Siding Contractor in Burnaby

Siding Services for Burnaby Homes and Stratas

Burnaby is roughly a thirty minute run from Berkana Construction's shop at 13490 224th St in Maple Ridge, straight down Highway 1 to the Willingdon or Kensington exits. We have worked across the Lower Mainland since 2019 for homeowners, stratas, property managers, builders and commercial owners, and Burnaby's mix of aging detached stock and large townhome complexes fits squarely in what we do. We are a licensed BC contractor, insured and WorkSafeBC compliant, and we put every scope in writing before work begins, at no charge.

A Tale of Two Exposures

Burnaby's geography splits its exterior problems in two, and understanding which side of the city you live on tells you most of what you need to know about your walls.

The north slope, including Capitol Hill and Burnaby Heights, stands high above Burrard Inlet and takes wind-driven rain head on when storms push down the water. Walls there need conservative fastening, robust trim details and flashing that assumes rain will arrive horizontally rather than vertically. Wind-driven rain is the reason a wall that would last forty years on a sheltered lot can fail in fifteen on an exposed one: water gets pushed uphill into laps, joints and around fasteners that would shed a normal rainfall without complaint.

South Burnaby tells a different story. Neighbourhoods like Suncrest and Big Bend slope toward the Fraser, and shaded lots around Deer Lake and Burnaby Lake hold moisture in still air. The enemy there is not wind, it is time: walls that never fully dry between rainfalls, moss and algae taking hold on north elevations, and finishes that fail years earlier than the same product would on a sunny wall. The priority on those lots is drying capacity, meaning a ventilated cavity behind the cladding and materials that tolerate long damp stretches.

Burnaby Mountain adds a third factor. Rainfall increases with elevation, so homes on the upper slopes around SFU and Government Road see measurably more water than houses down in the flats, along with more freeze-thaw cycling in winter. We build differently on each slope because the weather treats each slope differently.

Burnaby Housing Stock, Decade by Decade

Most siding problems in Burnaby are predictable once you know when the house was built.

Wartime and postwar, 1940s to 1950s. Burnaby Heights, Willingdon Heights and pockets of East Burnaby are full of small, well-built houses from this era. They were typically clad in wood siding or stucco over board sheathing with building paper behind, and no drainage gap at all. Eighty years on, the wood itself is often surprisingly sound where it stayed dry, and completely gone where it did not. These houses reward careful inspection rather than assumptions.

Ranchers and split-levels, 1960s to 1970s. Suncrest, Buckingham Heights, Deer Lake and Government Road carry a lot of this stock. Wide eaves and simple rooflines helped these houses shed water, but the wall assemblies were still face-sealed with no ventilation, and many have had one or two cladding changes since. We frequently find layers: original wood under later vinyl, or stucco patched over a partial re-side.

Townhome complexes, 1970s to 1980s. Around Brentwood, Metrotown and Edmonds, this is the dominant multi-family stock. Many of these complexes were built before rainscreen construction was standard in BC, which is exactly the population of buildings the province's leaky condo era exposed. Strata recladding here is often as much about correcting the original assembly as it is about appearance.

Modern infill and rebuilds. Custom homes and infill around Deer Lake, Government Road and the Heights are being built or reclad now with drained and ventilated assemblies, mixed materials and contemporary detailing. These projects are where we most often pair fiber cement fields with aluminum panel accents.

Siding Repair in Burnaby

Not every Burnaby wall needs replacing, and we would rather fix what can be fixed. Our repair crews handle the city's routine failures: storm-lifted panels on the north slope, rot at window sills and hose bibs, cracked boards from settling, moss-damaged shaded elevations, and soffit and fascia that have quietly decayed behind gutters that overflowed unnoticed for years.

The important part of a repair visit is not the patch, it is the diagnosis. A soft board in Burnaby Heights is usually a symptom, and the cause is often a flashing detail higher up the wall that has been letting water in for years. We trace water to its source before we close anything up, because a repair over an unsolved leak is just a slower leak. When we find that the damage is localized and the wall behind it is dry, we say so and we repair it. See our dedicated page on siding repair in Burnaby for how that process runs.

