LESLIE: Justin in Missouri is calling in with a roofing question. What can we do for you today?
JUSTIN: I have a porch roof; a metal porch roof. It’s probably – definitely not more than a 3/12. And it’s butted up to the existing house, right underneath the soffit.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm.
JUSTIN: And I’m worried about having animals, insects and wind-driven debris like acorns and leaves blowing up underneath that gap between the corrugated metal roof and the soffit; the existing house soffit. So I was wondering if there’s a solution to fill that, if Tom has seen that in his home inspection days. Or should I not be worried about it?
LESLIE: Now when you’re talking about this corrugated metal roof, is the gap that you’re seeing just where those ridges are on the metal roof itself? It’s not like a separate spacing.
JUSTIN: Right, correct. It’s butted all the way up; just where the height of the …
LESLIE: The peaks are, if you will.
JUSTIN: Yeah, yeah, the peaks; there you go. And the valleys are where there’s …
TOM: It actually butts up underneath the soffit? So the soffit covers the top of that part of the roof?
JUSTIN: Correct.
TOM: Little bit of an unusual installation but I wouldn’t worry too much about it. It’s kind of really hard to get a clean trim when you have corrugated roofing like that.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm.
TOM: You may have to get up there and do a cleaning occasionally or take a pressure washer and sort of blast out any debris that gets stuck in there, but I wouldn’t worry too much about it and I certainly don’t think I would do anything to change that right now.
LESLIE: But what about – you know that lumber piece that you can buy that’s cut exactly to the same …
TOM: The trim?
LESLIE: Exactly, the trim piece that goes with the corrugate roofing.
TOM: Yeah.
LESLIE: I mean can you not recess that in sort of an inch or so back from the edge?
TOM: It depends on whether or not he’s got enough height to do that. There are trim pieces that are designed to go on top of the corrugated roof products and that’s what Leslie is suggesting. So you could take a look at the availability of those and if it looks like it’ll be a clean fit and seal the gaps, then fine. But if not, I don’t think – I don’t consider it an ongoing problem for water infiltration because it is under the soffit.
JUSTIN: I do see almost like a small highway of ants that come in and out of there, though. There’s a big oak tree and I wonder …
TOM: Well, that’s – it’s not the roof that’s causing that problem. You know, if you have an ant infestation, they could find that place very attractive just as well as a dozen others around your house. So you may want to address that with a pest control technician. Because today they can put down the right products in just the right amounts that insects will usually pick up and take back to their nest and that takes care of the whole situation.
JUSTIN: OK, well thanks a lot.
TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
Leave a Reply