Here's a detailed look at how long the big shared systems actually last, what they cost to replace and what to ask before you write an offer.
Roof: 20 to 30 Years
Flat, membrane roofs on concrete towers, torch-on/SBS, TPO or PVC, typically last 20 to 30 years with proper maintenance. Replacement in the Lower Mainland runs roughly $10 to $20 per square foot installed, so a 5,000 sq ft roof lands somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000.
Townhouse complexes with asphalt shingle roofs land in a similar 25 to 30 year range. A lot of older Metro Vancouver townhouse stock built between 1980 and 2000 used cedar shake roofs that are now hitting end of life at the same time, and cedar today costs roughly 10 times what it did when those roofs went on, which is why most stratas convert to architectural asphalt shingles at replacement time instead of going cedar-to-cedar.
Good to know: a roof can fail functionally before it fails materially. Ask when the last roof inspection happened, not just when it was installed.
Parkade Membrane: 25 to 40 Years for Full Replacement
There are two different things people mean by "parkade membrane," and mixing them up leads to sticker shock.
The structural waterproofing membrane underneath the parkade slab, the layer that actually keeps water out of the concrete and rebar, is built to last 25 to 40 years. The surface traffic coating on top, the layer your tires drive on, wears much faster and typically needs refreshing every ~10 years at $30 to $50 per square foot.
Confusing a topcoat refresh with a full membrane replacement is a common mistake when reading a depreciation report. A full structural replacement involves removing parking, cutting into concrete, and repairing corroded rebar underneath, and commonly runs well into six figures for a mid-size building.
Good to know: ask which one the depreciation report is actually referring to before you assume the number applies to the whole system.
Plumbing: What's in the Walls Matters More Than the Age
Common plumbing risers, the shared pipes running through the building, typically last 25 to 40 years, but the material tells you more than the age does.
Galvanized steel (common in buildings before the mid-1970s) corrodes from the inside out and often needs replacement well before the 40-year mark, sometimes by year 25 to 30.
Poly-B (polybutylene), the grey plastic pipe used in roughly 1985 to 1997 construction, is the one to watch for specifically. It reacts poorly to chlorine in municipal water, becomes brittle over time and tends to fail without warning, often at the plastic fittings rather than the pipe itself. Poly-B has been banned from the National Plumbing Code since 2005, and today it's an insurance issue as much as a plumbing one: many BC insurers charge higher premiums for buildings with Poly-B still in place, and some will exclude water damage coverage or decline to write a policy at all until it's replaced.
Copper is the traditional gold standard, durable, well understood, but expensive to install and repair.
PEX (cross-linked polyethylene) is the modern standard replacing both. It doesn't degrade with chlorine exposure the way Poly-B does, has far fewer joints and fittings prone to failure, flexes instead of cracking in freezing conditions and costs meaningfully less to install than copper. Most re-pipes today, whether replacing galvanized, Poly-B or aging copper, go to PEX.
Unit-level repiping in a condo commonly runs $6,000 to $12,000 depending on accessibility, and buildings with confirmed Poly-B often coordinate replacement across multiple units at once to reduce repeated wall openings and get a better rate.
Good to know: if a building was constructed between 1985 and 1997, ask directly whether Poly-B is present and whether it's been replaced, this affects insurability, not just plumbing risk.
Electrical: Wiring Type, Pigtailing and the New EV Requirement
Main electrical wiring is generally built to last 40 years or more, but two things matter more than the wire's age.
Wiring type. Aluminum wiring was common in residential construction roughly between 1965 and 1980, mostly in single-family houses and low-rises rather than condo towers, which were largely built later with copper. If a building does have aluminum wiring, insurers treat it as a higher fire risk because aluminum connections loosen and oxidize over time in a way copper doesn't.
Pigtailing. This is the standard fix for aluminum wiring: a licensed electrician splices a short length of copper wire onto each aluminum connection using a CSA-approved connector, rather than replacing all the wiring in the walls. It's far less invasive and less expensive than a full rewire, commonly $7,000 to $20,000+ for a full building depending on size, and it's usually enough to satisfy an insurer's requirements. A full rewire is more thorough but far more disruptive and costly.
