Fascia, Soffits, and Verge Rafters

Goodbye, rafter tails; hello, roof trim!

I'm using 1x shou sugi ban cedar for my fascia boards, soffits, and verge rafters. It will blend in with the shou sugi ban siding and contrast nicely with the roof and steel siding. Plus, being black and textured, any mistakes or not-quite-tight joints will kind of... disappear into the darkness. Perfect!

We installed the eave soffits first. We cut the edges at an angle so that they would be plumb (straight up and down) and fit cleanly against the wall and the fascia boards. It was a bit of a trick cutting all those angles just right so that the width was correct and the shou sugi ban'ed side faced downward, but we managed!

The soffits will eventually have screened ventilation holes. We have bought a few round 1" soffit vents, so we can just drill a hole and pop the vent in. I think I'll need 3 vents per rafter bay.

The high corners where the fascia meets the verge rafter are mitered, meaning that the ends are cut at 45º angles where they join one another to form the 90º angle, so the end grain is hidden. On the low corners, the verge rafter extends beyond the fascia so it can cover the ends of a gutter. We left those tails long; we'll cut them to the correct length once we know more about the gutters we're installing (probably custom narrow gutters, since the smallest normal size--4"--would be too big to look good).

To make the joints less visible, I made sure to burn the end grain. As you can see, I had to use more than one piece of wood per side for the fascia board. Those joints were mitered and burned as well, so that if they pull apart slightly for any reason, you won't be able to see--or see through--the gap.

You'll also notice that I had to use a narrow strip of 1x cedar to bump the fascia board down. That was because it wouldn't have covered the whole rafter tail plus the soffit plus ~1/4" more so that water on the fascia will drip off and not wick up between the fascia and the soffit. I burned the back of the board along the bottom so that that lip would match the rest.

If I had bought 1x10 for the fascia, not 1x8, I wouldn't have had to bother with the bump-down piece. Oh well. 





You probably can't tell from the photo, but I burned a little piece of cedar 2x2 for each corner and used it to reinforce the joint there. It's glued and screwed into the back of the corner where the fascia and verge rafter meets, and then the trim boards are fastened to it as well as to each other.






One last thing. The main difference between trim work like this and the construction work I've been doing up 'til now is: suddenly, it's important to think about the aesthetics of the fastener placement! I used a speed square to make sure I was placing the nails in a straight line at regular intervals. Some of them will be hidden by the roof flashing, but consistency is a good idea nevertheless.

 I'm pretty happy with how it has turned out!