Siding Replacement in North Vancouver

Recladding Where the Climate Is Unforgiving

North Vancouver walls work harder than walls anywhere else in Metro Vancouver. More rain arrives, and less of it dries. That combination means a replacement here is not a cosmetic project, it is an envelope decision with a thirty-year consequence.

The houses that most need it fall into two groups. First, homes from the pre-rainscreen decades still wearing original cladding on a face-sealed wall, where water that gets in has no drainage path and no way to dry. Second, cedar walls installed direct to sheathing with no ventilation gap, which is most cedar on the North Shore older than about twenty-five years.

BC learned what face-sealed construction does in this climate during the leaky condo era, and rainscreen design became standard practice as a direct result. If your wall predates that shift, replacement is the opportunity to correct an assembly that was never suited to this rainfall.

What We Expect to Find Behind the Cladding

We are candid with North Vancouver owners during quoting that hidden damage is more likely here than in drier municipalities, and we would rather set that expectation early than have the conversation halfway through a tear-off.

The recurring finds are damp or rotted sheathing below windows and at wall bases, damage radiating out from deck ledgers that were never properly flashed, rot at roof-to-wall intersections lacking kick-out flashings, black staining tracking down studs where water has been running for years, and mould on the back face of cladding that never had an air gap behind it.

None of that is unusual here. All of it is fixable while the wall is open, and none of it is fixable while it is closed.

The Assembly We Build

Tear-off to sheathing. Everything comes off. We do not clad over existing siding on the North Shore under any circumstances, because it seals an existing moisture problem inside the wall permanently.

Substrate repair. Rotted sheathing replaced, damaged framing repaired, documented with photographs as we go.

Weather-resistive barrier, properly integrated. Lapped correctly and tied into flashing at every opening and penetration, so water that gets past the cladding meets a continuous drainage plane.

Flashing where it actually matters. Kick-out flashings at every roof-to-wall intersection. Proper head flashing over windows and doors. Deck ledger flashing done correctly, since this is the most consistently under-detailed area on North Shore houses and the source of a large share of the damage we open up.

Rainscreen strapping. A ventilated cavity behind the cladding, generously sized. This is the difference between a wall that survives this climate and one that does not, and on shaded elevations we go deeper than the minimum because drying capacity is the constraint here.

Generous clearances. At grade, decks and roof surfaces. Cladding held out of standing water and splash lasts dramatically longer.

Cladding and roofline. New siding, trim, and almost always new soffit and fascia, because so much North Shore water damage starts at the roof edge and the access is already in place.

Choosing Materials for This Climate

Owners here generally choose between two paths, and both are legitimate.

Cedar, done properly. It belongs on the North Shore and nothing matches it against a forested lot. Installed over a ventilated rainscreen with back-priming, end-sealing, stainless fasteners and generous clearances, it performs for decades. It commits you to a refinishing schedule of roughly three to seven years depending on exposure, with shaded elevations at the short end. Our cedar siding in North Vancouver page covers this in depth.

Fiber cement. James Hardie is the most common recommendation we make for heavily shaded North Vancouver elevations. It does not rot, does not feed moss, is dimensionally stable through constant damp, and factory finishes hold up where field-applied products fade early in this light. Wood-grain profiles get much of the cedar look without the schedule.

Engineered wood sits between the two. For contemporary architecture in Edgemont and Central Lonsdale, Longboard aluminum and AL13 panel systems are entirely indifferent to North Shore weather.

We bring samples to the site visit, because judging a finish under North Shore light differs meaningfully from judging it in a showroom.

Exterior Insulation While the Wall Is Open

Recladding is the only economical moment to add continuous exterior insulation, and North Vancouver's older housing stock generally has minimal wall insulation with significant thermal bridging through the framing.

Exterior insulation addresses the whole wall surface including the studs, which cavity insulation cannot. In this climate it also raises the temperature of the sheathing, which reduces condensation risk within the assembly. The labour is largely already committed while the wall is open, so we price it as a separated option in the quote.

Scheduling Around North Shore Weather

Weather planning matters more here than anywhere else we work. We sequence tear-offs so that no more wall is open than we can close and protect, we watch the forecast rather than the calendar, and open walls are never left unprotected overnight.

We work year-round on the North Shore, because waiting for a reliably dry stretch is not a realistic strategy in this climate. What changes seasonally is how much we open at once and how aggressively we protect it.

Most single-family replacements run one to three weeks depending on size, access and what we find. Steep lots, tight access and complex rooflines are common here and all affect staging, so we assess them during the site visit and give you a schedule we can actually hold.

Permits

Like-for-like recladding on a single-family house generally does not require a building permit, while structural repairs, assembly changes and multi-family work often do. Requirements differ between the City and District of North Vancouver and can change, so we confirm what your specific address and scope require during quoting rather than assuming, and we handle the application when one applies.