How To Remove Old Fascia Boards

Fascia boards are one of most common areas for rot on a firm. Their position just beneath the roofline makes them highly susceptible to water penetration. One time the boards become soaked, they rapidly begin to deteriorate.

This article gives you an overview on how to carry out fascia board replacements. But, if you tackle this repair, please take all safety precautions! Fasciais high off the ground, and most of the work will take to be washed from a ladder.

Tool List:

Speed Square

Nail Puller (Nippers)

6-in-1 Painter'southward Tool

Record Mensurate

Utility Knife 2-pack

All-time Picks:

Makita is ever my preferred MAGNESIUM Circular SAW.

I like a Cat'S Manus TOOL with a sharp. jaw, and this one fits the bill.

This Estwing 16 oz Hammer is the simply hammer with a perfect review score.

Annotation from Ethan'south Dad: For 30 years, I used fiberglass-handled framing hammers. Here is a steal on one from Irwin.

Material Listing:

Trim Lumber (match existing–or better yet, use PVC!)

2″ Spiral Shank Nails

Siliconized Latex Caulk

Exterior Primer

Step 1. Determine That You Actually Accept Rot

Desperately rotted window brickmould

Rot and simple discoloration are two different things. In some cases, spillover from the roof or a gutter just gunks up a fascia lath.

Actual rot will show upwardly equally soft spots or nighttime cavities in the surface of the board. (Like the one pictured above). Wood in these places will be mushy and pulpy. To test an area that you lot're unsure of, use the steps in this Q&A I wrote about rot testing.

If you're positive than an area is rotted, next identify where the h2o came from.

Step 2. Identify The Water Source

An example of fascia/gutters

In order to comport out an constructive fascia repair, you first identify why your fascia got moisture. When y'all have, make repairs to prevent water from soaking this area in the hereafter.

Chipped or damaged shingles can be a common source of water reaching fascia. Look at the everyman course of shingles on your house.

Are shingles damaged at your roof edge? If then, have them replaced. Also consider having your roofer add a drip border to your house. This metal strip sits under the lesser shingles. Information technology's designed to make water fall into your gutters. That way, the water doesn't dribble downward behind the gutter and onto the fascia boards.

Nigh those gutters

Gutters are a common source of dampness of the fascia boards. If gutters don't channel water properly, they spill water dorsum towards the house. Primarily, this happens when they are clogged with leaves.

Take your gutters cleaned regularly. If your gutters withal fill up or spill water in odd places, you might want to consider having a gutter expert rehang them. Adding more downspouts to long runs can help this problem. (Here's a proficient article on proper gutter hanging.)

In one case you've identified and stock-still the source of your excess water, you're ready to replace your fascia boards.

Step 3. Remove The Rotted Fascia Board

Cut the caulk line with a utility pocketknife.

To start this project, use a utility knife to cut all seams and caulk lines around the pieces that you want to supplant. This ensures that the rotted fascia lath comes away without pulling whatsoever other components with it.

Use a half dozen-in-one painter's tool to pry the lath abroad gently at the base. Incrementally work your mode across the lath in small-scale increments. Avert prying too hard, too fast.

Drive a painters tool into the crack to start your pull.

When you have worked a gap between the boards, switch to a hammer to pry. Don't damage other trim in the area! Hammers tin can bruise wood hands.

Pro tip

The key in all trim removals is to be gentle. Don't make more work for yourself by damaging nearby materials with too much strength.

To become boards to come away smoothly, pull the nails holding them in. First, utilize a "cat's paw tool" to gouge out and expose the nail heads.

(I'yard using 1 here to free the board from a custom aluminum flashing cap. I'll boom it back onto my new board.)

Pull nails with a cat'southward paw tool.

Just replacing a portion of a fascia board?

If you only want to replace a portion of a fascia board, brand controlled cuts on the trim face with a oscillating multi-tool. I wrote an article on this topic. Click to see how this miraculous oscillating tool works, and how y'all can use information technology to interrupt-cut trim.

Or replacing the whole board?

It'due south best to attempt to remove an old board in ane piece—it tin come up in handy afterwards. Still, if you lot can't get the full board out, try splitting it with your hammer, and pulling it out in narrower sticks.

Step iv. Examine The Sub-fascia

If the sub-fascia is rotted

When you finally manage to pull your fascia board loose, take a moment to examine the framing lumber that yous've exposed.

That's some badly rotted framing!

If the untreated lumber is badly rotted (as it is in the motion-picture show above), reframe it before you put the new fascia board on.

In general, reframe the surface area exactly the mode information technology was framed originally. Do this past calculation "scab" blocks to undamaged framing in the roof structure. Make sure everything you add is firmly attached and solid. And that the sub-fascia sits affluent and level across the entire run.

If the sub-fascia is in good shape

If the sub-fascia is in decent shape, make clean it in preparation for mounting the new lath. Remove caulk lines and paint globs with a half-dozen-in-one tool. (This includes scraping old caulk at the seam of any neighboring boards.)

Scrape any old caulk from surfaces.

Too remove any fasteners that are all the same sticking out of the sub-fascia. These leftover nails volition prevent your new board from sitting properly.

Simply drive downwardly exposed nail heads with your hammer. If the angle is likewise awkward, though, or the fastener is bent, dorsum it out with a blast puller instead.

