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Port Coquitlam gets close to a third of its annual rain between November and January, and our crews still install windows every week of those three months. We have been doing it since 2007. So when a homeowner in Burnaby or Coquitlam asks us about the best time to replace windows, the honest answer has two parts: the weather you would pick if you could, and the calendar reality of how our schedule fills up.

This guide covers both. It is written for Metro Vancouver specifically, because advice from an Ontario or Arizona installer does not transfer to a climate that rarely freezes but rains for half the year.

The short answer

The best time to replace windows in Vancouver is May through September. The weather is dry, temperatures sit between 15 and 25 degrees, sealants cure the way they are designed to, and the crew can leave an opening exposed for an hour without worrying about a downpour. The catch is that everyone else knows this too, and our summer calendar in a typical year books out several weeks ahead.

The best time to book windows is January through March. Estimates are easy to schedule and our production line has room. By the time the windows are built, the worst of the rain is behind us. If you want a summer install date without waiting, get the quote done in winter.

If your windows are failing right now, there is no wrong season. We install in December. We install in February. The process changes a little, and we explain how below.

Vancouver’s window replacement calendar, season by season

Our shop is in Port Coquitlam, about 30 km east of downtown Vancouver, and the Tri-Cities get noticeably more rain than the airport does. Vancouver International Airport averages roughly 1,150 mm a year; Coquitlam and Port Moody are closer to 2,000 mm because the North Shore mountains push the clouds up and wring them out. That difference shows up on our job sites, so the table below is built around what our installers see, not a generic Pacific Northwest summary.

Winter: the season nobody picks and everybody should book in

Vancouver winters are mild by Canadian standards. A January day in Coquitlam is usually 2 to 7 degrees, and the ground rarely freezes for more than a week at a time. That is very different from Calgary or Winnipeg, where an opening in the wall in January is a serious problem.

The rain is the real issue, not the cold. Our crews plan winter installs around the forecast, work one window at a time so the house is never open in more than one spot, and use sealants rated for application in cool, damp conditions. A typical eight-window job that takes one day in July might take a day and a half in December because we pause for heavy showers.

What winter gives you in exchange is the calendar. January and February are the quietest months for estimates and orders, which means faster appointments and windows coming off our production line without a queue in front of them.

Spring: good weather arrives before the crowds do

Rain in Metro Vancouver drops off through April. By the second half of the month the daytime highs are in the mid-teens and multi-day dry spells become common. That is when a lot of the orders placed in January turn into installs.

Spring is also when the phones start ringing. Homeowners who spent the winter watching condensation form on the inside of their aluminum sliders decide they have had enough. If you call us in May for a quote, expect the install to land in summer. If you called in February, you are already on the spring schedule.

Summer: the best weather and the longest wait

July and August in Vancouver are as dry as it gets, with the airport averaging under 40 mm of rain per month. Sealants skin over quickly and the house stays comfortable with an opening exposed for an hour. From a pure installation standpoint, this is the best time of year to replace windows.

It is also when our schedule is fullest. Every window company in the Lower Mainland is running flat out from June through September. If you want a July install, the quote should be done by April at the latest.

One more summer note: heat waves. During the hotter stretches, a house with the windows out for a day can get uncomfortable, especially south-facing rooms in Surrey or Langley where the afternoon sun hits hard. We start those jobs early and close the openings before mid-afternoon.

Fall: the last dry weeks before the heating bills start

Early October is underrated. The weather is usually still dry, the summer rush has thinned out, and new windows go in just before the furnace starts running for six months straight. That timing matters if energy savings are part of the reason you are replacing.

By November, the rain is back in force. We still install, but the same forecast-watching and one-opening-at-a-time approach from winter applies.

Can you replace windows in the winter in Vancouver?

Yes. We replace windows in Metro Vancouver every month of the year, and winter is a normal part of our schedule. The temperatures here rarely drop low enough to stop a window installation. What changes is how the crew manages moisture and how long each opening stays exposed.

Here is how a winter window replacement runs on one of our jobs:

• The crew pulls and sets one window at a time. The old unit comes out, the opening is checked and prepped, the new window goes in and gets sealed, and only then does the next window come out. The house is never open in two places.
• Interior rooms get draped with plastic to contain dust and keep the rest of the house warm.
• Exterior sealants are chosen for cold, damp application. Standard summer caulking does not bond well below about 5 degrees, so the product changes with the season.
• Heavy rain pauses the exterior work. Light drizzle does not. The installers keep an eye on the radar and sequence the day so the exposed openings line up with the dry windows in the forecast.

A single window in winter takes about the same time as it does in summer. A whole-house job might stretch by half a day. That is the trade-off, and for most homeowners it is a small price for a shorter wait.

Can you install windows in the rain?

In light rain, yes. In a steady downpour, no, and any installer who says otherwise is either exaggerating or cutting corners.

The concern is not the window itself. A vinyl window does not care if it gets wet. The concern is the rough opening and the sealing work around it. Flashing tape and sealant need a surface that is dry enough to bond, and the sheathing behind the old window needs to be inspected for rot before the new unit goes in. If water is running down the wall, neither of those things can happen properly.

This is where Metro Vancouver’s building history matters. A lot of homes built between the 1980s and early 2000s went up before rainscreen wall assemblies became standard, and water damage behind old windows is common in that era of housing. When we pull a window out of a 1990s home in Burnaby or New Westminster and find soft sheathing, we need dry conditions to repair it. Our window flashing guide explains why that sealing layer matters so much in this climate.

So the practical rule is: the crew installs through showers, tents the opening if a cell moves in, and reschedules the exterior sealing if the forecast is an all-day soaker. Your project manager will tell you the day before if a weather delay is likely.

Is there a cheapest time of year to replace windows?

American window blogs will tell you to wait for the winter blowout sale. That advice comes from a market where big-box retailers and national franchises run seasonal promotions to keep crews busy. It does not describe how pricing works for a local manufacturer.

We build our own SilverLine windows in Port Coquitlam. Our pricing is based on the window size, the glass package, and the installation scope, and it does not swing with the season. A double glazed window that costs $800 to $1,000 installed in July costs the same in January. Triple glazed runs $1,000 to $1,400. Those are our 2026 averages across the jobs we quote, and the actual number depends on size, style, and access.

What does change with the season is your wait time and your say over the install date. A quote done in January can pick almost any install date. A quote done in June takes what is left. If a shorter timeline has value to you, winter is the cheaper season in the way that counts.

The other variable is rebates. BC Hydro and CleanBC Better Homes have offered incentives for energy efficient window upgrades, and the programs change their terms from time to time. Check the current programs before you sign, and ask us what applies to your quote. We are an HPCN certified contractor, which some programs require.

For a full breakdown of what drives the price per window, see our window replacement cost guide for Vancouver.

How far ahead should you plan? Count backwards from your install date

Most homeowners underestimate the lead time on custom windows. Every window we install is built to the measurements of your specific opening, so there is no stock to pull from. The process runs like this:

1. Request a quote. A sales rep books an appointment, visits the home, takes rough measurements, and prices the job.
2. Sign the order and pay the deposit. This is what puts you on the production calendar.
3. Final measure. An installer returns to measure every opening to the millimetre and confirm the installation notes. Nothing goes into production until this is done.
4. Production. The windows are built at our Port Coquitlam facility.
5. Installation day is booked once the windows are ready.

