How To Repair A Rotton Roof Corner

Fascia boards are one of most common areas for rot on a firm. Their position just below the roofline makes them highly susceptible to water penetration. Once the boards become soaked, they quickly begin to deteriorate.

This article gives you lot an overview on how to comport out fascia board replacements. Merely, if you tackle this repair, delight take all safety precautions! Fasciais high off the basis, and most of the work will have to be done from a ladder.

Tool Listing:

Speed Square

Boom Puller (Nippers)

6-in-one Painter's Tool

Tape Measure

Utility Knife 2-pack

Best Picks:

Makita is always my preferred MAGNESIUM Round SAW.

I like a Cat'S Manus TOOL with a sharp. jaw, and this 1 fits the bill.

This Estwing 16 oz Hammer is the only hammer with a perfect review score.

Note from Ethan's Dad: For xxx years, I used fiberglass-handled framing hammers. Hither is a steal on one from Irwin.

Material List:

Trim Lumber (match existing–or meliorate yet, utilise PVC!)

2″ Spiral Shank Nails

Siliconized Latex Caulk

Outside Primer

Footstep 1. Determine That You Actually Have Rot

Badly rotted window brickmould

Rot and simple discoloration are 2 dissimilar things. In some cases, spillover from the roof or a gutter only gunks upwards a fascia board.

Bodily rot will show upwards every bit soft spots or dark cavities in the surface of the board. (Similar the one pictured above). Wood in these places will exist mushy and pulpy. To test an expanse that you're unsure of, use the steps in this Q&A I wrote about rot testing.

If you're positive than an expanse is rotted, side by side place where the water came from.

Stride ii. Place The Water Source

An instance of fascia/gutters

In guild to carry out an constructive fascia repair, yous starting time place why your fascia got wet. When you take, make repairs to prevent h2o from soaking this area in the time to come.

Chipped or damaged shingles tin exist a mutual source of water reaching fascia. Look at the lowest grade of shingles on your house.

Are shingles damaged at your roof edge? If and so, have them replaced. Also consider having your roofer add together a drip border to your firm. This metallic strip sits under the bottom shingles. It's designed to make water fall into your gutters. That fashion, the water doesn't distill down behind the gutter and onto the fascia boards.

About those gutters

Gutters are a common source of dampness of the fascia boards. If gutters don't channel h2o properly, they spill water dorsum towards the firm. Primarily, this happens when they are clogged with leaves.

Take your gutters cleaned regularly. If your gutters nevertheless fill up or spill h2o in odd places, you might desire to consider having a gutter expert rehang them. Adding more downspouts to long runs can help this problem. (Here'due south a proficient article on proper gutter hanging.)

Once you've identified and fixed the source of your excess water, y'all're ready to replace your fascia boards.

Step 3. Remove The Rotted Fascia Board

Cut the caulk line with a utility knife.

To start this projection, utilize a utility knife to cut all seams and caulk lines around the pieces that you want to supplant. This ensures that the rotted fascia lath comes away without pulling any other components with it.

Use a 6-in-one painter's tool to pry the board away gently at the base of operations. Incrementally work your way across the board in pocket-sized increments. Avert prying likewise hard, too fast.

Drive a painters tool into the fissure to start your pull.

When you take worked a gap between the boards, switch to a hammer to pry. Don't harm other trim in the area! Hammers can bruise forest easily.

Pro tip

The central in all trim removals is to be gentle. Don't brand more work for yourself by damaging nearby materials with too much force.

To go boards to come away smoothly, pull the nails belongings them in. First, use a "cat'due south hand tool" to gouge out and expose the blast heads.

(I'thousand using one here to free the board from a custom aluminum flashing cap. I'll smash it back onto my new board.)

Pull nails with a cat's paw tool.

Only replacing a portion of a fascia lath?

If you lot just desire to replace a portion of a fascia board, make controlled cuts on the trim confront with a aquiver multi-tool. I wrote an commodity on this topic. Click to see how this miraculous oscillating tool works, and how you can utilise information technology to interrupt-cut trim.

Or replacing the  whole lath?

It's best to try to remove an old board in 1 piece—it can come in handy later. Nonetheless, if you lot can't go the total board out, try splitting it with your hammer, and pulling it out in narrower sticks.

Step 4. Examine The Sub-fascia

If the sub-fascia is rotted

When yous finally manage to pull your fascia board loose, take a moment to examine the framing lumber that you've exposed.

That's some desperately rotted framing!

If the untreated lumber is badly rotted (as it is in the picture above), reframe it before you put the new fascia board on.

In general, reframe the surface area exactly the way information technology was framed originally. Do this by calculation "scab" blocks to undamaged framing in the roof construction. Make sure everything you add together is firmly attached and solid. And that the sub-fascia sits flush and level beyond the unabridged run.

If the sub-fascia is in good shape

If the sub-fascia is in decent shape, clean it in training for mounting the new board. Remove caulk lines and paint globs with a vi-in-ane tool. (This includes scraping old caulk at the seam of whatever neighboring boards.)

Scrape whatever old caulk from surfaces.

Also remove any fasteners that are still sticking out of the sub-fascia. These leftover nails will prevent your new board from sitting properly.

Only drive down exposed nail heads with your hammer. If the angle is besides awkward, though, or the fastener is bent, back it out with a blast puller instead.