The EV capacity requirement. This is new and applies to virtually every strata in the province. Under BC's Strata Property Regulation any strata corporation with 5 or more units must obtain an Electrical Planning Report (EPR), a professional assessment of the building's current electrical capacity and what it can support as electrification increases, EV charging, heat pumps and so on. The deadline is December 31, 2026 for stratas in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and the Capital Regional District, and December 31, 2028 elsewhere in BC. This isn't optional, and it isn't the same as an EV Ready Plan, which is a separate, non-mandatory document used to apply for rebates.
Good to know: ask whether the strata has completed its EPR yet. A building that hasn't started this process may be facing an unbudgeted expense soon, and it directly affects whether you'll actually be able to add EV charging to your stall.
Elevators: 25 to 50 Years
Elevators are mechanical systems that get maintained indefinitely but eventually need full modernization, typically somewhere between 25 and 50 years depending on usage, manufacturer and parts availability. Because the cost is largely fixed by elevator rather than by building size, a small building pays close to the same modernization bill per car as a much larger one, which hits harder on a per-owner basis in a smaller strata.
Full modernization in a mid- to high-rise commonly runs $150,000 to $300,000 or more per elevator, and a building with 2 or 3 cars needing simultaneous work is looking at a seven-figure project.
Good to know: ask how many cars the building has and whether they were installed together. Elevators installed at the same time tend to reach end of life at the same time, which concentrates the cost into a single special levy rather than spreading it out.
Building Envelope (Exterior Walls, Windows): 30+ Years
Exterior cladding, stucco, brick or rainscreen siding, generally needs major attention around the 30-year mark, though this varies widely by material and original construction quality. Windows typically run 25 to 40 years depending on frame material and exposure.
This is the category Vancouver buyers have heard the most about, thanks to the leaky condo crisis of the 1990s. Buildings from that era that already went through a full envelope remediation are often in better shape today than newer buildings built afterward that haven't faced a major repair yet, remediated buildings got a modern, better-designed envelope in the process.
Good to know: "built after 2000" isn't automatically safer than "built before and already remediated." Ask which category a building falls into.
How Depreciation Reports Actually Get These Numbers
It's worth understanding what a depreciation report is, and isn't. A qualified professional visually inspects the building's major components and assigns each one a condition rating and an estimated remaining service life, based on the component's age, observed condition and published industry-average lifespans for that type of material and system. It's a 30-year financial projection, updated by law every five years, meant to help the strata plan contributions to the contingency reserve fund.
What it isn't is a lab test or a guarantee. The "roof: 8 to 10 years remaining" line is a professional estimate built on visual inspection and averages, not a fixed expiry date, a well-maintained system can outlast its projection and a poorly maintained one can fail early. Cost estimates in these reports are also often based on industry-average pricing that can lag real contractor quotes by a year or more, so the dollar figures should be treated as a planning baseline, not a final number.
Good to know: when you're reviewing a report, weight the physical condition notes more heavily than the specific year printed next to each component. If a report says a system has "5 years remaining" but the notes describe visible deterioration, treat that as sooner rather than later.
Why This Matters More Than the Fee Itself
A $400/month strata fee on a building with a funded reserve, a recent roof and a completed EPR is a very different purchase than the same $400/month fee on a building where every major system is approaching end of life at once and the electrical report hasn't even started.
Before you write an offer, it's worth reading the depreciation report line by line, not skimming for the total number, and asking directly about anything from this list that isn't clearly addressed.
If you're looking at a building and want a second opinion on what the depreciation report is actually telling you, that's a conversation we are always happy to have before you're locked into subjects. Reach out any time.
General information only, not an engineering assessment or a substitute for reviewing a specific building's depreciation report. Actual lifespans and costs vary by construction quality, climate exposure, maintenance history, and building size.
