Know Your Home Inside and Out

Have you ever taken your car in, and have been told your Proportioning Valve was damaged and needed repair? Only to ask yourself, what the heck is my Proportioning Valve? Homes can be similar. Whenever you’re talking to a friend, family member, a project manager, or your sales consultant and get asked about a term you’ve never heard of before it can be super confusing. To eliminate that confusion, we wanted to walk through the key components of a home and define each one.

Below, you’ll find three diagrams outlining very specific aspects of a home to allow you to understand things a bit more. By understanding these, you’ll be able to have a conversation – without any confusion – for a repair or upgrade. Instead of having to Google or define these yourself, we’ve placed them all in one helpful area.

Diagram of a House: (From left to right)

First up is the overall general construction of a home. We’ve removed the foundational items here and focused primarily on the framing construction of the building.

• Soffit: An exterior or interior feature, generally the underside of any construction element. It’s also known as the overhanging section of a roof. Soffits are always the enclosed portion, and can be confused with an “Eave” which is an open overhang.
• Ceiling Joist: These are the horizontal members that provide a structure to fix the ceiling, and support and fix the diagonal rafters that define the roof shape. These are attached at the top to a ridge beam.
• Attic Vent: Air intake and exhaust vents are used in the ventilating of your attic and roof to allow outside air to enter and exit attics and ventilation spaces. By adding in a number of these to the roof, it can provide circulation and heat dissipation to provide year-round comfort.
• Header: This spans the opening for a window (or door), a cut-out in the roof for a skylight, chimney, or stairway. They’re usually twice the size of surrounding framing members.
• Shingles: These are a roof covering consisting of individual overlapping elements. They’re usually flat, rectangular shapes laid from the bottom edge of the roof to the top. Underneath the shingles would be an ice and water shield or felt – to prevent water damage – placed overtop the roof sheathing.
• Roof Sheathing: The wood panels or sheet metal that are fastened to the roof rafters or trusses for which the shingle or roof material is laid.
• Rafters: A series of sloped structural beams that extend from the ridge or hip to the wall plate, downslope perimeter or eave, and that are designed to support the roof deck and the weight-load.
• Fascia Board: The long, straight board that runs along the lower edge of a roof. It usually does all of the work of supporting the lower edge of the bottom row of tiles for a roof.
• Eave: The part of the roof that meets or overhangs the walls of a building. Unlike soffits outlined above, they’re the open section. Essentially, if you can look straight up and see the angled portion of the roof – it’s an eave. If you look straight up and see a flat piece, it’s a soffit because it’s enclosed.
• Siding: The protective material attached to the exterior side of a wall – used for decoration and weather proofing. Can come in a number of styles and options including vinyl, engineered wood, natural wood, or fiber cement to name a few.
• Wall Sheathing: Sheets of plywood, gypsum board, or other material nailed to the outside face of studs as a base for exterior siding.

Next up is a closer look at the soffit or eave of a home. Even though it’s a smaller portion of the home, it’s crucial in the architectural design of the building. Above, you’ll see primarily a soffit design to show how the subfascia sits up against the fascia.

• Exterior Wall: These give shape to a home and provide structural support while protecting the home from outside elements.
• 2x Nailer: 2×4 or 2×6 nailer, used to fasten the subfascia to the exterior wall.
• Rafters: A series of sloped structural beams that extend from the ridge or hip to the wall plate, downslope perimeter or eave, and that are designed to support the roof deck and the weight-load.
• Soffit Joist:
• Soffit Sheathing:
• Subfascia: Sub-fascia is often required by siding or cladding companies when installing fascia board, including, but not limited to, James Hardie.  The reason sub-fascia is important to have is because it provides a strong fastening strength when you install your fascia board.  The fastening strength, while installing the fascia board, comes from the nail penetrating the cross grains of the sub-fascia.  Track home or volume builders often skip installing the sub-fascia to save on framing costs, and they install their fascia by nailing through the fascia into the end of the rafter tail.  The nail is going into the “end grain” of the rafter; this provides poor fastening strength.  This also effects how your gutter is installed; your gutters will hold strong on those big snows if you have a sub-fascia that it’s anchored into.
• Fascia: An architectural term for a vertical frieze or band under a roof edge, visible to anyone. It usually consists of a wooden board, uPVC, or non-corrosive sheet metal.
• Soffit Blocking: (not shown) Often, when you replace your soffits, you will need to add soffit blocking.  Soffit blocking is additional framing that will help support the new soffits that will be installed.  Most manufacturers of siding and soffits will required that there is a fastener every 24″ on center.  Track home and volume builders typically do not install soffit blocks, but rather try to save on framing costs by just using what’s called a “2x nailer” along the wall.  Siding manufacturers such as James Hardie and LP Building Products require blocking in addition to the nailer to help help prevent sagging on your soffits.

Finally, we’re taking a closer look at the wall itself.

• Wall Stud: A vertical framing member in a building’s wall of smaller cross section than a post. They’re fundamental in frame building.
• Siding: The protective material attached to the exterior side of a wall – used for decoration and weather proofing. Can come in a number of styles and options.
• House Wrap: A synthetic material used to protect buildings. They’re a weather-resistant barrier, preventing rain or moisture from getting into the wall assembly while allowing water vapor to pass to the exterior.
• Flashing: Refers to thin pieces of impervious material installed to prevent the passage of water into a structure – from a joint, or as a part of a weather resistant barrier.
• Sheathing: Sheets of plywood, gypsum board, or other material nailed to the outside face of studs as a base for exterior siding.

All-in-all, these are the key players in the construction of a home. There are a number of things that go into the making of a home, and by understanding it just a little bit better, you may feel more confident in your repair or upgrade. If you have any questions about your home, or want a detailed free quote on an upgrade – just reach out to us!