Window & Door Replacement in Vancouver

Every Vancouver project starts the same way: a real measure visit, unit-by-unit, with a written flat-rate price per opening. No hourly rates, no allowance games, no surprise change orders on install day. Our installers are Red Seal certified, covered by $2M liability and WorkSafeBC, and every unit goes in under our 2-year written workmanship warranty with 20-year manufacturer seal coverage on the glass.

Vancouver work is also paperwork work. Condo owners in the West End and Fairview need strata approval before a single screw turns; character-home owners in Kitsilano and Dunbar want efficiency without erasing 1920s trim; owners on Kingsway, Knight Street and the SkyTrain corridors want the traffic noise to drop a few decibels. We handle all three every week. Full details on our main Windows & Doors service page, or see how we cover the whole region on our service areas page.

Character homes and their hundred-year-old windows

The pre-1940 houses of Kitsilano, Dunbar, Kerrisdale, Point Grey and Shaughnessy were framed around wood double-hung windows: two sashes, counterweights on cotton cords, and a weight pocket on each side of every jamb. Those pockets are uninsulated shafts that leak heated air straight out through the wall, and a century of 168-day rain seasons has left sills and lower rails checked, swollen and soft. Single glazing plus an empty pocket plus wet wood is why a 1920s living room feels cold no matter what the furnace does. The fix is not one product. Retrofit inserts keep the original trim and frame and drop a sealed double- or triple-pane unit into the existing sash opening; full-frame replacement pulls the old window and installs a modern unit with insulated jambs, foam sealing and new interior trim. We quote both, with honest pros and cons, because the right answer on a West 7th Avenue character reno is not always the right answer in Dunbar. Owners planning the whole envelope can also read our window replacement guide for Vancouver homes before booking anything.

Strata towers, the stack effect and aging seals

Downtown, the West End, Fairview and Mount Pleasant hold decades of condo stock, from 1960s slabs to 2000s point towers, and thousands of those sealed units are now past their service life. High-rise buildings behave differently: the stack effect drives warm air up stairwells and elevator shafts and pulls cold air in through the weakest gaskets on the lower floors, so a failing slider on floor 3 drafts far harder than the same unit on floor 23. Strata rules matter before hardware does. Most Vancouver councils require written approval, proof of insurance, and often an engineering letter confirming like-for-like glazing and frame colour before an owner may replace anything in the building envelope. We supply the letters, the $2M liability certificate and the WorkSafeBC clearance as a standard part of the quote, and we schedule work around elevator bookings and quiet-hour bylaws. Suite-by-suite glass swaps and full unit replacements both stay on the table; the Windows & Doors parent service page covers the product lines we install.

Arterial-street noise and what glass can realistically do

Living on Kingsway, Knight Street, Main, Cambie or beside the Expo and Canada Line means a constant low-frequency rumble that single glazing transmits almost untouched. Glass helps in a measurable, honest way: triple-pane units with mixed-thickness panes and laminated outer lites change the sound transmission class of the assembly, and combined with air-sealing they cut a noticeable slice of the noise. What we refuse to do is promise silence. We quote the units with their sound performance ratings, seal the frame gaps that transmit as much noise as the glass does, and let the numbers speak. The same upgrades that quiet a Mount Pleasant front bedroom also stop the January radiator-of-cold feeling next to the glass. Homeowners in the Fraser Valley's newer subdivisions face a different mix of problems; our Surrey window and door page covers that side of the region.

Diagnosis: what we check before quoting

A fogged pane is easy. The interesting failures are the ones that look fine: a bedroom that is 3 degrees colder than the hallway, a slider that needs two hands and a shoulder, paint bubbling below a sill that looks solid from across the room. At the measure visit we check each opening for failed perimeter seals, soft spots in sills and rails, sash alignment, hardware wear, and where the air is actually moving. On character homes we probe the weight pockets and look at the condition of the interior stop and casing, because retrofit versus full-frame is decided by that trim condition, not by preference. On strata suites we confirm the council's approved specifications first so the glass we order matches the building standard. Where a repair call is needed before a decision can be made, the $89 diagnostic is credited to the approved work.

