Roofing · City of Surrey
Surrey roofing: six town centres, six different roofs
We repair, replace and inspect roofs across all of Surrey — City Centre and Whalley, Guildford, Fleetwood, Newton, Cloverdale and South Surrey. Asphalt shingle, metal, cedar, composite and two-ply torch-on, on houses from 1950s bungalows to 2000s subdivisions. The inspection is free and the estimate is a fixed written price.
The geography
Uplands, lowlands and a coastline.
Surrey is the largest area we cover and the least uniform. It is built across a set of uplands separated by two river valleys, and the roofs behave differently on each.
The Serpentine and the Nicomekl cut the city in two. The City of Surrey's own lowlands and floodplain pages describe a catchment of 334 square kilometres with 59 of those as lowland floodplain, much of it close to sea level and historically intertidal. Guildford and Newton drain into the Serpentine; Cloverdale and Willowbrook drain into the Nicomekl.
- The uplands. Panorama Ridge, Newton, Fleetwood, Clayton Hill, Grandview Heights. Higher, drier underfoot and more exposed to wind across open subdivisions than the sheltered streets lower down. This is where ridge caps and rake edges take the load.
- The lowlands. The flats along both rivers through Cloverdale, Port Kells and the Bear Creek corridor. Low, damp, and often treed along the watercourses, which puts moss on north slopes and debris in valleys.
- The coast. South Surrey out to Crescent Beach, Ocean Park and the Semiahmoo bluff. Onshore wind and full sun do more here than rain does, and uplift at the edges is the failure worth building against.
- The older core. Whalley is one of Surrey's oldest neighbourhoods, and the pockets of 1950s and 1960s housing there and around Cloverdale's historic centre have smaller, simpler roofs with lower pitches than anything built since.
The housing stock
A city built mostly between 1980 and 2005.
Most of Surrey's detached housing went up during the two and a half decades when the city grew fastest, and that has a direct consequence: an enormous amount of it is arriving at the twenty-five-year mark at once. A Fleetwood or Sullivan subdivision finished in the late 1990s is on its original roof and at the end of it.
These are also big roofs. The two-storey Surrey house of that era carries far more roof area than a Vancouver bungalow, with more hips, more valleys, more gable ends and often a bonus room over the garage that creates a second roof plane dying into a wall. Every one of those junctions is a flashing detail, and flashing details are where roofs leak.
What that means on a quote is simple enough: area and complexity, not the shingle brand, decide most of the number. Our roof replacement cost guide explains how the pieces add up.
What we look hardest at on a Surrey roof
- The garage-bonus-room junction. Where a roof plane meets a wall above a garage, step flashing should be woven course by course. A continuous strip sealed with caulk is common and is a leak with a delay on it.
- Valleys. Long valleys on complex hip roofs carry a disproportionate share of the water. We look at how they were built, how wide they are, and how worn the centre line is.
- Ridge and hip caps. On exposed upland subdivisions these go first, and going first is useful: they are visible from the ground and they warn you.
- Ventilation. A large 1990s attic with a 1990s vent count and modern insulation levels holds moisture all winter. New vents sized to the roof, roughly one per five squares, are part of the specification.
Rot shows up on about one tear-off in ten, usually a couple of sheets around a penetration, and it is priced at the inspection rather than discovered mid-job.
Permits
What Surrey requires before a tear-off.
For a like-for-like re-roof on an existing house, generally nothing. Roofing does not appear among the residential permit types the City publishes, and its guidance puts minor exterior repairs outside the building permit process.
The City's residential building permit index is the authority to check, and it is worth reading if your project is more than a re-roof. Altering roof framing, rebuilding a low-slope section to change its slope, adding a dormer or converting an attic all bring a permit into it, and so does work on a designated heritage property in the Cloverdale or Crescent Beach areas.
We confirm the position for your specific address before the tear-off rather than afterwards. Where a permit is required, we pull it and it sits inside the quoted price rather than arriving as an extra line.
Strata and commercial work in Whalley, Newton and Cloverdale follows a different path again: a written scope a council or a property manager can circulate before a vote, with the drains, curbs and parapet terminations specified rather than summarised. See commercial and strata roofing.
What we install
Roofing services in Surrey, by roof type.
Sloped roofs
Standard architectural shingle is IKO Cambridge or GAF Timberline HDZ. On a large, steep or wind-exposed Surrey roof we usually recommend stepping up to Malarkey Windsor, Malarkey Vista or IKO Dynasty, because on that much area the difference in wind rating and mat quality is worth more than it is on a small roof. For a shake look without cedar, IKO Armourshake or CertainTeed Presidential Shake TL. Asphalt shingle roofing and the three tiers compares them properly.
