Choosing a material for roofline boards is a choice between three different kinds of maintenance. Timber asks for paint and attention but can be repaired almost indefinitely and matches an old house. uPVC asks for very little but cannot be painted a convincing heritage colour and, once it fails, is replaced and not mended. Aluminium sits between the two, with a slim, hard-wearing finish and a higher price. None of them is the right answer for every house, and the wrong choice usually shows up ten years later as peeling paint, a warped board or a roof edge that looks out of place on the street. This guide compares the three on what actually matters: how long they last, what they ask of you, how they look, how they behave with a gutter and what they cost. It also covers older boards you may already have and what to do with them.
What a roofline board has to put up with
Before comparing materials it helps to be clear about the conditions. A fascia is a long, thin board on the outside of the house, up where the walls end and the weather hits hardest. It is rained on from above, splashed from the gutter, baked by afternoon sun on one elevation and kept in shadow on another. It carries a gutter full of water. It swells and shrinks through the year, and water gets in at its joints, cut ends and screw holes.
A soffit has an easier life, because it faces downwards and the fascia shelters it, but it is not immune. Condensation from the roof space, water blown up from below, and the damp that rises from a gutter that leaks at the joint all reach it. Where it carries a vent, it also has to stay open.
That gives a short list of what a good material needs. It should not soak up water. It should hold a screw. It should move with temperature without splitting. It should keep its colour. And it should be possible to repair or replace without rebuilding the whole roof edge. Each of the three common materials meets some of those needs well and others less well.
One thing a material cannot do is make up for poor installation. A well-fitted timber fascia, with the cut ends sealed, a drip edge and a sound rafter behind it, will outlast a badly fixed plastic one. The reverse is also true. Details such as ventilation, the way the underlay is dressed into the gutter and the spacing of the brackets matter as much as the board itself, and they are the same whichever material you choose.
What the cost guides say about price
Typical UK ranges reported by MyBuilder's gutter, fascia and soffit guide (2026) put a fascia at £80 to £150 per metre and a soffit at £100 to £180 per metre, with fascia and soffit together at about £150 per metre on average. Scaffold typically adds £20 to £40 per square metre. The guide gives national figures for the job as a whole and does not split them by material, so they show the scale and not the gap between the three. Your fixed quote follows the survey.
Roofline boards sit alongside the rest of the rainwater system, and the hub page for gutters, soffits and fascias shows how the pieces fit together.
Timber: repairable, traditional and demanding
Timber is the original material and still the right one for many older houses. Softwood is the usual choice for fascias and bargeboards, and where a board has to match an existing profile, such as a moulded edge or a deep cornice, timber is often the only material that can be reproduced faithfully.
Where timber is strong
It can be cut, planed and shaped to match what was there. It takes paint in any colour, so a Bath terrace painted in a conservation palette can have a roofline to match. It can be repaired: a rotten section is cut out and a new piece spliced in, which suits a period house where the board is part of the character. And it holds a screw well, which matters for a gutter full of water.
Where timber is weak
It rots if it stays wet. The failure points are predictable: end grain, joints, the bottom edge, the back of the board and anywhere paint has cracked. Primer and paint on all faces before fixing, sealed cut ends, a slight fall on the top edge and gutters that do not overflow all help. Even so, timber asks for repainting at intervals, and a neglected board can fail within a few seasons.
There is no reliable published lifespan for timber boards, because the figure depends almost entirely on the species, the preparation and the upkeep. Treat any quoted figure with caution. What can be said is that a well-prepared, well-kept timber board can serve for generations, and a poorly protected one cannot.
Hardwood and treated timber resist rot better than ordinary softwood, at a higher cost. Whichever you choose, ask what finish it arrives with and who is responsible for the first repaint.
uPVC: low upkeep and limited character
uPVC, a rigid plastic, is the material most people mean when they say new fascias. It is sold as boards, as cover boards that fit over an existing timber fascia, and as soffit panels with or without vents.
Where uPVC is strong
It does not rot and does not need painting. A wipe down with soapy water is the usual maintenance. It is light, quick to fit and generally the lowest-cost option for a plain roof edge. The range of accessories is wide: trims, corner pieces, vented soffit panels and joint covers all come as part of the system.