When Replacement Is the Right Call

Replacement earns its cost when the wall system itself has finished, not just the surface. The signals we look for are repeated repairs appearing in different places, soft or bulging sections, paint that will not hold no matter how well the prep is done, staining at the bottom courses, and moisture readings that stay high on elevations that should have dried out.

For those houses, our siding replacement process strips the wall to sheathing, repairs what six decades of weather have done underneath, and rebuilds with a drained, ventilated assembly: new weather-resistive barrier, rainscreen strapping, corrected flashing at every window, door and penetration, and new cladding on top. You get photographs of what was behind your walls before it is covered up again, which for most owners is the first time they have ever seen it. Full detail is on our siding replacement in Burnaby page.

Replacement is also the one economical moment to add exterior insulation. Most Burnaby houses built before the 1980s have minimal wall insulation and significant thermal bridging through every stud. Continuous exterior insulation added during a re-side addresses the whole wall at once, and it never gets cheaper than when the cladding is already off.

Materials We Install in Burnaby

For postwar renewals, James Hardie fiber cement in a traditional lap profile keeps the neighbourhood character while ending the paint-and-patch cycle, and its dimensional stability suits the damp north slope well. Modern infill and custom rebuilds around Deer Lake and Government Road often pair fiber cement panels with AL13 aluminum or Longboard woodgrain accents. We also install Western Red Cedar, engineered wood, premium vinyl, Lux steel panels and the EasyTrim Quick Panel system.

Because our recommendation is not tied to a single product line, we routinely quote two or three materials side by side on Burnaby projects so you can compare real numbers for your actual wall area rather than choosing from a brochure. Our James Hardie siding in Burnaby page covers the fiber cement option in depth.

Soffit, Fascia and Attic Airflow

Roofline work is its own job in Burnaby, and it is frequently more urgent than the siding below it. Older Heights and Willingdon Heights houses often have original wood soffit installed solid with no venting at all, which starves the attic of intake air and produces condensation, mould on the underside of the sheathing and shortened shingle life in houses that have never had an actual roof leak. Meanwhile fascia rots from behind wherever a gutter has been overflowing.

We replace with vented aluminum soffit sized for the attic area it actually serves and custom-bent fascia that gives gutters a straight, solid line to hang from. This work can be done on its own without touching the walls, and often should be. See soffit and fascia in Burnaby.

Strata and Townhome Recladding

Townhome and low-rise strata work is a core part of our business, and Burnaby has a large inventory of complexes reaching the age where envelope decisions can no longer be deferred. We provide councils with written scopes, phasing plans and photo documentation suitable for owner meetings and depreciation report discussions, and we sequence work so residents keep access, parking and reasonable quiet through the project.

For buildings from the pre-rainscreen era, recladding is the opportunity to add the drainage and ventilation the original construction never had. We are direct with councils about what we find, because the cost of discovering rot mid-project is far higher than the cost of investigating properly before the scope is set.

Permits, Access and How Projects Run in Burnaby

Straight like-for-like recladding on a single-family house generally does not require a building permit, while structural repairs, changes to the wall assembly and multi-family work often do. Requirements vary by scope and can change, so we confirm what your specific project needs with the City of Burnaby during quoting rather than guessing, and we handle the application when one applies.

Access shapes Burnaby projects more than people expect. Steep lots on Capitol Hill, tight setbacks in the Heights and shared drive aisles in townhome complexes all affect staging, scaffolding and how long a crew needs on site. We assess that during the site visit so the schedule we give you is one we can actually hold.

Request Your Free Written Quote

Whether it is a wartime house in the Heights, a rancher in Suncrest or a townhome complex near Edmonds, we would be glad to assess it. For stratas we can present findings directly to council with photographs and a written condition summary, which makes the approval conversation with owners considerably easier. Call Berkana Construction at (672) 771-6868 or email info@berkanaconstruction.com and we will schedule a visit, inspect every elevation and deliver a free written quote you can rely on.