Roof overhangs at the eaves and rakes protect the walls below from rain and sun. But are they really necessary?

With composite siding (such as Boral’s TruExterior siding) over a ventilated rain screen, and with properly executed flashing at the windows and doors, the walls on the FHB House will be able to handle rain just fine. If the wind is blowing, overhangs only protect the top few feet of the wall anyway.

Most homes these days have boxed soffits, but I find that a bit of creativity at the roof edge goes a long way toward style. Even if most people don’t register what it is that makes a home seem special, using a sloped soffit is an easy way to make a home look old or built with more craftsmanship than typical new homes.

With that in mind, we kept a roof overhang at the eaves, as it provides a nice shadow line and protects the second-floor windows from a bit of the summer sun. At the rakes, however, with a nod to Yankee frugality and clean, modern lines, we kept the roof trim as close to flush as practical, while still allowing for a rain-screen channel ventilated at the top as well as the bottom. We used a simple but elegant detail I’ve seen only in southern coastal New England, where the rake boards run long beyond the fascia. The flying ends will cap gutters if they are ever needed.

At the rakes, we pulled the rake trim out just enough to provide a recess to terminate the siding and to ventilate the top of the rain screen. If we were going for historical authenticity, I would insist on clapboards scribed tight to the trim, but in a traditional/modern hybrid like this, I don’t mind conceding on that detail when it allows for better performance, easier installation, and stronger shadow lines as well. While ventilating the top of the rain screen is not critical, it does make it much easier for the wall and siding to dry. Mike Guertin proposed a couple of clever details for ventilating the top of the rain screen using Cor-A-Vent’s SV5 siding vent.

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