Shutter BoysCalifornia shutters in West Vancouver
Homes in West Vancouver
West Vancouver's 17,690 occupied homes are a mix: 56% detached houses, 39% apartments or units in buildings of two or more homes and 5% semi-detached and row houses.
The biggest building period was 1961 to 1980, which accounts for 33% of homes standing today; 20% are from 2001 or later. Owners live in 71% of homes.
In Vancouver, 8 km away, 80% of homes are apartments, more than here. Nationally, West Vancouver's homes are older than those in 72% of the 167 Canadian cities we have census figures for.
Source: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population. Period of construction and tenure come from the 25% sample; counts are randomly rounded.
Condo towers
22% of homes are in buildings of five storeys or more, where floor-to-ceiling window walls are common. Tier-on-tier panels let you open the top for light and keep the bottom closed for privacy, and a mounting frame gives the panels a square edge on glass that runs wall to wall. Many buildings ask you to book the elevator for deliveries and keep to set work hours, so check with management before install day.
Out-of-square openings
With 54% of homes built in 1980 or earlier, many openings have had decades to settle. Measure each one's width at the top, middle and bottom, and both diagonals. If the diagonals differ by more than about 6 mm, add a mounting frame in the designer, or choose an outside mount so the shutter covers the uneven edges.
Plaster walls and deep casings
21% of homes date from 1960 or earlier, when walls were plaster on lath and windows sat in deep wood casings. Plaster cracks if you drive screws carelessly: drill a pilot hole, use fixings made for plaster, and fix into the casing or the framing behind it. A deep casing is good news for an inside mount; measure its depth before you choose a louver size.
Bought to stay
Owners live in 71% of homes, and shutters are usually bought to stay with the house. Poplar takes paint well, so they can be repainted years from now if you change a room's colours. Keep your order list: it records every size if you add a room later.
A whole house in West Vancouver
The most common home in West Vancouver has four or more bedrooms: 41% of homes. Large houses are common too: 41% have four bedrooms or more. Homes average 6.7 rooms.
Detached houses are the most common kind of home here. Across Canada, the middle home has 6 to 10 windows (NRCan, 2007). Shuttering that many windows at a typical bedroom-window size comes to roughly $2,700 to $5,700 CAD. For scale, that's about 0.2% of the median home value here, $2,500,000 CAD (owners’ estimates, 2021).
Homes here are larger than in 81% of the 167 Canadian cities we have figures for, so a whole-house order runs to more windows than most.
Sources: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population (bedrooms, rooms and value from the 25% sample; counts randomly rounded); Natural Resources Canada, Survey of Household Energy Use 2007, Table 4.5a (windows). NRCan SHEU 2007, Table 4.5a
A typical home6–10 windows
All of them shuttered$2,700 to $5,700 CAD
Every window priced as a 36 × 48 in opening in our basic build (flat moulding, paint stage 1, 3½ in louvers), before tax and shipping. Your windows will differ; the designer prices each one.
Price your own windowsWorking from home
40% of workers here worked from home on census day in May 2021, during the pandemic, more than in any other of the 167 Canadian cities we have figures for. Glare on a screen comes from direct sun and bright sky behind or beside it. Louvers tilted up throw daylight at the ceiling instead, so the room stays bright and the screen stays readable; wider louvers give the clearest view when you open them.
Older homes, high values
Owners here value their homes higher than in any other of the 167 Canadian cities we have figures for, and 54% of homes were built in 1980 or earlier. If an older house still has good wood shutters, repair them before you replace them; if not, poplar painted to match the trim suits original casings.
Pricing a whole house at once
41% of homes here have four bedrooms or more. For a house that size, list every window in one go: type or paste the sizes, or upload them as a spreadsheet saved as CSV, and the designer prices each window and the total.
Ages, place of work and value: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population. Rankings compare the Canadian cities we have figures for.
West Vancouver weather and your shutters
At Vancouver (Harbour) (5 km away), July averages a high of 23 °C and December a low of 3.2 °C. No month averages a high above 29 °C or a low below freezing.
About 1 days a year top 30 °C, 17 days drop to 0 °C or below and 1,538 mm of precipitation falls, most of it around November and least in July.
Daylight runs from 16 h 15 min on the longest day to 8 h 10 min on the shortest, and the midday sun stands 64° above the horizon in June and 17° in December.
Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canadian Climate Normals 1991–2020, Vancouver (Harbour). Daylight and sun height: calculated from the city’s latitude.
Monthly figures
| Month | Average high | Average low | Precipitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 7.4 °C | 3.3 °C | 236.6 mm |
| Feb | 8.4 °C | 3.3 °C | 117 mm |
| Mar | 10.5 °C | 4.6 °C | 162.5 mm |
| Apr | 13.9 °C | 6.9 °C | 117.7 mm |
| May | 17.8 °C | 10.2 °C | 72.6 mm |
| Jun | 20.2 °C | 12.8 °C | 65.7 mm |
| Jul | 23 °C | 14.9 °C | 43.5 mm |
| Aug | 23 °C | 14.8 °C | 48.6 mm |
| Sep | 19.4 °C | 12.1 °C | 71.4 mm |
| Oct | 13.9 °C | 8.6 °C | 156.8 mm |
| Nov | 9.7 °C | 5.3 °C | 245.2 mm |
| Dec | 7.1 °C | 3.2 °C | 199.9 mm |
Wet months
1,538 mm of precipitation a year keeps the air damp for long stretches. Steam and condensation are hard on any joint, so in kitchens, bathrooms and laundry rooms keep the air moving and wipe water off the sill before it sits.
A mild year
Few days here are very hot or very cold, so louvers spend most of the year on everyday work: angling daylight off the TV, giving privacy from the street, and opening wide on a fine morning. That makes louver size more a matter of view than of shade; bigger louvers leave more open glass.
Fitting them in West Vancouver
Shutter Boys shutters are made for you to fit yourself: an inside or outside mount takes a drill, a level and our step-by-step guide. If you'd rather hire someone, a finish carpenter or blinds installer can fit them; ask on your quote and we'll tell you if we know one near you. You arrange and pay the installer directly.
Near West Vancouver
- Vancouver 8 km
- Burnaby 17 km
- Richmond 19 km
- New Westminster 23 km
- Port Moody 25 km
- Coquitlam 27 km
More about shutters in West Vancouver
Each page takes one question further (fitting your windows, room by room, sizes and colours, louvers, or how shutters compare with other choices), using West Vancouver’s own figures.
For designers, contractors and stores in West Vancouver
Interior designers, contractors, window covering stores, realtors and property managers in West Vancouver can sell or refer Shutter Boys shutters: dealers buy at trade pricing with a protected area; referral partners earn a fee on each client they send. No fee to join.
Price your windows
Choose Canada in the designer, enter millimetres or inches, and we reply with your quote in Canadian dollars.