Using a nail puller (nippers) to remove any remaining nails.

Take a moment and really examine the area. Make sure it is completely clean of whatever obstructions. It'due south frustrating to discover that something is preventing your new fascia board from sitting apartment.

Step five. Measure For Your New Piece

The easiest style to do this is to just measure the piece that you tore off. If the onetime piece fit very well, use information technology as a blueprint for the new lath.

However, if you've destroyed the sometime board in removal, and then it's necessary to mensurate and plot cuts for a new board.

Producing a new piece can be a petty tricky, because fascia wraps around a business firm. Pieces don't just need to exist the right length. They too demand to be the right shape.

Complicated fascia board shapes

Some boards have miter cuts on both ends. Some fifty-fifty have compound cuts where fascia turns up a roofline. E'er visualize what y'all need the new piece to practise. Peradventure it needs a square cutting on one end and a miter cutting on the other finish. (The one I replaced on this project did.) In any case, fix the image in your heed.

What I had to do

To measure out for my new board, I simply butt my tape measure to the inside corner. Then I pulled to the uttermost point of the outside corner. This total measure will give me the distance to the long point of my miter cut.

Pulling a measurement to an outside corner

Stride 6. Cut The New Fascia Lath

The most important affair to note hither is that you should ever supplant fascia boards with PVC materials. These plastic-vinyl boards are impervious to rot. For water-sensitive places like fascia, PVC is the all-time option.

If yous want to employ wood, make certain yous're at to the lowest degree using quality lumber. Endeavor to become articulate pino, as opposed to knotty pine. And don't utilise any board that has finger joints—they'll fail more quickly over fourth dimension.

Also, get PVC or lumber that matches the thickness (probably ¾") and width of your fascia board. (You can rip boards downwardly to proper width with a circular saw or table saw if necessary.)

Making the cut

To make your cut, simply lay out your required measurement and mark it with a V-shaped pencil mark ("crow'southward human foot"). Apply a speed square to draw a straight line through you're the point of your mark.

Pull your measurement and depict a directly line, using a speed square.

Over again, always keep in mind what confront of the board your looking at. If there is a miter cut on your new piece, consider that at that place will exist a short signal of the cutting, and a long betoken.

Using a miter saw for your cut is easiest. That's because you can lay the blade down to 45° for your cutting and printing the board back to the fence.

A circular saw has a very similar capacity, though. Simply unlock and swivel the sole plate to your desired angle. You can use your speed square as a straight edge to guide your saw as you cut. (Just be sure to agree your speed square firmly! Don't let it wander.)

Carefully cutting on the right side of your pencil line. Let the waste product fall away. When the cut is finished, pull a measurement on your lath to brand sure the length is accurate.

Step vii. Attach The New Board

I like to accept the board up for a quick test fit before I attach information technology. Simply first, I'll half-drive i blast into the board—a fiddling carpenter's trick that might assist later.

A note near nails

E'er use galvanized, outside-grade nails for outside trim. I like to use ii" screw shank nails for fascia boards. They're long enough to reach through the fascia and most of the sub-fascia. Plus, the screw gives the nail a very firm grip in the wood.

Fasten your new board

Concur your new board in place against your sub-fascia. Examine the seams where information technology meets other boards. Have someone on the ground practice it for you if the lath is long.

Pocket-size gaps of 1/viii" are totally tolerable here. I like to take my fascia boards just a little short—it lets me caulk the gap for better water seal.

If the board is a piddling long, take it dorsum to the footing and trim information technology. Notwithstanding, if the lath fits, your half-embedded blast comes in handy here. Just drive it to lock the lath in place. You can now add the rest of your fasteners.

Fascia boards accept very piffling pressure on them. There's no need to go overboard with fasteners.

A high blast and low blast every couple feet is all information technology takes to secure the board in identify. (Just make certain you lot're fasteners are sinking firmly into the sub-fascia backside the lath.)

8. Caulk Everything

Caulk all joints, seams, and corners.

This is a straightforward procedure. Cut the tip of your caulk tube to let nigh a 1/8" flow. Clasp and smooth beads at all seams and junctures. Be sure y'all're using siliconized latex caulk for outside applications!

Also, drive your fasteners slightly by the surface of the fascia with a hammer and boom set. Caulk these divots to hide the nail heads.

Afterwards a little dry out time, yous're ready for a couple of coats of exterior paint. If you removed gutters, rehang them. You're all finished!

Wrap-Upwardly

The new fascia looks great!

There are, of course, a yard variations on this repair. For instance, not all fascia will await similar the one I've fixed higher up, which is a decorative double fascia.

Many fascia boards hang downwardly in open space, creating the "eaves" of the house. These eaves oftentimes enclose a suspended "soffit"—a sparse lath that hides the rafter tails.

If your soffit is rotted, yous'll demand to replace runs of that every bit well. This is a slightly more involved procedure, merely besides not besides difficult.

If y'all're soffit isn't rotted, though, your repair will be much like the one I've depicted. Call back to remove old fabric gently. And, of grade, PLEASE BE Rubber!

If you have whatever questions, or if you have a proposition for a subject of a future blogpost, delight go to our Contact folio. Cheers!!