Roofline Services — Fascias, Soffits & Bargeboards

The parts, and what each one does

• Fascia — the board along the eaves that the gutter hangs on
• Soffit — the underside panel between the fascia and the wall
• Bargeboard — the sloping board at a gable end
• Verge — where the slate or tile finishes at the gable

Painted timber roofline on an exposed site in Buchan gets perhaps five or six years before it needs doing again, and most of it has not been touched in far longer than that. Once the paint film goes, the board takes on water, the gutter brackets lose their grip, and the rot travels back into the rafter ends.

Capping over is a bodge

There is a cheap version of this job where uPVC is screwed straight over the existing timber without removing it. It looks fine on the day. What it actually does is seal wet, rotting wood inside a plastic jacket where it cannot dry, and hide the problem until the fascia will no longer hold a screw. We strip the old timber off, look at the rafter ends, replace any that are soft, and then fit new.

Ventilation at the eaves

Soffits are not just a tidy finish. Air enters the roof space at the eaves, moves up and leaves at the ridge, and that airflow is what stops condensation forming on the underside of the roof. Fit solid soffit board with no vents and you block it. We fit ventilated soffit or continuous eaves vents on every job — it costs very little and it prevents a damp loft.

Dry verge

The traditional mortar verge at a gable cracks, and in this wind it eventually lets go of a tile altogether. Dry verge units clip over the end tiles mechanically with no mortar to fail, which on an exposed gable facing the Moray Firth is worth doing while the scaffold is up.

Roofline work pairs naturally with new guttering, and we would normally quote the two together since the gutter has to come off anyway.

Questions about roofline services