The Newdale Court Recovery

When Frozen Drains Turned Snowmelt Into a Three-Floor Problem

During an especially harsh winter in North Vancouver, the balconies at Newdale Court accumulated heavy snow — followed by rain, then a hard freeze, then rain again. This repeated cycle caused the balcony drains to freeze solid, trapping snowmelt on the deck surfaces with nowhere to go. As temperatures fluctuated and the snow continued to melt, water found its way into the building, cascading through three floors and causing damage to hardwood flooring, drywall, and kitchen cabinetry throughout the home.

Eurohouse Construction was engaged to deliver a complete insurance-funded restoration. The scope was extensive: kitchen cabinet doors had to be removed, drywall repairs were required across all three affected levels, and sections of the home's distinctive deep red hardwood flooring had to be taken up. Because the existing hardwood was a unique species and colour that could not be properly matched with available materials, Shore Insurance agreed to replace the entire continuous hardwood floor on the main level and the full staircase — the only way to achieve a uniform, professional result that met the "like kind and quality" standard.

During the restoration, a separate but related issue came to light: an area of the exterior wall had been allowing water to penetrate for some time, causing structural rot behind the cladding. This was remediated in full — the rotted materials were removed, new framing and sheathing were installed, and the wall was properly reinstated. As part of the envelope repair, the torch-on waterproof membrane on the deck surfaces was extended up the wall face to 16 inches, creating a robust seal at the critical wall-to-deck junction where the original waterproofing had failed.

At the same time, the old tiles on the decks were removed and an electrically heated deck snow melting system was installed beneath new tiles — a practical upgrade that directly addresses the root cause of the original damage by preventing future ice and snow accumulation on the deck surfaces. The heating cables keep the tile surface warm enough to melt snow on contact and prevent freezing, protecting both the drainage system and the building envelope below.

This was a complicated project with multiple overlapping scopes — interior finishes, structural repairs, envelope remediation, and exterior deck work — all requiring careful sequencing and coordination. Every phase was completed on schedule and to the homeowner's full satisfaction. We hope insurance situations like this never happen, but when they do, our job is to address them properly, with minimal stress, and to the complete satisfaction of the customer.