New Fascia Board

A few years back I attempted to drive into my garage with my bike on top. As you might imagine, damaged ensued. The gutter was dented and the fascia board cracked. My bike rack (tray) crumped, however the thule base survived. Amazingly my MTB bike survived due to the rear suspension compliance, but my seat snapped and shot into my roof, ugh.

I got an estimate from a gutter shop for a new 24' seamless gutter and downspout. In an attempt to try to be handy and save some money, they are only installing the gutter. Next I had to do the unpleasant work of removing the old gutter, removing the fascia board and installing new fascia. The gutter came off without too much fight. Removing the fascia was a pain because the idiot roofers shot nails into the fascia in a few places. Also the drip edge complicated the removal.

I choose cedar since it is somewhat impervious to weather. They had 8 ft 2x6 at HD for about $15 each. I primed it first with Zinsser 123 (latex). Despite what they say on the label it will just bleed tannins and also raise the grain. I learned you can mitigate raised grain by getting the board wet beforehand and sanding, but the tannin bleed is not solvable with water based primers. Next I got some Kilz Complete, oil based primer. This stuff sealed it up superbly, with no raised grain. I had to cut a channel for the soffit board. Fortunately I just got a router so I put it to work. It took a lot of jimmy'ing to slide into the brick crevice area but finally I got it. I learned my miter saw was cutting at a slight back angle so my scarf joints were slightly problematic. The dumbest thing I did was to cut the last scarf joint at the wrong 45 angle, so instead of easily placing the last board I had to wedge it under the drip edge. I fired some 16 gauge finish nails to hold and I'll come back later with some heavier nails or trim screws to secure better. Some ready patch on the joints and some paint touch up and I should be ready to paint someday.

Here's the exposed rim board (name?)

Cutting the soffit groove into the board. I used the other board as a guide for the router

Doing it over again I would have used a pre-primed finger joint board to avoid the painting.

And finally, installed. I shot 16 gauge finish nails to hold it in place, then drove exterior trim head screws every 24". The finish nails while galvanized (electro plated, not hot dipped) are not suited for exterior applications according to the manufacturer. I live in a dry/arid climate so felt ok with this and I didn't want to buy 1000 stainless steel nails just for 15 of them. In fact the nails I pulled out from the original board looked just fine after almost 40 years. I applied ready patch to the scarf joints (2 coats) and filled the nail heads. I ran my orbital sander over to smooth it out and primed with the Kilz Complete. For all time I spent on this I'll probably end up replacing it in a few years along with the siding and soffit as it's in bad shape.