Soffit & Fascia Facts

This homeowner sent me a text message and a picture that one piece of the fascia board on the home has a hole in it. He attached this picture and asked me me to come out & replace the bad piece or two, of fascia board.

When the home was built, the contractor installed vented soffit panel made of aluminum . This is good as long as it is never painted or clogged by dirt, pollen, attic insulation, etc. Some people put down flooring in the attic so they can use it for storage. This flooring can actually block airflow from the vented soffit panel causing a super-heated attic area. This will cause premature roof replacement, Condensation can cause mold, mildew & damage to electrical components as well as air conditioning system.

The home in the picture is 27 years old. This is actually very good that the uncovered fascia wood lasted this long! The fact that the fascia wood used on the home was cedar, is the reason it lasted this long.

The builder did NOT cover the fascia wood with aluminum which would have protected the fascia board from damaging rain & sunlight for a much longer period of time. The builder used cedar for the fascia wood & painted the wood to seal it from water damage.

Gutters & a pool cage are attached to the cedar fascia board with either nails or screws.

When it rains the gutters can gain hundreds of pounds of weight from the rain. If it rains hard enough, the rain fills the gutter and water flows into the soffit are thru the holes in the fascia made by the gutter mounting studs, This penetration of water usually rots out rafter tails from the roof that attach to the fascia boards. Of course, wet and rotting wood is a great home for termites. This home needs a soffit and fascia upgrade asap.

When we loosen the pool-cage, remove the gutter and remove the old fascia board, the 27year old soffit is going to fall out of the home. The old soffit panel will most likely be clogged with dirt, pollen, roof insulation & other foreign matter.

The only proper way to fix this situation is to replace all of the fascia wood on the home and wrap the new fascia board with wood-grain aluminum. We tuck the new aluminum fascia wrap up behind the drip edge of the roof.

We will discard all of the old soffit panel and install all new vented vinyl soffit panel around the perimeter of the home. We will re-attach the gutter and the pool cage to the new aluminum covered fascia wood, and caulk where needed.

The customer is left with a home that is as beautiful as it is efficient. This is a ventilation upgrade that will potentially allow natural drafting of fresh air up thru the soffit and out thru roofing ridge vents and any other passive roof vents. This particular home has a "hip" roof. This means that there are no gables. Thus, there can be no gable vents.

New vented soffit panel will allow proper ventilation of the attic area. If the attic temperature is 120 degrees verses 160 degrees, the ac ductwork will deliver much colder air. The ac system will most likely run much less which means the ac system lasts much longer. Proper ventilation will allow the natural condensation that forms in your attic to dry out and dissipate at night. The roof will last years longer and mold and mildew is much less likely to thrive in the attic and the walls of your home.