Brush 'em, Floss 'em, or Lose 'em

That's what's printed on the complimentary toothbrushes I get from my dentist, and it's a good way to think about your fascia.


Hooray. Paul is here! Paul is a bonafide carpenter, so I feel a little safer working when he's around. He's replacing some rotted fascia here and there--places where water has lingered too long. I spotted a few potential "cavities" and Paul confirmed that two of them needed work. This spot (where the metal roof meets the wood) is not visible to anyone but the squirrels, so he patched it together with some board I salvaged from the old pantry. Nice heart pine, in fact.


Over here on the west side of the house there's an addition with a flat roof. Those are particularly problematic. This one has what's called a drip edge, which is a little piece of metal intended to force water to drip away from the fascia. This particular profile behaves more like a "dribble edge" instead.
Yeah, yeah I know I need gutters. But for various reasons I have resisted the idea. Architects don't like 'em. If I can keep the water off the wood, and keep vigilant about potential soft spots, I'll be OK. Here, the soft spot required more than a filling, but less than a root-canal. Paul found a tiny gap in the metal roof above, and some damage to the sub-fascia. Luckily it had not gotten to the structure yet. He replaced the board, and hit the trouble spots with some roofing goo we're calling Roofer in a Can.