From signed order to install, plan on several weeks, and longer in the summer rush. If you want the windows in before a specific date (a home sale, a renovation deadline, the start of the rainy season), get the quote done at least two months ahead. For a summer install, that means booking the estimate in early spring at the latest, and ideally in winter.

Signs you should not wait for a better season

Some windows can wait for July. Some cannot. If any of the following describes your house, the best time to replace windows is as soon as you can get on the schedule.

• Condensation between the panes. The seal has failed and the insulating gas is gone. The window is now a single pane with extra steps, and it will only get foggier.
• Water on the sill or staining on the drywall below the window. Water is getting past the frame, and every rainy month it stays that way adds to the repair.
• Frames that have cracked, warped, or pulled away from the wall.
• A window that will not lock. That is a security problem, not a comfort problem.
• Drafts you can feel from across the room in a 1970s or 1980s aluminum slider.

We go through the full list in our guide on when to replace windows. If you are seeing two or more of these, the season is the least of your concerns.

Whole house at once, or a few at a time?

How you split the job matters as much as which month you pick.

Replacing every window at once is the most efficient option. One final measure, one production run, one or two install days, and the whole envelope performs the same afterward. It is also the easiest way to take advantage of a rebate program, since most of them are per-window and the paperwork is the same whether you do four or fourteen.

Phasing the job makes sense when the budget calls for it or when some windows are in far worse shape than others. A common split we see in Coquitlam and Port Moody is the north-facing and weather-facing windows first, since those take the most rain and lose the most heat, with the sheltered south side done a year or two later. If you go this route, tell your sales rep. We will keep the frame colour and glass package consistent across phases so the house does not end up with two visibly different sets of windows.

What a SilverLine install looks like on the day

Whatever season you land in, the day runs the same way. The crew arrives in the morning, protects the floors and furniture near each window, and works room by room. A standard window takes about an hour to swap; a large picture window or a bay takes longer. Exterior trim and sealing happen the same day, and the crew hauls away the old units.

The new windows are built for this climate. Our vinyl frames are made for coastal moisture and temperature swings, and the glass packages are put together for BC energy code. If you are choosing between double and triple glazing for a Vancouver home, our triple pane windows guide walks through the payback math, and our energy efficient windows guide covers the ratings that matter here.

Why homeowners across Metro Vancouver choose SilverLine

SilverLine Exterior Solutions has been replacing windows in the Lower Mainland since 2007, when the company started as Super Windows. Nearly 20 years later, we have won nine HomeStars awards, hold an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, and carry 107 Google reviews at a 4.5 star average. We manufacture our own windows, which means the people who build your windows and the people who install them work for the same company.

Our service area covers Vancouver, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, New Westminster, Surrey, Langley, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, and the North Shore. Our shop is at Unit 5, 1560 Broadway Street in Port Coquitlam, and every one of those cities is within about 40 minutes of it.

Frequently asked questions

When is the best time to replace windows in Vancouver?

May through September has the best installation weather. January through March has the shortest booking times. The ideal approach is to get quoted in winter and installed in late spring or summer.

Can you replace windows in the winter in BC?

Yes. In coastal BC, winter temperatures are mild enough for window installation. Our crews work one opening at a time, use sealants rated for cool and damp conditions, and plan around heavy rain. A winter job may take slightly longer than a summer job.

Can windows be installed in the rain?

Light rain is fine. Heavy, sustained rain is not, because flashing and sealant need a surface dry enough to bond and the rough opening needs to be inspected for water damage. We tent openings during showers and reschedule exterior sealing if the forecast is an all-day downpour.

What is the cheapest month to replace windows?

For a local manufacturer like SilverLine, pricing does not change by month. What changes is availability. January and February have the shortest waits and the most flexibility on install dates.

How long does it take to get windows after ordering?

Every window is built to your openings after the final measure, so plan on several weeks from signed order to install, and longer during the summer rush. Ask your sales rep for the current production timeline when you get your quote.

Should I replace windows before selling my house in Metro Vancouver?

If the windows have failed seals, visible rot, or obvious drafts, yes. Buyers and home inspectors flag them, and a low offer or a repair credit usually costs more than the replacement. If the windows are in good shape, spend the money elsewhere.

Does the season affect window rebates in BC?

Rebate programs from BC Hydro and CleanBC Better Homes are not seasonal, but their terms and funding change. Check the current programs before you sign and confirm that your installer meets the program’s contractor requirements.

Get on the calendar before the rush

The single best piece of timing advice we can give a Vancouver homeowner is this: do not wait for the sun to start the conversation. Book the estimate in the off-season, choose the install date you want, and let the weather sort itself out by the time the windows are built.

Call SilverLine Exterior Solutions at 604-942-0488 or request a free quote online. We will measure and price the job, then tell you plainly which season makes sense for your house. You can also read more about our window replacement service before you call.

Every window that leaves our Port Coquitlam shop is built from the same handful of decisions: how many panes, what coating, what gas between them, and whether the glass needs to be tempered or laminated. Those choices are the types of window glass you will see on a quote, and homeowners rarely ask about any of them. They pick a style and a colour, and the glass gets treated as an afterthought. That is backwards. The frame is what you see. The glass is what does the work.

Since 2007 we have manufactured our own vinyl windows and installed them across Metro Vancouver, so we spec glass every single day. This guide covers the types of window glass you will run into on a quote, what each one does, what it costs, and which ones make sense for a house in a wet, mild climate like ours.

The short answer: which type of window glass is best?

For most homes in the Lower Mainland, the best window glass is a double-pane insulated unit with a Low-E coating and argon fill. That combination meets the current ENERGY STAR requirement for Canada, costs $800 to $1,000 per window installed with our own SilverLine frames, and handles the two things Vancouver weather throws at a window: months of rain and damp, and winter nights that hover around freezing.

From there you add glass types only where a room needs them. Tempered glass goes wherever the BC Building Code requires safety glazing. Laminated glass goes on the side of the house that faces traffic or a SkyTrain line. Obscure glass goes in bathrooms. Triple pane goes in bedrooms on a noisy street or in homes where the owner wants the last few percent of insulation. Nobody needs every option on every window, and a quote that puts them everywhere is padding the bill.

Window glass is built in layers, not picked off a shelf

A modern residential window does not use a single sheet of glass. It uses an insulated glass unit, usually called an IGU or a sealed unit. Two or three panes are separated by a spacer bar, the edges are sealed, and the gap between the panes is filled with air or an inert gas. The coating sits on one of the inside glass surfaces, protected from weather and cleaning.

So when people ask about “types of window glass,” they are usually asking about five separate things at once:

• How many panes (single, double, or triple)
• Whether there is a Low-E coating, and which one
• What fills the gap (air or argon)
• How the glass was treated for safety (annealed, tempered, or laminated)
• Whether the glass is clear, obscured, tinted, or decorative

A single window can combine several of these. A bathroom window in a Burnaby home might be double pane, Low-E, argon filled, tempered, and obscured all at once. We cover each layer below, then pull it together in a comparison table.

