Custom Site Furnishings for Metro Vancouver
Seating, planters, waste enclosures and bike parking built to the dimensions of the site, in the material and finish the project calls for.
Site furnishings are the elements that make an outdoor space usable: seating, planting, waste storage, bike parking and protection. On most projects they’re specified late, chosen from a catalogue, and end up as the part of the site that doesn’t quite fit.
TrussMetal fabricates them instead. Built to the dimensions of the site, in the material and finish the project calls for, from a shop in North Vancouver.
Why Custom Rather Than Catalogue
Catalogue site furniture works when the site is generic, and most aren’t.
The dimension is wrong. A run needs to close cleanly at a length the catalogue doesn’t offer, so the design gets adjusted to the product rather than the product to the design.
Something has to be matched. A second phase beside a first built years earlier, or a replacement in a run where the original supplier no longer makes the unit. Matching is a fabrication problem, not a procurement one.
The design only exists on the drawing. A profile, a pattern, a curve, or an element that does two jobs at once. There’s nothing to specify against because it hasn’t been made before.
The site is the constraint. A membrane that can’t be penetrated, a footprint bounded by existing structure, an access route that limits how large a piece can be delivered in one section.
The lead time doesn’t work. An imported unit against an installation window that closes sooner than the shipment arrives.
What We Build
Five product lines, each with its own page.
Bollards
Fixed, removable, collapsible, decorative and sleeved bollards in steel, stainless and aluminum. Protection for storefronts, parkades, utilities and fire access, plus matching and replacement of existing runs.
Garbage and recycling enclosures
Waste enclosures built around a property’s actual bin count, streams and pad rather than a standard size. Gates, infill, retrofit of failed enclosures, and wildlife-resistant configurations.
→ Garbage and recycling enclosures
Planters
Architectural and commercial planters in steel, weathering steel, aluminum and stainless. Troughs, dividers, raised beds and rooftop planters, with drainage, liner and irrigation coordination resolved at design stage.
Benches and site seating
Outdoor and commercial seating — backed, backless, curved, modular, planter-integrated, leaning rails and memorial benches. Steel frames with timber, composite or metal seating surfaces.
Bike parking
Secure bike rooms and cages, wall-mounted and vertical racks, two-tier systems, staple racks and lockers, laid out for the room that exists rather than to a rack count.
→ Bike parking, racks and cages
Matching, Replacing and Extending an Existing Site
A large share of site furnishing work isn’t a new site — it’s an existing one that has aged unevenly. A bench run where two units were removed and never replaced. A bollard line where three are missing and the rest have been repainted four times. Planters from a phase built under a supplier who has since discontinued the range.
Catalogue procurement handles this badly, because the original product usually no longer exists and the nearest available equivalent is visibly different. Custom fabrication handles it well, because the reference is the piece on site rather than a page in a book. Photographs, a few measurements and a note on the finish are usually enough to start.
Coordinating Several Elements Together
Most site packages contain more than one of these, and there’s real value in them coming from one place. Finishes match because they’re specified together rather than approved separately. Details repeat, so a top rail on a planter can echo a bench frame. Fabrication and delivery are sequenced against one installation programme instead of five supplier lead times. And where elements meet — seating built into a planter, bollards protecting an enclosure — the junction is designed rather than negotiated on site between two trades.
Materials at a Glance
Steel is the default: strongest per dollar, formable into any profile, repairable, and it takes any finish. Outdoors it needs a coating system suited to its exposure. Weathering steel is chosen for its appearance and behaves differently from everything else — the run-off and staining considerations are covered on the planters page and on our weathering steel page. Stainless holds its appearance without repainting; grade selection matters near salt air. Aluminum is light and doesn’t rust, which suits rooftops and lifting-constrained locations, though it’s softer than steel. Timber and composite on steel frames are common on seating, where the frame outlasts the surface and the surface can be replaced.
Galvanizing and coating are carried out by specialist applicators. Coordinating the finish with fabrication means the coating system suits the material, the exposure and the intended appearance — and it means a sample on the actual profile can be produced before a run is committed.
Material notes: steel, stainless steel, aluminum, wood and metal.
From Drawing to Installed
The sequence is the same across all five product lines. It starts with what you have — a drawing, a photograph, a sketch, dimensions, or a description of the problem. Where the design isn’t resolved, early input on cost and buildability is more useful than a quote. Where it is, we prepare fabrication drawings for review before anything is cut, so what’s approved is what gets made.
Finish samples on the actual profile can be provided where appearance is critical. Fabrication happens in the shop, which means less time on site and less disruption to a working property. Fabrication and installation can be coordinated together as part of the project scope, including site measurement, sequencing around occupied buildings, and making good afterwards.
Where engineered design or sealed documentation is required, it should be provided or reviewed by the appropriate qualified professional.
Who We Build For
Landscape architects and designers specifying elements that don’t exist in a catalogue. Developers and general contractors with a site package to deliver. Strata corporations and property managers replacing what has worn out. Commercial property owners, restaurants and hospitality operators shaping an outdoor space. Municipal and public-realm buyers working to a site standard.
Where We Work
Our shop is at 5128 Francisco Court in North Vancouver. We fabricate and install across Metro Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, including Vancouver, the North Shore, Burnaby, Richmond, Coquitlam and Surrey.
Send us a drawing, a photo, or a list
You don’t need a specification. A site plan, a photo of what needs replacing, or a list of what the package contains is enough for us to tell you what’s involved.
Email sales@trussmetal.com or call (778) 805-5333.