Roofing · City of Vancouver
Roofing in Vancouver: what this city's roofs actually need
We replace, repair and inspect roofs across every Vancouver neighbourhood — pre-war character houses on the west side, Vancouver Specials through East Van, low-slope infill and apartment roofs in between. Shingle, metal, cedar, composite and two-ply torch-on. The inspection is free and the estimate is a fixed written price.
The housing stock
Vancouver is four roofing cities stacked on one map.
Roofing companies in Vancouver tend to quote as if the city were uniform. It is not. Four broad kinds of roof account for most of what we work on, and they fail in four different ways.
- Pre-war and interwar character houses. Steep pitches, gabled dormers, bay projections and a great many valleys. On these the shingle is rarely the problem — the flashing is. Every dormer cheek, every place a roof plane dies into a wall, every chimney that has been counter-flashed with sealant instead of metal let into the mortar joint. These roofs need step flashing woven course by course, not a continuous strip bent up the wall and caulked.
- Vancouver Specials, roughly 1965 to 1985. The city's most-copied house form, everywhere from Renfrew-Collingwood to Sunset and Victoria-Fraserview. Shallow pitch, wide overhangs, sometimes a split roof with a clerestory step. That low pitch changes the specification: underlayment coverage and valley construction do far more of the waterproofing work than they would on a steep roof, and the wide soffits are where intake ventilation either exists or was never cut in.
- Post-1990 infill and laneway houses. Flat or near-flat roofs behind parapets, often with a sloped street-facing section for appearance. Two assemblies on one house, meeting at a transition that has to be built rather than improvised. That transition and the parapet cap are where these roofs leak.
- Low-rise apartment, mixed-use and strata roofs. Fairview, Mount Pleasant, the West End, Kitsilano's four-storey stock. Low slope, membrane, and a roof surface crowded with drains, curbs, HVAC units and railing posts. The field of the membrane is almost never the failure; the detail around something bolted through it usually is.
West of Main Street and through Dunbar, Kerrisdale, Point Grey and Shaughnessy there is also a fifth category worth naming: the remaining original cedar. Some of it is worth keeping and treating as a cedar roof; more of it is at the end of its life and better converted — cedar removed, a full new plywood deck laid, and an architectural or designer shingle installed over that. Our cedar roofing and conversion page sets out how we decide which of the two you have.
Climate and exposure
1,189 mm next door, and a gradient that climbs fast from there.
Environment and Climate Change Canada publishes no climate normals for a station inside the city itself. The nearest station with a published record is Vancouver International Airport, across the arm on Sea Island, and in ECCC's Canadian Climate Normals it records 1,189 mm of precipitation a year over 1981–2010 — the driest station on our coverage map. Treat that as the floor for a Vancouver roof rather than the number, because the regional gradient climbs steeply the moment you leave the delta: Burnaby Capitol Hill, a short drive east, records 1,946 mm in the 1981–2001 normals, and North Vancouver Wharves, across the harbour and still at sea level, records 1,725 mm in the 1981–2007 normals. Kitsilano and Marpole sit near the low end of that span; the east side and the slopes above the harbour sit higher up it.
What matters more than the total is when it falls. Almost all of it arrives between October and April, in long low-intensity events rather than downpours.
That pattern is what shapes roof failure here. Sustained wetting, not volume, is the problem. A north-facing slope in a treed street barely dries between systems from late autumn to spring, and moss establishes in the shingle keyways, lifts the courses and holds water against the mat. Meanwhile a low-slope section with a blocked drain never sheds at all.
The three things this climate punishes
- Cheap underlayment. Felt that wrinkles and tears is a liability on any roof that stays damp for six months. Synthetic underlayment goes on every roof we build, with peel-and-stick membrane at every penetration.
- Insufficient ventilation. A Vancouver attic without balanced intake and exhaust holds moisture all winter and cooks the deck from below. New vents sized to the roof, roughly one per five squares, are part of the specification rather than an upgrade.
- Flashing shortcuts. Corner-cutting on flashing details is the most common defect we find behind other roofers' work, and the wet season finds it fast. Every valley and flashing we install is 26-gauge, formed for the roof it is going on.
Rot turns up on about one tear-off in ten, usually a couple of sheets, and almost always around a penetration. It is named and priced at the inspection rather than discovered mid-job.
Permits and the by-law
Vancouver writes its own building rules.
Vancouver is not governed by the BC Building Code the way its neighbours are. Under the Vancouver Charter the city adopts its own building by-law, which is why a detail that passes in Burnaby may be specified differently five blocks west.
The current Vancouver Building By-law takes the 2024 BC Building Code and layers Vancouver-specific provisions over it, including its own requirements for rain screen cladding, energy use and heritage alterations. Roofing-specific amendments covering water and wind performance were brought into the by-law in 2024.
For most homeowners the practical question is simpler, and the answer is a relief: the City's own list of projects that do not require a permit includes installing roofing, gutters or drain-pipes. A straight re-roof on an existing house normally goes ahead without one.
Permits come back into it when the work stops being a re-roof: altering deck framing, rebuilding a low-slope section to change its slope, or touching a building with heritage protection. Where a permit is required we pull it, and it is inside the quoted price rather than a line added later.
What we install
Systems, by the roof you actually have.
Sloped roofs
Standard architectural shingle is IKO Cambridge or GAF Timberline HDZ. Where a roof is prominent, steep 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. Brava composite shake comes up most often on the west side, where the original roof was cedar and the street still reads as cedar. See asphalt shingle roofing and the three tiers for how the grades differ.
