Discover Essential Knowledge About Fascia, Soffits And Bargeboards On Your Home Before The Structural Damage Sets In.

Unplasticised polyvinyl chloride, or PVCu (or uPVC) as it's more commonly known, has all but comprehensively swept the board in the new guttering and fascia market. Their are a great number of reasons why homeowners now decide on PVC-U when thinking of a guttering replacement and new fascias on their home.

It is today widely recognised that the maintenance burden and the technical performance of timber, particularly for roofline, is no longer acceptable when compared with PVC-U.

A PVC-U roofline is better than wood because, as we all appreciate, timber is a porous raw material. Once water has breached the outside layer, it is a matter of when and not if it will need replacing. This then paves the way for woodworm and many other vermin to set up home after a while causing structural damage. UPVC rooflines will not rot, will never need painting, do not discolour and will continue being maintenance free for up to fourty years. All they will need to have is the occasional wash down with warm soapy water.

Soffits
Fascia boards, also known as soffits, are boards fixed to the top of the outer walls of a building, just under the roof, which then projects over the fascia. This used to be commonly made from wood, but nowadays PVCu replacements are more popular as they are light, simple to fix, long lasting and cheaper. Wood boards need repeated painting and replacement and PVCu in opposition is very resilient, only fading and cracking after several decades.

Guttering
The guttering is fitted to the fascia and collects the rain from the roof, diverting it into drain pipes which take the water down into the public drainage system, or away from the house to a soakaway, where it can disband without contamination. Larger diameter downpipes take effluent from the toilets down into the sewers. If the guttering or downpipe is obstructed or cracked, then water can ooze over the brickwork and go through into the property, creating damp issues.

Gutters have been built from all sorts of materials, including concrete, wood, aluminium, galvanised steel and other metals, but before PVC-U was popular, they were mostly painted steel. This needs regular washing and re-painting and if it's not done, rust can set in and cause leaks. This means replacing sections, which is costly and demanding because of the weight of the steel. PVCU scores highly over steel on both those counts and when considering guttering replacement on your house we strongly advise you opt for UPVC .