Wooden Soffits, Repair or Replace with Wood or PVC?

WhoisDannie

I live in a semi detached house built  34 years ago.

I have had the wooden soffits and facias painted every few years and the last time was 2 years ago.

I happened to find a piece of the soffit, or fascia, lying on the ground so had a good look at the soffits and facias and noticed quite a few places where they were splitting, they are wooden plywood about 3/4 in thick.

So the question is, do I get the splitting and missing bits repaired or do I get the wooden soffits and facias ripped off and replaced with PVC or wood?

Also should I go with the local company that did my double glazing and would also replace the soffits and facias or should I get a company that only does soffits and facias?



 

MysteryMe

I have now replaced all wooden soffits and fascia with plastic. If you are going to replace you might as well go with the maintenance free option. Any double glazing firm will also be able to do that work.  It's going to be more to replace than repair but you will be saving on having to pay for them to be periodically painted.

Chickereeeee

I would tend to go with a specialist company, but whichever, beware.

A lot of companies just COVER your existing facias with pvc. Not ideal if they are rotting.

Also, if the facias are just covered, the guttering will be a few cm further out from the wall, which can lead to annoying drips all around the house.

EssexExile

Chickereeeee said:

I would tend to go with a specialist company, but whichever, beware.

A lot of companies just COVER your existing facias with pvc. Not ideal if they are rotting.

Also, if the facias are just covered, the guttering will be a few cm further out from the wall, which can lead to annoying drips all around the house.

A few mm, not cm. But I agree, it sounds like replacement would be a better choice as the wood is already rotten.

Bookworm105

replacing with plastic should be a once in a lifetime job, but will, to an extent, depend on whether the remaining wood is good enough to fix the plastic to. if it isn't then the job may require fixing enough wood in place to ensure you get good places to fix the plastic 

plywood, even marine grade, is not the best choice for soffits, and never for fascia.

stuart45

If they cap them it's 9mm. If the timbers rotten get the thicker plastic that gets fixed straight to the rafters. Soffits are non strucural. They don't need a.timber soffit under them.

Ectophile

Bookworm105 said:

replacing with plastic should be a once in a lifetime job, but will, to an extent, depend on whether the remaining wood is good enough to fix the plastic to. if it isn't then the job may require fixing enough wood in place to ensure you get good places to fix the plastic 

plywood, even marine grade, is not the best choice for soffits, and never for fascia.

And you won't know what horrors are hiding behind the rotting fascias until they are pulled off.

My little job of replacing wooden fascias with PVC turned into stripping all the tiles off the roof, fixing the rotten woodwork, re-laying the roof again.  And finally putting new fascias and gutters on.

Martyn_H

As others have said, it's better to remove the old wood before replacing with the thicker  plastic. More expensive but no more rot/going up the ladder.