What Fascias and Soffits Actually Are
Stand on the pavement and look up at the edge of your roof. The board fixed along that edge — the one the gutter hangs off — is the fascia. The board tucked flat underneath it, sealing the gap between the fascia and the wall, is the soffit. On a gable end, the boards that follow the slope of the roof are called bargeboards. Between them they do two jobs: they carry the guttering, and they close off the roofline so weather, birds and wasps stay out of your loft.
What Goes Wrong With Timber Rooflines
Most rooflines on older Tower Hamlets houses are original painted timber, and timber is fine right up until the paint fails. Once water gets in, the boards rot quietly from the back. The gutter brackets pull loose because the screws have nothing solid left to bite into, so the gutter sags and overflows. Birds and wasps find the gaps in a rotten soffit and set up home in your loft. Worst of all, damp tracks from the rotten board into the rafter feet behind it — and what should have been a board swap quietly becomes a carpentry job.
Signs you can spot from the ground: flaking or bubbling paint, dark damp staining, boards that look bowed or sagging, a gutter pulling away from the roofline, or birds disappearing under the eaves.
Replacement in UPVC
We strip the old boards back and fit new UPVC fascias, soffits and bargeboards. UPVC never needs painting — a wipe down every so often and that's it. We fit ventilation strips as standard: soffit vents let air move through the loft and stop condensation building up, which is a real problem in insulated Victorian terraces — the insulation keeps the heat in, but without ventilation the moisture has nowhere to go and ends up soaking the roof timbers.
Capping Over vs Full Replacement — The Honest Version
Capping means fixing new UPVC over the top of your existing timber boards rather than removing them. Here's the honest version: capping over sound, dry timber is perfectly fine and cheaper. Capping over rot just hides it — the boards keep rotting behind the plastic and eventually the fixings let go, gutter and all. The only way to know which yours is, is to get up there and check the timber. That's what we do, and we'll tell you straight which route your roofline needs.
Colours and Finishes
White is the classic choice and suits most of the borough's terraces. If you want something different, UPVC also comes in anthracite grey and woodgrain finishes that sit well on period frontages without the upkeep of paint.
Worth Doing Alongside the Gutters
New fascias and old gutters rarely make sense — the gutters have to come off to do the boards anyway, and the access is the expensive part of the job. Most customers have us fit new guttering at the same time; see our gutter repairs and replacement page for the options. If your gutters are sound and just need clearing, our gutter cleaning service covers that on its own.
What It Costs
Roofline work is priced per metre, and the figure depends on access, how many storeys, and whether it's capping or full replacement. As a rough guide, a complete roofline refresh on a two-storey mid-terrace — new fascias, soffits and gutters, front and back — typically lands in the low thousands. You'll always get a written quote before we start, with no obligation and no call-out charge.