial and strata roofs around the Town Centre and Burquitlam. We install two-ply SBS torch-on, IKO TP-180 base and TP-250 cap, and we do not install TPO. Workmanship warranty on torch-on and flat is five years, with the manufacturer's product warranty running separately and longer.
How long does a Coquitlam roof replacement take?
One to three days for a standard detached house, and two to four for something larger, steeper, cedar, winter work, or where decking has to be replaced. Steep Westwood Plateau and Burke Mountain lots often add time for access and staging alone, and that is settled at the inspection rather than on the first morning. Rot appears on about one tear-off in ten, priced in advance so a find does not reopen the number.
Next
Get the number for your Coquitlam 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.