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May 02, 2023

Cause of sagging soffit

Q: I have noticed that in some spots on our house, the vinyl soffit is sagging

Q: I have noticed that in some spots on our house, the vinyl soffit is sagging or coming loose. The soffit on the front porch has sagged for a while now, but lately I have seen on the soffit along the gable, that some of the aluminum fascia is coming loose and the soffit looks like it is coming loose. I have one area along the front of the house behind the gutter that looks like it has a wave in it, kind of like sagging.

I have gotten my ladder and looked at these areas. Some areas don't even look like they are nailed. The porch ceiling I can push up with my hand, but it appears the only place it is nailed is under the fascia. What could be causing this and how can I fix it? Matthew with a 50-year-old house.

A: Vinyl soffit is the least expensive of the premanufactured soffit material and is the weakest. It is designed to be secured loosely by nails to facilitate expansion and contraction, and is not very stable in long spans. Normally we would use an aluminum soffit for porches or patios because of the long spans because it is more rigid.

When working with the porch soffit, it is installed from one end to the other with each panel interlocking with the panel before, and nailed in place. So to remove the panels and re-nail, you would need to remove most of the panels to get to the ones in the center. Along with that you would probably need to remove the trim from around the edges also. One tip is, if you can push up the soffit and feel a framing member behind it, you can take a same-color trim nail and nail it up in the seam to secure it. The other option is to use a siding tool to strip the adjacent panel out, re-nail the nailing flange and use the tool to re-strip the panel into place.

Regarding the soffit on the gables or behind the gutters, first make sure that the roof water is not getting behind the fascia or gutter, because that can cause deterioration that can be unseen but can wreak havoc on wood fascia behind. This can cause the soffit nails to become loose.

Jeff Deahl is past president of the Builders Association of Northeast Indiana. Questions for the Square Corners column may be submitted to [email protected].

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