Types of window glass by number of panes

Single pane

One sheet of glass in the frame. We still pull these out of 1960s and 1970s homes in East Vancouver, Burnaby, and New Westminster, usually in aluminum frames. Single pane glass has a U-factor around 5.0 W/m²·K, which means it loses heat roughly four times faster than a modern double-pane unit. It also sweats. If you wake up to water pooled on the sill from October through March, this is why. Nobody installs single pane in a house anymore, and no current rebate program will touch it.

Double pane

Two panes with a sealed gap between them, typically 12 to 16 mm wide. This is the standard for every window we build. On its own, a plain double-pane unit with air fill is a big step up from single pane. Add a Low-E coating and argon, and the U-factor drops to roughly 1.2 to 1.4 W/m²·K, which is where the ENERGY STAR line for Canada sits. Double glazed windows from SilverLine run $800 to $1,000 per window installed.

Triple pane

Three panes, two gaps, and room for two Low-E coatings. Triple pane pushes U-factors down to about 0.8 to 1.0 W/m²·K and cuts more noise than double pane because of the extra mass and the two air spaces. We manufacture triple pane in our own shop, and it runs $1,000 to $1,400 per window installed.

Is it worth it in Vancouver? Sometimes. Our climate is the mildest in Canada, so the heating-bill payback is slower here than in Calgary or Winnipeg. Where triple pane earns its keep locally is noise (Lougheed Highway, Kingsway, the SkyTrain corridors) and condensation resistance on cold clear nights. We wrote a full breakdown with the payback math on our triple pane windows page.

Low-E glass

Low-E stands for low emissivity. It is a metallic coating, thinner than a human hair, applied to one surface of the glass inside the sealed unit. The coating lets visible light through but reflects long-wave heat. In winter it bounces your furnace heat back into the room. In summer it reflects some of the sun’s heat back outside. It also blocks most of the UV that fades hardwood floors and furniture.

There are different Low-E formulas. The two that matter for BC homes are a high-solar-gain coating (lets more winter sun heat in, better for north and east exposures) and a low-solar-gain coating (blocks more summer heat, better for big south and west windows). We pick per elevation on most jobs rather than using one coating for the whole house. A west-facing living room in Port Moody that bakes in July gets a different coating than a north-facing bedroom in the same house.

Low-E is included on every window we sell. There is no version of a modern replacement window where leaving it off makes sense. If you want the chemistry, our Low-E coating guide goes deeper.

Argon-filled glass

Argon is an inert gas that is denser than air, so it slows heat transfer across the gap between panes. It is colourless and harmless, and it costs almost nothing extra. Filling a sealed unit with argon instead of air improves the U-factor by roughly 10 to 15 percent. Krypton does the same job better in narrow gaps but costs far more, so it rarely shows up in residential windows here.

Every sealed unit we manufacture is argon filled. The thing to watch for is how well the unit is sealed, because argon slowly escapes through a failed edge seal. That is also how you get fog between the panes years later. A good spacer and a proper dual seal matter more than the gas itself. More on that in our argon gas windows article.

Tempered glass

Standard window glass is annealed: it is cooled slowly at the factory and breaks into long, sharp shards. Tempered glass is reheated and cooled fast, which puts the surface under compression. The result is about four times stronger than annealed glass, and when it does break, it crumbles into small blunt pebbles instead of daggers.

This is not optional in certain spots. The BC Building Code requires safety glazing (tempered or laminated) in locations where someone could fall into the glass. In a typical house that means:

• Glass in any door, and sidelights next to a door
• Windows in bathrooms near a tub or shower
• Windows beside stairs and landings
• Large panes that sit close to the floor, such as a low picture window or floor-to-ceiling glass

Our final measure flags every opening that needs tempered glass, and it is one of the things we check when a homeowner brings us a competing quote. A quote that prices a bathroom window or a stairwell window with standard glass is either a mistake or a corner being cut. Tempered adds a modest amount per pane, usually well under $150 on a typical residential size, and it cannot be cut or drilled after tempering, so sizes have to be right the first time. That is one reason we do a separate final measure on every job.

Laminated glass

Laminated glass is two sheets of glass bonded to a clear plastic interlayer, the same construction as a car windshield. When it breaks, the pieces stay stuck to the interlayer, so the window holds together. It also counts as safety glazing under the code.

In Metro Vancouver, though, the main reason we spec laminated glass is noise. The plastic interlayer dampens sound in a way that an extra pane of plain glass does not. A double-pane unit with one laminated pane will outperform a standard triple-pane unit on traffic noise, at a lower cost. We use it on homes backing onto Highway 1 in Burnaby and Coquitlam, on condos along the Expo Line, and on anything near a school field or a fire hall. Laminated glass also blocks nearly all UV and is much harder to break through than tempered, which makes it the choice for ground-floor windows where security is the concern.

Expect laminated to add roughly 15 to 25 percent to the glass cost of a given window, depending on size. On a whole-house job we usually laminate only the elevation that faces the noise and leave the rest standard.

Obscure and privacy glass

Obscure glass has a texture pressed into one surface so light passes through but the view does not. Patterns range from a fine sandblast look to heavy ripples. It goes in bathrooms, ensuites, and the occasional side window that looks straight into a neighbour’s kitchen on a 33-foot Vancouver lot. It can be combined with tempered glass (and in a bathroom it usually has to be) and with Low-E, since the coating sits on a different surface from the texture.

Frosted film applied after the fact is the budget alternative. It works, but it scratches, peels at the edges over a few years, and looks like film. If you are replacing the window anyway, build the privacy into the glass.

Tinted, reflective, and decorative glass

Tinted glass has colour mixed into the glass itself, usually grey, bronze, or green, to cut glare and solar heat. It was common before Low-E coatings existed and still shows up on commercial buildings. In a house it darkens the room year-round, including in a Vancouver January when you want every bit of daylight you can get. A low-solar-gain Low-E coating does the same summer job without the gloom, so we rarely recommend tint for homes here.

Reflective glass has a mirror-like metallic layer on the outside. Same idea, stronger effect, and it looks like an office tower. Skip it on a house.

Decorative glass covers bevelled panels, leaded designs, stained inserts, and internal grilles. We build these mostly for entry doors, sidelights, and transoms rather than main windows. Our decorative glass options page shows what we can put in a sealed unit.

Comparison: types of window glass at a glance

How to read the glass ratings on a quote

Three numbers describe how a glass unit performs, and they show up on the NRCan label and on any decent quote.

U-factor measures heat loss. Lower is better. Canada reports it in W/m²·K, and the ENERGY STAR threshold for windows across Canada is a U-factor of 1.22 or lower, or an Energy Rating of 34 or higher. Solar heat gain coefficient, or SHGC, measures how much of the sun’s heat comes through, on a scale from 0 to 1. Visible transmittance measures how much daylight gets through, also 0 to 1. Each Low-E coating shifts these numbers, which is why we choose coatings by exposure instead of by default.

Metro Vancouver sits in the mildest climate zone in the country, so a window that clears the ENERGY STAR line is plenty for a normal house here. Chasing a U-factor of 0.8 is a fair goal if you are doing a full envelope upgrade or building to a high BC Energy Step Code level. For a standard replacement in a 1980s Coquitlam split-level, the money is usually better spent on laminated glass for the loud side and on a proper install. Our U-value guide for BC homeowners walks through the label line by line.

