Upvc Soffits and Fascias

rubble2

Our house is about 20 years old, the fascias and soffits are timber and in good condition with no visible rot.
In order to avoid the hassle (and ongoing expense) of employing someone on a regular basis to paint the fascias etc I am considering replacing them with white upvc, I understand that this is a greater initial expense but will hopefully pay for itself in the fullness of time.

What is confusing me slightly is the argument regarding fully replacing the existing timber versus overboarding with plastic. My instinct is to say that it is better to replace but there seems to be the alternative view that overboarding is cheaper and ok to do providing the existing timber is sound.

I would welcome any advice or shared experiences from people who carry out this type of work or have employed someone to do it for them.

Thanks

donemedosh

A few years ago we had our fascia & soffits done with upvc the soffits just overboarded the existing cement board. But the timber fascia was replaced as the wood was rotten in some places but ok in others. They do look a lot better & are maintence free apart from a clean once a year. I am not sure if you can overboard the fascia but if you ask the people fitting it for prices I do not think there will be much differance in price. We have a 3 bed semi & the house attached had it done at the same time & we paid around £1000 each. Not sure of the price in todays terms as all prices are going up but materials were from Eurocell & a hollow 300mm X 5mtr soffit board is £15. hope this helps

Alanp

We’re getting ours done but they can’t start until November, we’re having a complete renewal and they’re going to strip a layer of tiles back and replace any wood if needed, we’re also getting the gutters replaced and two new upvc windows,total cost £3,500, next door have had plastic overlay on their fascias and it looks awful.

chrisw

Five of our neighbours have had their fascias and soffits done in the last few months. Different companies but they were all overboarded. They look fine apart from one which was obviously done on the cheap. I spoke to one of the installers and they said overboarding was sufficient as the timber was rot free, they didn't even try to upsell.

Chickereeeee

If you do overboard the fascias, be aware of one thing which most installers 'forget'. The gutter will be attached to the outside of the overboard, which will move it out a few cm. Not much, but enough to allow drips to come through the gap between the edge of the tiles and the gutter, in many cases. And these drips can be irritating... Get them to install some form of drip prevention (e.g. felt tucked under the outermost row of tiles) to bridge the gap. You will thank me for it.

maisie_cat

I've had  both and the one thing I disagree about is the maintenance free. Our UPVC elements were as dirty as the timber ones from the ground and when I was on the scaffold painting the timber elements I needed to clean the UPVC versions.  Repainting the timber versions was more effort but you can clearly tell the difference from the ground, the timber looks nicer. 
Luckily we don't have them now, rise & fall brackets in the stone instead.

EssexExile

Chickereeeee said:

If you do overboard the fascias, be aware of one thing which most installers 'forget'. The gutter will be attached to the outside of the overboard, which will move it out a few cm. Not much, but enough to allow drips to come through the gap between the edge of the tiles and the gutter, in many cases. And these drips can be irritating... Get them to install some form of drip prevention (e.g. felt tucked under the outermost row of tiles) to bridge the gap. You will thank me for it.

It'll move out a few mm. Unless it was borderline to start with it will be fine. Ours were done years ago and they're fine.