Front Entry and Facade Design for a Burnaby Custom Home

Stand on the sidewalk in front of a new house on a Burnaby Heights street and ask one question: can you find the front door? On too many recent builds the answer is no. The garage door is the largest element on the elevation, the entry is a slot beside it, and the porch is so shallow that a visitor waits in the rain.

The street face of a custom home gets judged in the few seconds it takes to walk past, and again every time someone comes home in the dark with groceries. Here is how we design it on a Burnaby lot, from the rules that fix its edges to the numbers on the wall.

The rules that shape the elevation before any drawing

Burnaby's R1 district covers most former single-family lots, and the City's summary of the R1 district sets the frame every front elevation has to fit. The front street yard setback is 4 metres, a flanking street yard on a corner lot is 3 metres, and interior side yards are 1.2 metres. Height for a front principal building is 10 metres with a sloping roof and 9.5 metres with a flat one, at 2.5 storeys for a lot with one or two dwelling units and 3 storeys for three to six, with the basement counted as a storey.

How that height is measured decides more than the number. The R1 district regulations take the measurement from the lower of the average front or average rear grade, using the lower of natural or finished grade, up to the midpoint of a sloped roof or the top of a flat one. On a flat Parkcrest lot, that is simple. On a Capitol Hill lot that drops from the street, the low side of the house pulls the reference grade down and the entry volume at the street loses height it never used. We run that calculation before we shape the entry, because a tall front gable drawn on a hillside lot is the first thing to go.

Two more R1 rules land on the street face. At least one dwelling unit on the lot must have its main entrance oriented to the street, and parking goes at the rear of the lot when a lane or street gives access to it. Read together, they say what a Burnaby front elevation is for: a front door, facing the sidewalk, without a garage in front of it.

Porch depth is the whole argument

Rain in the Lower Mainland arrives sideways. A covered entry that keeps the threshold dry on a still afternoon does nothing for the person fumbling for keys in a November wind, and a wet threshold is how water gets under a door sill and into a subfloor.

So we design the depth of the cover first, before the roof form, before the door. The test is physical: a person standing at the door with a bag, and a second person waiting behind them, both under roof and out of the weather. That is deeper than most drawings show, and it pushes the roof or a projecting entry volume out toward the 4-metre setback line, which is why we draw the porch against the setback from the first sketch, before the conflict shows up at permit.

The depth buys other things. A deep entry gives the door a shadow, which is what makes it readable from the street. It gives a place for a bench, and it gives the mudroom behind the door a dry zone to shed the worst of the wet before anyone reaches the floor inside.

The porch depth is the design. Everything else on the front elevation is arranged around how far the roof reaches past the door.

Icon Projects Team

The front door

The door is the one element a visitor touches, so it earns a real specification, with the product named in the contract.

Material: we lean toward an insulated fibreglass or steel door with a wood or wood-look face for most Burnaby homes, and solid wood where the entry is deep enough to keep the rain off it. Wood in a shallow entry takes the weather on its face and shows it in two winters.

Size: a taller and wider door than the interior doors, because the entry should read as the main event. An oversized pivot door is the fashion, and we build them, with a warning. A pivot door is heavy, the hardware is the whole system, and the seal at the pivot side is the weak point in a wind-driven rain. Specify the door, the frame, the hardware and the threshold as one tested assembly from one supplier, and put it under a deep cover.

Glazing: a narrow vision panel or a sidelight, so you can see the porch from inside and daylight reaches an entry hall that has no other window. Keep the lock side solid. A full-glass door is a beautiful thing that puts the lock within reach of a broken pane, and most owners who ask for one are happier with a sidelight once they see the difference on site.

Security lives in the frame more than the door. A reinforced strike plate, long screws into the framing, a multipoint lock on a tall door, and a deadbolt that throws fully. Add a camera at the door if the owner wants one, mounted where the porch cover keeps the lens dry and the light does not blind it.

Where the garage goes

The single largest decision on a street face is whether a garage door is on it.

On a lane lot, the R1 rule takes the decision away, and we are glad of it: parking at the rear, the front elevation belongs to the house. On a lot without rear access, the City allows parking elsewhere only where its engineering department agrees the rear cannot be reached, and then the design job begins. Set the garage door behind the plane of the entry so the entry projects and the garage recedes. Turn the garage sideways where the lot is wide enough. Give the garage door a colour and a material that step back, and give the front door the contrast. And keep the driveway to one lane at the street, because a double-wide apron in front of the house is what makes a house read as a garage even when the door itself is modest.

The R1 regulations also allow a garage below grade, with no part of the structure standing more than 1.2 metres above the surrounding ground except at the driveway. On a Burnaby view lot that drops from the street, tucking the garage under the entry level can hand the whole facade back to the house. The trade-offs, and the choice between attached and detached, are in our post on an accessory versus attached garage in Burnaby.

Cladding transitions

A modern facade in Burnaby is usually two or three materials, and the joints between them are where the elevation succeeds or fails.