What we recommend room by room

On a typical whole-house replacement in Metro Vancouver, the glass spec shakes out like this when we build the quote.

Living room and kitchen get double pane, Low-E, argon. If the room faces west with a big picture window, we switch to the low-solar-gain coating so the room does not overheat in August. Bedrooms get the same unless they face a busy road, in which case one pane goes laminated. Bathrooms get obscure and tempered, because the code requires tempered near a tub and the privacy is the point. Stairwell and landing windows get tempered. Basement windows near grade often get tempered too, and if the basement is a suite, egress size matters more than glass type. Patio doors are always tempered, both panes, no exceptions.

Triple pane comes up when the owner asks for it, when the house sits right on a highway, or when a north-facing bedroom has a condensation history. On the coast, we would rather put laminated glass on the two noisy windows than triple pane on all twenty.

What different types of window glass cost

Glass is one part of the window price, alongside the frame, hardware, and installation. As a rule of thumb for SilverLine windows installed in the Lower Mainland in 2026:

• Double pane, Low-E, argon: $800 to $1,000 per window
• Triple pane: $1,000 to $1,400 per window
• Tempered: adds a modest amount per pane, generally under $150 on a typical size
• Laminated: adds roughly 15 to 25 percent to the glass portion
• Obscure: small upcharge, usually paired with tempered in bathrooms

Size, shape, and access change these numbers. A 6-foot picture window on a second storey costs more than a 3-foot bathroom slider, regardless of glass type. Full price tables by window style are on our window replacement cost Vancouver page. BC Hydro and CleanBC Better Homes run rebate programs for qualifying window upgrades; check the current program terms before you sign, since the eligible ratings change.

Because we manufacture the sealed units and the frames ourselves in Port Coquitlam, there is no distributor markup on the glass. That is a large part of why our pricing lands where it does. Read more about how our window replacement process works, or see the full list of options on our window features page.

Frequently asked questions about window glass types

What are the four main types of window glass?

Most guides list annealed, tempered, laminated, and insulated (double or triple pane) as the four main types. In practice a modern window combines them: the insulated unit is the assembly, and each pane inside it is either annealed, tempered, or laminated. Low-E is a coating applied to one of those panes, not a separate glass type.

Which type of glass is best for windows in Vancouver?

Double pane with Low-E and argon is the right baseline for the Lower Mainland’s mild, wet climate. Add laminated glass on windows facing traffic or transit noise, tempered where the code requires it, and obscure glass in bathrooms. Triple pane is a reasonable upgrade for noisy sites or owners who want the lowest U-factor, but it is not necessary for a typical home here.

Is Low-E glass worth it in a mild climate?

Yes, and there is no reason to buy a window without it. Low-E cuts winter heat loss, blocks the UV that fades floors and furniture, and is required to reach ENERGY STAR ratings in Canada. It is standard on every window we manufacture.

Do I need tempered glass in my windows?

Only in locations the BC Building Code defines as hazardous: glass in and beside doors, in bathrooms near a tub or shower, beside stairs, and in large panes close to the floor. Elsewhere, standard annealed glass in a sealed unit is fine. Your installer should identify the tempered locations during the measure.

What is the difference between tempered and laminated glass?

Tempered glass is heat treated to be about four times stronger and to break into small blunt pieces. Laminated glass is two sheets bonded to a plastic interlayer that holds the pieces in place when it breaks. Both count as safety glass. Laminated also blocks noise and is much harder to break through, so it is the better choice for sound control and security. Tempered is cheaper and is the usual choice where the only concern is meeting code.

How can I tell what type of glass is in my current windows?

Look at the spacer bar between the panes; many sealed units have a stamp there listing the manufacturer, the date, and sometimes the glass type. Tempered glass usually has a small etched mark in one corner. Hold a lighter or a phone flashlight near the glass at night: a Low-E coated pane shows one reflection with a slightly different colour than the others. If you see fog between the panes, the seal has failed, and the argon is long gone.

Does triple pane glass stop condensation?

It reduces it. The inside surface of a triple-pane unit stays warmer on cold nights, so moisture is less likely to condense there. Condensation on the room side of a window is a humidity problem first, though. Bathroom fans, range hoods, and keeping indoor humidity under about 40 percent in winter do more than any glass upgrade.

Get the right glass in the right window

The glass spec is the part of a window quote that most companies leave vague. We do not. Every SilverLine quote lists the pane count, the coating, the fill, and the safety treatment for each opening, and our final measure confirms which windows need tempered or laminated glass before anything goes into production.

We have installed windows across Metro Vancouver since 2007, hold nine HomeStars awards, carry a BBB A+ rating, and have 107 Google reviews at 4.5 stars. Our shop is at Unit 5, 1560 Broadway St in Port Coquitlam, about 30 minutes from downtown Vancouver on the Lougheed. Call 604-942-0488 or request a quote, and we will walk your house with you and tell you which windows need which glass.

Pull the trim off a window on a 1988 Coquitlam split level and you find out fast which method that house needs. About one in four of the older stucco homes we open up in the Lower Mainland has soft wood at the sill, usually at the bottom corners where thirty years of Metro Vancouver rain has run down the glass and found a gap in the old caulking. On those houses the insert method is off the table before we finish the first window. On the house next door, built the same year with a wider overhang and better flashing, the frames are bone dry and an insert is the smarter, cheaper call.

That is the whole decision in one paragraph. Full frame vs insert window replacement is not a question of which method is better. It is a question of what condition the wall behind your window is in, and what your exterior cladding will let us do without wrecking it.

We manufacture our own vinyl windows in Port Coquitlam, which means we build both retrofit flange units and nail fin units in the same shop. We do not have a product preference pushing the answer one way, which is why we can be blunt about when the cheaper method is the right one.

Quick answer: which one do you need?

Choose insert replacement if your existing frame is square and dry, you are happy with the current window size, and your exterior is stucco or brick that you would rather not cut into.

Choose full frame replacement if there is any rot or water staining at the sill, the opening has racked out of square, you want to change the window size or style, your existing frames are vinyl, or the wall is being re-clad anyway.

Most Lower Mainland houses built before 1995 end up somewhere in between, with a mix of both methods across the same job. That is normal and we quote it that way.

A note on terminology in BC

American manufacturers call the first method an insert or a pocket window. In BC the trade word is retrofit, and it means the same thing. If a Vancouver contractor quotes you “retrofit windows” and another quotes “insert replacement,” they are describing the same install. We wrote a longer breakdown of the method in our comprehensive guide to retrofit windows.

The confusion matters because it changes what you are comparing on two quotes. Ask each contractor which method they priced. We have seen homeowners take a bid that looked $6,000 cheaper without realizing one company quoted retrofit and the other quoted full tear-out.

What insert (retrofit) window replacement is

The old sash, glass, and hardware come out. The original frame stays in the wall. A new window, built slightly smaller with a flange that laps over the existing frame, slides into the pocket, gets screwed to the old frame, then gets insulated and sealed.

Nothing outside the window opening gets touched. Your stucco stays intact. Your interior casing usually stays intact too, though we often replace the interior stops for a cleaner finish.

