The North Shore is where we are based, which means short drives, same-day look-ins, and a real sense of what these houses are like behind the drywall. Crown moulding, coffered and tray ceilings, and the cove and recessed lighting built into them, designed and installed as one project.
A ceiling plan that ignores how a house was built is how a room ends up looking worse after the money is spent. These are the situations we scope for here.
A large share of North Vancouver housing stock is 1950s to 1970s, and those ceilings are usually eight feet. A deep coffered grid in a room that low makes it feel lower. What does work is a fine-scaled shallow coffer, or a tray with cove lighting that reads as depth without taking headroom. We will show you which one your room can carry.
Very common here, and the important part is the date: textured ceilings in homes built before roughly 1990 can contain asbestos and must be tested before anything cuts into them. We flag it at the quote and price testing in, rather than discovering it on day two and stopping the job.
North Van has a lot of mid-century post-and-beam, often with exposed structure and sloped ceilings. Crown does not belong on every one of those. The better move is usually lighting the geometry that is already there, plus trim work on the flat rooms around it.
Older homes on the North Shore sometimes still carry original wiring or a panel with no room left in it. New lighting circuits are the moment that surfaces. We look at the panel before quoting so the lighting number you get includes what is actually required, not a best case.
Concrete ceilings and strata rules. Wiring cannot be chased into a concrete slab, so cove lighting has to be planned around a dropped detail or a bulkhead. Most buildings also need written alteration approval and set the hours trades can work, and we scope inside both.
Newer North Van houses and townhomes often have the height and the layout but the smallest available casing and a row of identical downlights. This is the cheapest kind of transformation, because the structure is fine and only the finish is wrong.
North Vancouver is our home ground, so a look at your rooms is a short trip rather than a scheduling problem. Tell us which rooms and roughly what you want, and we will come back with an honest range before anyone measures anything.
Every one of these is in your contract, not just on this page. If we break one, it costs us something.
If a joint we cut opens up, if caulking we applied fails, or if something we wired stops working as installed, we come back and fix it. Two years, written into your contract, not a line on a website.
You approve the look, the lighting plan, and the number before the first cut. No allowances that quietly grow, no day-three phone call about something that was always going to be needed.
Carpentry, wiring, drywall, and paint are quoted as one job and guaranteed as one job. You never become the project manager, and no trade gets to blame the last one.
Floors and furniture covered, the work room sealed off, and the site swept at the end of each day rather than the end of the job. You keep living there while we work.
If your ceiling height is wrong for a deep coffer, or a cheaper profile would look better in your room, we say so at the quote. Losing an upsell is cheaper for us than a finished ceiling you regret.
The cost, the mess, the permits, and the things most companies leave you to find out on day three.
Carpentry runs roughly $6 to $14 per linear foot installed, depending on the profile, the material, and how many corners the room has. A single room usually lands between $1,500 and $4,500. A main floor is more often $4,500 to $12,000. Lighting is quoted separately, per fixture and circuit. Your quote is free and priced on your actual rooms, not a calculator.
We do it. The lighting is wired by a licensed electrician working off the same drawings as the carpentry, which is the whole point of quoting it as one project. You are not left coordinating a carpenter and an electrician who have never spoken.
One room is typically two to four working days: build, fill, caulk, paint. A main floor with lighting is usually one to two weeks. Coffered ceilings add time because the grid is built up in layers and each one has to dry before the next. You get real dates in writing before anything starts, not a vague window.
Scale it to the room, not to taste alone. As a rough guide, an eight-foot ceiling suits roughly three to five inches of crown, nine feet suits four to seven, and anything ten feet and up can carry seven inches or more and usually should, because undersized crown in a tall room reads as a thin white line rather than architecture. Room size and how much other trim is present shift it too. We hold samples up in your actual room before anything is ordered, because a profile that looks right in a showroom can look wrong under your ceiling.
Done at the right scale, the opposite. Crown draws the eye upward and gives the ceiling an edge to end on, so the room reads as taller and more finished. What does make a ceiling feel lower is oversized crown in a low room, or a deep coffered grid where there is no height to give away. That is a scale mistake rather than a reason to skip crown, and it is exactly what we are checking for when we measure.
Yes, and this is normal rather than a problem. Almost no older home has a truly flat ceiling or a square corner, which is very common in North Shore houses built in the 1950s to 1970s. Crown is installed to follow the ceiling rather than fight it, with joints coped instead of just mitred so they stay tight when the surface moves. If a dip is severe enough that it would show, we will point it out at the quote and tell you what it takes to correct, rather than filling it and hoping.
A common starting point is one recessed light for roughly every 16 to 25 square feet of ceiling, so a 12 by 12 room typically lands around six to nine, spaced evenly and kept far enough off the walls that the light washes down rather than scalloping. But the count is the last thing we decide, not the first. Ceiling height, wall colour, what the room is used for, and whether there is cove lighting or a fixture already doing work all change it. We lay out placement on a plan you approve before anything gets cut.
New circuits and new fixture locations generally need an electrical permit in BC. Swapping a fixture on an existing circuit usually does not. We handle the permit paperwork as part of the job, and the work is done to code so it passes inspection. If your job does not need one, we will tell you that rather than bill you for it.
No. Trim, panelling, and a built-up ceiling are finish work and do not need a building permit. It is the electrical that can, which is a separate question above. If a job somehow did need one we would say so at the quote, but for the carpentry alone it does not come up.
