A look at our team's progress on the historical Birmingham, AL home renovation. Hill Crest.

It’s a given that all houses need maintenance.  Maintenance is what keeps a house healthy and beautiful for years to come.  When homeowners encounter little problems in their house, like the beginning of rotted out wood on their fascia boards or soffit eaves it’s a small problem at first, but if it’s ignored it can lead to much bigger problems, so the best bet for homeowners is to address the problem right away before the repair job grows huge and costly.

Understandably enough, when we get called out to repair damaged fascia wood and soffits, many of the jobs are on older homes who’ve been exposed to the elements for decades, if not a century or more.  What is really surprising however is the number of calls we’re getting from owners of newer homes.

What we’re seeing is that some home builders are attempting to cut corners and costs on materials and putting white pine lumber (which is best suited for interior construction) on the exterior of houses instead of using the more expensive yellow (exterior) lumber.

A new homebuyer reasonably expects their house to remain intact for about 20 years, but with this new cost-cutting efforts by the home builders, we’re seeing fascia and soffit begin to rot in as little as five years or less – this is a huge problem for homeowners because they simply aren’t expecting their houses to being to fall apart so quickly and so they understandably neglect to address the problem in a timely manner which as we know leads to increasing problems down the road, along with significantly bigger repair bills.

In addition to aesthetic design function, fascia board also protects the roof, the roof beams and the walls from weather damage and insect and rodent infestation in the attic, and in Alabama you know we get a lot of rain and bugs and squirrels!

Since fascia board is particularly susceptible to water damage, now is as good a time as any to do a visual inspection of your fascia boards and soffits (eaves) to assure yourself that they’re intact.   Look for swelling, splintering, splitting or rotting wood.   If you’re unable to conduct an inspection for whatever reason or are unsure that what you are seeing is indeed water damage, don’t hesitate to call a professional to come out and take a look at your home.

Remember, addressing this problem BEFORE the problem spreads to the roof, the roof beams and the walls will save you a HUGE CHUNK of money and a lot of headaches in the long run.