If you are having fascias, soffits or guttering replaced in Attleborough, here is exactly what a properly done job looks like from first look to final clean-up.
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Fascias, soffits and guttering sit at the junction between your roof and your walls. Get the replacement right and the system will drain correctly, ventilate the roof space properly and protect the rafter feet from moisture for many years. Cut corners and water finds its way into places it should never reach - wall cavities, ceiling joists and, eventually, rooms inside the house.
Understanding what a good job involves helps you judge whether the work you are being quoted for is thorough or just superficial. This page walks through the process from first survey to finished job.
Before any price is agreed, the existing boards and guttering need to be assessed properly. From the ground, an experienced eye can spot sagging gutter runs, visible rot, cracked soffits and paint failure on the fascias. But a ground-level look alone is not enough to price the job accurately.
A ladder or short tower gives access to check the fixings, probe suspect timber for soft spots, check whether the gutter brackets are still solid and inspect the rafter feet behind the fascia boards. Common problems found at this stage include rot hidden behind intact paintwork, rafter feet that have been damp for long enough to soften, and guttering that has been pulling away from the fascia for a season or more.
The survey should also note whether the existing soffits are ventilated. Current building practice requires ventilation at the eaves to allow airflow through the roof void, which prevents condensation building up on the rafters and insulation. Some older properties were not originally ventilated here, and a replacement job is the right time to add it.
Safe working at eaves height on a two-storey property requires scaffolding or a tower. For a standard semi-detached or detached house, a full scaffold around the perimeter is often the most efficient approach - it means the crew can work continuously around the building without moving and re-erecting equipment. For smaller jobs on a single elevation, a tower or combination of towers may be sufficient.
The access equipment should be erected on the day work starts or shortly before, and taken down once all work is complete and any waste removed. If a contractor proposes to work from a single ladder on a two-storey property, that is a warning sign - it is neither safe nor practical for replacing a full run of boards.
Guttering comes down first. Downpipes are disconnected at the foot and removed in sections from the top down. Gutter runs are taken down section by section, with the brackets removed from the fascia as each section is cleared. Old sealant and any debris in the gutter outlet are cleared at this stage.
If the old guttering is cast iron and in reasonable condition, it may be worth taking it down carefully, cleaning it up, painting it and re-fixing it rather than replacing it. Cast iron in good condition is worth keeping on the right property. If it is cracked, badly rusted or missing sections, replacement is the better option.
With the guttering clear, the soffit boards are removed next - usually by knocking them forward and pulling them down. On older properties these may be nailed directly to the wall or rafter feet, and some care is needed to avoid disturbing the felt underfelt that laps down over the top of the fascia.
The fascia boards come off last. This exposes the rafter feet fully and allows a proper check of their condition. Any soft, punky or discoloured timber here needs to be addressed before the new boards go on. Rotten rafter feet are cut back to sound timber and either spliced with treated new wood or, if the damage is limited, treated with a hardener and filler before the new fascia is fixed.
Skipping this check and fixing new boards over rotten rafter feet is one of the most common ways a fascia job fails early. The rot simply continues behind the new boarding.
All exposed timber at the rafter feet should be treated with a preservative before the new boards are fitted. Any replacement timber sections should themselves be treated and primed on all four faces - top, bottom, front and back - before they are cut to length and fixed. The back face is the one most often missed, and it is the one that sits against the damp-prone rafter foot.
If the new boards are uPVC, this timber prep stage is still necessary. The uPVC boards fix onto or butt up against the rafter feet, and if those are soft the fixings will not hold.
Fascia boards are fixed to the rafter feet with stainless or galvanised nails or screws - not standard zinc-plated fixings, which will rust and stain the boards within a few years. On uPVC systems the fascia board clips or nails into a top-fixing channel. On timber systems the board is face-fixed and the fixings are pelleted or filled before painting.
Soffit boards follow, fitted into a groove in the bottom of the fascia and either face-fixed to the wall or supported on a bearer batten. Ventilation is installed at this stage - either a continuous ventilated soffit panel or discrete ventilation grilles inserted at intervals. The spacing of ventilation depends on the depth of insulation in the roof and the pitch, but a minimum of 25mm equivalent free air space is the accepted standard at the eaves.
Gutter brackets are fixed to the fascia at the correct centres - typically no more than one metre apart, closer on longer runs or where heavy rainfall is expected. The run is set with a fall toward the outlet: as a general guide, a fall of around 1 in 350 (roughly 3mm per metre) is sufficient to keep water moving without making the slope visible to the eye.
Gutter sections are clipped together with union joints, sealed with the appropriate compound or gasket for the profile being used. Stop ends are fitted at the non-outlet end of each run. Downpipes are fixed at the outlet, with the pipe clipped to the wall at intervals using pipe brackets. The foot of each downpipe should discharge into the drain gulley or soakaway, not simply onto a flat surface where it will splash back against the wall.
Before scaffolding comes down, the whole system should be tested. Running water from a hose at the highest point of each run and checking that it flows cleanly to the downpipe without backing up, overflowing or leaking at joints takes only a few minutes but confirms the work is correct. Any gutter sections with insufficient fall show up immediately at this stage.
Waste boards, old guttering and any packaging are cleared from the site before the job is signed off. If the new fascia boards are timber, the first coat of paint may be applied on site or the boards may be left primed for the customer to paint in their chosen colour - agree this before work starts.
We cover Attleborough and the surrounding area for roof repairs, re-roofing, ridge and hip tile work, chimney repairs and flat roof work alongside fascias, soffits and guttering. If we are on site and spot anything that needs attention on the roof covering itself, we will point it out and quote for it separately. We also cover Diss, Harleston and Long Stratton for the same range of services.
Call Diss Roofers to arrange a survey at your property in Attleborough. We will walk you through exactly what needs doing and explain each step of the work before a price is agreed.
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Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
