# Soffits and fascia what materials are typical?



## the roofing god

douglas fir boards,not spruce for the soffit area,pine fascia---can put vinyl soffit,and clad the fascia with aluminum---you`re one comment was a bit insulting,especially when you`re asking advice from the pros here "I will warn you up front, that my engineering background makes me want to do a good professional job. "-hollerg
most of the guys helping here are pros with decades of field experience-just so you know

anyway the hardi`s is ok,but cement gets damaged by ice and snow,you sound like you have water &ice backup problems which will affect that as well,which can ruin it--check that you have 1)ice+water shield on your roof eaves(at least 2 ft. past interior bearing wall)
2)a metal flashing at the roof eave which extends down below the gutter
3)seal the back of the gutter to the flashing with good quality tri-polymer sealant(I prefer Geocell)
also check to see that your roof/attic is properly ventilated and doesn`t create condensation problems
What I`m getting at is if you keep gret ,dry conditions ,the cement hardi board can do well,but not with instances of water intrusion prevalent--Good luck


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## hollerg

I was not intending to offend. I wanted to convey that I was not looking for a quick fix as I figure I'll be living here a long time. Workmanship is important and quality has intrinsic value to me (ie worth paying for).

The house is in Southeast TX, 8/12 pitch and no gutters. Ther was a metal edge all the way around. The soffits were vented and the roof had a ridge vent. 

So to me it doesn't look like a back-up issue. Up in the attic, it is dry except where the rafter tails contact the back of the fascia. Failure has occured on all 4 sides of the house. This OSB type of board just sucked up and held water, I assume where the surface coating had imperfections at at ends. 

First signs of wet rot were found 7 yrs after construction when I went to repaint, up to 40% of the lenght of the board. Whoever manufactured this stuff counted on perfect coatings. Just not a quality product. I don't want a product that hasn't been time tested as I do not want to again have 20+% failure. 

.


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## 4just1don

Sounds as if humidity and hurricanes did you in. What about soffit intake air to go with those ridge vents?? "HERE" the gold stantard is alluminum continous vent soffit in open rafter bays(Not insulation clogged). cement board is better than OSB ,,,I dont like that cardboard wick stuff either. You have alot of heat and humidity to evacuate so whatever you use,,make it right.

Side note,,,IF your soffits are usb,, whats your roof sheathing?? IF its osb, it 'may' fail also,,,,they dont seal cut or ANY edge enough to keep it from sucking humidity. Plywood is better but can still warp and delam under extreme conditions,,,specially under vented.


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## OldNBroken

You may be treating the symptoms and missing the actual problem. The latter list of things TRG told you are as critical or more critical as choosing the right material to replace it with. You have to find out WHY this happened in the first place (and, yes, that osb garbage is a sponge) and make sure what you replace it with is adequately protected from above and inside.


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## Dale Chomechko

I live in Vancouver BC ( 175 inches of rain & almost never freezes)
Combed spruce fascias if they are not painted often & completely covered, tend to rot quickly. 
I'm not sold on cement boards with wood fiber in them as numerous roofing products have been created using these materials & if they do get wet(anywhere they are cut) the wood fiber swells & they disintegrate. OSB is another bad product, had my crews fall through many roofs on houses with wet OSB. 
Metal fascia covers do work well, easy to keep clean, but can get costly depending on how many you need.
My house has 2 1/2 x 13" rough cedar fascias(hidden gutters torched in with Syplast) They are stained with oil based stain (not paint) I have never had anything flake off or a single bit of rot in the 21 years since I built the house. 
Douglas fir is also very good, I have seen it on an exposed deck with just paint, last for 30 years without an issue.
Pine tends to warp & crack, & will still rot if pressure treated because the cracked areas are not going to be treated (rot can happen from the inside out)
I am partial to cedar as that is what all these composites are trying to imitate in siding as well as roofing materials


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## hollerg

*Sealing or drip edge issue?*

Very common for condensation and fog in the area. I think I had adequate soffit vents area and there was little blockage of those vents

The fascia was actually two boards (a small 1x2 up under the drip edge). Both facia boards tended to degraded from the bottom edge up. The outside face would soften next. Wicking had to be the way moistrue got to the tails and look outs (no nail header) as it was all end grain damage. Damage may have been worse where the facia met at cuts. Soffit damage was often the edge against the facia groove, but sometimes deeper.

What roll does the clearance between the drip edge and the facia play? 
- diagram attached


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## the roofing god

you do have rain in texas ?,water gets backed up from poor gutter maintenance ,and such ,and happens everywhere--the gutter flashing detail is not to be overlooked,and water in those boards will typically settle at the bottom,and rot there 1st---that is the #1 cause,and most people don`t realize it-unless you think humidity in the air did all the damage,which I highly doubt,either way good luck


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## hollerg

*Water backing up?*

I have no gutters so the water is from rain running down the board. However we do not have tropical conditions so the boards should have dried out between showers. The drip edge was overlapped but not caulked, but I thought that was standard practice. FYI I found that some siding manuafacturers from the 80-90 's used this stuff and have been paying claims ever since, because it became quickly damaged. If I'd been smart I wouldn't have started to rip it all off and instead filed for damages.


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## 747

Do fascia in what ever(example pine) thats usually just some one by and wrap in aluminum. For soffitts. I would go with the aluminum ones with slits in them for intake ventalation. If you wait another month or so they will be on sale. December and Janurary is when those guys are putting those aluminum soffitts on sale. In summer your paying full price and there not cheap these days because aluminum has gone up in price. Make sure there the ones with slits in them for intake ventalation. NOT all have the slits. the ones i'm talking about have every other one with slits. Oh if you go with the soffits i'm talking about you want to rip all the wood out first. Then install them.


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## GutterGnome

If you decide to get some gutters, I recommend that you get some kind of "free-hanging" system....like a snaplock or something....because this will hopefully prevent your fascia and soffit from rotting


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