The trade-off is glass area. The new frame sits inside the old one, so you lose roughly one inch to one and a half inches per side on a typical 1980s aluminum window. On a small bathroom window that is barely noticeable. On a large living room slider facing a view you will notice it, and we tell people so before they sign.

When insert replacement is the right call

• The existing frame is wood or aluminum, still square, and dry at all four corners
• Your exterior is stucco, brick, or stone that would be expensive or impossible to patch invisibly
• You want the job done fast with minimal mess inside the house
• You are keeping the same size and operating style
• The building is a strata and the depreciation report calls for like-for-like replacement

What full frame window replacement is

Everything comes out. Sash, glass, frame, interior casing, and exterior trim, right back to the rough opening in the framing. We inspect the sheathing and the sill, repair anything that has gone soft, install new flashing and a sill pan, then set a new window and rebuild the trim and any siding we had to remove.

This is the method that lets us actually fix a problem instead of covering it. If water has been getting past your window for a decade, an insert traps that damage behind a brand new unit. Full frame is the only way to see it.

It also gives you the full original opening back. If your 1990s aluminum window was already smaller than the framed opening, a full frame replacement can gain you glass instead of losing it.

When full frame is the right call

• Any soft wood, dark staining, or mould smell at the sill or jambs
• Existing frames are vinyl, which will not carry an insert properly
• The opening has settled and is more than about a quarter inch out of square
• You want a different size, a different style, or a window turned into a door
• The siding is coming off anyway for a re-clad or a rainscreen upgrade
• The house is from the leaky condo era and has a documented envelope history

Side by side comparison

Real numbers for the Lower Mainland

Our average installed price for a double glazed vinyl window in Metro Vancouver runs $800 to $1,000 with the retrofit method. Triple glazed lands between $1,000 and $1,400. Those are supply and install, taxes out.

Full frame on the same window typically adds $300 to $800 depending on the cladding. A wood-sided rancher in Port Moody is at the low end because the siding comes off and goes back on in an hour. A stucco house in Vancouver’s Dunbar area is at the high end because we are cutting stucco, installing new flashing, and then coordinating a stucco patch that will never colour match perfectly on a wall that has been weathering since 1991.

Rot repair is separate and we cannot quote it before we open the wall. Budget $200 to $600 per affected window for sill and sheathing repair. On the rare bad one, where water has run down inside the wall and taken out the framing below, it goes higher. We show you the damage and price the repair before we proceed. Nobody likes that phone call, but finding it now is cheaper than finding it in five years.

Full pricing across every window type is broken down on our Vancouver window replacement cost page.

Why this decision is different in Metro Vancouver

Two regional factors change the math here, and the first is rain. We get somewhere around 1,200 to 1,600 mm a year depending on where you are between Richmond and Coquitlam, and most of it falls sideways between October and March. Wind-driven rain is what kills window sills. A house in Calgary with the same window from the same year is usually dry at the sill because the water never sat there. Ours are not.

The second is the building stock. Between roughly 1985 and 2000 the Lower Mainland built an enormous number of face-sealed stucco homes with no drainage cavity behind the cladding. When those walls leak, the water has nowhere to go. That period produced the leaky condo crisis, and the same construction went into thousands of single family houses that never made the news. If your home is from that window and still has original cladding, we go in expecting to find moisture, and we quote full frame on the elevations that face the weather. Our explainer on what a rain screen is covers why the drainage cavity matters.

Newer homes are a different story. Anything built in Metro Vancouver after the 1998 rainscreen requirements came in has a drainage cavity, a properly lapped weather barrier, and usually a sill pan. Those windows come out clean and an insert is often perfectly appropriate.

Your cladding decides more than you think

Stucco is the big one. Cutting stucco to do a full frame replacement means a patch, and a patch on a 30-year-old wall is visible no matter how good the stucco guy is. Colour and texture both drift with age. This is why so many Vancouver homes get retrofit windows even when full frame would be technically better: the homeowner does not want a ring of fresh stucco around every window. That is a legitimate reason to choose insert, as long as the frames test dry.

Vinyl siding is the easy one. Panels unclip, the J-trim comes off, we do the work, and it all goes back. Full frame on a vinyl-clad house adds very little to the labour.

Hardie and other fibre cement sits in the middle. It comes off cleanly if it was installed with a proper reveal, but individual planks crack when they are pried and matching an older colour can be a hunt. Brick is the hardest. Full frame in a brick opening means working around a structural lintel and we look at each one individually.

The vinyl frame problem

If your existing windows are vinyl, you are almost certainly getting full frame, and homeowners are often surprised by this.

Vinyl frames are hollow chambered extrusions. They were designed to hold glass, not to carry a second window fastened into them. There is not enough solid material to anchor an insert securely, and the fastener locations you would need are usually the same chambers that carry the drainage weep path. Block those and you have built a water trap.

Older vinyl also gets brittle. A twenty-year-old white vinyl frame on a south-facing wall in Surrey has taken a lot of UV, and it will crack when you try to fasten into it. We manufacture vinyl windows and we still tell people the same thing: vinyl frames come out, they do not get filled.

Strata buildings

Strata window projects follow their own logic. Windows are almost always common property in BC, so the decision is the strata council’s, not the individual owner’s, and it flows from the depreciation report and the engineer’s scope.

Occupied buildings usually favour retrofit because units stay livable, there is no interior demolition, and the schedule is predictable across dozens of suites. Where a building is doing a full envelope remediation with the cladding already off, full frame is the obvious choice and costs very little extra because the wall is already open.

If your report flags windows and you are trying to work out scope and sequencing, call us before the AGM rather than after. Scope written without a contractor in the room tends to need rewriting.

Permits in the Lower Mainland

Like-for-like retrofit replacement generally does not need a building permit anywhere in Metro Vancouver. Changing the size of an opening, adding a new opening, or converting a window to a door does, because you are altering structure and possibly egress.

Requirements vary by municipality and they do change. Coquitlam, Burnaby, and the City of Vancouver each handle it a little differently, and Vancouver in particular is stricter about anything touching the building envelope. We pull permits as part of the job when the scope requires one, and we tell you at quote stage if yours will.

Bedroom windows carry a separate obligation. BC Building Code egress minimums apply any time you replace a bedroom window, and a retrofit that shrinks the opening can push a window that used to comply below the threshold. That is one of the few situations where the insert method creates a code problem, and it is why we measure bedroom openings carefully on every quote.

How we decide on your house

Our sales rep does a rough measure and gives you a quote. If you order, we come back for a final measure before anything gets built. That second visit is where the method gets locked in.

At final measure we check each opening for square across both diagonals, probe the sill for soft wood, look for staining on the interior casing and at the drywall corners below the sill, and check whether the existing frame has enough depth to take an insert without crowding the glass. We measure bedroom openings against egress. Then we confirm the method window by window and write it on the production sheet.

Doing it in two passes costs us an extra site visit. It is the reason our orders come out of the shop at the right size and the reason we are not renegotiating scope on install day. Our crews work out of Port Coquitlam, so nothing between Langley and West Vancouver is more than about 45 minutes away and coming back a second time is not a problem.

