Fascia and soffit problems to look for after a Glasgow winter
Glasgow winters are hard on the edge of your roof. Months of rain, wind and the odd freeze get into any board that is not sealed, and you often do not see the damage until spring.
A quick walk round the house with a camera will tell you a lot. Here is what to look for and what it means.
Which board is which
Two names come up a lot, so here they are in plain words.
- Fascia: the board along the very edge of the roof, facing outward. Your gutter is usually fixed to it.
- Soffit: the board that runs underneath the roof overhang, looking up from the ground. It often has small vents in it.
- Bargeboard: the board along the sloping edge of a gable end.
All three are usually timber or plastic, and all three suffer when water gets behind them.
Peeling and bubbling paint
Paint that lifts, flakes or bubbles is the first warning on timber. It means moisture has got under it. Sometimes this is just old paint, and a proper prepare-and-repaint sorts it out. We cover that in our roofline painting page.
Press the board with a screwdriver tip or a fingernail. If it is firm, the problem is the paint. If it sinks in or crumbles, read the next section.
Soft, dark or split timber
Rot usually starts at the lower edge of a fascia, where the gutter has been overflowing or leaking onto it. Look for:
- Dark, spongy wood that gives when you press it.
- Splits along the grain or at the ends of boards.
- Gaps where boards meet and have pulled apart.
- Gutter brackets that are loose or have pulled out.
A small patch can sometimes be cut out and repaired. A long run of soft board is a replacement. Our fascia and soffit repairs page explains how we tell the two apart.
Sagging or bowing soffits
Soffit boards that droop, bow or have dropped out of place have usually got wet above them. A leaking gutter, a slipped slate or a blocked valley can all soak a soffit until it gives up. Replacing the board without finding the leak just means doing it again.
Stains on the underside, like brown tide marks, suggest water is getting in at that spot. Photograph them, because they help when working out where the problem started.
Gaps, birds and wasps
Once a gap opens, something moves in. Starlings and sparrows nest in holes in soffits, and wasps will start a nest in a dry gap under the eaves. If you notice birds going in and out of the same spot, or hear scratching in the roof space, check the boards.
Closing a gap is part of the repair. We would not want to seal birds inside, so if you see nesting activity, deal with it carefully and check what is protected at that time of year before doing anything.
What the gutter is telling you
Gutters and fascias fail together. If the gutter overflows at the same spot every time it rains, the fascia behind it is soaking. If the gutter sags, the board it is fixed to may not be holding the screws.
It is worth getting the gutters cleared before you decide anything, because a blocked gutter can make a sound board look worse than it is. Our gutter cleaning in Glasgow includes a look at the roofline, and we can send you photos of what we see.
Eaves protection trays
An eaves protector is a plastic tray that sits at the bottom of the roof felt and stops it from sagging into the gutter. If the felt hangs down and holds water against the fascia, the timber behind rots quickly. If you can see felt drooping into the gutter, mention it.
How big will the job be?
It depends on what you find, and we do not put figures on it in an article. Three things decide it:
- How much is affected: one corner is small, a whole elevation is not.
- Whether there is a leak behind: the source has to be fixed first.
- How we reach it: a bungalow is simple, a tall gable needs the tracked platform, which we use up to four storeys, with no ladders.
A photo of each problem, with one wider picture to show where it is on the house, makes it much easier to give a sensible answer.
What to do next
- Walk round the house and photograph anything that looks wrong.
- Press any suspect timber to see whether it is firm or soft.
- Have the gutters cleared so you can see the real state of the boards.
- Decide between repair, repainting and replacement.
That last step is the same question we cover for gutters in our post on repairing or replacing gutters. Send us your photos on WhatsApp, or call, and we will tell you which way we would go.