Fascia timber repair (not PVC)

[zena123]

A plea for help ! In 2010 I moved into a 3-storey terrace house (build 2000). In 2019 a neighbour pointed out a small section of fascia that was rotting.
A roofer repaired it & told me he’d use marine ply (photos E,F,G) against the rain.

That roof repair itself is now rotting. His repair may have been OK & maybe something else is contributing to the rot, eg design fault. So I’d really appreciate it if you’d look at my photos to see if you can identify what may be contributing to the rot & also what I need to get done. Roofers are hard to come by, & they seem especially booked up now, as are scaffolders. It will be easier if I can be clear about what needs doing.

Photo 2019 D seems to show an infill piece (horizontal) was added to the fascia structure, which wasn’t there before (see 2010 & 2013 photos). A neighbour’s mirror house doesn’t have that infill & although their's needs a lick of paint, their fascia (Photo 2022 L) looks as sound now as it was in 2010 – unlike mine !

List of Photos (see attached below)

2010 A: fascia was OK.
2013 B: next door added hedgehog gutter guard (wood-pigeons) to his gutter. Has gutter been shortened on LHS of downpipe ?
2019 C & D: fascia is rotting (before repair). An infill piece seems to have been added (not by me)
2019 E & F: roofer has done repair. Has bent flashing to funnel rainwater to gutter.
2019 G: Effect of rainwater on new repair (before being painted)
2022 H: rot from side
2022 K: rot from underneath
2022 Neighbour’s mirror image fascia: Has not been painted since before 2010. No signs of rot.

Immensely grateful for any suggestions ! Tia, Helene

 

[Nige F]

A plea for help ! In 2010 I moved into a 3-storey terrace house (build 2000). In 2019 a neighbour pointed out a small section of fascia that was rotting.
A roofer repaired it & told me he’d use marine ply (photos E,F,G) against the rain.


A neighbour’s mirror house doesn’t have that infill & although their's needs a lick of paint, their fascia (Photo 2022 L) looks as sound now as it was in 2010 – unlike mine !
Tia, Helene

It could be that the prevailing wind blows against your house along the roof of the neighbour's, therefore theirs is sheltered and you get the force of the rain. Not a roofer, but there are several good ones on here.

 

[tell80]

OP,
1. The stained brickwork in pic # 2019D is definitely not signs of weathering - the upper part of the stain is protected from the weather by the projecting soffit.
2. The last three courses of tiles above the soffit need (lifting and?) investigating to check if they have been set out correctly. And to check if the roofing felt and bottom course are projecting over the gutter - its difficult to tell whats happening from pic #210A. whatever, water is entering the eaves area.
3. The wet verge & undercloak appears to stop short above the gutter?
4. The flashing is incorrect for those tiles - individual soakers should have been cut and fitted under the tiles abutting the wall.
5. The bent flashing is not working very well - google "kick-outs".
6. All rotten wood will have to be replaced - modern fascias & soffits are typically Pvc.

Any signs of water damage inside the property?

 

[zena123]

Duh! Thanks Nige, I shd have thought of prevailing wind direction ! At least I'll know for next time ...!

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Not what you wanted to hear, but I would not bother in future with timber or ply - Replace it with plastic versions then there will be no more need to paint, it will not rot and it will last.

 

[zena123]

Thank you Harry .... I'm becoming convinced ! I'm still wading through each point Tell80 raised to work out what it all means (YouTube videos are helping.) So I plan to reply to him when I eventually think I understand what he's said ... Very grateful that you are all being so helpful.

 

[Nige F]

Thank you Harry .... I'm becoming convinced ! I'm still wading through each point Tell80 raised to work out what it all means (YouTube videos are helping.) So I plan to reply to him when I eventually think I understand what he's said ... Very grateful that you are all being so helpful.

Points 1 and 6 are stating the obvious 4 is debatable ( and has been discussed on here ) No harm in quoting them to the guys you engage to replace the wood with plastic . P.S point 1 points to water entering the soffit box and running down the wall.

 

[zena123]

Thanks Nige, but I think the 'staining' was actually a cast shadow & not damp, if point 1 is referring to the diagonal line across the brickwork in 2019D ?? Thankfully, there's no sign of water damage in the loft,
timbers seemed sound as far as I could reach, which was nearly to the end. I took photos, but they aren't
very useful. Though absolutely no space for working on repairs there as the roof is v. low. Tell80 is right about the wet verge & undercloak stopping short above the gutter - if that means the vertical line which is the end of what I would call the 'flashing' or 'leading' (though it's not lead, but some ersatz stuff).