What to ask before you sign

Ask which method the quote is priced on, window by window. A quote that does not say is not a quote you can compare.

Find out what happens if they open a wall and find rot. There should be a written process and an hourly or unit rate for repair, not a shrug.

On full frame windows, confirm that new flashing and a sill pan are included. Skipping the sill pan is the single most common shortcut we find when we take out somebody else’s ten-year-old install, and we listed the rest in our guide to common window installation mistakes.

Then ask who does the stucco or siding patch. If the window company subs it out and the sub is not scheduled, your house sits open for however long that takes.

FAQ

Is full frame window replacement worth the extra cost in Vancouver?

On a pre-1998 stucco home with any sign of moisture, yes. You are paying a few hundred dollars per window to find and fix damage that otherwise sits behind a new window for the next 25 years. On a dry, square frame in a newer home, no. The insert performs nearly as well and the money is better spent on better glass.

How much glass do I lose with insert window replacement?

Roughly one inch to one and a half inches per side on a typical 1980s aluminum frame, so about two to three inches off both the width and the height. On a 60 by 48 inch living room window that is around a 9 percent reduction in visible glass.

Can I mix both methods on the same house?

Yes, and most of our jobs do. South and west elevations take the weather in Metro Vancouver and often need full frame, while sheltered north-facing windows test dry and get retrofit. We price it that way rather than forcing one method across the whole house.

Does insert replacement still improve energy efficiency?

It does, substantially, if you are coming off single pane or old aluminum. The new sealed unit does the heavy lifting. What it will not fix is air leakage through the original frame or the gap between that frame and the framing, so a house with drafty window surrounds will still be drafty at the edges. Our page on window U-values explains what the performance numbers mean.

Do I need a permit to replace windows in Coquitlam or Vancouver?

Not for like-for-like replacement in the same opening. You do if you change the opening size, add a window, or convert a window to a door. Requirements differ by municipality and we confirm yours at quote stage.

Why do vinyl windows always need full frame replacement?

Hollow vinyl extrusions cannot securely hold fasteners for a second window, and the chambers you would fasten into are usually the drainage weep channels. Blocking those traps water inside the frame. Aged vinyl also cracks under fastening.

How long does each method take?

Retrofit runs 2 to 3 hours per window, so a typical 10 to 12 window house is done in one or two days. Full frame runs half a day to a full day per window depending on cladding and any repairs, so the same house is 3 to 5 days.

Get a straight answer on your house

We have been doing this in the Lower Mainland since 2007, we have 9 HomeStars awards, an A+ BBB rating, and 107 Google reviews averaging 4.5 stars. We manufacture the windows we install, so the recommendation you get is about your wall, not about moving a product.

Book a free quote and we will walk your house, check the frames, and tell you which windows need full frame and which do not. Call 604-942-0488 or request a quote online. You can also see the full range on our window replacement page or read about how we work in Vancouver.

Last winter we installed a set of black vinyl windows on a home near the water in White Rock. White panel siding, slim black frames, no grids. The owner told us three neighbours knocked on her door within a month to ask who did the work. That is what black windows do for a house: the frames stop being background and become the design.

We manufacture our own vinyl windows at our factory in Port Coquitlam, and black is now the most requested colour after white. It is also the colour people have the most questions about. Will it fade? Will it warp? Why does it cost more? Because we make the frames ourselves, we can answer those questions from the production floor rather than from a brochure.

Can you get vinyl windows in black?

Yes. Black vinyl windows are widely available in BC, but not all of them get their colour the same way, and the method matters more than most buyers realize.

There are three ways a vinyl frame ends up black:

• Painted. A coating is applied over a standard white frame. This is the cheapest route and the first to show wear. Scratches reveal white underneath, and repainting a vinyl window is a job nobody enjoys.
• Laminated. A durable coloured foil is bonded to the exterior face of the frame. Done well, laminate holds its colour for decades and carries proper warranty coverage. This is the most common method for quality black windows in Canada.
• Co-extruded. The colour layer is fused into the profile itself during extrusion. A scratch shows dark material underneath instead of white.

When you compare quotes, ask which method the manufacturer uses and what the colour warranty says. A price that looks like a bargain often turns out to be paint.

What black vinyl windows cost in Metro Vancouver

Black costs more than white. There is no way around it. The colour requires an extra production step, and dark frames need UV-stable pigments and finishes that white frames do not. Across the industry the premium runs about 10 to 20 percent, and our own pricing lands in that range.

Here is what that looks like against our standard installed pricing:

Size, style and access change the number, so treat these as planning figures. A full breakdown by window type is in our window replacement cost guide for Vancouver.

One way to keep the premium down: order black on the exterior only. More on that below.

Are black windows still in style in 2026?

They are, and the trend has more staying power than most. Black frames took off around 2018 with the modern farmhouse look, then spread to west coast contemporary, and they now show up on everything from Langley new builds to 1970s Vancouver Specials getting a facelift. On new construction in Surrey and Cloverdale, black windows are close to the default.

Two reasons we think this one sticks around. Black frames read as architectural rather than trendy, the same way black door hardware replaced brass and never went back. And the thin sightlines of a modern vinyl casement suit dark colours; a black frame makes the glass look bigger.

If you want a safer bet than full black, some of our customers in older neighbourhoods choose black only on street-facing windows and keep white everywhere else. Nobody sees the back of your house from the sidewalk.

Do black vinyl windows fade or warp? The honest answer

This is the question behind every black window consultation we do, so here is the straight version.

Dark colours absorb heat. On a sunny day a black frame runs much hotter than a white one on the same wall, and vinyl expands as it heats. In hot climates like Texas or the BC Interior, cheap black vinyl can distort over time, and that is where the horror stories online come from. Most of the Reddit threads warning you off black windows are written by people in Dallas or Phoenix.

Metro Vancouver is a different environment. Our summers are mild, our real weather problem is nine months of rain, and vinyl handles rain better than any other frame material. The 2021 heat dome pushed Vancouver past 40 degrees and the quality black frames in this region came through it fine. Heat here is an occasional stress, not a constant one.

That said, the climate only forgives so much. Three things separate black windows that stay flat and black from the ones that do not:

• The colour method. Laminated and co-extruded finishes hold colour far longer than paint. Quality laminates are engineered to reflect infrared heat, which keeps the frame cooler.
• The profile design. Multi-chambered frames with proper reinforcement resist heat movement. This is where budget windows cut cost, and you cannot see it from the showroom floor.
• The exposure. A south or west-facing wall with no shade works the finish hardest. If your home bakes all afternoon, tell your estimator. It changes what we recommend.

Check the warranty language before you buy. Some manufacturers quietly shorten coverage on dark colours or exclude them from the colour warranty entirely. That tells you what they think of their own finish. Ask the question directly and get the answer in writing.

Black outside, white inside

Most of the black windows we build are black on the exterior and white on the interior, and for most homes that is the right call.

The exterior gets the curb appeal. Inside, white frames keep rooms brighter, match existing trim and baseboards, and save you from committing every room in the house to a black accent. Black interior frames look sharp in a photo shoot, but they fight with wood trim and they show dust more than people expect.

The two-tone option also costs less than black inside and out, since only the exterior face needs the colour finish. If you do want full black for a modern interior, we can build that too. It is a look you should see in person first, so ask us to show you a completed project rather than a catalogue page.