The rule we hold to: change material where the building changes plane. An inside corner, a recessed entry, a projecting second-floor volume, the underside of a cantilever. A transition on a flat wall, where the joint has nothing to hide behind, reads as a stripe and ages as a stain line. Every transition is also a flashing detail in the rainscreen. Section 9.27 of the BC Building Code governs cladding and the drained cavity behind it in wet regions like ours, and each place two materials meet is a place that cavity has to keep draining, so we draw every transition before framing and keep the count low. The material choices themselves are covered in choosing exterior cladding for a Burnaby custom home; the street face is about where they stop and start.

The entry volume gets the material a hand wants to touch: wood, a fine-textured panel, brick. The recessed planes get the quiet material. Cladding that continues from outside to inside the entry, past the door, is a small move that makes the door read as a threshold.

House numbers and light

The Burnaby Building Bylaw requires the owner holding a building permit to post the civic address on the property in a location visible from any adjoining street during construction. We carry the same standard into the finished house. Numbers large enough to read from a moving car, in contrast with the wall behind them, placed near the door or the driveway where no hedge will grow over them, and lit at night. An ambulance crew at 2 am should not be slowing to guess.

Entry lighting has three jobs and most facades do one. Light the steps and the path so nobody falls. Light the door so a visitor is visible from inside and the door is visible from the street. Light the numbers. Warm colour temperature, fixtures shielded and aimed down, and a control the owner will use, whether that is a dusk sensor or a switch inside the door. Uplighting the cladding is optional and often better left off in a neighbourhood where the house next door has bedroom windows. The wider plan for the lot, including path and tree lighting, is in landscape and exterior lighting design.

The elevation from across the street

Before we finalize a front elevation we print it at the same scale as the neighbours' houses and stand it in the row. Burnaby Heights and Capitol Hill streets are mixed now, older bungalows beside three-storey new builds, and a facade that ignores its neighbours looks like it landed. Roof pitches, the height of the entry cover, the rhythm of the windows on the street side, and the material at eye level are where a new house either belongs to its street or announces that it does not.

Then we walk it in the rain. If the door is dry, the numbers are readable and the garage is not the first thing you see, the elevation is doing its job.

Frequently asked questions

How deep should a covered front entry be for Burnaby rain?

Deep enough that a person standing at the door with a bag is under roof and out of the wind-driven rain, which in our experience means the cover reaches well past the swing of the door and the person waiting. A shallow eave over the door keeps the threshold dry on a still day and fails as soon as the rain comes in sideways off the street. We design the porch depth first and let the roof form follow it.

Where should the garage go so a Burnaby custom home does not look like a garage?

At the rear of the lot, off the lane, whenever the lot has one. Burnaby's R1 district regulations require parking in a garage, carport or parking pad at the rear of the lot when a lane or street gives access to it, so on most lane lots the front elevation can be a house and nothing else. On a lot with no rear access, we set the garage door behind the plane of the front entry, or turn it sideways, so the entry reads first.

What is Burnaby's front setback for a new custom home?

Burnaby's summary of the R1 district lists a front street yard setback of 4 metres, a side street yard of 3 metres on a corner lot, an interior side yard of 1.2 metres and an interior rear yard of 3 metres. The setback fixes where the front wall can start, so a porch that projects toward the street and a bay window are drawn against it from the first sketch. Confirm the current figures with the City before finalizing a design.

How tall can the front of a custom home be in Burnaby?

The R1 summary sets a maximum height of 10 metres for a front principal building with a sloping roof and 9.5 metres with a flat roof, at 2.5 storeys for a lot with one or two dwelling units and 3 storeys for three to six units, with the basement counted as a storey. Height is measured from the lower of the average front or rear grade to the midpoint of a sloped roof, which on a hillside lot in Capitol Hill can take away a surprising amount of the entry volume.

Should a front door in a BC custom home have glass in it?

A door with a glazed panel or sidelight lets you see who is on the porch and puts daylight into an entry hall that usually has no other window. We prefer the glass in a sidelight or a narrow vision panel, with the lock and hinges on the solid side, and we specify the door and frame as one tested unit.

Do house numbers have to be visible from the street in Burnaby?

During construction, yes: the Burnaby Building Bylaw requires the owner holding a permit to post the civic address on the property in a location visible from any adjoining street. Once the house is finished, we treat visibility the same way, with numbers large enough to read from a moving vehicle, in contrast to the wall behind them, and lit at night so an ambulance crew can find the house without slowing to guess.

How do cladding transitions work on a modern facade in Burnaby?

Change material where the building changes plane, at an inside corner, a recess or a projecting volume. A joint on a flat wall has nothing to hide behind and reads as a stripe. Each transition is a flashing detail in the rainscreen wall, so we draw every one before framing and keep the count low. Two materials with a clear reason to meet look better than four that meet for decoration.

What should the exterior lighting at a front entry do?

Three jobs: light the path and steps so nobody trips, light the door so a visitor is visible from inside, and light the house numbers so emergency services can read them. Warm colour temperature, shielded fixtures aimed down, and a switch or sensor the owner will use. Uplighting the facade is optional; a lit door with dark steps is the common mistake.