 

[^woody^]

It needs to be repaired with a treated softwood (tanalised) and not plywood. That was a bodge not a repair.

The timber will be rough, so needs to be sanded smooth on the outer faces to receive paint and primed and three coats of external gloss. Most of this should be done on the ground, and then just touched up after fitting.

 

[zena123]

Thank you Woody. Noted.
Especially appreciate the instructions re: tanalised softwood, sanding, priming & 3 external gloss, as that is obv. crucial & I wouldn't have known.

 

[SpecialK]

What thickness is the ply? Looks like 5.5mm! Rubbish repair job. Should have ripped off the existing wood and replaced with same thickness of suitable externally rated material.

As above PVC is best for facias etc...

 

[zena123]

Right, I've had one quote: £3.5K (+ VAT = £4.2K). Includes:
take off verge, install new verge enclosure

 

[zena123]

Afraid I hit the wrong button, before I'd finished ... to recap:
a) Take off verge, install new verge enclosure; [he said there are various types of v. enclosure to be had, so I need advice] b) replace end of fascia & return soffit in wood [type unspecified : but I noted what Tell80 said re: tanalised & sanding] c) 3 coats paint [type unspecified] d) Extend lead over onto next doors side to cover end of fascia [that doesn't make sense : I think the sense has got distorted in typing-up] shouldn't it be "extend lead on my side to cover end of fascia". Also it isn't lead that is up there, but some 'ersatz' material. Extras within price (as he identified that mortar from rooftop ridge had come adrift & 2 slabs of old mortar have slid down my roof) : e) Take off ridges and reinstall a dry-ridge system and also f) instal new deep gutter along face of house (only as scaffold will be up) : wd it then need a larger diameter downpipe ? g) No mention of installing a kick-out [Thanks, Tell80 : I checked out Google & YouTube on this : where can you get them from? ... in UK they seem to be made 'on the job' using a rectangle of metal? but there are masses of images of purpose-made kick-outs that look more effective].
Tell-80 : I can only find out about your points 2-4 once scaffolding is up, but am excessively grateful to have them as part of a check-list, as I don't want to revisit this all again in a couple of years' time. So, total quote was £3,500 (excl. VAT) & may have gone up, given petrol prices have risen !
Obv. I'd like to get roofer & scaffolder who work well together ... last time I delegated everything to roofer & got bad result .... P.S. I now know what undercloak is ! (&, more importantly, it's function !) So, question is: is the quote reasonable ? (i.e. list of tasks ... & then price)
Apologies that this is getting so complex ! But I know you guys have the brain-power to more-than cope ! Tia

 

[Coopa]

Hi the problem you have is shown simply in one of your photos , it’s actually two tiny problems that have caused a heap of trouble . I often see one but rarely the other but I have seen before to be the cause .. The photo 2019 g shows me that 1. As said previous and is 100% your problem is that the undercloak is short water running down verge will soak in to wood ( as shown on new wood ) it needs lengthening to end of the last tile and into the gutter so water runs away and not soak into wood and 2.youd never guess but your neighbours aerial wire is also having water run down it and onto the piece of wood ( soaking the other side of already soaking wood as shown in pic ) lift the lead so neighbours gutter gets the water and take the blooming aerial wire off your wood .
Do them two things and it’ll be fine , but highly recommend change to plastic and wet cement verges that are done with correct overhang of undercloak into the gutter . Fitted correctly it’s feet up with no worries time. All the best

 

[zena123]

Thanks Coopa, I missed seeing your excellent, thoughtful, 9 June reply "Undercloak is short" as it went to Spam (obv. a system error as all other replies went to Inbox as per normal). I now have a tower up, so the job CAN be done. Question is, how to find a roofer who will do a decent job. From what you say, it needs 1m roof tiles lifted; new battens attached to the old ones and to rafters. Felt/membrane over the top, then replace tiles. Extending the battens means the run of tiles will now be short (by maybe 2-3") down the length of the verge.... Anyone got a solution? (1) to the shortfall in tiles & (2) to finding a good roofer: Barnet, North London, near N.Circular.