help with how to do the soffit and facia

[sharbin]

Hello all,

I am trying to figure out how to go about finishing the soffit with vents and the fascia (currently it has sub-fascia and not planning to put gutters). Do I need to also ventilate the soffit of the dormers? how about the gable end?  Your help is really appreciated.


Thanks.

[PEG688]

What are you planning to use for soffit material?

Hardi sells a vented panel ,

http://www.jameshardie.com/homeowner/products_soffit_hardiesoffit.py

Not the best info page I've ever seen.

 

Anyway you'll need to tell us what you'd like to use then we can beat around how to get-er-done.

Yes you should vent the dormer and the gable end eaves. You've complicated that by running those (they appear to be 2x6) blocks up your rakes , you could drill some vent holes, (it would be quite a few holes , like 2 each , 2" holes in each out-looker)  in those and vent the eaves via a continuous vent strip down at the fascia , and out either a ridge vent under the shingles at the ridge , or come up with a vent strip on the bottom side of the peak in the eave over hang.


Theres are  few different brands of continous vent strip.

Core-A-vent makes one.

http://www.cor-a-vent.com/



   




 

[sharbin]

Hello Peg688,

Thanks for the info.

I will be finishing everything with pine wood, including siding, suffit and fascia.

Why should the gabel end eves be ventilated? they are not open to the rest of the roof, hence what would be the purpose of ventilation? As for the 2x6 I have no idea why the framer did it that way (I contracted out the roof framing and the metal roof installation. The framer also did the dormers in a totaly different way... but that is a different story).

Does the siding come first and then the soffit?

[Don_P]

The gables and dormer rakes do not need venting. With T&G I usually rip the tongue off of 2 runs of it and put strip vent between them, ripping either the house or fascia side or both. Make sure the strip vent is straight, this does show up bigtime if it snakes. You need a ledger on the wall level with the subfascia and blocking nailed alongside each rafter and to that ledger. I like to do the return at the wall corner.

Up the gables we do that last chopping the cutoffs and reject stock to the overhang length apply the fascia and butt it up to that, working from bottom to top, make sure you start off square to the fascia. 

[sharbin]

Thanks Don_P... a picture says thousand words 

[PEG688]

Opps,  your right the eaves do not need vented , what was I thinking Long day tired mind I guess.


But the soffits on the dormer need vented if thats living / heated space up there which it appears to be.

That strip vent DonP shows can be had in aluminum / light gauge metal , or plastic. I generally don't center it like he's showing , maybe thats a area thing , as centering it would work , but we generally use a 1" or 2" "starter" strip right behind the fascia  then go to full boards , the first one with the groove ripped off.


 Some people don't like that look , the long vent strip. So I've also made oval vent holes in 1x6 T&G with vent screen stapled on the back.


 The strip vent is easier.

 

 

 

[Don_P]

I imagine it would vent better the further out it is, but yup they're generally ~ centered around here.

We've had 2 cases of them "singing" in the wind, one is my house if we get just the right wind one corner begins a dirge, I guess the vent fins begin to vibrate. The other was a house in IL that had a good mile of corn to the east and west. We made some wood T shaped covers with holes to help spill the wind and that worked. I do like the idea of holes and screen, we've talked about switching to that method, just haven't done it. I guess you could get fancy with a router and a jig and make some interesting patterns.

[Redoverfarm]

Generally speaking it is 1 sq ft of vent per 100 sq ft of attic.

[sharbin]

Thanks all for the info.