Three generations on Lulu Island.

My grandfather came over in 1948 and worked the gillnetters out of Steveston for the next thirty-five years. He used to say a boat tells you what it needs if you listen — the way it sat in the water, the way the engine sounded when it warmed up, where the salt had eaten through the paint that week. The Fraser estuary was honest with him. It rusted what it rusted, fast.

My father moved off the boats in the seventies and got into roofing. Same island, same houses my granddad's friends lived in by then — bungalows in Steveston, ranchers in Broadmoor, the bigger places going up in Terra Nova. He learned the same lesson from a different angle: everything you put on a Richmond house has to survive the air, or it doesn't survive. Galvanized nails rusted out in fifteen years. Asphalt shingles dried and curled faster than they should have. Cedar shakes split.

I got into doors in 2006 and I've been on Lulu Island ever since. Same houses, third generation.

What 90 years of Richmond houses will tell you

Most of central Richmond went up between 1968 and 1985 — split-levels, ranchers, the occasional Vancouver Special. Those original garage doors had standard-spec galvanized torsion springs and standard galvanized cables. Builder grade. Cheap to install, never meant to last forty years on a saltwater delta.

Almost all of them have failed at least once now. The springs that didn't fail outright were swapped during a re-roof or a renovation, often by a tech who didn't know the difference between oil-tempered and galvanized. So we've got Richmond houses on their third or fourth set of springs, and the homeowner has no memory of any of it except that "the door keeps breaking."

It keeps breaking because the spec was wrong from the start, and every replacement has been wrong since.

What the river air actually does

It's not water that kills steel. It's chloride — the salt left behind when seawater mist dries on a surface. Chloride breaks down the protective oxide layer on the steel, then accelerates the rust reaction underneath. Pitting starts long before you see surface rust. Pitting reduces the cross-section of the steel. Reduced cross-section means reduced fatigue life. Reduced fatigue life means the spring snaps at 7,000 cycles instead of 10,000.

In dry interior cities, oil-tempered standard springs last ten to twelve years. In Richmond, galvanized lasts five to seven. Oil-tempered lasts about the same as it would inland — the protective oil residue does its job. Stainless on the cables doubles cable life on the worst-exposure homes.

What that means for your spring job

If we come out to a Richmond address and the previous installer used galvanized, we'll swap to oil-tempered as a matter of course. Cost is similar; lifespan isn't.

For oceanfront homes — Steveston riverfront, Terra Nova waterfront, Seafair backing onto the dyke — we recommend stainless cables as a parts upcharge. About $40 more. It's the difference between three years of cables and seven. Worth it.

For the inland Richmond pocket (East Cambie, central Broadmoor, Hamilton) — standard oil-tempered with the free galvanized cable swap is fine. The salt's there but it's diluted enough.

Why we work with Steveston Garage Doors

If you grew up on the island you already know them. Steveston Garage Doors is a sister shop — same family-feel team, same standards. When you call our number for a Steveston address, we coordinate directly with their crew. If you call them for any of the other 15 cities we cover, they coordinate with us. One phone call either way.

It's not a franchise. It's just two small shops who know each other and don't see the point in competing on the same island.

What hasn't changed in 90 years

The boats are mostly gone. The salmon canneries are museums. The cedar bungalows my grandfather's friends owned have been torn down and rebuilt into 4,500-square-foot monster homes with three-car garages and copper-clad carriage doors.

The salt's still there. The fog's still there. The springs still break.