Standing-seam metal roofing is 26-gauge snap-lock over high-temperature peel-and-stick. It suits steep contemporary roofs and long simple runs, and it is the longest-lived thing we install.
Low-slope and flat roofs
Two-ply SBS torch-on, IKO TP-180 base and TP-250 cap. That covers the hidden low-slope section behind a Vancouver Special's parapet, the deck over a rear addition, and the full roof of a low-rise building. We do not install TPO. Our flat roofing page explains why two-ply SBS is the system we stand behind in this climate.
Commercial and strata roofs in Vancouver are the same assembly at a different scale, with the drains, curbs and parapet terminations doing the real work — see commercial and strata roofing.
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 Vancouver: how to compare them.
The question we get asked most on a quote call is why quotes for the same roof differ so much. They differ because the quotes are not for the same work, and the difference is usually invisible until the roof is off.
- Ask what underlayment is included, by name. Synthetic or felt is a real difference on a Vancouver roof.
- Ask what happens to the flashings. New 26-gauge metal, or the existing flashings re-used and sealed? Re-using them is the cheapest line on a quote and the most expensive one later.
- Ask what the ventilation plan is. Replacing three old vents with three new ones is not a plan; sizing the vent count to the roof area is.
- Ask what is included and what is priced separately. Our quotes include tear-off, ice and water shield and underlayment, the product installed to manufacturer specification, new hip and ridge, existing attic vents replaced, new pipe jacks and flashings, full clean-up and the permit where one is required. New decking, a second existing layer, difficult access, skylight replacement, chimney flashing and gutters are named and priced at the inspection rather than buried.
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 what you need first is a diagnosis rather than a price, start with a free roof inspection. If water is coming in now, roof leak repair is the page to read, and if it cannot wait, emergency roof repair covers what we do the same day.
Questions
Vancouver roofing, plainly answered.
Do I need a permit to replace a roof in Vancouver?
Generally no. The City of Vancouver lists installing roofing, gutters or drain-pipes among the projects that do not require a permit, so a straight re-roof on an existing house normally proceeds without one. Structural work is different: if the deck framing is altered, if a low-slope section is rebuilt to change its slope, or if the work touches a protected heritage building, a permit comes into it. Where a permit is required, it is included in the quoted price rather than added afterwards.
How much does a new roof cost in Vancouver?
It depends on measured roof area, pitch, access, how many layers are up there now and which material you choose, so a single number for a whole city is meaningless. Our guide to roof replacement cost in Metro Vancouver sets out what each material involves and what moves the price, and the online estimator measures your roof from satellite imagery and prices it on screen. The free inspection is where that estimate becomes a fixed written price.
Which roofing material suits Vancouver's climate best?
For a sloped roof, an architectural asphalt shingle with synthetic underlayment and properly sized ventilation handles Vancouver's long wet season well, and it is what most of the city is roofed in. Metal and composite shake last longer and suit steep, exposed or architecturally prominent roofs. For anything at low slope, a membrane rather than a shingle: we use two-ply SBS torch-on. The choice of material matters less than the flashings, the underlayment and the ventilation behind it.
How long does a roof last in Vancouver?
About twenty-five years is the working figure for this region, and it moves in both directions. A south-facing slope with good airflow and no overhanging trees can beat it. A north slope under a mature maple in Dunbar or Renfrew Heights, with moss that never fully dries between October and May, will not. Ventilation is the single biggest lever: a roof cooked from below by trapped attic heat and damp fails years earlier than the same shingle over a properly vented deck.
Can you re-roof a Vancouver Special?
Yes, and we roof a lot of them. The Vancouver Special, built roughly between 1965 and 1985 across East Vancouver and parts of the south slope, has a shallow-pitched roof with wide overhangs and often a split section. The low pitch is the thing to get right: at that slope, underlayment coverage and valley detailing carry far more of the waterproofing load than they do on a steep roof, and the wide soffits are where intake ventilation either exists or does not.
Do you do commercial roofing in Vancouver?
Yes. Commercial and strata work in Vancouver is mostly low-slope, which means two-ply SBS torch-on membrane, IKO TP-180 base and TP-250 cap, with the drains, curbs, parapets and wall terminations treated as the main body of the job rather than as trim. Our workmanship warranty on torch-on and flat systems is five years, with the manufacturer's product warranty running separately and longer. Strata buildings get a written scope a council can circulate before it votes.
Which Vancouver neighbourhoods do you work in?
All of them. Point Grey, Dunbar, Kerrisdale, Shaughnessy, Kitsilano and Arbutus Ridge on the west side; Mount Pleasant, Grandview-Woodland, Hastings-Sunrise, Renfrew-Collingwood, Kensington-Cedar Cottage, Killarney, Victoria-Fraserview, Sunset, Marpole, Riley Park and Oakridge east and south; and the flat-roofed apartment and mixed-use stock through Fairview, Mount Pleasant and downtown. The roofs differ enormously between them, which is why the inspection comes before the price.
How long will my roof replacement take?
One to three days for a standard detached house, two to four for something larger, steeper, cedar, winter work, or a job where the deck has to be replaced. Vancouver adds its own constraint: lane access and street width decide where the bin and the loading truck go, and on a narrow east-side lot that is worth settling at the inspection rather than on the morning of the tear-off.
Next
Get the number for your Vancouver 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.