Plumbing and heating in Capilano
Capilano Highlands, Norgate and Pemberton Heights — mid-century homes with mechanical systems that were ahead of their time and are now showing their age.
Post-and-beam, and what it means underfoot
Capilano Highlands, Norgate and the streets around them contain some of the best post-war architecture on the North Shore — low-slope roofs, big glazing, open plans and slab-on-grade construction. It's a pleasure to work in and it comes with one very specific mechanical inheritance.
A lot of these houses were built with in-slab hydronic radiant heating: pipe cast directly into the concrete floor, fed by a boiler. When it works it's the most comfortable heat there is, and much of it has run for sixty years. When it doesn't, the piping is inside the slab, which changes the conversation entirely.
The usual failure modes are a persistent pressure drop as a buried loop develops a weep, a zone that simply stops heating, or system water that comes out dark and full of debris because the original piping has been corroding from the inside for decades.
What can actually be done
Being honest about the options matters more here than anywhere else in North Vancouver, because the expensive answer is sometimes the right one and sometimes not.
- If the boiler and controls are the problem and the slab loops are sound, that's a straightforward replacement and the system carries on.
- If a single loop has failed, it can sometimes be isolated and abandoned, with that area picked up by another means, rather than opening the floor.
- If the piping throughout is failing, cutting the slab is possible but disruptive and expensive. Overlaying a new system, or moving that zone to a ductless heat pump, is often the more sensible answer.
What we won't do is quote a slab cut before establishing whether it's actually necessary. Pressure testing individual loops tells you where the problem is rather than guessing.
No crawlspace, no basement
Slab-on-grade means there's nowhere convenient to run new pipe. Plumbing that would be rerouted through a basement elsewhere has to go through walls, ceilings or the attic, and the mechanical equipment lives in a closet, a garage or a utility room rather than downstairs.
Practically, that means jobs here take more planning and sometimes more finish work than the same job in a house with a basement. We'd rather set that expectation at the quote than discover it partway through.
Heat pumps in a post-and-beam house
These homes are good heat pump candidates for an unexpected reason: they generally have no ductwork, which sounds like a problem but means a ductless system is the obvious route rather than a compromise. Open plans suit a small number of well-placed heads, and the large glazing that makes these houses beautiful also makes summer cooling genuinely worth having.
The one thing we take care over is the load calculation. Single-glazed or early double-glazed walls of glass behave nothing like a conventional wall, and sizing from floor area alone gets these houses wrong.
Where we work
Capilano Highlands, Norgate, Pemberton Heights, Capilano Road and the streets running down toward Marine Drive and the river flats. We're minutes away.
What we can help with
- Hydronic heating — boilers, controls, pumps and in-slab radiant diagnosis.
- Plumbing — leaks, repiping and fixture work in slab-on-grade homes.
- Heat pumps — ductless systems sized for glass-heavy houses.
- Hot water — tank replacement, access permitting.
- Gas — lines, ranges and fireplaces, permits pulled.
Capilano home needing a plumber?
We know these houses and how their heating was built.