Soffit board replacement

[Andy]

The soffit boards on my house are looking a bit ropey and I want to do something to smarten them up, so would be grateful for a bit of advice about what I am thinking of doing.

The paint is peeling off them but I don't fancy repainting them because they would need sanding down and I gather the old boards are made of asbestos. Because of this I don't really want to disturb anything that's there if I can help it, so I am thinking of fitting new upvc soffit boards on top. The problem is how do I go about it, and that's where I'd be interested to hear what you think here?

Upvc soffit boards are very light, particularly the hollow ones, so I was thinking of just glueing them to the existing boards, with perhaps a couple of nails here and there. Any views?

[Jeff Layman]

Did you mean to include fascias as well? It would look a bit odd to have nice new siffits and tatty fascias.

[Andy]

No, not at the moment. The facias are ok - and all upvc. The soffit boards are well underneath, and are not.

[tabbypurr]

Just brush them then. If you must, use a soft scraper like a flexible plastic, something from the kitchen bin, that won't break asbestos cement up. There's no point putting pvc on top of asbestos.

NT

[Andy Burns]

Other than to make the soffits and fascias look the sane, which is why I did it.

[Andrew]

The mistake was painting them in the first place. Quite a few houses near me have had their cement-based soffits (it isn't the dangerous brown or blue asbestos) overclad with upvc panelling. Not sure what sort of adhesive was used, but it can be done.

[Andrew]

why not ?. The cement-based soffits are far better at containing the spread of fire, something that people don't seem to be concerned about. It's class O and stops a serious fire emitting hot gases and flames up and into the loft via the front and back of the building.

Slapping UPVC everywhere should be covered by building regs. Maybe after the Grenfell enquiry it will be.

[Harry Bloomfield]

The usual soffit panels hook onto a ledge in the L shaped facia at one side, then into a U shaped plastic channel fixed at the wall end. So not normally any need for fixings apart from for the U along the wall.

I wouldn't really expect nails to work very well into asbestos - you would need to drill a pilot hole through to the underlying wood. Screws would be better and much more secure, but what ever you use needs to be stainless or solid brass rather than brass plated.

I nailed my facias up, then screwed through gutter and fascia with 2" solid brass screws.

[tabbypurr]

Asbestos is more fireproof, less breakage prone, doesn't need any maintennace, and when already there costs nothing to keep.

No, low rise housing is highly flammable & relies on alarms & people getting out quickly. With high rise that can't be done, so a different approach is needed.

NT

[Andy]

I wasn't intending to nail the new boards to the asbestos just tack a few stainless steel nails through into the wood to help the adhesive. What I really wanted to know was whether something like 'no-nails' would do the job.

[Brian Gaff]

Have you ever tried to glue or nail asbestos?. I'm not sure of the sort of thing these existing ones are. Brian

[tabbypurr]

I know I wouldn't want to try nailing it.

NT

[ARW]

If it is asbestos then do not puncture it with a nail.

[Andrew]

It'll be cement reinforced with white asbestos fibres. Tough stuff.

If he were to hammer anything into it, it will probably shatter.

[Andy]

I wasn't intending to hammer anything into it, just drill it with a very fine drill and then nail through it.

[Huge]

Don't do that, either.