Rotting soffit in older house

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Gurezaemon

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#293346 14-Jan-2022 17:14

Asking on behalf of a friend.

He's painting his house and has discovered some rot in wooden soffits, that a previous owner has obviously just painted over to hide the rot.

My guess is it got this way from a leaking roof, but that has been recently replaced, so the cause of the rot should (hopefully) be gone.

The rotten piece in the photo is one long, 3 or 4-metre length that is crumbling away. The rot is far, far beyond "scrape out the rotten bits, drench it in Metalex, and bog it" levels.

Would anyone have any bright ideas as to how this could be replaced without either lifting the roofing iron or removing the guttering? Both of these options are not realistic at the moment.

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#2850962 14-Jan-2022 18:39

Either leaking roof or the spouting is overflowing into the board. doesnt look like there is a barge board on there or a gap between the spouting and the soffit

eracode

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#2850967 14-Jan-2022 19:04

I’d try removing all of the rotten plank (it’s probably gotta come out no matter what you do) and cut new soffit pieces to the length of the distances between adjacent rafters. Then fit the new pieces one by one on top of each rafter with each length overlapping half the width of each rafter. Fix the pieces in place with screws skewed up through the rafter and into the soffit piece - but not so far as to protrude through the new piece and impact the iron.

It might be a bit fiddly angling the new pieces up between the top of the rafter and the iron but the short lengths should help with that. It looks like the existing soffit might be tongue and groove but I’d just ignore that.

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Bung

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#2851026 14-Jan-2022 21:08

Gurezaemon:
The rotten piece in the photo is one long, 3 or 4-metre length that is crumbling away. The rot is far, far beyond "scrape out the rotten bits, drench it in Metalex, and bog it" levels.

Would anyone have any bright ideas as to how this could be replaced without either lifting the roofing iron or removing the guttering? Both of these options are not realistic at the moment.

If the roof has recently been replaced I'm surprised the roofers didn't deal with this at the time. The bottom row of screws holding the roofing iron down are probably into this strip of timber. I think you'll have no option but to release at least the bottom row of screws to get the timber out.

eracode

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#2851032 14-Jan-2022 21:27

Bung: I think you'll have no option but to release at least the bottom row of screws to get the timber out ….

… and that would help getting the new timber in, if following my suggestion.

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Gurezaemon

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#2851041 14-Jan-2022 22:46

eracode:

I’d try removing all of the rotten plank (it’s probably gotta come out no matter what you do) and cut new soffit pieces to the length of the distances between adjacent rafters. Then fit the new pieces one by one on top of each rafter with each length overlapping half the width of each rafter. Fix the pieces in place with screws skewed up through the rafter and into the soffit piece - but not so far as to protrude through the new piece and impact the iron.

It might be a bit fiddly angling the new pieces up between the top of the rafter and the iron but the short lengths should help with that. It looks like the existing soffit might be tongue and groove but I’d just ignore that.

This was kinda what I was thinking, but I was rather hoping that we'd be able to somehow get one long length of timber up there instead of the individual pieces.

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eracode

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#2851043 14-Jan-2022 22:50

Gurezaemon:

This was kinda what I was thinking, but I was rather hoping that we'd be able to somehow get one long length of timber up there instead of the individual pieces.

To do that you would have to feed the long length in from one end - probably exceedingly hard to do, if not impossible if you don’t want to take the spouting off.

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Gurezaemon

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#2851045 14-Jan-2022 22:54

eracode:

Gurezaemon:

This was kinda what I was thinking, but I was rather hoping that we'd be able to somehow get one long length of timber up there instead of the individual pieces.

To do that you would have to feed the long length in from one end - probably exceedingly hard to do, if not impossible if you don’t want to take the spouting off.

Unfortunately, that was the conclusion we'd come to - I was rather hoping that there was something obvious that we'd missed... 😞

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Zal

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#2852131 17-Jan-2022 12:12

Could you leave it? Its unlikely to do any more damage to the place, its not structural, it just looks bad.

If you are to replace it, it would be far easier to remove the spouting and replace the whole board at once. Getting some good mobile scaffolding would make the job more pleasant.

eracode

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#2852236 17-Jan-2022 12:26

Zal:

Could you leave it? Its unlikely to do any more damage to the place, its not structural, it just looks bad.

