What are fascias, soffits and bargeboards

Fascias and soffits boards are the part of the house that you most likely don’t look at very often, if at all. Just to explain, the fascia and soffit is the area of your property that the gutter is attached to. The underside is known as a soffit and the part with the gutter attached to it, is the fascia.
Bargeboards are fixed to the gable end of the roof to protect the roof rafters. They are just as important as the fascias and soffits and need to be painted regularly.

What should I paint them with?

If your fascias and soffits are wood and not Upvc then at some point you will need to have them painted, you can paint them in a woodstain, such as Sadolin, or Gloss such as Dulux Weathershield or an exterior satin, again by Dulux. It really depends on your preference.
Continue reading Painting fascia and soffits and bargeboards

How to decorate an exterior, and in which order.

If you have fascias and soffits to paint, do these first.
It’s always best to remove the gutters so you can paint behind them properly; this is where they can start to rot. It’s also a good time to clean out the gutters and wash them before putting them back.
If the fascias and soffits are dirty, give them a wash down first, and then dry them off. Now rub them down, remove any flaking paint. If you have any bare wood paint them with a primer.
Next undercoat them with a suitable undercoat, then you can topcoat them with a gloss.
Obviously if your fascias and soffits are stained, you would simply do as above but paint them with two or more coats of stain rather than primer, undercoat and topcoat.

Next if your walls are painted, paint these next.
Before you jump straight in, rub your hand over the wall, look at your hand; does it have a powder on it? If so this means the paint already on the wall has been affected by the sun and weather. You will need to ‘stabilise’ the walls first, this sounds dramatic and as if the walls are about to fall down, but it isn’t. All you need to do is buy some ‘stabilising solution’ and brush it onto the walls. What this solution does is ‘stick’ and seals the old paint giving you a good surface to paint onto.
Continue reading Order of painting an exterior of a house

In the summer we work on outside jobs, if you are thinking of painting your property exterior then painting the facia and soffit first before the masonry or windows is always the best – facia and soffits may need washing and rubbing down, so by doing this and painting them first saves on any nasty dirt or paint splashes on your new paintwork below.

Always remember to move or cover plants, shrubs and bushes as well as cars before you start too, nothing worse than giving the car a new paint job too!