Primed MDF is the volume choice for painted interior crown. It is stable, it is smooth, and it is the cheapest per foot, but it hates moisture so it stays out of bathrooms. Primed pine costs a little more, takes a finish beautifully, and is what we reach for on higher-end painted work. Polyurethane costs the most and will not rot, split, or absorb water, so it earns its price in bathrooms, around exterior transitions, and on ornate profiles. We recommend per room rather than picking one material for the whole house.
Houses move. Wood expands and contracts with the seasons, and drywall settles, so a hairline at a joint or where the crown meets the wall is normal in any home and is a paint-and-caulk touch-up, not a failure. What is not normal is a joint opening up because it was cut loose and filled instead of coped tight. That is workmanship, and workmanship is what our two-year warranty covers.
Usually. If your existing profile is a current stock profile, we match it off the shelf. If it is old or unusual, our supplier can cut a custom knife to your profile, which adds roughly two to three weeks of lead time and a one-time setup cost. Bring us a short offcut, or we will take one from an inconspicuous spot.
Painting is included. Trim that is installed and left raw for someone else to finish is where the finished look falls apart, so filling, caulking, priming, and painting are part of the job, not a separate trade you have to book.
Yes, and it is a real decision rather than an afterthought. Trim in a crisper white than the ceiling makes the moulding read as a deliberate architectural edge. Painting crown and ceiling the same colour makes the whole surface feel like one continuous plane, which is usually the better choice in a low room. A colour distinctly darker than both is a strong look in a study or dining room and a risk everywhere else. We will show you where each one lands before the brushes come out.
Just some, usually. Crown belongs where people gather and where the eye already goes: living and dining rooms, the primary bedroom, an entry or stairwell. Utility spaces, laundry, and most bathrooms gain little from it. Running crown through an entire house is the fastest way to spend a lot for a smaller effect than putting the same money into two rooms done properly. We will tell you which rooms carry it.
A full coffered grid needs height to look right, and at eight feet a deep grid will make the room feel lower, not grander. Two things do work at that height: a shallow, fine-scaled coffer, or a tray ceiling with cove lighting, which reads as depth without eating headroom. We will tell you if a room is wrong for what you are asking for. That is a cheaper conversation than a finished ceiling you dislike.
Cove is one type of crown. Crown moulding is the general term for trim that bridges the wall and the ceiling; cove is the specific profile with a simple concave curve, which is the plainest and usually the cheapest of them. Confusingly, cove lighting means something different again: hidden LED strip tucked into a ledge or tray so it washes the ceiling. You can have one, the other, or both, and we will be clear which one a quote is referring to.
Ceiling work makes dust, so the honest answer is that there will be some. What we control is how much escapes: floors and furniture covered, doorways sealed on the room being worked in, cuts made outside where possible, and the site swept at the end of every day rather than at the end of the job. We work room by room so you keep the rest of your house.
Very little, and yes we move it. Take down anything fragile, personal, or irreplaceable, and clear the wall surfaces we will be working against. We shift the heavy furniture to the middle of the room or out of it and cover it. You do not need to empty the room, buy anything, or take time off. If a room needs more than that we will tell you at the quote rather than on the morning we arrive.
The quote itemises it in writing before you agree to anything: materials, labour, the lighting fixtures and controls being used, painting, and cleanup. What sits outside it is also named rather than left vague, typically things like repairing pre-existing damage found behind a surface, asbestos testing or removal on an older ceiling, structural work, or fixtures you want to supply yourself. There are no open-ended allowances that quietly grow. If we cannot price something honestly up front, we say that and explain why instead of burying a number.
We stop and tell you before doing anything about it, with the cost in writing. The two we run into most in older homes are textured ceilings from before about 1990, which have to be tested for asbestos before they are disturbed, and electrical panels with no capacity left for new lighting circuits. We look for both at the quote precisely so they are priced in rather than sprung on you at day three. If something genuinely could not have been foreseen, it becomes a written change order and it is your decision whether to proceed.
It happens on most jobs and it is fine. Any change gets written down with the cost and the effect on the schedule, and nothing extra gets built until you have approved it. That protects you from a surprise invoice and protects us from doing work nobody agreed to. Small changes are often no charge; we will say so when that is the case.
Yes. Two extra things apply: most stratas require written approval before an alteration, and most set the hours trades can work. We will tell you what to submit and work inside your building's window. Cove lighting in a concrete-ceiling condo has real limits on where wiring can run, and we will scope that honestly before quoting.
Two years on our workmanship, in writing. If a joint we cut opens up, if caulking we applied fails, or if something we wired stops working as installed, we come back and fix it. Light fixtures and dimmers carry their own manufacturer warranty on the hardware itself, which we register in your name and hand to you at the end of the job.
Yes, and there is no obligation attached to it. We confirm the look and the lighting plan first, then measure, then price. You get a written scope and a number, and you are free to do nothing with it.
Tell us your timeline in the form and we will be straight with you about whether we can hit it. Small single-room work usually starts sooner than a multi-room main floor, which needs materials ordered and trades sequenced. If a custom profile is involved, add the two to three week lead time for the knife.
Something not covered here? Call (604) 442-8454 or ask it in the quote form and we will answer it before we price anything.
A free, no-obligation design quote on your crown, ceiling, and lighting project in North Vancouver, usually scoped within the week. We respond fast during business hours.
During business hours we'll call you within the hour to confirm the details, so keep an eye on your phone. Outside hours, you'll hear from us first thing next business day. No obligation, and your quote is always free.