How to Install Maintenance-Free Aluminum Soffits (page 2 of 6)

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How to Install Maintenance-Free Aluminum Soffits: Do It Yourself and Save Big Bucks

If you’re not afraid of heights and you have basic hand tool know-how, you’re perfectly capable of cladding the fascias and soffits on your home. As you’ll see, the thin, light aluminum trim is easy to bend and cut with inexpensive tools. Other special prebent parts make installation a snap. Working alone, you can clad the soffits and fascias on a 1,200-sq.-ft. house in about five days. Get a volunteer to cut and hand you up materials and you’ll really move along. The materials will cost about $1,200, but a pro would tack on upwards of $2,000 for labor. So if you hustle, there’s a potential to save $400 to $500 a day—good pay for a few weekends’ worth of work.

Fix the roof first. If you hide problems, they’ll only get worse!
Chances are, if your soffits or roof framing is water damaged, you have serious roof problems that you must solve before starting this project. Even though water won’t damage the new aluminum, you may actually accelerate underlying wood decay by burying evidence of leaks. Common problems are ice dams, shingle edges that are broken off or that don’t project far enough, and even sagging shingles that form a trough just behind the fascia. You may even need a new roof. If you’re not sure, have a pro make the call before you start. For help with ventilation and roofing problems, see “For More Information,” p. 65.

Just figuring out what everything is called is half the battle!

Soffit Panels
Soffit panels are available in 12-ft. lengths, 12- or 16-in. widths and vented or unvented. Vented soffit has thousands of perforations that allow air to flow through but keep insects out. Solid (unvented) soffit has no perforations. Most installers use only vented material, even in areas that don’t need venting, such as gable ends (the peaks at the ends of roofs).

Make your life easy—stick with 16-in. wide ventilated panels to simplify ordering and to cover large areas faster.

To calculate quantity, multiply width by length (in feet) of each soffit surface, add them all up to get total square footage and divide by 16 (the square footage of one 16-in. panel). Add 5 percent extra for waste and overlaps.

Fascia
Aluminum fascia goes directly over the wood fascia and has a lip at the bottom that laps over the outer edge of the installed aluminum soffit. It comes in two standard widths: 6 and 8 in. Measure the width of your wood fascia to determine which width to buy. Measure the entire length of existing fascia in linear feet, and divide by 12 to establish the quantity of 12-ft. fascia and J-channel sections needed. Then add 5 percent. See “Easy Does It”.