What every installation includes

Whether it is one bathroom unit or a whole Kitsilano house, the install scope does not shrink:

• Exact opening measurement of every unit before ordering, including out-of-square character frames
• Full-frame or retrofit install, quoted both ways where the opening allows a genuine choice
• Low-expansion insulation foam in the shim cavity, trimmed and sealed airtight
• Self-adhesive flashing membrane at head, jambs and sill, lapped the way coastal rain demands
• Slope-corrected sill caps and drainage paths so water exits, never pools, behind the trim
• Interior finish trim, caulked and painted-ready, matched as close as stock allows
• Hardware set, adjusted and tested: locks, limit stops, rollers and multi-point latches
• Removal and disposal of all old units, sashes, glass and job debris
• A final walkthrough with every operable unit opened, closed and locked in front of you

Common Vancouver failures we solve weekly

Sealed-unit failure shows up as permanent fog or mineral streaks between the panes; replacing just the insulated glass unit restores clarity for a fraction of full replacement cost, and it keeps the strata-happy original look. Wet-wood rot at lower rails and sills is the second most common find, especially on shaded north-facing walls under mature street trees. Worn weatherstrips and adjuster screws gone soft are why 1970s-90s sliders rattle and leak; often a hardware rebuild plus new seals buys years while the budget catches up. And the invisible one: air leakage around the rough opening, hidden behind trim, which no new window fixes if the installer does not insulate and seal the cavity. Every quote we write names the failure and the fix, line by line. If you want to see how the numbers move across the region, the full service area list links every city page we maintain.

Neighbourhood	Housing stock era	What we usually fix there
Kitsilano	Pre-1940 character homes, 1900s-30s	Retrofit triple inserts in original double-hungs, rotted sill repairs, weight-pocket insulation
Dunbar	1920s-40s character homes	Full-frame replacements matched to existing trim, failed-seal glass swaps on original casements
Kerrisdale	1910s-40s homes with 1960s infill	Picture-window conversions, drafty sash rebuilds, French door installs on dining-room walls
Point Grey	1920s-50s heritage-adjacent homes	Discreet modern glazing behind heritage trim, arctic-outflow air sealing at sashes and pockets
Shaughnessy	Pre-1940 estate homes	Custom-milled oversized units, divided-lite matching, phased whole-home retrofits
Mount Pleasant	1900s-20s workers' cottages plus condos	Small-opening efficiency units, noise-rated glazing on Main and Kingsway front bedrooms
Marpole	1950s-70s splits and duplexes	Aluminum-to-vinyl conversions, sliding patio door swaps, sidelite entry door upgrades
Hastings-Sunrise	Pre-1970 East Side family homes	Seal-failed IGU replacement, hardware and weatherstrip rebuilds on original sliders
West End	1960s-2000s condo towers	Suite-by-suite glass and slider replacement with engineering letters for strata councils
Fairview	Condos and early 1900s conversions	Oversized fixed-glass upgrades, balcony door roller and interlock rebuilds

Service	Price range	What affects it
Measure & assess visit	Free for quoted projects; $89 diagnostic on repair calls, credited to approved work	Whether the visit is a full measure or a seal/hardware diagnosis
Double-pane window, installed	$650-$950 per unit	Glass area, frame colour, retrofit insert vs full-frame, floor access
Triple-pane window, installed	$800-$1,400 per unit	Glazing package, laminated noise lites, argon fill, spacer type
Entry door, installed	$1,200-$3,500	Door material, multi-point hardware, sidelites, transom glass
Patio sliding door, installed	$2,400-$4,800	Panel count, lift-and-slide mechanism, tempered safety glass
French doors, installed	$3,200-$6,500	In-swing vs out-swing, divided lites, exterior exposure and flashing scope
Full-home average, 10 windows	$7,500-$13,000	Opening count, style mix, trim repair, disposal, ladder and crane access

Windows & Doors in Surrey Windows & Doors in Burnaby Windows & Doors in Richmond Windows & Doors in Coquitlam Windows & Doors in Langley

Read all reviews →

Name Phone Email Service Select a service Full-home window quote Triple-pane upgrade Entry door replacement Patio / sliding door French doors Broken seal / fogged glass repair Strata window project Other windows/doors Message Get My Free Quote