Structural Steel, Vancouver, BC
Structural steel packages for Vancouver contractors, developers, and builders, fabricated at our C.W.B. certified Burnaby shop 15 to 25 minutes away. We handle the parts downtown work makes hard: crane picks on tight streets, lane closures, night-work windows, and seismic detailing on every connection. Past Vancouver scopes include the terrace steel at Rosewood Hotel Georgia and custom steel trellis installs on city parkades.
Structural Steel, Vancouver
Structural steel packages fabricated and installed from our C.W.B. certified Burnaby shop: beams, columns, frames, canopies, stair towers, mezzanines, and miscellaneous steel.
Vancouver structural steel work is where site logistics matter as much as fabrication. Our Burnaby shop is 15 to 25 minutes from most Vancouver sites, close enough for split deliveries, but downtown erection still turns on crane positioning, lane closure permits, and laydown space that often does not exist. We plan those constraints into the erection sequence before steel hits the truck. Our Vancouver track record runs from hospitality to parkades: we fabricated and installed the terrace steel for Reflections at Rosewood Hotel Georgia downtown, and we have delivered custom steel trellis installs on Vancouver parkades, structures that have to carry load, drain rain, and still look intentional from the street. The building stock drives the rest of the work. Heritage and older concrete buildings in Gastown, Strathcona, and the West End generate seismic retrofit steel, moment frames and braces threaded into occupied buildings. Custom homes in Point Grey, Dunbar, and Shaughnessy need beam and column packages for open-plan structures. Condo towers from Coal Harbour to Marpole produce miscellaneous steel and elevator-shaft scopes. Everything exterior gets specified for Vancouver's 1,200 to 1,400 mm of annual rain, hot-dip galvanizing per ASTM A123 before any powder coat, and every connection carries Vancouver-zone seismic detailing per CSA W47.1.
Vancouver is where the largest share of our project work lands, heritage restorations downtown, custom mono stringer staircases in East Van character homes, frameless glass railings on new Kitsilano builds, luxury residential metalwork in Shaughnessy and Point Grey. Our Burnaby shop is 15 to 25 minutes from most Vancouver neighbourhoods depending on time of day. The city's mix of heritage buildings, modern custom homes, and high-density condos means every project type shows up here.
Configurations we fabricate
Vancouver context
Vancouver's climate, building stock, and permit process shape every structural steel project we deliver here.
Climate
Design snow load for Vancouver is roughly 1.6 kPa ground. Coastal exposure is moderate. Vancouver seismic zone, seismic detailing required on all structural connections. These are the numbers the engineer pulls when sizing steel for a structural steel here.
Permits
City of Vancouver requires building permits for structural modifications, new guardrails, and canopies. Heritage-designated properties (Gastown, Shaughnessy, West End) add a heritage review step of 4 to 8 weeks.
Local neighbourhoods
We work throughout Vancouver, including Downtown, Yaletown, Gastown, Coal Harbour, Kitsilano, Point Grey, Dunbar, Kerrisdale. Most sites are a 15 to 25 minutes drive from our Burnaby shop.
Cost for Vancouver
Every structural steel scope is quoted per project against the drawings. These are the factors that move the number.
For a Vancouver-specific number, send drawings or a project description and request a quote. We price against documents, not from a rate table.
Process
1. RFQ and scope review. We price against the structural drawings and spec sections, and state assumptions and exclusions in writing. Residential quotes in 2 to 5 business days; commercial tenders within the tender window.
2. Shop drawings. Detailed 3D drawings of every member and connection. Anchor bolt and embed layouts release first so foundations are never waiting on steel.
3. Engineer review. Submittals tracked through the engineer of record and architect review cycle, with fast responses to review comments.
4. Fabrication. Steel cut, drilled, fit, and welded at our Burnaby shop under C.W.B. supervision to CSA W47.1, with mill certificate traceability.
5. Finishing. Shop primer, hot-dip galvanizing per ASTM A123, powder coat, or intumescent systems per the specification.
6. Delivery and erection. Steel sequenced to the erection plan, crane picks coordinated with the site, field connections bolted or welded by C.W.B. qualified crews, then inspection documentation at closeout.
Related products in Vancouver
Structural Steel across Metro Vancouver
FAQs
Answers to the questions we hear most often from Vancouver homeowners, architects, and GCs on structural steel projects.
Steel tonnage and connection complexity set the base, but in Vancouver the erection conditions often move the number more: crane positioning, lane closure fees, night-work windows, and whether there is any laydown space on site. A Point Grey house frame and a downtown retrofit can carry the same tonnage and price very differently. <a href="/request-a-quote/">Request a quote</a> with your drawings and site address, and we price the real erection conditions, not an average.
The City of Vancouver requires a building permit for structural modifications, and the application includes sealed engineering drawings. On heritage-designated properties in Gastown, Shaughnessy, and the West End, a heritage review step adds 4 to 8 weeks to the timeline. We produce shop drawings in parallel with permit review so fabrication starts the week the permit lands.
Yes. Vancouver-zone seismic demand plus a large stock of pre-1980 buildings makes retrofit steel a steady scope, moment frames, braces, and collector elements installed in occupied buildings. The fabrication is straightforward; the value is in the field work, fitting new steel through existing structure with the building still in use. All welding runs to CSA W47.1 under C.W.B. supervision.
We sequence the steel to the crane plan, not the other way around. That means split deliveries timed to picks, pre-assembled sections sized to the crane capacity and swing radius, and coordination with the city on lane closures. Our Burnaby shop being 15 to 25 minutes out lets us run just-in-time deliveries instead of demanding laydown space the site does not have.
Hot-dip galvanizing per ASTM A123, with powder coat over top where appearance matters. Vancouver's 1,200 to 1,400 mm of annual rain and long wet season will find any bare steel, and paint alone over raw steel fails in a few years here. For enclosed interior steel, shop primer is the economical spec.
Shop drawings and engineer review typically run 2 to 4 weeks, fabrication and finishing 3 to 6 weeks depending on tonnage and galvanizing, then erection per the site schedule. Downtown scopes add lead time for lane closure permits and crane bookings, so flag those constraints at award and we build them into the sequence.
Get in touch
Send the drawings, spec sections, and schedule dates. We will price against the documents and follow up with a scope letter covering fabrication, finishing, and erection from our Burnaby shop.
