Date of Publication
July 28, 2026
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The January and February 2012 issue of Canadian Roofing Contractor and Design carries a project profile on the Centre for Shellfish Research field station at Deep Bay. We held three scopes on that building, and it is one of the more demanding pieces of architectural metal we have put up.
Radius seam metal roofing, composite metal cladding and foundation waterproofing. Having all three in one contract is worth more than it sounds. The roof, the wall and the below grade waterproofing all have to hand water to each other correctly, and every one of those handoffs is a place a building leaks when two different contractors own the two sides of it.
The building was designed by McFarland Marceau. A curved roof is a straightforward drawing and a difficult install. A radius seam roof has to be laid out and fabricated with the curve in mind before a single panel is lifted, because a panel that has to be persuaded into position on the roof is a panel that will announce itself for the life of the building.
Iain McDougal was the fabrication foreman. Mike Kaulback was the installation foreman. Bryan Hignell was the project manager. Naming them is not a courtesy. On a job like this one the shop and the roof have to be running off the same understanding of the geometry, and that is a relationship between two foremen more than it is a document.
The Roofing Contractors Association of British Columbia sent a film crew to Deep Bay to document the installation for its instructional course on architectural metal. Our crew worked a full installation with a camera on it, which is a fair test of whether a company's methods are the ones it says they are. The footage went into the course that other RCABC contractors train on.
The work took the 2011 Metalmag Architectural Award in the Roofing Category. The building itself received a 2011 SAB Award, which belongs to the project and its designers rather than to us. We have set out both in our post on the shellfish centre awards.
Photographs and the full scope are on the VIU Shellfish Research Centre project page, and the panel and flashing work is the sort of thing described under commercial cladding.
Radius roofs, tapered panels and complicated flashing conditions are easier and far cheaper to solve on paper than on a lift. Bring us in while the drawings are still moving. Call 250-336-8088 or use the contact page. Our estimates are free and include a detailed list of the work that will be done and the materials used.
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