West Vancouver · Since 2001
Epoxy and industrial floor coatings in West Vancouver.
Steep terrain, ocean exposure and a stock of higher-end residential buildings where the finish matters as much as the waterproofing.
West Vancouver
Exposure and appearance both matter here
West Vancouver shares the North Shore's chloride problem — salt air off Burrard Inlet and Howe Sound, plus winter road salt on some very steep approaches. Ramps here are often steeper than anywhere else we work, which puts more shear into the wearing surface and makes slip resistance a genuine safety specification rather than a checkbox.
The other West Vancouver factor is expectation. Many of these are higher-end residential buildings where an owner walking to their car notices the finish. We hold colour consistency and edge detailing tighter on this work, and we plan the phasing so residents are never walking through a work zone to reach a vehicle.
On the drainage side, buildings cut into a slope frequently have water arriving from uphill as well as falling on the deck. Fixing the membrane without addressing where that water is coming from produces a deck that leaks again, so we look at both.
- Exposure
- Salt air and road salt
- Ramps
- Steep — slip resistance critical
- Priority
- Finish quality and phasing
Services
What we install in West Vancouver
Parkade waterproofing
Traffic-bearing membranes for West Vancouver parkades, ramps and roof decks.
Learn more →Industrial floor coatings
Epoxy and urethane systems for West Vancouver warehouses and plants.
Learn more →Ground conditions
Firm ground, and a great deal of water
West Vancouver inverts the problem you get on the delta. The slope from the waterfront up through the British Properties sits on firm glacial till and bedrock rather than soft alluvium, so settlement and vapour drive through a slab-on-grade are rarely what governs. What governs here is water arriving from above, and the gradient it runs down.
The North Shore mountains wring a great deal more rain out of an incoming system than the south side of the inlet gets, and the buildings that catch it are unusually exposed: terraced structures cut into the hill, roof decks and balconies built for the view, driveways and parkade entries at real gradients. Every one of those is a horizontal waterproofing surface with a slope, and slope changes how a coating has to be detailed rather than merely how thick it is.
Detailing is where these jobs are won or lost — at drains, at upstands, at the transition where a deck meets a wall or a threshold. Those junctions are worked by hand before any field coat goes down, and they are the first place a failed installation shows.
The building stock
Ageing strata on Marine Drive, exposed decks above
Two categories dominate. The first is the low- and mid-rise strata stock through Ambleside and Dundarave, much of it now old enough that parkade membranes are into a second replacement cycle. Where those parkades are suspended over occupied space — storage, lockers, another level — the deck moves under load and the system has to move with it, which is the distinction we set out in traffic membrane versus epoxy on a suspended slab.
The second is exposed residential deck and walkway work up the hill, where the coating is doing two jobs at once: waterproofing the space underneath and surviving UV and standing water on top. Those two requirements pull in different directions, which is why the top coat and the waterproofing layer are usually different products in the same system rather than one product asked to do everything.
Access is the practical constraint that shapes scheduling here more than anywhere else we work. Narrow lanes, steep driveways and tight staging mean the plant that fits the job is not always the fastest plant available, and we would rather phase the work realistically than promise a programme the site cannot physically take.
Questions
What West Vancouver clients ask us.
Our building is on an exposed slope with a lot of weather. Does that change the system?
It can. West Vancouver has a lot of properties with exposed decks facing directly into weather and, higher up the slope, meaningful UV exposure. On exposed levels we lean toward UV-stable top coats, because a standard urethane wear coat will chalk and fade under direct sun in a way that is cosmetic but that owners notice quickly on a premium property.
We have a small strata with only a few units. Do you take smaller jobs?
Yes. A lot of West Vancouver strata corporations are small, and a single-level parkade or a roof deck over a garage is a normal size of job for us. The one thing worth knowing is that mobilisation is a larger share of a small job's cost, so if there is other work due — joints, a deck, some concrete repair — doing it in the same visit is materially cheaper than in three separate ones.
Will you coordinate with our property manager and the owners directly?
Whichever the strata prefers. On most West Vancouver projects we deal with the property manager for scheduling and with the council for decisions, and issue a phase plan owners can read that says which stalls are out on which dates. Owners tolerate disruption they were warned about, and resent identical disruption they were not.
How much of our garage has to close at once?
We set that from how many stalls the building can genuinely afford to lose, not from what is fastest for us. On smaller West Vancouver garages that often means working a few bays at a time, sometimes with temporary parking arranged nearby for a short window. It lengthens the calendar slightly and it keeps people in their homes without a parking crisis.
Site assessments
Have a slab in West Vancouver you're worried about?
Photographs and a rough area are enough to start. We'll come out, test moisture, and scope it properly.
Main (236) 873-2580 · Second (604) 230-0256 · estimating@westpacificcoatings.com