What black frames pair with

Black windows are high contrast by nature, so the siding colour does most of the deciding. What we see working across the Lower Mainland:

• White or light grey siding. The classic pairing, and the reason the farmhouse look refuses to die. Black frames on white board and batten reads clean from a block away.
• Mid-tone blues and greens. Popular on Hardie exteriors in Port Moody and North Vancouver. Black frames ground the colour without competing.
• Natural wood and stained cedar. Black and warm wood is the west coast contemporary formula.

Where black struggles: very dark siding, where the frames disappear, and beige or cream stucco, where the contrast can look accidental rather than deliberate. If you are unsure, send us a photo of your house and we will tell you honestly whether black will work on it.

Frame style matters as much as colour. Casements and picture windows carry black best because the frame lines stay slim and continuous. Our window styles guide covers the options if you have not settled on a configuration yet.

Are black windows less energy efficient?

Not in any way you would notice on a heating bill. The frame colour affects how hot the frame itself gets, but your window’s insulating performance comes from the glass unit: the number of panes, the Low-E coating and the argon fill between them. A black double glazed window and a white one with the same glass have the same U-factor.

If energy performance is driving your project, put the budget into the glazing rather than worrying about colour. We wrote a full breakdown of when triple pane windows are worth it in Vancouver, including the payback math. Rebates through BC Hydro and CleanBC may apply to energy-efficient replacements; programs change, so check what is current when you order.

Why ordering from a local manufacturer matters for black windows

Most window companies in the Lower Mainland are dealers. They sell frames made somewhere else, which means colour options and warranty claims run through a third party. We are one of the few local companies that manufactures its own vinyl windows, and for black windows specifically that changes three things:

• You see the real product. Visit our Port Coquitlam shop on Broadway Street and look at the black finish on an assembled frame, not a colour chip.
• Custom sizing is normal, not a surcharge. Every window is built to your final measure. Odd-sized openings in older Burnaby and Coquitlam homes are a Tuesday for us.
• The warranty has one name on it. If a finish issue ever comes up, the company that built the window is the company that installed it, and we are a 25 minute drive from most of Metro Vancouver.

We have been building and installing windows here since 2007. Nearly 20 years, 9 HomeStars awards, 107 Google reviews at 4.5 stars, and an A+ BBB rating. Vinyl is what we know; if you are still weighing frame materials, start with our vinyl windows 101 guide.

Five questions to ask before you sign a black window quote

Quotes for black windows can vary by thousands of dollars on the same house, and the cheapest one usually hides the answer to one of these questions. Bring this list to every estimate appointment:

1. How is the black applied? Paint, laminate or co-extrusion. If the salesperson cannot answer, that is your answer.
2. Does the colour warranty match the frame warranty? Some brands cover white frames for life but dark colours for 10 years or less.
3. Is the frame reinforced for dark colours? Better manufacturers upgrade the profile or the finish on dark exteriors. Budget lines use the same frame and hope.
4. Who handles a warranty claim? A dealer sends your claim to a factory in Ontario or overseas. A local manufacturer sends a crew.
5. Can I see an installed project? A finished house tells you more than any showroom corner. We keep a list of local installs our customers are happy to have driven past.

A contractor who answers all five without flinching is worth shortlisting, whether that ends up being us or not.

Black vinyl windows FAQ

Are black vinyl windows more expensive than white?

Yes, expect a premium of about 10 to 20 percent. For our windows that means black double glazed units typically run $900 to $1,200 installed versus $800 to $1,000 for white. Choosing black on the exterior only, with white inside, keeps the cost at the lower end.

Do black vinyl windows fade?

Painted black frames fade first and worst. Laminated and co-extruded finishes are built for UV exposure and hold their colour for decades in our climate. Metro Vancouver’s mild, cloudy weather is easier on dark finishes than the Interior or the Prairies. Ask for the colour warranty in writing before you buy.

Do black windows make a room darker?

No. The glass area is what lights the room, and a black frame does not shrink it. Many customers choose white interior frames anyway, which keeps the inside of the house feeling bright while the exterior gets the black look.

Are black windows a good idea in Vancouver’s climate?

Vancouver is one of the better climates in North America for black vinyl. Our main weather stress is rain, which vinyl shrugs off, and our summers are mild compared to the regions where dark frames run into trouble. The caveat is quality: an unshaded south or west exposure still demands a properly made frame with a heat-reflective finish.

Can I get black on the outside and white on the inside?

Yes, and it is our most popular black configuration. The exterior face carries the black finish while the interior stays standard white. It costs less than black on both sides and keeps interior rooms brighter.

How long do black vinyl windows last?

A well-made vinyl window lasts 25 to 40 years in the Lower Mainland, and a quality black finish does not shorten that. The frame and sealed glass unit determine the lifespan. The finish method determines how good it looks along the way.

Thinking about black windows for your home?

Send us a photo of your house or book a free quote and we will tell you what black frames would look like on it and what they would cost. If your exposure needs anything special, we will say so before you sign anything. You can also drop by the factory in Port Coquitlam and see the finish up close. Call 604-942-0488 or request a quote through our window replacement page.

Walk down any side street in Burnaby or East Vancouver and count the basement suites. Half the houses on the block have one. Most of those suites still have the original aluminum slider windows from the 1970s, set straight into the concrete with a single pane of glass and no real flashing. We pull these out every week, and the story repeats: condensation running down the glass from October to April, mould creeping into the frame corners, and a tenant downstairs who keeps the heat cranked because cold air pours through the track.

The good news is that basement window replacement costs less than most homeowners expect. The majority of basement windows we replace across Metro Vancouver land at the lower end of our standard range, roughly $800 to $1,000 per window installed for double glazed vinyl, because basement openings are smaller than the picture windows upstairs. This guide covers real local pricing, the BC Building Code rules that matter for basement bedrooms, and what the replacement process looks like when the window sits in a concrete foundation wall.

Why basement windows fail faster in the Lower Mainland

Parts of the Tri-Cities see close to 2,000 millimetres of rain a year. Our shop in Port Coquitlam sits in one of the wettest pockets of Metro Vancouver, so we see what that moisture does to windows at or below grade. A basement window lives a harder life than any other window in the house. It sits closest to wet soil, collects splashback from rain hitting the ground, and serves the most humid room in the home.

Old aluminum frames make it worse. Aluminum conducts cold straight through the frame, so warm indoor air hits a freezing metal surface and condenses. In a basement suite where someone cooks, showers, and dries laundry, that condensation never gets a chance to dry out. The result is black mould along the bottom track and rot in any wood bucks around the opening.

If your basement windows fog up between the panes, that means the sealed unit has failed and the insulating gas is gone. Single panes that sweat, frames that have visible mould, and sliders that no longer move are all signs the window is done. Our guide on when to replace windows walks through the full checklist.

What basement window replacement costs in Metro Vancouver

Here are the installed price ranges we quote for basement window replacement, based on our current pricing across the Lower Mainland:

Because basement windows run smaller than main floor windows, they often come in at or below the bottom of those ranges. A typical basement slider might be 48 by 24 inches, a fraction of the glass area in a living room picture window.

