Fascia & Soffit Wood Type Query

BigGeorge

Any recommendation on types of wood for fascia & soffits?

Builder have mentioned both larch and oroco, but not sure of the differences between the variuous types of wood, seems like a hardwood is recommended /required

Pot Noodle =

Larch is cheaper Teak is good but its all down to maintenance really pvc black is very unnoticeable

Dabzarch

You could try Western Red Cedar, can look very well it is abit expensive tho. Aparently Douglas Fir is used as a cheaper alternative but it reaaly isn't anyway alike, full of knots an finish is no where near as nice.

It really depends on what kind of finish you are going for. I can't remember what exact stain/shade was applied to the cedar in the attached photos but i know it was from the Sikkens Cetol Filter 7 range. a year on it has barely weathered and it is fairly exposed to sun etc.

Only problem i found with the Cedar was on the Facia where we had to join two pieces together, after a while a gap of about 5mm appeared due to shrinkage i presume.

Also one other thing to be careful of is the selection of nails/screws to be used to fix the finish timber as all timbers have different types of preservative acids which are naturally present.

The Western red cedar is particullary acidic and require stainless steel or a silicone bronze type fixing. It is worth having alook at woodspec.ie for more information.

gears

I'm not sure about this but could standard pressure treated timber be used for this. It would certainly be cheaper and with a coat of stain youd never know what it was, from a distance.

cork2

yes you can use soft wood and pressure treated softwood but hardwood lasts alot longer! wooden fascia and soffit is lovely for the first two years but after that is only nice if maintained. there is alot of work to sanding and coating it too so if your looking for maintainence free then pvc is the job.