Shed Project: Soffits and Trim

[jteneyck]

Thanks Admiral. My wife hasn't made that suggestion yet, but we do joke about it being her she shed rather than my wood shed. I better get a bunch of wood in it before she starts putting curtains in the windows.

When I told her I was going to build a wood storage shed her only request was that I make it look good. So I'm trying to do that and still keep the budget under control. My requirements were minimal maintenance, which has driven the budget up but I don't regret it.

I should have some siding photos later this week. I'm spending a couple of days with my mom this week to help with some needed work around her place. Cutting box elders this am at 85F and 80% humidity was no fun at all. I hate those things.

John

[Tapper]

John, you're doing a really, really nice job on this.  I brought this project up with my bride, and her response was that if I were going to build something as nice as that as a shed, that I should put in heat and plumbing and go live in it!   

Always a danger! 


Doug

P.S. Dittos on the great job!

[Cooler]

I just (last week) finished applying vinyl soffit over the old plywood soffit.  I used the same channels, but having read about vinyl's expansion and contraction I left nearly 1/2" room on a 32" soffit.  I used washer head screws but left them loose to allow movement. 

I was planning on covering the wood fascia with vinyl trim made for that purpose.  (See below).  But the trim has no slotted holes, and even if it did once I put up the gutters there would be no provision for the movement.  How are you handling this?  Are you just painting it?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ply-Gem-0-09.../202666304

[jteneyck]

I just (last week) finished applying vinyl soffit over the old plywood soffit.  I used the same channels, but having read about vinyl's expansion and contraction I left nearly 1/2" room on a 32" soffit.  I used washer head screws but left them loose to allow movement. 

I was planning on covering the wood fascia with vinyl trim made for that purpose.  (See below).  But the trim has no slotted holes, and even if it did once I put up the gutters there would be no provision for the movement.  How are you handling this?  Are you just painting it?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ply-Gem-0-09.../202666304

I used aluminum fascia.  I saw some vinyl fascia wrap at HD after I had already bought the aluminum, and I, too, was surprised it didn't have any slotted holes stamped in it.  I guess they can't know how you are going to use it, gutters or not, so they leave it solid.  But it wouldn't be hard to drill a couple of holes and cut out the gap between them if you needed to make holes.  

FWIW, I liked working with vinyl much more than with aluminum.  Aluminum dents, kinks and puckers just looking at it.  

I used washer head screws to put up the vinyl soffit, too, and left them loose as you said.  I actually did the same thing on the ends of the siding where I couldn't nail to a stud.  Rather than drive a 1-1/2" nail through 7/16" OSB, or cut the siding shorter so that the ends landed on a stud, I used the same 3/4" washer head screws in the last slot.  The next layer of siding went over them w/o issue.  

If your soffits are 32" wide I hope you added a screw mid-way along the length of the new vinyl sections.  The maximum unsupported span is something like 18".  Mine were just short of that.  I was up at a friend's house recently.  The vinyl soffits are probably 30"+ wide - and have sagged.  Contractors.  

John

[Cooler]

I used 2 screws per panel.  I did not know the allowable span.  If I had I would have used one screw and driven it tight or not.  The expansion would then occur in the channel. It would have gone a lot faster.  I frequently had to back off the screw to make it loose.

I was not happy with my workmanship on the channels around light fixtures (I had six to surround).  I ended up mitering solid L-shaped extrusions and gluing the corners.  The glue wept out of the joint, but I  simply used my random orbiting sander to clean things up.  They appeared to have been molded from a single piece.  The hardest part was cutting out the channels I had already installed and surrounded with soffit.  The assembled frames installed easily with white trim screws (those very skinny screws with the tiny heads).

The angle trim I got from Lowes was 1" x 1" x about 3/16" thick.  The full inch is too deep for the soffit, so I ripped it on my table saw to 5/8" before mitering.  

Note:  I first bought what I thought was solid PVC molding from Home Depot only to find that it was MDF with a co-extruded layer of PVC all around.  Since I was trimming the material the MDF core would be exposed to water, and water and MDF don't mix.  Recommendation:  Examine the cut ends of the trim to see if it is PVC all the way through.

I also used a 7¼" plywood blade (reversed) on my circular saw to make cuts in the vinyl.  I made a sliding fixture for that purpose.  Similar to this but sized to handle just the soffit panels.  I was able to get factory-edge quality cross cuts with this combination.  But only when the blade was reversed.  Plywood blades are all steel and feature a fine tooth count.  The durability on the plastic should be good though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qfXw9MCnZk

[jteneyck]

I found out about the span limits of vinyl soffit material be reading the installation instructions; always a good idea.  

Yes, you can cut vinyl with a circular saw or miter saw with a plywood blade mounted backwards, but it's really easy to cut with a pair of tin snips or utility knife, too, and that's how I cut all the vinyl for my shed except for the outside corners which I cut with a Japanese pull saw.  No chance of anything getting caught, thrown, etc. 

John

[Cooler]

I found out about the span limits of vinyl soffit material be reading the installation instructions; always a good idea.  

Yes, you can cut vinyl with a circular saw or miter saw with a plywood blade mounted backwards, but it's really easy to cut with a pair of tin snips or utility knife, too, and that's how I cut all the vinyl for my shed except for the outside corners which I cut with a Japanese pull saw.  No chance of anything getting caught, thrown, etc. 

John

I have snips also and a notching tool for the J-channel (an excellent investment).  The saw made perfect square cuts much faster and easier.  I tried the snips but gave up on them very quickly as my hands started hurting pretty quickly.

[Cooler]

I am really jealous.  I was watching a home improvement show and they used a pneumatic gun to install the soffit.  At first I thought they were nailing through the plastic, but a closeup showed a staple that straddled the slots.  It was so,  so fast.

Bostich makes an adapter for their framing nailer that allows it to be used for siding and soffit:

https://www.amazon.com/BOSTITCH-VSA4-Vin...B000EDRQRI

This video (less than one minute) shows a dedicated gun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqg2GrI3c2A

[jteneyck]

I am really jealous.  I was watching a home improvement show and they used a pneumatic gun to install the soffit.  At first I thought they were nailing through the plastic, but a closeup showed a staple that straddled the slots.  It was so,  so fast.

Bostich makes an adapter for their framing nailer that allows it to be used for siding and soffit:

https://www.amazon.com/BOSTITCH-VSA4-Vin...B000EDRQRI

This video (less than one minute) shows a dedicated gun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqg2GrI3c2A

Lifting a nailing gun overhead is not something I'd want to do very much of.  I found my little 12V cordless driver to work really well.  And nailing on the siding wasn't hard.  That's another place I wouldn't want to be lifting a nailing gun, especially a framing nailer.  

John