Joining repair section to existing cedar 1-piece fascia with drip-edge still in place
I am prepping for a re-roof and gutter replacement job on a 46 year-old, full-circumference-guttered house with a 1-piece 1-3/4″ x 5-3/4″ rough, green, cedar fascia. Except on two corners where the old gutter junctions failed and leaked straight down the corners for years behind the gutters, the wood is still very good and solid. A sub did the gutters tear-off and there’s a two-week gap to get the fascia repaired, the old gutter spike holes filled, sanded, and paint, etc. I’ve got the bad fascia sections off and have the replacement fascia boards prepped and primed to cut and install.
My issue is how to get a good straight cut with overlap while the existing roof and it’s aluminum drip edge is still in place. There’s also a 3/4″ thick cedar strip on the fascia under the drip edge that’s parallel to the top. It is visible with a reveal below the drip edge of 1/4″ to 5/8″ depending on where you are in the gutter run-off slope. I’ve been told that has to get repaired and then remain in place.
We’re in Florida and there’s sudden rain far to often to for me to remove or cut through the drip edge until the roofers are actually here in force for a single-day roof tear-off and re-roof. Because there’s a full stucco soffit, I am directed to not disturb more of it than absolutely necessary which means I’m only replacing a foot of fascia each direction mid-board while replacing the damaged corners.
I’ve been asked to either ’45 the junction or do some kind of half-lap across the junction so that there’s no gap all the way through.
I’m having real problems trying to cut a dead-straight line with the drip edge still in place and overlapping the top 2 inches of the installed fascia; not to mention how to make a dead-straight cut on a ’45.
There’s no way to use a circular saw for this because the saw table hits the drip edge too soon. I also tried to use an old Dremel Ultra Saw (a 4-inch circular saw) which straight cut a bit over half the way but that saw still runs into the drip edge with inches left to go. Even cutting using an oscillating tool is difficult and time-consuming to cut a straight line because the old cedar is so hard. (The blade starts smoking soon during cut even with a new blade). it’s also hard to get under the drip edge with that tool for a uniform depth cut.
The only thing I’ve come up with is to use a “half-lap” joint instead of a ’45 with something like an actual 1-inch tongue on the overlap using a router on the accessible fascia bottom; then making a pattern to match, and then doing a free-hand oscillating tool cut plus doing a hand chisel to manually finish the lap cuts under the top under the drip edge.
Does anyone have a suggestion for a better way to do this?
Replies
Nope, you already figured out the best way. If your skilsaw table doesn't get you started even, you can use a handsaw from the bottom up til you hit the drip edge. Then you finish it with the oscillating saw. You have a poor oscillating saw blade, get a better one with fewer teeth to cut the cedar and let the oscillation do the cutting with little to no force.
For the butt joints you can cut square or a 22.5 degree bevel. On the outside corners I would use a half lap joint that won't open up if you're not confident in freehanding the 45 bevel with a hand saw and cleaning it up with the oscillating saw.
You already figured out the best method, stick with it.
Thank you for the advice.
Cutting the outside corners on the 1-foot corner sections won't be a problem since I can cut those miters on my chop saw and dry-fit them to make sure they're right before putting them up. It's only the joins to piece the two new, short corner sections into the existing long runs of fascia leading up to the ruined corners from both directions that are a bear.
Your comment does raise one question, though: When I first saw the smoke trying to cut the heart of this decades-old, hard cedar I thought the same thing - that I should be using a courser toothed demo blade. So I went out looking something more like a coarse demo blade. But I've been unable to find any real demo blade for an oscillating tool. I've checked the local stores for blades from the usual suspects (DeWalt, Diablo, Milwaukee, etc.) and searched Amazon as well. I do already have the coarsest teeth blades I could find but they still start smoke after a couple of minutes of continuous cutting. If I can't find a different blade I may just try replacing the blades every few minutes when they first begin to smoke.
If you know of any true coarse, demo blades, please reply with a brand/model# and I'll jump right on some.
My only other thought is to try one of my other oscillating tools which is a corded Fein instead of the cordless one I'm using. It cuts with less vibration and has a lot more power. I'm hoping it may cut that hard wood deeper with less pressure..
https://www.grainger.com/product/DEWALT-Oscillating-Tool-Blade-2-1-49JP70
Might work but they are great to help and might have a better suggestion
A neighbor was making smoke so while hunting for something at the tool supply I gazed at the rack with many different brands.
One said “aggressive” or something like that. If you’ve look at the myriad blades on display, you know what I mean……at any rate, it didn’t look more “coarse” but I grabbed it and after he tried it, gave. A big thumbs up!
I’ll try to hunt down the recpt.
There was a guy on this forum many moons ago. “Sphere” was the name.
He’d braze chopped up hack saws onto old multi blades and highly praised their work. Search here, might give you an idea.
