plastic facia and soffit boards.

[littleade]

For the past 25 years I've painted the above on our 4 bedroom detached house, but I am getting grief from SWMBO to get them covered before I retire in a few years time after the neighbours have just had theirs done including replacing the guttering so has anyone else had this done, was it worth it, have you had any problems and roughly what did you pay. The chap that did theirs seemed toknow what he was doing and looks to have done a decent job. I'd estimate we've got about 250 foot of facia board to cover including the garage. Thoughts?

[moley]

Don't cover the existing timber, rip it off fit the new materials. I had mine done a few years ago and it it's pretty much maintenance free.

I can't remember the cost, but add up the cost of painting the existing in labour and materials and compare.

[grr666]

Often used to simply cover ASBESTOS soffits. 

That's what's on my house. 

You'd never be able to tell from the ground.

All I'd say is be sure the ones you have aren't asbestos,

The facias should be timber, but do check the soffits aren't made of something

 more sinister. No timber lasts 25 years IME. Particularly in an exposed place like that.

[Gizmo]

We had ours done around 5 years ago (so they were approx. 25yrs old) and IIRC they cost £1,500 ish, that is for a 3 bed detached house and all we had the facia’s & soffits done in black woodgrain and the guttering done in plain black.. which is much dearer than the white stuff. (the wooden facias etc were all painted black as well)

 

The neighbour had his done just after in white.... his looks ****e now, as they are going green (from nearby trees) and you can see every nail they used. ours are almost invisible and look as good as the day they were fitted.

[essexocty]

If the wood under Neath is sound an over clad is fine but if it's rotten it's pointless, over clad is cheaper as you'd expect.

I've done mine myself and quite a few for friends and family, they are reasonably easy to do with another pair of hands

I'd budget about £1500 for the lot maybe slightly more for an over clad

[Tall]

2 different ways of doing it. The cheap way is overboarding your existing wood with thin pvc, it's cheaper but you can be sealing in any unseen rotten wood so, although it's possible if your timber is good, it's not advised.

The expensive way involves removing all the old and fitting new thick stuff. Done properly it should be maintenance free for donkey's years, but will obviously require cleaning occasionally.

You can get various colours - white can look dirty fairly soon but gives a clean bright look. Some of the colours can fade, but the woodgrain ones don't. You'd be better to fit new gutters at the same time with both scenarios, so consider what colour gutter goes with what colour fascia. I've done a few over the years and the one I've always liked was for a relative, done in a darkish woodgrain fascia and lighter brown guttering.

Also, if your roof has edges where there's cement, you can get "dry verge" systems which are a plastic edging which replaces the cement thus eliminating future mauntenance there too.

[Paul007]

Had ours done but we're suffering from lack of ventilation and now need the edges of the ceilings painting inside as they've gone black. I can only put it down to lack of airflow whereas the wood was old and had shrunk letting air circulate. It probably needs to have vents cutting into the underside when I get around to it.

[essexocty]

Had ours done but we're suffering from lack of ventilation and now need the edges of the ceilings painting inside as they've gone black. I can only put it down to lack of airflow whereas the wood was old and had shrunk letting air circulate. It probably needs to have vents cutting into the underside when I get around to it.

Yep easy fix 57mm hole saw and the little plastics vents

[Paul007]

Thought as much. Thanks.

[littleade]

Thanks for the input so far chaps. The existing timber is in good condition with no rot anywhere- I've used dulux weathershield paint sinse it was new every 4 years preping it correctly and using both undercoat and gloss each time-it's supposed to last a minimum of 5 years and cleaned it every year with soapy water, a sponge and a chamois (I knew I had a use for them somewhere!) So know its not rotten anywhere. The next door neighbours does have those vents fitted and the fitter trimmed the bottom of the facia as he said otherwise you get a gap at the back of the facia board that lets the water in to rot the timber behind? Short of personal recommendations where's the best place to look for suitable people to do the work as I'm not going to do it myself. I don't know what the material is that's been used for the soffits but the house was built in 1989 by Mcleans which were part of the Tarmac group so I'm guessing it isn't asbestos and the roof construction already has the plastic covers insead of cement pointing on tne apexes. I understand the concern about using white, but the whole estate has white with brown windows so if I use a different colour it'll look odd as some have found out using different coloured windows in the past. Some of the other neighbours have had them done for a number of years in white and they look better than those that still have wood which you'd expect to some extent so whether I go for the overboarding or having it all ripped off it should look ok while I've still got a pulse!

