UPVC Fascia Boards & Slate Roof

[Bobbins901]

Hello.
We have a house with a slate roof and the fascia boards on the property are starting to rot, so we think it might be good to have UPVC fascia boards, as it will look tidy and be low maintenance.
Two quotes are different in that one company wants to remove old wood and replace with new wood and then fit UPVC over that. The other company would remove old wood and fit the UPVC without adding new wood.
We know so little about this kind of job and wonder whether either method would be fine, or one might be wrong?
Also as the roof is slate, they can't just lift or remove tiles/slates in our case, they say they would slip trays up underneath the felt. But again we can't see how this would be done and cannot find an example of this job being done online. We have searched YouTube to see if we could watch an installation on a house with a slate roof, but found nothing.
Slates usually have a little wiggle room so that they are not tight and crack too easily, would the tray being pushed up underneath all slates at the bottom of the roof cause issues?
Having no wood under the plastic, just the plastic as the fascia board, is this typical? He says he would use 16mm board for the job.
We are having a wobble and cannot bring ourselves to throw caution to the wind and just get it done, we worry about what the cost might be if we go with the wrong choice.
Please advise if you can.
Thank you so much.

 

[Bosswhite]

I suffered the same problem , new fascia and PVC , to remove old wood fascia and replace, then fix PVC Fascia onto that sounds a waste to me , might as well just paint new fascia and it will last for years . so no need for PVC . Why not settle for cutting out damaged/rotted fascia patching up and then covering with PVC , would work out cheaper than replacing all of the old fascia .

 

[Bobbins901]

Hi Bosswhite, thanks for your response. I think we want the zero maintenance for many years with the UPVC, we both hate getting up ladders and painting. I suppose we could pay someone to do that for us, but painting is messy, depending on who does it of course. lol
It does seem ridiculous to us too, the ripping out of wood to replace with more wood, but we know little about the job. We have been told such different things by both companies, in truth we were far more interested in the wood being removed and the UPVC being the entire replacement, but still want to know if this is the right option. The slates are our big concern, we live on a windy hill in Scotland, any damage to roofs is costly. The trays being pushed under the felt, we wanted to know if that is something which could cause damage to the slates, in that the slates would be pushed up slightly? It is a shame that no one puts a video up with a UPVC installation on a house with a slate roof, it would give us some peace of mind.

 

[diy_fun_uk]

See the other thread in this section 'to cap or not to cap', similar discussion that might help you decide.

 

[Bobbins901]

Hi diy_fun_uk, I did see that post, it does help a bit. I think the option to not cap wood is preferable. But I still cannot find any help regarding the slate roof and whether we would be asking for trouble with regards to that or not. We do need to make a decision today really, otherwise they will fit other jobs in and we may be pushed into autumn. The weather up this hill is like Blackpool promenade on a windy day, almost every day! Teehee but the views are lovely.

​

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Don't fall foul of making a snap decision today, give the forum time, the decent roofers who post here aren't stood idle on a ladder at 11am on a weekday looking at their phone.

 

[Bobbins901]

Hi freddiemercurystwin, thanks for that, I will hold off for now.

 

[Bobbins901]

I just thought I would add that Anglian Home Improvements quoted £20,000 for the job, then kept reducing the quote for cash and to advertise them in some way etc. They eventually went down to just under £13,000. It still seemed way over priced and their sales tactics were worse than Safe Style. We got a hard sell with them and continual phone calls and emails until we had to ask them to stop.
The other company is a small business who would charge £5,250 for the job. No replacement wood with that quote and no insurance backed guarantee. The materials come with a 10 year guarantee, but the workmanship nothing but their word, which may or may not be good?
We have struggled to get another quote. One company said they would quote over the phone, but that seemed ridiculous.
If anyone knows of a good company with people based in Scotland (we are in East Ayrshire) please can you pass on their details?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

£5,250 for new facias? Do you live in a mansion?

 

[Alastairreid]

What kind of slate is on your roof, post a pic if you can. Steer clear of Anglian there are plenty of decent roofers in Ayrshire.

 

[Coopa]

Hi there. firstly , what is the meterage of your fascias as the quotes seem pricey unless as said above you live a very large house ? very large ! maybe just get a few more quotes to see price variation .

. Secondly I’d say go for complete upvc replacement if you want maintainance free and to be aesthetically pleasing on the eye Fixing straight to rafterfeet

And thirdly with the eaves trays and slates the only problem I come across is that
sometimes the eaves are pinned to the
fascia and prevent tray sliding in ..but once old fascia is removed the can be manipulated out and trays fitted , but if tiles are pinned on a first batten ,which can also hinder the trays sliding in then the tray can be trimmed down to where ever first batten is as long as felt still goes over top of it Hope this helps and good luck

 

[Bobbins901]

Many thanks for all of your replies. We definitely don't live in a mansion, we have a 3 bed detached bungalow with largish detached garage. It is a fair bit of roof line to cover, but quotes did seem high to us too.

Coopa, thank you very much for your advice, that has helped a lot in regards to the slate roof. We will try and get a rough measurement and add it here to see if the price seems fair for the size and work involved.

I'll see if I can add a photo of the roof too, the slates are 8 x 16" that's all we know about them. It is a fairly modern house, only 13 years old. Surprising to see so much rot in wood, but then it does rain a lot in Scotland and up this hill it is permanently windy.

Thanks again so much for the replies and help, this forum is super!

 

[Bobbins901]

Front of house, a pic we managed to take on a rare good weather day. I can take a close up of the roof once it stops raining. Windows are not orange, the camera was set to vivid for scenery and wildlife. View attachment 274348

 

[Bobbins901]

Both the bungalow and garage have high pitched roofs. I added a photo of the slate. The roofline comes down over the windows slightly, the roof line guy said he could cut the ends of the rafters slightly and run the soffit up along the rafters at that angle. It is a slightly different roof to most you typically see.

 

[Alastairreid]

Looks like Spanish slate, good heavy slate to work with, are the slates nailed straight onto sarking boards? Your quote from the small builder would be quite close if he is renewing the rainwater goods...personally I wouldn't change the character of the roofline by installing soffit boards.