After some recent rains, I discovered a few leaks in the soffit. Doing some looking around for the source, I noticed that the fascia board does not meet the end of the roof sheathing at the end of the rafters. I believe the leak to be water flowing off the shingles and behind the fascia. Is it common practice to have that gap between the fascia and the sheathing? Should I remove the gutters and replace the fascia? Or should I install a drip edge (as there is not one at this point)?
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First--you may get more responses to your question if you post under "Genral Discussion".
Anyway, depending on how big the gap is, I would just install drip edge. If the gap is say larger than a quarter inch, you might consider replacing the fascia.
The shingles or drip edge should extend beyond the outer face of the fascia an inch or two. If no drip edge, the shingles at that point should at least be doubled (for stiffness and to prevent water from flowing through the slots between tabs).
The drip edge is better, since it wraps around the top of the fascia and will prevent water from wicking back behind the fascia. With drip edge, the shingles should still extend out, but mainly for cosmetic reasons, to cover the drip edge.
If this is an old house (built before roughly 1955, depending on region of the country) it may have originally been built without fascia, and with open soffits. If they were added late (after the last re-roof), the shingles would likely have fallen short.
Sounds like you definitely need to install some drip edge. Hope the shingle overhang is enough to cover the newly installed drip edge. Re the fascia gap, it is normally installed tight, often the fascia is even installed up tight to the shingles, so that the roof sheathing is butted to the inside of the fascia. I think that this practice differs by region though. I doubt that that is the root of the problem though. I'd bet a inadequate shingle overhang was the start of the prob, and no drip edge didn't help either. As long as the new drip edge covers the fascia gap by 3/4 of an inch or so, I wouldn't worry too much about the fascia gap.