[GentleGiant]

Lucky you, my house is 1930's and asbestos tiles on the roof, no one will touch it even for facias or guttering, I have to do it myself or accept a quote of many £1,000's from a firm of specialist rip-off merchants.

 

(My neighbour was quoted an EXTRA £3,500 for facias when the plonkers realised she had asbestos tiles last month.) (Having already started the job)

[grr666]

. I don't know what the material is that's been used for the soffits but the house was built in 1989 by Mcleans which were part of the Tarmac group so I'm guessing it isn't asbestos. 

They were still using asbestos even then, it wasn't properly banned until the 90s.... I certainly wouldn't take the gamble. 

http://www.rhp.org.uk/page/8/Asbestos-in-the-home.aspx

If you can get a sample flake or two you can get it tested. It's usually white asbestos used for that. 

Your soffits could also be made of what's known as Masterboard. An asbestos replacement product which isn't as harmful

although great care should still be taken not to ingest dust like any other fibrous board. 

It's principal beneficial properties are imperviousness to water being almost cement based.,

and resistance to ignition. (same as asbestos) trouble is it's hard to tell the difference

as they are very similar. 

 

To address another point in the thread

I certainly wouldn't be going at soffits with a hole saw until I was 1001% sure what I was cutting into.

Been in this business far to long to trust the work of others. 

[The Zee]

I would say get rid of the wood and get them changed. Most double glazing companies cover this type of work. Had ours done some years ago but cannot remember the cost off hand.

 

I take the point above about going green from nearby trees but its not such a problem. I have a gardening  gadget that you fill with fertiliser and attach to your hose pipe to use on the flower beds. When the water flows through it it mixes with the fertiliser to give even distribution.

 

So I bought another one and fill it with car shampoo and hose the gutterings and soffits, does a great job of blitzing the dirt.

[kilted]

If it was me I would always suggest taking the wood off as to overclad it, you are taking the chance of blocking any route for moisture to get out - one of the main causes of rot.

 

Either that or make sure you vent the soffit

[CFB]

One thing that seems to have been overlooked..

If a reputable company does it, you'll need to add in the cost of scaffolding.

We've just had a quote.

Soffits and facias replaced on a normal terraced house, plus the same on a single garage.... £2500 Included £800 for the scaffolding

[littleade]

Agree about the venting. Next door has been done and has them every 1m. I'm waiting for a local small firm who did 2 doors up to give me a quote for both replace and overclad to see what he recommends for our house. Initial quote I've had for overlay is 2,600 for 4 bed detatched with extension and seperate double garage and yes they will need scaffolding at least between us and the neighbours as typical of newer houses there's only 1m between us.

[io1901]

We has ours done about 5 years ago still. We used local fitters and had a look at their other work they removed all the exterior wood. They had own scaffolding system and it took about 4 days (4 bed detached house) and was about £2k. Next door went for a more expensive quote from a different fitter and it looks rubbish, the plastic has warped and gaps have appeared. I thought they looked a "bit" cowboy when they were doing it as they were only using ladders! It looked very dangerous with a man on top of an unsecured ladder trying to lever off the old barge boards and it lifting the ladder from the wall with every push.

Edited 16 August, 2014 by io1901

[kilted]

There is no way that anyone should be considering doing a job like this off ladders - they are only for low risk short term access (30 mins as per HSE guidance - linky)