A while ago I noticed that the end of one of the barge boards looked a bit sick - had a good look at it today and for a few inches near the end it's soft enough to poke a screwdriver through. The rest of the board, the other B.boards, and the fascias are scruffy but sound; soffits near the rotten barge board will need replacing but are otherwise OK. The question is: how to repair the barge board? The woodwork is stained brown so if I just cut the end off the replacement will be obvious and the butt join will let water in. Replacing the whole B.Board will need scaffolding and be beyond what I'm prepared to tackle. A move is possible so I don't want to spend a couple of grand getting everything replaced with plastic.
This must be a standard problem - what's the answer?