Edit: one thing to know about cutting with a multi tool. Rock the blade back and for. It might be cleaning the teeth, maybe just not concentrating pressure in one area……beats me. But it does help blades last longer.
https://www.finehomebuilding.com/2007/11/06/inexpensive-multimaster-sawblades
I couldn’t find the rcpt and searched for Sphere ……, nada
But this is interesting
https://www.finehomebuilding.com/2007/11/06/inexpensive-multimaster-sawblades
Thanks, all, for the suggestions. It's great to have some input on this!
The draw saw looks interesting and I'd love to have an excuse to buy a good one. But it wouldn't fit under the drip edge either; at least near the surface of the cut.
He cut up the “Japanese” saw to make his MM blades.
>Cut up the Japanese saw ...> Now that's a thought. It hadn't occurred to me that I could make the blade on such a saw narrower. Do we know what type of tooling it took to cut a steel draw saw blade parallel with the cutting edge across any significant part of it's overall length?
Did the link work for the tip?
TIPS & TECHNIQUES
Inexpensive Multimaster Sawblades
Issue 192
twitter facebook linkedin pinterest email add to favorites
One of the most useful devices I own is the Fein Multimaster oscillating tool. The problem is that when I accidentally run a sawblade into an unseen nail, the teeth become chewed up and pretty much useless. Recently, I’ve been making Multimaster replacement blades from relatively inexpensive ($20 or so) Japanese saws.
This type of saw cuts on the pull stroke and typically includes coarse teeth on one edge and fine teeth on the other. I can get the equivalent of about 10 replacement blades from one of these saws. Ten regular replacement blades for my Multimaster would cost hundreds of dollars. Because the Japanese saws have two types of teeth, each of my shopmade blades does double duty.
ADVERTISING
making Inexpensive Multimaster Sawblades
To make the blades, I first mark the blade size required. Then I drill two holes with a 3/8-in. twist drill mounted in a drill press. Next, I cut the blade to size with a cutoff blade mounted in an angle grinder. Then I carefully adjust the size of the drilled holes with a tapered reamer so that they fit neatly over the mounting ring on the tool. So far, I’ve made blades one at a time as required. Heavy users could prepare several at a time.
I make sure that I have at least one original tool blade on hand because the offset in the original blade can be a major benefit in some cutting operations.
Bob Kelland, St. John’s, None
Edited and Illustrated by Charles Miller
From Fine Homebuilding #192
I haven't had a chance to try it yet. But your illustration is more than enough for me to reproduce that mod. Because we've had intermittent extended rain the last few days, I temporarily sealed the open fascia corners (there are drywall ceilings just inside them), and spent most of a dry day today trying to inject DAP weatherproof patching compound (available at quantity only in a tub) into the large number of old gutter spike holes. It's painful to fill those holes because nearly all are drilled through the old aluminum drip edge. I tried prying up the old AL drip edge and applying it underneath with a flat putty knife, but that got all over drip edge, fascia, etc. and made a huge mess. It also only thin-sealed the very exterior end of the hole; leaving a void tunnel inside the majority of the hole depth; even when trying pack the hole with dowel. It also took way too much time per hole.
So I searched the web to see if there's such a thing as user-fillable caulking tubes and found West Marine's "West Epoxy System" which includes their "West System #810 Fillable Caulking Tubes". I cut the tip of a funnel off to a 1" wide opening, filled it with cups of the thick patching compound by ramming the compound thru the funnel into the tube with a piece of 1" dowel, capped the end of the tube with included plug and used a regular caulk gun to inject the compound more deeply into each hole through the drip edge. It worked. I filled the first 60 holes in about 2 minutes a hole including the time to inject the compound, pry up the drip edge enough to flatten any overage with a putty knife, and move both the ladder and a waste bucket to the next hole. I'm going to keep a few of those handy fillable caulk tubes around. (West Marine sells them for $10 for a 2-pack of the tubes and their caps. They're also available on Amazon but the minimum quantity there is a 24-tube box.)
I found the rcpt from my tool supplier and searched their part number.
This came up
https://www.amazon.com/Imperial-Blades-Starlock-Precision-Blade/dp/B076P9RJT1
Here, maybe
just a couple of thoughts
you might be able to the cuts using this
Bosch 1640VSK Fine Cut Power Handsaw Kit - saw a few on eBay - I have one and it cuts pretty well in a variety of situations and positions - thinking you could maybe cut from the back side if the soffit is out of the way
other thought is dong the half lap joints by making a series of kerf cuts and and then wide hand chisel to clean it up. I'd try a sawzall with a carbide demo blade if the wood is that tough, or maybe a pruning blade
good luck
other thought to fill the void holes is use a low expansion foam with foam gun and use a piece of flexible tubing on the end to get to the holes. the foam should fill the holes and once it hardens/cures, you can cut it flush