A 50-year roof if the details are right.
The intersection
Coquitlam metal is mostly a Westwood Plateau and Burke Mountain conversation — big custom builds, complex valley geometry, owners staying a generation, and a look that reads right on a modern hillside home. All of it points to the same spec: Kynar-500 finished, concealed-clip, 24-gauge steel installed by our licensed BC crew.
Local intel
Coquitlam metal work sits up in the higher elevations. Westwood Plateau and Burke Mountain custom builds are roughly 80 percent of the standing-seam volume — modern hillside homes with big rooflines and complex geometry, where the concealed-clip panel reads right and outlasts the mortgage. On these it's 24-gauge steel with Kynar-500 finish across the board. Burke Mountain wind in a northerly is genuine, so clip spacing gets tightened on the exposed elevations. Snow load at the top of Burke Mountain puts more force on the roof than down in the flats, and metal actually manages snow better than most alternatives because the panels shed instead of piling it up. Complex-valley work on a Westwood Plateau home takes a lot longer than a straight run — every ridge, valley flashing, and hip transition is custom-bent on site to match the exact geometry. Snap-lock at a 1.5-inch seam is the default, mechanically-seamed below 3:12 pitch. Down in the flats around Maillardville we'll occasionally run standing-seam on a modern renovation or a mid-century home being restored to original spec. Solar mounts straight to the seam with no penetration, which upper-Coquitlam owners plan for regularly..
The detail
Panels are cut long so there are no lap joints in the field. Every clip is spaced to the pitch and the wind zone. Ridge, hip, and valley get custom flashings bent on site so the profile matches. Snap-lock or mechanically-seamed depending on the pitch.
Concealed fasteners don't back out over time. Hemmed panel edges lock into the flashing so wind can't lift them. The finish is Kynar 500 on every panel we run, which is what carries the 40-year colour warranty.
Cheap crews face-fasten the panels because it's faster. Every screw is a leak in year eight. They also skip the substrate detail. Metal needs a ventilated cavity or an ice-and-water membrane rated for high-temp, or you'll get condensation running down the underside.
Frequently asked
Snow does shed, and that's usually a good thing — metal releases the load instead of piling it up, which takes stress off the deck. The question is where it lands. On a Burke Mountain home we map the eave overhangs, driveway access, and any entryway below during the site walk so a big release doesn't create a hazard. Snow guards are a common add where they're needed, and the design goes in the closeout package.
Every valley flashing is custom-bent on site to match the exact geometry of your roof. We run a heavier gauge on the valley metal than on the panels themselves, in continuous lengths with no field seams — so water has nowhere to catch or work under. It's slower than a straight run, which stretches the timeline, but it's exactly what makes the roof last four decades under West Coast rain.
Yes. We're on strata parkade and walkway jobs here regularly. Send us the strata contact and your building envelope engineer's spec and we'll quote to that. If you have a 2-5-10 warranty firm involved, we can quote to their spec too.
More complex, yes. New Burke Mountain builds have bigger footprints, more valleys, and more penetrations for skylights and mechanical. Maillardville is straighter housing stock. The install spec is the same either way, the site walk just takes longer at the top of the hill.
Yes. Most townhome stratas run a spec colour we can order to. If it's an obscure shade we'll bring physical samples to the site walk to confirm before we buy the material.
50 years plus if the install is right and the homeowner leaves it alone. The finish is warranted 40 years. The panel itself is a much longer game than that. We've walked jobs from the mid-70s that still shed water perfectly, and the only reason we'd replace them is the colour palette went out of style.
Other options here
Same material, other cities
Coquitlam · Standing-seam metal
Send Innovation Roofing your address or draw the outline of your roof. A named project manager will conduct the site walk, photograph every problem area, and return a written, itemised proposal within one business day — no call centre, no follow-up pressure.
WorkSafeBC registered · $5M liability · Licensed BC contractor · Written warranty on every project