What it is called, by market
One concept, four markets. Where a name means something else locally, the card says so rather than leaving you to find out on site.
United Statesyours
Close, not identicalsoffit
also fascia, rake board
"Soffit" also names the underside of any building element in American usage — a beam, an arch, a dropped ceiling — so the eaves sense is one of several.
Canada
Close, not identicalsoffit
also fascia
As the United States, with the same broader use of soffit for the underside of any element rather than the eaves specifically.
United Kingdom
Close, not identicalsoffit
also fascia, barge board, eaves board
British usage adds "barge board" for the sloping board at a gable end, which American usage calls a rake board — a different member from the fascia.
Australia
Close, not identicaleaves lining
also soffit, fascia, barge board
Australian practice commonly says "eaves lining" for the sheet material forming the soffit, which names the material rather than the position.
Calculators for this
Each works in either measurement system, and the terminology on the page follows whichever market you have selected.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between a soffit and a fascia?
- Orientation and job. The fascia is the vertical board running along the lower edge of the roof, fixed to the ends of the rafters or the truss tails; it closes the end grain, carries the gutter, and is the piece that takes the weather and the water. The soffit is the horizontal panel underneath, spanning from the fascia back to the wall, closing the void beneath the overhang. In many houses they are supplied as a matching system and replaced together, which is why the words get used loosely — but they are different members, in different planes, doing different jobs, and a quote for one is not a quote for the other.
- Why is soffit ventilation so important?
- Because for a ventilated roof it is the INTAKE, and an intake that does not work makes the outlet useless. A ventilated roof space relies on air entering low at the eaves and leaving high at the ridge, driven by buoyancy and wind, to carry away moisture and to keep the roof deck cold enough to prevent ice damming in cold climates. That low intake is through the soffit, whether as a continuous vent strip, perforated panels or discrete vents. The common failure is insulation pushed out over the wall plate until it blocks the path — which is why baffles exist — and the second is a replacement soffit fitted without vents because the old one appeared solid. Either leaves a roof that ventilates on paper.
- What is a barge board, and does it have an American name?
- The sloping board along the edge of a gable, following the roof's pitch up to the apex, rather than the horizontal board along the eaves. British and Australian usage calls it a barge board; American usage calls the same member a rake board, from the raked or sloping edge it follows. It does a similar job to a fascia — closing the edge, protecting the ends of the battens or the roof sheathing, and finishing the line — but it does not carry a gutter and it meets the roof at a different angle, so its profile and its fixing differ. A specification that uses "fascia" for both is losing a distinction that changes the material take-off.