What Is a Fascia?

If you’re looking at getting a new roof anytime soon, you’re also soon going to be overwhelmed with new terminology you might not know anything about. For example, what exactly is a fascia?

The fascia board is the board that’s mounted at the point where your roof connects with the outer walls of the house. It’s also occasionally referred to as your house’s roofline, but most people refer to it by the name of the board that also carries the gutter, that being the fascia.

Let’s take a closer look at what a fascia is, and at some of the other related terms you might need to know to understand exactly what the process of installing new metal roofing in Alaska entails.

The terminology

Here’s a breakdown of a few of these important terms you should be aware of when re-roofing your home:

• Fascia: The fascia board is the long, straight board that goes all along the lower edge of your roof. It is attached to the lower ends of your home’s roof trusses, and does the majority of the work involved with supporting the lower edge of the bottom tiles. It’s also responsible for holding all the gutters in place. This is an important job, especially when there’s hard rain. In a particularly heavy downpour, for example, you might be dealing with the equivalent of several gallons of water hitting your gutters every second. That means you need strong fascias in good condition.
• Bargeboard: The bargeboard is the board that’s used on the house’s gable end. While it does have some functional purpose like a fascia, it’s much more aesthetic in nature. Its condition can have a significant impact on your home’s curb appeal. These boards come in many different shapes and designs that can be very attractive.
• Soffit: The soffit board is located underneath the fascia board. Because the fascia board is often hidden by gutters, the soffit board is the one you’ll actually see more of from the street. There are methods of ventilation used in the soffit to allow air to better flow into the roofing area, but there are other ventilation methods as well that go over the top of the fascia board. Most people opt for the fascia ventilation these days, but either way, this ventilation is needed to prevent condensation from forming in the voids of the roof—a problem that can lead to untimely decay of the roof’s timber.
• Box end: The box end accommodates the various angles, heights and planes of the soffit, fascia and bargeboard at all corners of the house where there is a gable end.

The fascia is not to be confused with the soffit, bargeboard or box end, though there are certain similarities among the three. When you are preparing to re-roof your home, it’s important to understand what a fascia is and why it’s important to the structure of your roof. For more information about metal roofing in Alaska, contact Superior Products Inc. today.

Categorised in: Metal Roofing

This post was written by Writer