Repair or Replace Your Roof on the North Shore?

Repair if the damage is isolated, the roof still has meaningful life left, and the deck underneath is sound. Replace if leaks keep recurring in new places, the roof is near the end of its expected life, or cedar has gone widely curled, split, and soft. The North Shore complicates this because its heavy rainfall and mountain shadow keep roofs damp and accelerate wear, so a roof here often reaches its decision point earlier than the same roof would in a drier, sunnier part of the region. The honest test is whether you are fixing one contained problem on a healthy roof, or chasing failure across a roof that is wearing out as a whole. We always check the deck before advising, because on a wet, shaded slope the surface can look better than the structure beneath it.

Because of the microclimate. North Vancouver and West Vancouver catch more rainfall than almost anywhere else in Metro Vancouver, and the mountains cast shade that keeps roof slopes from drying between systems. Constant damp is what ages a roof: it feeds moss, rots cedar, and weathers asphalt faster than a roof that dries in the sun. Mature trees common across the North Shore make it worse, dropping debris that holds moisture and casting even more shade. The result is that roofs here often reach end of life a few years sooner than identical roofs in drier, sunnier parts of the region, which is why age based rules of thumb should be read on the early side up here.

It depends on how much you value authentic cedar versus freedom from maintenance. Re shaking in real cedar keeps the genuine material and look but commits you to the relentless upkeep that our wet climate demands: cleaning, treatment, and a shorter lifespan than you would get in a dry region. Converting to synthetic cedar keeps the look almost identically while ending the moss and rot problem, and converting to asphalt is the value option. Many North Shore homeowners convert at replacement time precisely because end of life is the natural moment to reconsider. We lay out all three paths with honest costs so you can decide based on your budget and how much maintenance you are willing to take on.

A repair is the right call when the problem is contained and the rest of the roof is healthy. Think a single failed flashing, a handful of shakes split by a branch, or one wind lifted section, on a roof that is well short of end of life with a dry, sound deck underneath. The warning sign that it is more than a repair is repetition: if you fix one leak and another appears soon after in a different spot, the roof is failing as a system and patching only buys weeks. We inspect the whole roof and the deck, not just the obvious spot, so the recommendation reflects the real condition rather than the symptom you noticed.

Not on its own, but it is a warning worth taking seriously on the North Shore. If the surface under the moss is still sound, treating the moss and making a targeted repair can be enough, paired with prevention like ridge strips and trimming back shade. The danger is that moss holds moisture against the roof permanently, and on cedar especially that constant damp often means rot is already underway beneath the green. So heavy moss should trigger a proper look under the surface rather than just a cleaning. We assess what is happening below the moss before calling it repair or replace, because the moss is frequently a symptom of a deeper problem here.