# Sagging soffits on bungalow



## Ed the Roofer (Jan 27, 2007)

I have run into this on several occasions.

I am presuming that you have a plank board decking with exposed soffits overhanging the gable edges, right?

They added the soffits on after the original kit house was constructed on several Sears Catalog homes I refurbished.

The fix I am recommending requires the shingles to be removed.

Lets presume that your soffit overhangs past the wall by exactly 2 feet and that the rafters are 2 foot On Center in the main structure.

Since they just used 2 foot planks to hang over the walls, even though there was some minimal supports added on, the exterior bearing wall became the apex point of a teetor-totter. 

I removed the planks on the interior portion of the roof deck, so as to allow a continuous stagger, to eliminate the straight line stress point.

Go 2 foot to the rafter on the first board starting from the eave and then the 2nd bboard from the eave goes in 4 feet to the next rafter then continue repeating this pattern, making sure that you are properly nailing in the new plank boards and not nailing too close to the edges and splitting the wood.

Also, since the wood overhanging soffits are exposed, you should strongly consider painting the portion that will be seen from the exterior of the home, prior to installing them in place.

Even if you were not planning on doing a complete roof removal and replacement, you can still carefully remove just the amount of shingles to allow enough room to accomplish this repair work and then gently and very carefully insert new shingles into place and work your way up the gable.

The decorative bracing will wind up being settled down too, from the weight of the sagging soffit overhang, so some jacking up of those details will be required after the new plank board decking is installed in the staggered pattern to provide increased horizontal strength. Then, after you jack it up, even with lengths of 2" x 4"s, you will need to carefully nail them back to the exterior wall at a proper elevation to meet with the new elevation of the corrected decking and fascia boards.

Ed


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## Lansing (May 8, 2008)

Wow...not bad Ed...and replace any wood rot he finds as he does this, right? ...


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## bofusmosby (Apr 30, 2007)

Well, I've got the same problem with my house as well, except there are no supports underneith. Not too much of a sag though. I am planning on adding some support boards to mine in the near future, and am hoping that that will take care of the problem. Tme will tell.


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## Ed the Roofer (Jan 27, 2007)

Lansing said:


> Wow...not bad Ed...and replace any wood rot he finds as he does this, right? ...


Of course, but that will not be likely along the gable side edges, but could be a possibility along the gutter/eave edge overhang, due to ice damming in the past.

Ed


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## stubborn1 (Oct 24, 2008)

The roof decking is old 1x material. From what I could tell on the inside, the 1xs were cantelevered and not added on after the fact. Regardless, I need to fix the sag so the brackets will have to get rebuilt.

I will be doing a complete tear off (3 layers) to fix other issues as well. The only water damage I've found so far is adjacent the front dormer and at the chimney. The flashing is a mess at the dormer - I'll be removing the siding so I can do it correctly. When the dormer was framed, they didn't double up the rafters, so I have some sagging in the center of the roof. All the flashing at the chimney will need to be redone also.

It should be an interesting project. I'm still toying with the idea of stripping off the roof deck and reframing. The current rafters are 2x6 and with the finished attic, it doesn't allow for much insulation.


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## Ed the Roofer (Jan 27, 2007)

stubborn1 said:


> The roof decking is old 1x material. From what I could tell on the inside, the 1xs were cantelevered and not added on after the fact. Regardless, I need to fix the sag so the brackets will have to get rebuilt.


Please report back when you do get to the project next spring.

I am placing a bet that the boards overhanging the gable end soffits all end on top of the bearing wall, creating that pivot point.

I have done at least 1/2 dozen like that and that is exactly what I found each time.

Ed


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## stubborn1 (Oct 24, 2008)

Ed the Roofer said:


> Please report back when you do get to the project next spring.
> 
> I am placing a bet that the boards overhanging the gable end soffits all end on top of the bearing wall, creating that pivot point.
> 
> ...


Well, I'm reporting back to tell you that you were right Ed. After tearing off four layers of shingles, I saw where the bead board soffits were scabbed on to the existing roof at the exterior wall. They used a couple of the 3/4 boards as lookouts spaced every 8' or so which was inadequate. I ended up sawing off the soffits and returning the overhang back to the original location.


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## Ed the Roofer (Jan 27, 2007)

Thank you for getting back to us and affirming that my diagnosis was accurate.

Ed


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## clsimmon (Oct 30, 2009)

Hi Ed,

I have a similar situation however my overhangs are aproximately 3 1/2 feet overhung from the house with very long and heavy barge rafters (2 x 10s spanning 20 feet lengths) - so the overhangs are very heavy and have begun to sag in an area. Your solution would work however, because the overhang is so wide, they have add yet an additional rafter within the overhang that is between the rafter above the load bearing wall and the heavy barge rafter. Therefore canterleving over the wall would not be possible with this additional overhang rafter in the way? Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Clay


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## Ed the Roofer (Jan 27, 2007)

clsimmon said:


> Hi Ed,
> 
> I have a similar situation however my overhangs are aproximately 3 1/2 feet overhung from the house with very long and heavy barge rafters (2 x 10s spanning 20 feet lengths) - so the overhangs are very heavy and have begun to sag in an area. Your solution would work however, because the overhang is so wide, they have add yet an additional rafter within the overhang that is between the rafter above the load bearing wall and the heavy barge rafter. Therefore canterleving over the wall would not be possible with this additional overhang rafter in the way? Any thoughts?
> 
> ...


Sorry for the delay in response. I needed time off to deal with some issues.

I have done my previously mentioed method with 4 foot overhangs on the gable edges and just had to increase the amount that I installed past the bearing wall. 4 foot overhang then required alternating 8 foot and 10 foot 1" x 6" planks to accomodate the cantilever effect at the apex of the sag.

Ed


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## clsimmon (Oct 30, 2009)

Ed the Roofer said:


> Sorry for the delay in response. I needed time off to deal with some issues.
> 
> I have done my previously mentioed method with 4 foot overhangs on the gable edges and just had to increase the amount that I installed past the bearing wall. 4 foot overhang then required alternating 8 foot and 10 foot 1" x 6" planks to accomodate the cantilever effect at the apex of the sag.
> 
> Ed


 
I had to take a short cut on my repair. Even though I hate doing things like this, the costs of pulling 10 sheets of decking, insulation, and sheet rock over the vaulted ceiling, and completely rebuilding the overhangs far outweighed the benefit.

The way I approached it was that I pulled the decking that extended over the overhang. I reinforced the gable so it would not sag anymore than it already has, then I added 2x2s on top of my barge rafter to level the new decking between gable and the rest of the house. I then reinstalled the 1x2 fascia boards under the drip edge of the shingles to hide the 2x2 leveling board, caulked and painted.

Even with a trained eye, it's nearly impossible to see that the barge rafter is sloping downwards since there is no crease on the decking at the wall pivot point.

It's not perfect, but considering that I have a vaulted ceilings on the other side of this problemed area, There just wasn't enough room to efficiently reconstruct a better cantilever system as the builder should have done in the beginning.

Hope it helps


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