VANCOUVER BC’S PREMIER RESIDENTIAL PAINTING COMPANY
VANCOUVER BC’S PREMIER RESIDENTIAL PAINTING COMPANY
At Dunbar Painting, we provide professional painting and staining services throughout Kensington-Cedar Cottage, where nearly half the homes are duplexes and the housing stock ranges from 1900s wood-frame character houses to post-war bungalows and modern laneway homes. We’ve worked on all types of properties in this diverse East Vancouver neighbourhood, understanding the specific needs of everything from early 20th-century wooden homes to recently built duplex conversions and brand-new laneway additions. Whether you own a single-family bungalow, one side of a duplex, or a property with a laneway house, we bring the expertise and attention to detail that every home deserves.
Kensington-Cedar Cottage combines two historic neighbourhoods in the centre of East Vancouver, stretching from Fraser Street to Nanaimo Street and from Broadway down to 41st Avenue. Developed from the 1890s onwards as farming and nursery land, the area transformed into a residential community with small wooden and stucco houses by World War I, creating the foundation for today’s eclectic housing stock. The neighbourhood is home to Vancouver’s only lake at Trout Lake in John Hendry Park, and Kingsway cuts diagonally through the area connecting downtown to New Westminster. Known for its remarkable cultural diversity and family-friendly atmosphere, Kensington-Cedar Cottage attracts young professionals and families drawn by relatively affordable housing options and strong community character.
604.788.3382 | 3891 Dunbar St, Vancouver, BC V6S 2E1
We proudly serve homeowners throughout Kensington-Cedar Cottage, Vancouver with expert painting services. In addition to the other areas we serve, we also provide interior and exterior painting services in Hastings-Sunrise and Killarney.
Inside Kensington-Cedar Cottage homes, the duplex format creates interesting painting considerations that single-family neighbourhoods don’t face. Coordinating schedules with the other unit owner, managing sound during work hours, and ensuring crisp paint lines at shared interior walls all require experience with this housing type. The 1900s wood-frame houses feature straightforward room layouts with plaster walls that have developed their own texture over a century of settling, requiring skilled patching before fresh paint goes on. Post-war bungalows throughout the area often have those distinctive textured ceilings and wood-panelled accent walls that were popular in the 1950s and 60s, and homeowners today are split between preserving that retro character or updating to smooth, contemporary finishes. We’ve painted enough units in this neighbourhood to recognize the common issues each housing era presents, from ancient knob-and-tube wiring boxes that need careful work-arounds to basement suites with moisture concerns that require proper surface sealing before any colour goes on.
Kensington-Cedar Cottage’s exterior painting challenges stem from the neighbourhood’s development timeline and housing density. Those WWI-era wooden houses have been painted so many times that proper surface prep means carefully removing failed layers without damaging the original siding underneath. Duplexes create their own complexity when one owner wants to repaint while the other doesn’t, requiring us to create clean transitions and protect one side completely while working on the other. The post-war bungalows were built with economy in mind, which often means thinner wood trim and materials that don’t hold paint as well as older growth lumber from earlier eras. Standard 33-foot lots mean houses sit close together, requiring careful protection of neighbouring properties and precise masking where buildings nearly touch. The mature trees that make these streets so pleasant also drop sap, create constant shade that prevents wood from drying properly, and their root systems sometimes cause foundation movement that creates stress cracks in stucco.
New construction in Kensington-Cedar Cottage focuses heavily on squeezing additional housing onto existing lots through laneway homes and duplex conversions. Laneway construction presents unique painting challenges because these small buildings need to look finished from every angle, and they’re built right up to property lines with minimal staging room for equipment. New duplex projects deliberately create contrasting identities for each unit, using different but complementary colour schemes that make the building interesting rather than monotonous. Townhouse developments on assembled lots bring their own considerations, with multiple units requiring identical finish quality and colour consistency across the entire project. We’ve got plenty of new construction jobs under our belt and understand how modern materials like Hardie board, LP SmartSide, and engineered wood products all have specific priming and painting requirements different from traditional wood siding.
The early 1900s character homes scattered throughout Kensington-Cedar Cottage represent Vancouver’s working-class residential history, built simply and functionally rather than as showpieces. Being one of only a handful of professional painters approved by the Vancouver Heritage Foundation means we understand how to work with these modest but historically significant homes. The wood-frame construction from this era used old-growth lumber that’s superior to modern materials, but a century of paint applications means we’re often removing six or eight layers before getting down to sound substrate. These houses lack the ornamental details you’d find on west side heritage homes from the same period because they were built for affordability, but that doesn’t mean they deserve less care. Period-appropriate colours for working-class homes differ from the elaborate palettes used on wealthier properties, tending toward more muted, practical tones that we can help you select. Many of these character homes have been modified over the decades with additions, updated windows, or converted into duplexes, requiring us to respect original elements while acknowledging the building’s evolution. We approach this work knowing these houses tell an important story about who built Vancouver and how regular families lived, making proper preservation work more than just technical skill.
Wood staining in Kensington-Cedar Cottage often involves coordinating finishes across duplex units or matching new laneway houses to existing main homes. The post-war bungalows throughout the neighbourhood frequently feature simple fir trim and basic wood elements that transform beautifully when properly stained rather than painted, revealing character that was always present but hidden. Early 1900s character homes sometimes have original wood floors that have survived under carpeting or linoleum for decades, and refinishing these surfaces connects current owners to the home’s working-class roots. Duplexes present unique considerations when one owner wants to stain their deck or trim while the other side remains painted, requiring careful transitions and thoughtful colour selection. Modern laneway homes often incorporate contemporary wood siding as a design feature, and we work with homeowners to select stain colours that complement rather than match the main house.
Whether you own a duplex, a character home from the neighbourhood’s early days, or a newer laneway house, we’d like to discuss your painting project. Call us at (604) 788-3382 or request your free estimate online. We’ll come to your property, examine the specific conditions your home presents, and provide a detailed quote that addresses the actual work required. If you’re coordinating with another duplex owner or planning work on both a main house and laneway, we’ll help you think through scheduling and approach.