Using a blast puller (nippers) to remove any remaining nails.

Take a moment and really examine the area. Make sure information technology is completely clean of whatever obstructions. It's frustrating to discover that something is preventing your new fascia board from sitting apartment.

Step v. Measure For Your New Piece

The easiest way to practise this is to simply measure the piece that you tore off. If the erstwhile piece fit very well, utilize it every bit a pattern for the new board.

Nonetheless, if you've destroyed the sometime board in removal, then it'due south necessary to measure and plot cuts for a new board.

Producing a new piece can be a petty tricky, because fascia wraps around a business firm. Pieces don't only need to exist the right length. They also demand to exist the correct shape.

Complicated fascia lath shapes

Some boards have miter cuts on both ends. Some fifty-fifty take compound cuts where fascia turns up a roofline. Always visualize what you need the new piece to do. Maybe information technology needs a square cut on one end and a miter cut on the other stop. (The one I replaced on this project did.) In any instance, fix the paradigm in your mind.

What I had to exercise

To mensurate for my new board, I merely butt my tape measure to the inside corner. Then I pulled to the farthest point of the exterior corner. This full measure will requite me the distance to the long point of my miter cut.

Pulling a measurement to an outside corner

Step 6. Cutting The New Fascia Board

The most of import thing to note here is that y'all should always supervene upon fascia boards with PVC materials. These plastic-vinyl boards are impervious to rot. For h2o-sensitive places like fascia, PVC is the all-time selection.

If you want to use wood, make sure you're at least using quality lumber. Try to get clear pine, every bit opposed to knotty pine. And don't use any lath that has finger joints—they'll neglect more quickly over time.

Also, become PVC or lumber that matches the thickness (probably ¾") and width of your fascia board. (You can rip boards down to proper width with a circular saw or table saw if necessary.)

Making the cutting

To make your cutting, just lay out your required measurement and mark it with a V-shaped pencil mark ("crow's human foot"). Employ a speed square to draw a straight line through you're the point of your mark.

Pull your measurement and describe a straight line, using a speed square.

Again, always keep in mind what face of the lath your looking at. If in that location is a miter cut on your new piece, consider that there will exist a brusk point of the cutting, and a long betoken.

Using a miter saw for your cut is easiest. That'due south because you tin lay the blade down to 45° for your cutting and press the board back to the argue.

A round saw has a very similar capacity, though. Just unlock and hinge the sole plate to your desired bending. You tin can use your speed square equally a direct border to guide your saw every bit you cut. (Only be sure to hold your speed square firmly! Don't permit it wander.)

Carefully cut on the correct side of your pencil line. Permit the waste fall away. When the cut is finished, pull a measurement on your board to make sure the length is authentic.

Step 7. Attach The New Board

I like to accept the lath up for a quick test fit before I adhere it. But first, I'll half-drive i nail into the lath—a picayune carpenter'due south trick that might help later.

A annotation about nails

Always apply galvanized, exterior-grade nails for exterior trim. I similar to use 2" screw shank nails for fascia boards. They're long enough to reach through the fascia and most of the sub-fascia. Plus, the screw gives the nail a very firm grip in the forest.

Fasten your new board

Hold your new board in place confronting your sub-fascia. Examine the seams where it meets other boards. Have someone on the basis do it for you if the board is long.

Pocket-size gaps of 1/8" are totally tolerable here. I like to have my fascia boards just a little short—it lets me caulk the gap for better h2o seal.

If the lath is a picayune long, accept it back to the ground and trim it. However, if the board fits, your half-embedded smash comes in handy hither. Just drive it to lock the board in place. You tin can at present add the residuum of your fasteners.

Fascia boards have very little pressure on them. There's no need to go overboard with fasteners.

A high nail and depression blast every couple anxiety is all information technology takes to secure the board in place. (Just make certain you're fasteners are sinking firmly into the sub-fascia behind the board.)

8. Caulk Everything

Caulk all joints, seams, and corners.

This is a straightforward process. Cut the tip of your caulk tube to permit nigh a ane/8" flow. Clasp and smooth beads at all seams and junctures. Be sure you're using siliconized latex caulk for exterior applications!

As well, bulldoze your fasteners slightly past the surface of the fascia with a hammer and nail gear up. Caulk these divots to hide the blast heads.

After a little dry fourth dimension, y'all're ready for a couple of coats of exterior paint. If y'all removed gutters, rehang them. You're all finished!

Wrap-Up

The new fascia looks keen!

There are, of course, a yard variations on this repair. For example, not all fascia will look similar the one I've fixed to a higher place, which is a decorative double fascia.

Many fascia boards hang downward in open space, creating the "eaves" of the house. These eaves often enclose a suspended "soffit"—a thin board that hides the rafter tails.

If your soffit is rotted, you'll need to replace runs of that also. This is a slightly more involved procedure, but also not too difficult.

If you're soffit isn't rotted, though, your repair volition be much like the 1 I've depicted. Remember to remove old fabric gently. And, of grade, Please BE Prophylactic!

If you lot have any questions, or if you have a suggestion for a subject field of a time to come blogpost, please go to our Contact page. Thanks!!

Source: https://thehonestcarpenter.com/blog/how-to-replace-rotted-fascia-boards/

Posted by: wicknessichaved1968.blogspot.com

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