Repairing Soffit & Fascia

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Our 1960's rancher was in need of some soffit repair. I wasn't too sure how easy or hard this was going to be, but hubby was pretty confident that we could complete this project.

Do you know what soffit is? From Google: A soffit is the exposed surface on the underside of an architectural element, most commonly the horizontal underside of a roof overhang (eave) where it meets the exterior wall of a building.

We've known that part of the soffit in the front of the house was rotted. It's just taken us this long to get to it.

Before we get started... I feel like a little trip down memory lane. This is what the front of the house looked like in 2020 when we purchased it. Sometimes I like to look back and see how far we've come.

Wow! Anyhoo... we're going to replace the soffit. For some reason, they just used some sort of plywood. Soffit is generally a form of plastic with holes in it to allow for ventilation into the attic. It's pretty obvious that this old soffit did not.

Thankfully, the rest of the soffit around the house is the normal ventilated soffit.

First up, removal. First we took down the gutters, then tore off the soffit and fascia board.

What is a fascia board? From Google: A fascia board is a long, flat piece of material, often wood, vinyl, or aluminum, that runs horizontally along the edge of a roof, just below the roofline.

Here you can see the extent of the rot. It looks like the gutter wasn't under the drip line correctly and water got behind it and rotted the wood.

Next, repair and get ready to put up new fascia board.

Here's hubby screwing in the front fascia board which goes under the drip line from the roof.

Okay, now that's done, it's time to install the J channel. J channel holds the soffit in place against the house.

It's pretty easy to install. Although you do need to think about how it goes around corners. 

Once the J channel is finished, it's time to install soffit. Soffit comes in long 12' lengths that you custom cut to size. You install it by sliding it into the J channel and adding a screws where it ends at the fascia board.  The screws go in between inside the groove. It's easier to have a system of which grooves you put screws, because when you go to attach the aluminum fascia, you can screw into the empty grooves you didn't use.

Next, you slide in the next piece of soffit, overlapping the edge. Then repeat all the way to the end.

We had a lot of custom cuts to make. We made all the cuts with our chop saw.

In between all the soffit demo and repair, I power washed the gutters and let them dry.

While the gutters were drying, I started spray painting the aluminum fascia. In all of our plans we knew we wanted black soffits and gutters. Soon, we'll be painting all the others around the house.

Well, let me share with you how things went the paint sprayer.... First, we went to Sherwin Williams and picked up some paint to spray the gutters and fascia aluminum. I got out my smaller paint sprayer and filled it with paint and was ready to go! It was coming out so thick, drippy and spitty. What?? I tried several things to get this sprayer to work right. In the end, I was so frustrated with that paint sprayer... I actually threw it in the trash. I spent good $$ on that thing and it did nothing but spit and glop. It worked great the first couple of times using it. And yes, I did clean it out thoroughly every time. I don't know what it's problem was... I was done. Nope. Not doin it!

I ended up just using my tried and true Rust-Oleum Primer and Rust-Oleum Ultra 2x Paint. The photo above shows 3 fascias painted with the sprayer... spitty and spotty. Then the last one primed and painted with the Rust-Oleum primer and paint.

Once the fascias were painted, I moved on to the gutters.

They turned out pretty good! Before reinstalling the gutters, we have to attach the aluminum fascia. That piece slides up under the drip line and is screwed over the edge of the soffit.

Then we attached the gutter. Also, you need to remember that gutters are at a slight angle. Hubby did all the magic math to make sure we were sloping correctly.

Then we repeated the process on the other side of the front. It took us a couple of weekends to finish the entire front.

Then we were all done! So glad to have that project finished! Looks so good!

Here's a couple of close ups of the areas that were rotted. What a difference!

I'm so happy with how this all turned out. Plus we saved ourselves thousands of dollars. The supplies cost us around $1000, but this would have been sooo much more including labor!

We've come so far! Here's one more before and after! I feel like it's come out of hiding. We still have lots to do for more curb appeal. We're just waiting until we paint the house.

Blessings,
Lori