Two things push the price up. The first is enlarging the opening, which means cutting concrete. That work needs a permit and a concrete cutting contractor, and it turns a one hour job into a multi-day project. The second is rot repair. When water has been getting past a failed window for years, the framing around the opening sometimes needs rebuilding before the new window goes in.

For a full breakdown of window pricing across every window type, see our window replacement cost Vancouver guide.

Can you just replace the glass?

Sometimes. If the frame is sound vinyl and only the sealed unit has fogged, a glass-only swap costs a fraction of a full replacement. We measure the unit, order matching glass, and exchange it in the existing frame in about twenty minutes.

The honest answer for most basement windows, though, is that glass replacement is a patch. If the frame is 40-year-old aluminum, new glass in a cold conductive frame still sweats, still leaks air through the track, and still sits in an opening with no proper seal to the concrete. You pay twice: once for the glass now and again for the full replacement a few years later. When the frame is the problem, replace the whole window. When a newer vinyl frame has one failed unit, replace the glass. We quote both options and tell you which one we would pick for our own house.

American cost guides will mislead you

Search this topic and the top results quote US national averages, in US dollars, for prefab windows bought off the shelf at a hardware store. Those numbers do not translate to the Lower Mainland. Prefab sizing is the bigger problem. Basement openings in older BC homes were formed on site when the foundation was poured, so almost none of them match a standard catalogue size.

This is where manufacturing our own windows changes the math. We build every window to the exact millimetre of your opening at our Port Coquitlam facility. No furring down an oversized rough opening, no gaps packed with foam around an undersized prefab unit. The window fits the concrete opening you already have, whatever odd dimensions the original forming crew left behind.

Egress rules for basement bedrooms in BC

If the basement has a bedroom, the window rules change from optional to mandatory. The BC Building Code requires every bedroom without a sprinkler system to have an escape window that opens from the inside without tools. The unobstructed opening must be at least 0.35 square metres, with no dimension less than 380 millimetres.

Those numbers matter for anyone renting out a basement suite. A tiny slider tucked up near the ceiling might light the room, but if a person cannot climb out through it during a fire, the room is not a legal bedroom. Since the province pushed municipalities to legalize secondary suites across BC, we get more egress calls than ever from homeowners who want their suite done right.

Where the window opens into a window well, the code also requires clearance in front of the window so a person can climb out. We cover the full sizing rules, well requirements, and municipal permit quirks in our egress window guide for BC.

Choosing the right style for a basement opening

Standard basement window sizes in older Lower Mainland homes tend toward wide and short, often 32 to 48 inches across and 16 to 24 inches tall. That shape limits which styles work well. These are the four we install most:

• Sliders are the workhorse. They suit wide, short openings, cost less than crank windows, and the opening can count toward egress when sized correctly.
• Hopper windows hinge at the bottom and tilt inward. Good for ventilation in laundry areas, but the tilt blocks the opening, so they rarely qualify for egress.
• Awning windows hinge at the top and swing out, so you can leave them cracked open in the rain. In a climate with our winters, that matters for managing suite humidity.
• Casement windows crank fully open and give the largest clear opening for their size, which makes them the easiest route to meeting egress numbers in a tight space.

For most basement suites we recommend vinyl frames without hesitation. Vinyl does not conduct cold the way aluminum does, never rusts, and shrugs off the damp. Our vinyl windows guide covers the material in depth.

How the replacement works

Most basement window installation work is retrofit. The new window goes into the existing opening, so nobody touches the concrete. Here is the process we follow on every job:

1. A rough measure during your free quote gives us working dimensions and a firm price.
2. After you book, our installer returns for a final measure and records the opening to the millimetre, including how square the old concrete forming left it.
3. Your windows are built to those exact dimensions at our Port Coquitlam facility.
4. On install day, the crew removes the old unit, preps and seals the opening, sets the new window, and insulates the perimeter.

A straightforward basement window swap takes our crew about an hour to ninety minutes per window. The sealing step deserves the most attention. On a below-grade window, the exterior seal is the only thing standing between your framing and months of splashback, so we do not rush it.

The moisture detail most installers skip

Water management separates a basement window that lasts 25 years from one that rots out its opening in five. The window itself is only half the job. Sloping the exterior sealant so water sheds away from the frame, sealing the gap between frame and concrete with the right product, and leaving weep paths clear all determine whether rain ends up in your framing.

We see the shortcuts when we remove old windows: caulking smeared over a gap with no backer rod, insulation stuffed into a cavity with no air seal, weep holes painted shut. In a region this wet, those shortcuts surface as rot within a few winters. Nearly 20 years of pulling out other people’s mistakes has made our crews particular about this step.

New basement windows with energy-efficient glass may also qualify for provincial rebate programs through BC Hydro or CleanBC. Programs change, so check what’s active before you sign a contract.

Why homeowners across Metro Vancouver call us

SilverLine has been replacing windows in the Lower Mainland since 2007. We hold 9 HomeStars awards, a BBB A+ rating, and 107 Google reviews averaging 4.5 stars. Because we manufacture our own windows, your basement window comes from our facility on Broadway Street in Port Coquitlam, not from a distributor’s catalogue three provinces away.

That matters twice over for basement work. Odd-sized concrete openings need made-to-measure windows, and warranty claims get resolved by the people who built the window, not routed through a middleman. Our window replacement service covers every city from Vancouver to Langley.

Frequently asked questions

How much does basement window replacement cost in Vancouver?

Most basement windows we install run $800 to $1,000 for double glazed vinyl, installed. Triple glazed runs $1,000 to $1,400. Smaller openings come in at the low end. Enlarging an opening for egress costs more because it involves concrete cutting and a permit.

Do I need a permit to replace a basement window in BC?

A like-for-like replacement in the existing opening usually does not need a permit in most Lower Mainland municipalities. Enlarging the opening, changing its location, or cutting a new opening in the foundation is structural work and does need one. Rules vary by city, so we confirm requirements for your municipality during the quote.

Can you replace a basement window without cutting the concrete?

Yes, as long as the new window is the same size as the old one. We build the replacement to match your existing opening exactly, so the concrete stays untouched. Cutting only enters the picture when you want a bigger window or need to meet egress size for a bedroom.

What size does a basement bedroom window need to be in BC?

The BC Building Code requires bedroom escape windows to provide an unobstructed opening of at least 0.35 square metres with no dimension under 380 millimetres, openable from inside without tools. The window style affects whether the full opening counts, since hoppers and some sliders block part of their own opening.

How long does basement window replacement take?

About an hour to ninety minutes per window for a retrofit install. A whole-basement project with four or five windows is done in a day. Projects that involve concrete cutting or rot repair take longer, and we tell you before work starts.

Are vinyl windows the best choice for basements?

For nearly every basement in the Lower Mainland, yes. Vinyl frames do not conduct cold, so they cut the condensation problem that plagues aluminum basement windows. They also stand up to damp without rust or rot. We manufacture our vinyl windows locally, which is why we back them without hesitation.

Get a free basement window quote

If your basement windows fog, sweat, or leak cold air into your suite, call us at 604-942-0488 or request a free quote online. We measure, build, and install from right here in Port Coquitlam, and we have been doing it for nearly 20 years.