Why this gets done with the roof
Eavestrough, soffit and fascia are usually treated as separate jobs by separate trades, and that's precisely why the edge of so many roofs leaks. The drip edge, the starter course, the eave protection membrane, the fascia board and the back of the trough all meet in a band about six inches wide. If one trade details their part without seeing the others, water gets behind the trough and runs down the fascia and into the soffit.
Why we'd rather do it with the roof
When you're already re-roofing, the eaves are open and the flashing is off. That's the cheapest and most reliable moment to deal with all of it, because it's one crew making one set of decisions. We're happy to do this work on its own too — plenty of houses need the trough sorted long before they need shingles.
Eavestrough
The trough's job is unglamorous: get roof water away from the foundation. When it fails, the water goes straight down the wall and into the ground beside the footing, and the symptom shows up in the basement rather than on the ceiling — which is why the connection often gets missed for years.
What goes wrong
Common problems we're called for:
- Undersized trough on a big or steep roof, which simply overshoots in heavy rain no matter how clean it is.
- Wrong fall, so water pools and sits in the run instead of moving to the outlet.
- Pulled spikes or hangers, usually where ice has loaded the trough and levered the fixings out of soft fascia.
- Downspouts discharging at the wall, dumping the entire roof's water a foot from the foundation.
We run continuous seamless trough formed to length on site, so the only joins are at corners and outlets — every seam is a future leak, and there's no reason to have them mid-run.
Soffit and fascia
Fascia is the board the trough hangs on; soffit is the underside of the overhang. Fascia rots when trough has been overflowing behind it, and rotten fascia won't hold hangers — which is how a trough that was fine last year suddenly sags. Replacing the trough without dealing with the board behind it is a repair with a very short warranty.
Soffit does something less obvious but more important: it's the intake for the entire attic. Which brings us to the part that quietly decides how long your roof lasts.
Attic ventilation, and the intake problem
An attic needs to move air through it continuously — in low at the soffits, out high at the ridge. In winter that carries away warm damp household air before it can condense as frost on the underside of the sheathing. In summer it dumps heat that would otherwise bake the shingles from below and shorten their life.
Intake is what usually fails
The failure we find most often is intake, not exhaust. Someone adds ridge vent or roof vents, the attic still has problems, and nobody checks the soffits — which turn out to be solid vinyl with no perforation, or perforated but completely blocked by insulation pushed into the eaves during an upgrade. An exhaust vent with no intake doesn't ventilate the attic; it pulls conditioned air up out of your house through every ceiling gap, which costs you money and moves moisture in exactly the wrong direction.
We check both ends. That means looking in the attic, not just at the roof, and fitting baffles at the eaves to keep an air channel open past the insulation where that's what's needed.
Ice damming
Ice at the eaves is usually a heat-and-air problem wearing a weather costume. Warm air leaking into the attic melts snow on the upper roof; the meltwater runs to the cold overhang and refreezes into a dam. Better eave protection under the shingles stops the water getting into the house, and it's essential — but fixing the ventilation and air sealing is what stops the ice forming in the first place. We'll tell you which of those your house actually needs.
Getting it looked at
Free written quotes, whether it's the full edge with a re-roof or just a trough that's overshooting. Call or text (519) 400-3840.
Common questions
Why do the eavestrough and the roof get done together?
The drip edge, the starter course, the eave protection membrane, the fascia board and the back of the trough all meet in a band about six inches wide. If one trade details their part without seeing the others, water gets behind the trough and runs down the fascia and into the soffit. When you're already re-roofing, the eaves are open and the flashing is off, so it's one crew making one set of decisions.
Why does my eavestrough overflow even when it's clean?
Usually because it's undersized for a big or steep roof, or the fall is wrong so water pools and sits in the run instead of moving to the outlet. Pulled spikes or hangers — often where ice has loaded the trough and levered the fixings out of soft fascia — and downspouts discharging right at the wall are the other two we're called for most.
What is the most common attic ventilation mistake?
Intake, not exhaust. Someone adds ridge vent or roof vents, the attic still has problems, and nobody checks the soffits — which turn out to be solid vinyl with no perforation, or perforated but completely blocked by insulation pushed into the eaves during an upgrade. An exhaust vent with no intake pulls conditioned air up out of your house through every ceiling gap.
What actually causes ice damming at the eaves?
Warm air leaking into the attic melts snow on the upper roof; the meltwater runs to the cold overhang and refreezes into a dam. Better eave protection under the shingles stops the water getting into the house, and it's essential — but fixing the ventilation and air sealing is what stops the ice forming in the first place.