Where the failure is local rather than general — lifted caps, a worn valley, a failed pipe collar — roof repair is the honest answer and we will say so rather than sell a replacement early.
Standing-seam metal roofing is 26-gauge snap-lock over high-temperature peel-and-stick. It suits the long, simple runs common on rural and acreage properties in east Surrey.
Low-slope and flat
Two-ply SBS torch-on, IKO TP-180 base and TP-250 cap, for carport and addition roofs, the flat sections behind parapets on newer builds, and low-rise commercial. We do not install TPO. Our flat roofing page sets out why.
Every roof we build 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.
Choosing
Roofing companies near you in Surrey: what to ask first.
On a big Surrey roof, small specification differences multiply. The same three questions separate most quotes.
Ask what underlayment is included, by name. Ask whether the flashings are new 26-gauge metal or the existing ones re-sealed, and ask that specifically about the garage bonus-room wall junction. Ask how many vents are going on, and why that number rather than the number that is up there now.
A quoted replacement from us 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 buried in a lump sum.
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 already coming in, roof leak repair is the page to read first.
Questions
Surrey roofing, plainly answered.
Do I need a permit to replace a roof in Surrey?
For a like-for-like re-roof, usually not. Roofing does not appear among the residential permit types the City of Surrey publishes, and the City's general guidance places minor exterior repairs outside the building permit process. It changes where the work becomes structural: altering roof framing, rebuilding a low-slope section, or repairing a deck that has failed rather than replacing sheathing. We confirm the position for your address before the tear-off, and where a permit is required we pull it and it is inside the quoted price.
How much does a new roof cost in Surrey?
Measured area, pitch, access, existing layers and material decide it. That matters more in Surrey than in most of the region, because the two-storey houses built through the 1990s and 2000s carry a great deal more roof area than a Vancouver bungalow does. Our Metro Vancouver roof replacement cost guide sets out what drives the number, and the online estimator measures your roof from satellite imagery and prices it on the screen before the free inspection turns it into a fixed written price.
Which parts of Surrey do you cover?
All six town centres and everything between them: City Centre and Whalley, Guildford, Fleetwood, Newton, Cloverdale and South Surrey, including Panorama Ridge, Clayton, Port Kells, Bear Creek, Sullivan, Grandview Heights, Crescent Beach and Ocean Park. The roofs are not alike across that spread, which is why we inspect before we price rather than quoting from a postal code.
Are 1990s Surrey subdivisions due for a new roof?
Many are. Roofs in this region generally run about twenty-five years, so a subdivision finished between 1995 and 2001 is at or past that mark now. The tell is not a leak. It is granule loss visible in the gutters, cap shingles going along the hips, the first curling at the south-facing rake, and valleys wearing along the centre line. A free inspection at that stage tells you whether you have two more winters or five.
Does South Surrey's ocean exposure change the specification?
It changes what fails first. On the Semiahmoo peninsula and out toward Crescent Beach and Ocean Park, onshore wind and direct sun do more damage than damp does, so uplift at the ridges, hips and rake edges is the thing to engineer against. That means starter courses laid properly at the eaves and rakes, the manufacturer's nailing pattern rather than a faster one, and edge metal that is fastened rather than relying on the shingle above it.
Do you install flat and torch-on roofs in Surrey?
Yes. Surrey has a lot of low-slope roofing: additions and carport roofs on 1970s and 1980s houses, the flat sections on newer builds, and the commercial and strata stock through Whalley, Newton and Cloverdale. 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 systems is five years, with the manufacturer's product warranty running separately and longer.
Why does my Surrey roof grow moss on one side only?
Because moss needs moisture that never quite dries. A north-facing slope in a treed street holds damp from October through May while the south slope of the same house dries after every system. Moss lifts the shingle courses and holds water against the mat, so the north slope ages faster and often fails several years ahead of the south one. It is one of the reasons a roof can look sound from the street and be finished on the other side.
How long does a Surrey roof replacement take?
One to three days for a standard detached house, two to four for something larger, steeper, cedar, winter work, or where decking has to be replaced. Surrey's larger two-storey homes sit at the upper end of that simply because of area and access. Rot turns up on about one tear-off in ten, usually a sheet or two around a penetration, and it is priced at the inspection so finding it does not reopen the price.
Next
Get the number for your Surrey 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.