Soffit and Fascia in Portland and Southern Maine

Why eaves rot here

Efficiency Maine explains the mechanism: warm air leaking from the house into the attic melts snow on the roof, and when the water reaches the cold edge it refreezes into an ice dam. Water trapped behind the dam backs up under the shingles. The fascia and the top of the wall sit right below that edge, so they take the water first.

The other culprits are familiar:

• Gutters that overflow or pull away, soaking the fascia from behind.
• No drip edge, so water wicks around the roof edge onto the fascia board.
• Paint that failed years ago on wood that was never back-primed.
• Animals and insects getting in where the soffit has sagged or opened.

Rotted fascia usually means the ends of the rafters behind it deserve a look as well.

Soffit vents and a cold attic

In a vented attic, the soffit is where outside air comes in, and a ridge or high vent is where it leaves. That airflow carries away moisture and keeps the roof deck closer to the outdoor temperature, which helps against ice dams. The residential code sets a minimum amount of net free vent area for a vented attic, tied to the attic's floor area.

Two things go wrong at the eaves. Solid soffit replaced without vents, or vented soffit installed over old solid boards, gives the attic no intake. And attic insulation pushed into the eaves blocks the vents from inside. Maine's energy code lists eave baffles among its insulation requirements: a baffle keeps the insulation out of the vent path and the air moving above it.

Ventilation is half the answer. Efficiency Maine's point is that air sealing and insulation stop the warm air that melts the snow in the first place.

Materials for soffit and fascia

The choices follow the siding and the house:

• Vented vinyl or aluminum soffit: the usual choice with vinyl siding; it does not rot and comes perforated for airflow.
• Aluminum-wrapped fascia: coil stock bent on site to cover a sound wood fascia board, with room at the joints to move.
• Cellular PVC or fiber cement trim: rot-proof boards that take paint and look like wood, often used with fiber cement siding.
• Painted wood: the original on most older houses and the choice review boards in historic districts expect, back-primed and with vents cut in where needed.

Covering rotten wood with aluminum just hides the rot. The board under the wrap has to be sound, or replaced first.

How it goes with a re-side

Doing the eaves with the siding saves setting up twice and lets the trim and the wall be detailed together. The order:

1. Gutters come down so the fascia can be reached; they go back up once the trim is done.
2. Old soffit and fascia are opened, and rafter tails and the subfascia checked and repaired.
3. Eave baffles are checked from the attic side where the vents will be, so the new intake actually connects to the attic.
4. A drip edge is fitted at the roof edge where it is missing, so water clears the fascia.
5. New fascia, soffit and frieze go on, with the siding's top course and trim fitted up to them.

On a house built before 1978, removing painted eave trim falls under the federal lead-safe rule, so containment goes under the eaves before anything is pried loose.

Eaves on old and historic houses

On many older houses here the eaves carry the decoration: deep cornices on Greek Revival houses in the shipbuilding towns, brackets on Italianate ones, returns at the gable ends of capes. Wrapping all of that in flat aluminum is the fastest way to make an old house look tired.

Where a local district reviews exterior changes, the cornice is usually part of what it protects. Biddeford's historic preservation ordinance names cornices and brackets among the features a change to needs review, and Bath's code asks for original materials or a close substitute. Outside a district the same care is simply good practice: repair the decorative parts, replace only what is rotten, and match the profiles.

The historic districts guide lists which towns review exterior trim.

Animals, insects and snow load

Gaps at the soffit are an open door for squirrels, bats, birds and wasps, and a sagging soffit panel is often the first sign one of them has moved in. Before the eaves are closed up, the attic side is checked so nothing is sealed inside, and vent openings get screening that keeps animals out without choking the airflow.

Snow adds weight at the eaves, and ice hanging from a gutter pulls on the fascia it is fastened to. A fascia board that is soft at its fasteners can let a loaded gutter tear away in a thaw. That is why the board behind any wrap has to be sound and the gutter fastened into solid wood or the rafter tails behind it.

Scope, permits and price

Soffit and fascia work done with a re-side is usually covered by the same permit answer as the siding: no permit in towns that exempt a re-side when nothing structural changes, and the town's permit where one is required. Replacing rotted rafter tails is structural repair, which most towns treat as needing a permit.

The price depends on how much of the eave is rotten, how much decorative trim has to be repaired or remade, the material chosen and the height of the eaves. We price the rot found once the old trim is opened, by the linear foot, so the final bill follows what was actually there. Your written estimate lists the eave work as its own line.

Common questions about soffit and fascia in Portland

Where we work

Soffit and fascia across greater Portland and southern Maine: Cumberland, York and Sagadahoc counties, from the islands of Casco Bay to the Sebago Lake towns and the New Hampshire line. Each city has its own page with the permit rule and code edition that apply there: