Adding Gable Soffiting

[McKraut]

Hello to All,

I am getting ready to re-roof our house in the next few weeks. We have an old farm house with soffiting on the gables of the original house, but there is no soffiting on the gables of an addition to the house. I have been trying to find out whether it will be worth the effort to add soffiting to the addition while I a putting on the new roof. I am thinking that the soffiting would provide more protection (against sunlight and rain) for the windows below. Can anyone give me reasons for or against this?

I appreciate any information you can provide,Bob

 

[oldognewtrick]

to House Repair Talk!

If it were my house, I think I'd add a 2x6 along the edge, then put a 3x3 drip edge on with a kick on the bottom. It would achieve most of what you want and give it a little detail on the roof edge. Have the 2x wrapped in trim coil to reduce maintenance.

 

[bud16415]

It is a choice of appearance as much as function IMO. My whole life I have noticed houses with no overhangs and felt they didn’t look correct or cheaply done. Maybe I grew up in the 50-60 when wide overhangs were the thing.



From a style point of view you have a really great looking old PA farm house that has had a nice addition added that for me is a different style of design and I personally would do a full overhang at least on the front to match the main house. The time to do it is when you are doing the rest of an already expensive job.



I had a similar circa 1880s PA farm house and it had open rafter tails and overhangs that didn’t match between the kitchen addition and the main house. Shortly after buying it I had my roof guy over for a quote. I decided to extend the tails and do the same design boxed overhangs the same size to the whole house and do them in aluminum with continuous gutter. It was one of the smartest things I did 40 years ago as other than a re-shingle it hasn’t needed any work. Back them metal roofing wasn’t a thing much except for commercial buildings but I kind of wish I had gone metal.



My new old home is also circa 1880s and up in this area of PA the Amish have been doing an agricultural metal roofing to homes starting about 30 years ago. It is a bit controversial among builders here still, but the people that have it love it and it wears like steel pun intended. We decided to give it a try and are happy we did. The cost came in lower than shingles part of that is the Amish low overhead. Right now in our little town I’m guessing 33% are being done this way.



For you it boils down to expense vs looks and function. You have the chimney to deal with. Oldog’s method would give a bit of appearance and some function at a minimum I would do that.

Also welcome to the forum.

 

[McKraut]

Nothing like a little late reply......
I did go ahead and add the soffitting in Oct 21 when I put on the new roof. To me, it now looks like a "proper" roof with the overhang. The soffitting hasn't done as much as I had hoped with respects to protection against rain and sun. The greatest benefit is that every time I walk past the addition, I don't kick myself for not taking the time to do it.
Belated thanks,
Bob