If you are to replace it, it would be far easier to remove the spouting and replace the whole board at once. Getting some good mobile scaffolding would make the job more pleasant.

It could be left for now but if/when the house is eventually sold, it would need to be done then. Might as well be done now.

Really disagree that scaffolding, removing the spouting etc is far easier than replacing in pieces - that would be a helluva job. The affected piece is only 3-4m long - replacing in pieces is not particularly difficult to do and would be a lot quicker, easier and cheaper. OP might need the services of a plumber to remove/replace the spouting.

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MikeAqua

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#2852239 17-Jan-2022 12:42

I had this exact issue on one of my houses. It had near identical soffits. They turned out to be Rimu and just old and rotten, There wasn't much evidence of overflow, but the timber seemed to have absorbed condensation or other water trapped against the spouting. Those sofdfit boards will have been installed before the roof. Very difficult to remove and replace without roof access.

I removed the spouting and bashed the worst of the rot out.

Then I ran guns (short horizontal lengths of timber) back to the wall, where they were nailed onto a strap (length of timber running along the wall). This gave me a level frame work that I could attach soffit boards to. I added barge boards to the ends of those exposed truss-like timbers in your picture and slipped my soffit sheets up into the groove on the barge board and then secured the new soffit boards to the new framing. I used Villa Board T&G for the soffits and another Hardie product for the barges. All signed off as code compliant. 18 years later still perfectly straight and level and intact.

There is a bit of work to do preplanning the new soffit framing and barge board heights, so that the soffit boards line up neatly with the groove in the barge board.

I was in the process of recladding the whole house, so I was able to do this with bare walls and then clad up to the soffits boards later. Doing it with weatherboards in place would require a bit more thought.

Mike

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#2852241 17-Jan-2022 12:53

eracode:

I’d try removing all of the rotten plank (it’s probably gotta come out no matter what you do) and cut new soffit pieces to the length of the distances between adjacent rafters. Then fit the new pieces one by one on top of each rafter with each length overlapping half the width of each rafter. Fix the pieces in place with screws skewed up through the rafter and into the soffit piece - but not so far as to protrude through the new piece and impact the iron.

It might be a bit fiddly angling the new pieces up between the top of the rafter and the iron but the short lengths should help with that. It looks like the existing soffit might be tongue and groove but I’d just ignore that.

Could use glue and fire in brad nails on a skewed angle instead of screws. Would mean a little bit less work cleaning up screw holes on the rafters. There's a good little Ozito nailer for around $130 which goes pretty hard, just limited to 32mm nails.

*This assumes that the OP looks to every job around the house as an excuse to buy a new tool

timbosan

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#2852252 17-Jan-2022 13:22

I have the exact same at my old - sofit boards on top of the rafters. I replaced them when the house was reroofed last year. Still have some of the side sofits to do but they don't need the roof removing to access (they run front to back, not side to side).

I also ask, why is it not possible to lift the roof? If its new is should be screwed down and easy to lift, remove and replace the timber (PAINT IT FIRST! A lot harder to do when in place!) and screen the roof back down (making sure to seal screws as needed).

It's summer so ideal time to do it.

eracode

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#2852253 17-Jan-2022 13:32

timbosan:

I also ask, why is it not possible to lift the roof?

Honestly, there’s a much easier way to do it - in pieces. He needs to replace only 5 or 6 pieces between rafters.

If it’s a new roof, it’s probably long-run and about five sheets would need to come off - another helluva job.

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Bung

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#2852272 17-Jan-2022 14:00

You'd have to check the location of the bottom row of roofing screws. Some older houses are fully boarded/sarked with t&g where visible at soffits. If timber is rotten the screws won't hold. The iron could lift. The iron can be lifted, it may take less than all rows to screws to get end up enough to screw replacement board in. If it's holding the iron it does need secure fixing.
https://www.renovate.org.nz/bungalow/roofs/roof-framing-and-gutters-original-details/

eracode

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#2860922 3-Feb-2022 06:40

@Gurezaemon Interested to know how you and your friend decided to approach this.

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