uPVC Fascias, Soffits & Bargeboards in Falkirk

Two quotes for the same house can be a thousand pounds apart, and the gap is almost always this. Capping means screwing a thin 9mm uPVC board over the existing timber fascia and leaving the old board in place. Full replacement means taking the gutters down, stripping the timber back to the rafter ends, replacing any rafter feet or wallplate that have rotted, and fixing a new 16mm to 18mm uPVC board directly to sound timber before the gutter goes back on.

Capping is not a con. On a house where the timber is dry, straight and firmly fixed, a cap gives a maintenance-free finish for less money and less disruption, and we quote it where it is the right answer. Where the timber is already soft, a cap seals damp wood behind plastic, the rot carries on in the dark, and in a few years the brackets pull out of a fascia that looks perfect from the street. We do not fit caps over rot, and we say so in writing on the quote so you know exactly which job you are buying. If a much cheaper price arrives, ask the firm to write down whether they are stripping the timber or covering it. Our roofline cost guide goes through the numbers behind each approach.

White is still what most Falkirk homeowners choose, and on a rendered or roughcast semi it is the right call because it matches the windows fitted in the 1990s and 2000s. The other options are worth knowing about before you decide.

• Anthracite grey has become the default on new-build estates and suits any house with grey windows or a grey composite door. It shows dust less than white but shows scratches more.
• Black looks smart on white render and on stone, and it hides the gutter line so the roof edge reads thinner.
• Rosewood, golden oak and other woodgrain foils are the choice for the sandstone villas. A woodgrain fascia and bargeboard on a stone house keeps the look the street expects without the repainting, and it matches woodgrain windows if you already have them.

Woodgrain and coloured boards are foiled rather than solid-coloured, which adds to the material cost and carries a shorter colour guarantee from the manufacturer than plain white, so we put both figures on the quote. Gutters, downpipes and joint trims come in matching colours, and we keep to one manufacturer’s system so the shades match rather than nearly match. If you are replacing windows soon, tell us and we will hold the roofline colour until you have chosen them.

Bargeboards get forgotten because they face sideways, but on a gable-ended semi they take more weather than the fascia. Wind-driven rain runs down the roof slope, over the verge and straight onto the board, and the top corner where the bargeboard meets the ridge is usually the first place we find rot. On the older villas the bargeboards are often shaped or pierced, and the decision is whether to replace them in matching treated timber, which keeps the detail, or in plain uPVC, which ends the painting. We show you both prices.

Above the bargeboard, the mortar bedding under the verge tiles cracks and drops out every few winters. A dry verge system replaces that mortar with interlocking uPVC caps that clip over the tile ends and screw to the bargeboard, so nothing needs pointing again. Where the gable apex is clad in tired timber boarding, we replace it with shiplap uPVC cladding in the same colour as the roofline. Doing verge, bargeboard and apex together means one set of access and one colour match.

A roof space needs air moving through it or the warm, moist air from the house condenses on the underside of the sarking and the timbers stay damp. Older Falkirk houses were never ventilated at the eaves because the roof leaked enough air on its own; add loft insulation and new windows and that changes. We fit continuously vented soffit boards, or over-fascia vents where the soffit is too narrow, to give the equivalent of a 10mm continuous gap along the eaves, which is what Scottish building standards expect on a pitched roof, and we check the insulation is not pushed into the eaves blocking the air path.

The gap between the fascia and the first course of tiles is where starlings and jackdaws get in. An eaves comb, a strip of flexible bristles fixed along the top of the fascia, closes it without stopping the air, and the soffit vents carry an insect mesh. The damp side of the story is simpler: a rotten fascia lets the gutter sag, the gutter overflows, and the water runs down the outside of the wall and shows inside as a stain in the top corner of an upstairs room. If you have that stain already, our damp and water ingress service in Falkirk finds the route before anyone redecorates, our guide to the signs your fascias and soffits need replacing covers what to look for from the ground, and if the gutter itself is the problem see our guttering service in Falkirk.

A typical Falkirk semi with fascias, soffits and gutters replaced front and back takes one to two days once access is in place. A detached house or a villa with bargeboards on two gables takes two to four. We use alloy towers on most two-storey houses because they go up and down the same day; a full scaffold is used on three-storey buildings, on steep sloping gardens and where a conservatory or extension sits under the eaves, and it appears as a separate line on the quote rather than being added afterwards.

The old timber, plastic and gutters go in our van or a skip and are disposed of properly; nothing is left at the kerb. Replacing fascias and soffits like for like does not need a building warrant from Falkirk Council, though listed buildings and houses in a conservation area may need consent to change from timber to uPVC, and we tell you if we think that applies. Our 10-year workmanship guarantee covers the fixing: boards staying tight to sound timber, joints and corners sealed, gutters holding their fall. Colour-fastness of the board itself is covered by the manufacturer’s separate guarantee, which we hand over with the invoice. While we are up we photograph the roof edge, and anything beyond the roofline is quoted separately through our roof repairs in Falkirk service.