West Vancouver Timber Frame Homes
From the British Properties to Horseshoe Bay, we build timber-frame homes that belong to their sites — engineered for coastal conditions, designed alongside the architects who define West Coast Modern.
We’ve built on the West Vancouver waterfront. We’ve worked alongside architects who’ve spent decades defining what this coastline looks like at its best. And we’ve engineered timber frames that hold up to what the marine environment here actually demands — not what you’d specify for a drier, gentler site. If you’re building in Ambleside, Dundarave, Caulfeild, or the British Properties, this is the work we’ve been preparing.
Coastal Durability
This Coast Has Specific Demands. We’ve Engineered for Them.
West Vancouver isn’t a standard coastal environment. The terrain is steep, the granite is unforgiving, the salt air is persistent, and the clients expect a level of design resolution you don’t see on most residential projects. Each of those factors changes how a timber frame must be built.
Marine-Grade Construction
Built for Salt Air and Coastal Exposure
The Burrard Inlet and Howe Sound don’t forgive shortcuts in material selection or treatment. Heavy timber frames are inherently well-suited to this environment — the mass resists moisture cycling better than light framing, the joinery is mechanical rather than adhesive-dependent, and Douglas fir holds up to salt-air exposure in ways that manufactured materials don’t. We specify and treat for coastal exposure from the design stage. By the time a timber package leaves our facility, every beam end, every joint face, and every exposed surface has been addressed. That’s not a finishing step. It’s the standard.
Architectural Synergy
We Work the Way West Coast Architects Work
West Vancouver’s residential architecture has a language — West Coast Modern, post-and-beam tradition, the deliberate relationship between indoor space and the view beyond. The architects who build here don’t want a timber supplier who makes compromises. They want a fabricator who can read their drawings, push back when something won’t work, and hold the tolerances that the design requires. We’ve collaborated with firms whose standard is measured in millimetres and whose clients notice when something is off by one. That’s the collaboration we’re built for.
Our Proven Approach
From a landmark waterfront commercial project at Horseshoe Bay to residential builds on some of the most architecturally demanding lots on the coast.
Sewell’s Landing — Horseshoe Bay, West Vancouver
Three and a half million people pass through Horseshoe Bay every year. Sewell’s Landing is what they look up at. Warm timber, structural glass, ocean views — West Coast construction at a scale that earns its place on the waterfront. Building on a commercial project of this visibility, at this location, with those sight lines and that exposure, is a different kind of problem than most fabricators are used to solving. We solved it. The building has been standing on that waterfront, in full marine exposure, ever since.
Breathtaking Bowen Island — Bowen Island, BC (Howe Sound)
The roofline moves in three dimensions, and nothing repeats. No straight lines in plan or elevation. When Grant Architecture Studio brought us this design, we sourced curved steel tubes from a roller coaster manufacturer — because that was the right answer, and finding it required knowing where to look. Every piece was installed using a Leica Total Station and precision laser control. EQ Construction and True Pacific Construction ran the build; Blackcomb Facade Technology handled the glazing on a roofline with no straight lines. West Vancouver clients and their architects ask for things other builders don’t attempt. We attempt them.
West Coast Contemporary — North Vancouver, BC
he brief was specific: bring timber into a renovation without letting it overpower the architecture. The solution was traditional Japanese joinery — no knee braces, clean sight lines, the structural work in balance with the non-timbered portions of the home. Designer Maureen Berris had a clear vision for how timber and contemporary form could share the same space without one fighting the other. Our job was to make that vision buildable, and to cut it to a standard that would hold up under that kind of scrutiny. The result is exactly what West Coast Modern looks like when the craft is right.
Details That Make a Project Stand Out
We stay in the conversation through design development and coordinate directly with the architectural and structural teams.
Architectural Collaboration
There’s a reason the best residential work in West Vancouver — in the British Properties, along Marine Drive, on the hillsides above Dundarave and Caulfeild — consistently involves timber. The material rewards the kind of attention that serious architects bring. It responds to design intent in ways that engineered alternatives don’t. And when the collaboration is right, the result is a home that couldn’t have been built any other way.
We don’t hand off a package and disappear. We stay in the conversation through design development, coordinate directly with the architectural and structural teams, and flag issues before they become site problems. That’s what working with West Coast firms has taught us to do — and why the relationship works.
Building it Right
West Vancouver’s coastal exposure demands timber that’s been selected and treated for the environment — not just specified to a general coastal standard. We source Douglas fir from BC’s coastal region, treat for the specific exposure conditions of each project, and build joinery that handles moisture movement without losing structural integrity. The marine environment here is real. We account for it from the first drawing.
Site-Specific Engineering
Steep granite lots in the British Properties or Sentinel Hill don’t build the same way as level sites. We model the structure in 3D before fabrication begins, which means every load path, every connection, and every beam dimension is resolved on screen before it’s cut in the shop. What arrives on site is engineered for that lot — not adapted from a standard package.
One Team, Full Accountability
Design, engineering, fabrication, and delivery handled by one company means one set of drawings and one standard applied from concept to crane pick. On a high-stakes project in a high-expectation neighbourhood, accountability matters. There’s no finger-pointing between the designer and the fabricator — because they’re the same team.
Your West Vancouver Project
The homes that define Ambleside, Dundarave, the British Properties, Caulfeild, Horseshoe Bay, and Sentinel Hill didn’t happen by accident. They started with the right team around the table early enough to matter.
Inquire About Your West Vancouver Project
Tell us about your site, and we’ll give you an honest read on what a timber frame would take and what it would add.