Vancouver's beauty is paid for in rain — about 1,200 mm a year, most of it sideways. The wall system that survives here was learned the expensive way, and it's the quiet difference between a house that lasts fifteen years and one that lasts a century.
The climate we build for
The $4-billion lesson
In the 1980s–90s, thousands of BC buildings were built with face-sealed walls — perfect on paper, catastrophic in practice. Water found every imperfection and rotted buildings from inside. The 'leaky condo crisis' cost over $4 billion in repairs and rewrote BC's building code: since the early 2000s, coastal walls are rainscreened — built to drain and dry, not to pretend water never enters.
The rainscreen wall, layer by layer
Siding, brick or panel sheds the bulk of the rain — but is assumed to leak.
A ventilated air space behind the cladding. Any water that passes drains down and dries out. This gap is the whole idea.
Membrane over the sheathing sheds whatever reaches it — lapped, taped and flashed into every window and penetration.
The wood that must never stay wet — everything outside it exists to protect this layer.
Continuous insulation and a sealed air barrier — where envelope meets energy performance and Step Code.
The inside face manages interior moisture — bathrooms and kitchens are ventilated so the wall never fights its own house.
Ask us to walk you through our envelope details at a free consultation — bring any builder's quote and compare.
✱ Representative planning figures for Metro Vancouver, mid-2026 — assembled from municipal permitting schedules, the BC Energy Step Code framework and Armacan project records. Every lot and scope is different: treat these as orientation, not a quote, and confirm against your property in a free consultation.
