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The house I live in need knew soffits. The roof soffit interface is currently terrible with a real air flow through the gap. I think at the same time it would make sense to externally insulate our largest external wall. It's a semi detached house so that on one wall is a huge % of our outer walls and it is really cold to touch on the inside
But I'd would like professional advice on this before I start looking for quotes. So who what am I looking for in terms of some form of consultant or surveyer. I think half a day with someone looking at the job and then giving me the specification for what I want done will be better than starting by talking to a sales person
Your thoughts?
I'm in mMd Beds if you know of anyone
The roof soffit interface is currently terrible with a real air flow through the gap
Assuming it's a pitched roof, this is supposed to happen. It's what ventilates your roof space.
Why do the soffits need replaced?
I think every roof needs ventilation.
No need for consultant advice on insulation...just put as much up there as you can. I've just recently topped mine up to 300mm. I also noticed that in some areas the existing insulation had been stuffed into the soffits thus impeding airflow from the soffits so I pulled that back a few inches to ensure good airflow.
I got my soffits done last year by one of the local door to door companies. They were doing a few houses near me at the time so got a chance to see what they were doing and what materials they were using and have done a great job using decent materials unlike some companies. Cost me about £3,500 - typical 4 bed detached house in a housing estate.
The soffits are plastic over wood
The wood is rotten
Assuming it’s a pitched roof, this is supposed to happen. It’s what ventilates your roof space.
Which confirms that I need advice
The soffits are plastic over wood
The wood is rotten
Assuming it’s a pitched roof, this is supposed to happen. It’s what ventilates your roof space.
Which confirms that I need advice
Posted 1 minute ago
Any way you can take a picture?
Replacement of rotten wood soffits isn't a complicated project, strip back the plastic, remove rotten wood, provide new softwood battens as fixings for new plastic fascia and soffits (allow for continuous soffit vents rather than the circular ones) and if you're trying to increase the energy efficiency of the roof, lay up to 300mm of insulation in the roof between and over the joists.
This may help as a diagram of the intended air flow in a pitched roof.
When I moved into my first house I thought something was horribly wrong when I could see the road outside from the attic but yeah apparently that's the way it's supposed to be :p
You can, of course, also have unvented roofs but that's a full on job that is only really warranted if you were getting the whole roof done anyway.
Useful advice so far thanks. I'll try add do a photo tomorrow
The roof is a bit weird as the house was a bungalow. Three are now three rooms in the roof. The insulationw above and below these rooms is inaccessible buy quite good. Most of our bedroom isn't under these rooms. We could just bung insulation above our room which always feels poorly insulated.
The existing soffits also contain asbestos boards. The Job will be expensive but we can afford to have it done. I sort of assume external wall insulation will be best done at the same time