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Boxing in Unboxed Eaves

Brent Dowell

Brent Dowell

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Reno NV
So, not surprising but our insurance company (allstate) did an inspection of our house. Other than needing to do a little bit of vegetation removal, they have identified our unboxed eaves as an issue that we need to take care of.

I'm just wondering if anybody has any experience with 'boxing' eaves and if you can recommend what methods and materials to use?

Here are some pictures of the eaves. Thanks!

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It appears the eaves have always been unboxed. Did they explain exactly why they are now a "problem"?
To box it in, I'd probably attach wood strips for nailers to the facia and wall between the existing roof framing and nail up 1/4" plywood. Another possibility is vinyl soffit material.
 
John Bartley said:
I don't understand what the problem is with your eaves. There is no access to any attic space because there's blocking in place all around the house, so ..... what are they worried about?
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Most likely embers from wildfires getting into the roof structure. Blocking probably has more gaps that would require sealing with caulking. Just my guess.
 
John Bartley said:
I don't understand what the problem is with your eaves. There is no access to any attic space because there's blocking in place all around the house, so ..... what are they worried about?
Click to expand...

Basically unboxed eaves act as ember traps during windblown fire events. We've learned a lot about how that all works in the last decade or so, insurance companies and local codes are just starting to catch up in fire prone regions. This can cause spot heating lighting the roof deck on fire (roof decking material is not generally fire rated so a smoldering ember trapped against it can eventually catch especially in high winds) or worse let embers more easily infiltrate past the blocking into the attic space if there are any gaps (or the embers can also potentially burn access holes when they "stick" up in those tight corners).

Ideally you'd have flat soffits which allow the embers to swirl back out smoothly but in this case that's not actually quite possible in all of the spots. There might be some ways to help that a bit though.
 
+1 on what Ryan said. With the wildfires out west, insurance companies are looking to get out of the business in places, and I'm assuming this is an attempt to dump whatever policies they can. Standards have changed and I'm assuming any company that we would get to insure this place would want the same standard, so will have to do it. Just wondering if anyone has had any experience re-fitting boxed eaves.
 
Brent is correct. Those of us that live in areas prone to wildfires are finding the insurance companies evaluating their exposure and understandable so. About a year ago my insurance company wanted to know if I had composite roofing and requested that I send them photos of the roof. I responded that I not only had a metal roof but all my siding was metal and sent them pictures of the entire house encased in metal. Never heard back from them and I still have insurance. Log homes were a big thing around here and I am hearing that people with them are getting dropped.
 
For the standard overhangs you can get pre-cut lengths of aluminum (or steel or vinyl) soffit material that has perforations for any venting you may have, but also to allow the space air flow to dry out, but not let embers in. The supplier should also have longer length (standard 12') to cut to length for the porch areas.

You can just get "F" and "J" channels of the same color to put front and back, easily attach with screws and/or a 1/4" crown stapler for the most part.

I'm planning to do the ones on our house when we remodel, mostly to help keep the mud daubers and wasps from building as many nests.
 
Some pics of the aluminum soffit on the guest cabin, which has F channel on the wall side, the pre-cut panels are stapled to the eave. They then used a facia cover that wraps around to cover the stapled ends of the soffit...
IMG_4291.jpeg IMG_4292.jpegIMG_4296.jpeg

Longer 12' pieces cut to 8' to not have any seams except where they join on the sides.
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Some of the front trim detail for the longer pieces on the porch. The gables are nailed flat to the underside of the gable overhang.
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The gable ends were boxed in, and matching siding added over to square up the overhangs on the end of the house.
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And one of the left over pre-cut pieces they used...
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Thanks!

That's a big help. I at least understand what I need to do now. Time to research materials and sources.
 
Aren't the forums great? You get to take many responses from people who have had different experiences and apply what can help you.

P.s. I forgot to mention that some situations use unfinished eastern blue cedar or redwood in which case my "sheet goods" with primer and paint doesn't really apply.
 
I have helped my father box the eaves several times on houses he built. The framing on those houses was in place for the method I am about to describe.
He had a uniform overhang on the eaves and would rip strips of 1/4" plywood equal to the required width. If attic vents were required he would cut the holes and install the vents before the plywood was nailed up. Oh, almost forgot.... he always painted the plywood before he installed the vents or nailed them up.
Sometimes when the overhang was really long like on your porch roof he would install two strips of plywood and install a long strip of venting material between them.

In your circumstances I did not see any attic vents so that may not be an issue for you. If I was going to do your situation I would use aluminum venting material and be done with it.
 
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