Soffit & Fascia Repair and Replacement in DFW

What are my soffit and fascia options in Dallas-Fort Worth?

You can repair rotted sections, replace boards with new wood or fiber cement, wrap sound fascia in aluminum or steel, or swap old soffit for vented metal, vinyl or fiber cement panels. The right mix depends on how much rot hides behind the paint, how your attic breathes, and what has been getting in.

• Spot repair: cut out soft sections, scarf in new material, prime every cut end and repaint.
• Full replacement: new fascia and soffit in primed wood or James Hardie fiber cement trim and soffit panels, which do not rot and resist chewing.
• Metal fascia wrap: aluminum or steel trim coil bent on site to fit over solid wood for a low-maintenance, baked-on finish.
• Vented soffit: perforated aluminum, steel, vinyl or fiber cement panels that let the attic draw in air.

What is the difference between soffit and fascia?

Fascia is the vertical board along the roof edge that caps the rafter ends and carries your gutters. Soffit is the horizontal surface underneath the overhang, between the fascia and the wall, and on most homes it holds the vents that feed fresh air into the attic. When one fails, the other usually is not far behind.

Built for North Texas

Why do soffit and fascia fail on DFW homes?

Water, sun and animals. Most failures we find trace back to overflowing gutters or a missing drip edge, paint that North Texas UV has baked off the wood, and squirrels or birds working at a soft corner.

Why is rot so common on homes built in the 1970s through the 1990s?

Because that era’s materials are now 30 to 50 years old, and it is the heart of the local housing stock: much of DFW’s housing was built in the 1980s and 1990s. Builders of the period commonly used pine or fir fascia and plywood or pressed hardboard soffit, and hardboard swells and crumbles once its paint film fails. Gutters were often spiked straight through the fascia with no drip edge behind them, so every overflow soaked the wood. We see this daily in established neighborhoods of Garland, Richardson, Arlington and North Richland Hills.

Rot starts in predictable places: the small boxed returns at gable ends, under roof valleys, behind downspout outlets, and where a lower roof meets a second-story wall. Average humidity around 62% and summer UV readings of 9 to 10 speed it along by keeping wood damp and breaking down paint.

How do squirrels and birds get into soffits?

They find the weak spot and widen it. Squirrels chew through softened wood at corners and gaps where the soffit meets the roof deck, roof rats follow the same path, starlings and sparrows nest in open vents and returns, and wasps move into hollow cavities. Raccoons can pry loose vinyl panels outright.

• Replace chewed and soft wood with fiber cement or metal that animals cannot easily chew.
• Close the gaps at returns and roof-to-wall corners with bent metal trim.
• Use vented soffit with small perforations instead of open vent holes.
• Trim limbs back from the roof so squirrels lose their bridge.

If animals are living in the attic, we coordinate with a wildlife-removal professional so they are out before we close anything up. Nothing should get sealed inside.

How does soffit venting affect attic heat in Texas?

Vented soffit is the intake half of your attic ventilation. Cool air enters at the eaves and pushes hot air out through ridge or roof vents, and without that intake, an attic on a 100-degree DFW afternoon gets far hotter than the air outside. That heat bakes the roof deck and the ductwork that most North Texas homes run through the attic.

The residential code sets a minimum of 1 square foot of net free vent area per 150 square feet of attic floor, or 1 per 300 when 40 to 50% of that area is exhaust near the ridge and the rest is intake at the eaves. For a 2,000-square-foot attic at 1/300, that is about 960 square inches total, roughly half of it at the soffit. We check the rated net free area of the panels against that number, and we install baffles where blown insulation has buried the eave vents, a very common problem in older attics.

What do DFW storms do to the roof edge?

Wind gets under anything loose. The May 28, 2024 storm brought gusts near 80 mph across the metroplex, and March 2025 straight-line winds hit 105 mph in Haltom City. Loose vinyl soffit panels blow out, and a weak fascia lets wind start peeling the roof edge. Hail dents thin aluminum wrap and can crack vinyl that the sun has made brittle, which is why we often recommend steel or fiber cement in hail-prone areas.