Where uPVC is weak
Lifespan figures vary with the source. MyBuilder's guide suggests roofline boards may need replacing every 10 to 20 years depending on the material, while a uPVC supplier, The Plastic Centre, gives 20 to 40 years for high-quality boards. The supplier has a commercial interest, so read the lower end as the cautious figure and treat quality as the deciding factor. MyBuilder also recommends inspecting boards about every five years.
Plastic expands more than timber, so long runs need expansion gaps at the joints. White uPVC discolours over time, and dark or woodgrain foils can fade unevenly on a sunny elevation. Cracks at corners and joints are common on cheaper profiles. It cannot be repainted well, and it cannot be matched to a moulded timber profile. Where a cover board is fitted over an old timber fascia, any rot behind it is hidden, and if the timber is not sound the new board has nothing solid to fix to.
For a plain 1960s or later house with straight boards, uPVC is often a sensible choice. For a period house with a moulded fascia, it changes the look of the roof edge for good, which matters on a protected street. Gutters raise the same issue, and uPVC guttering under conservation rules deals with it.
Aluminium: slim, durable and dearer
Aluminium boards and trims are made from extruded or pressed metal, usually with a factory-applied coating. They are common on modern and contemporary buildings, where a thin, crisp edge is part of the design, and are used on traditional houses where a long-lasting alternative to timber is wanted.
Where aluminium is strong
It does not rot, and it does not warp the way plastic can. The coating is applied in the factory in a wide range of colours, including dark greys and blacks that look good on slate. A thin section means the roof edge looks lighter. Aluminium guttering is a common pairing, and the two can be colour-matched from the same finish. Figures for guttering suggest aluminium lasts longer than uPVC, with one source giving 20 to 30 years for aluminium guttering against 10 to 20 for uPVC. That source is a single cleaning firm's blog, so it is a rough guide only, and we found no published figure at all for aluminium fascia boards.
Where aluminium is weak
It costs more to buy, and it is fitted by specialists in many areas. It dents if struck by a ladder or a scaffold pole. Scratches through the coating can show bare metal. It can be noisy in heavy rain on a lightweight profile unless it is backed. And as with plastic, it cannot be reproduced in a moulded period profile. It is usually fitted as a cover over timber or as a new board on a rebuilt roof edge, so the condition of the timber underneath still matters.
Aluminium suits modern extensions, flat-roof edges and houses where the design is clean and linear. On a Georgian or Victorian house it can look out of place unless the profile is chosen carefully, and a listed house would need the council's agreement first. For the gutter side of the choice, see aluminium gutters: are they worth it.
Timber, uPVC and aluminium at a glance
The grid below sums up the points owners raise most. It describes general qualities and is not a ranking, and the last row is the one that decides most cases.
| Point | Timber | uPVC | Aluminium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rot | Yes, if kept wet | No | No |
| Upkeep | Repaint at intervals | Wash down | Wash down |
| Repair | Splice in a new section | Replace the board | Replace the board |
| Colour | Any paint colour | Limited range, fades | Wide factory range |
| Moulded profiles | Can be matched | Cannot | Cannot |
| Best suited to | Period and listed houses | Plain, later houses | Modern and clean-lined houses |
If your house has a moulded or decorative roofline, timber is usually the material that keeps it intact. If the boards are plain and flat and you want to stop thinking about them, uPVC or aluminium can suit. Where the house is listed, ask the council before ordering anything.
Soffits are slightly different. Because they sit above head height, appearance matters less and airflow matters more. Whichever material you pick, check that vented panels give a continuous opening and that loft insulation does not block it. Typical manufacturer figures for that opening, and how they vary with the underlay, are on our soffit vents page.
Fibre cement, older boards and Bath houses
Fibre-cement and similar boards are sometimes offered for soffits. They are stable and do not rot, but they are heavier, more brittle and need painting, and they are less common in domestic work. They should not be confused with older boards on houses of a certain age, some of which contained asbestos. If you have soffit boards of unknown age and type, particularly flat, smooth, grey-white sheets, do not drill, saw or break them. HSE guidance treats asbestos cement taken out whole as non-licensed, with heavy breakage moving it to the notifiable category. Read our page on asbestos soffits before any work begins.
In Bath the material question is partly a planning one. Because so many houses are listed, a swap from timber to plastic or metal on an old frontage is something to raise with the B&NES conservation team early. Mending boards in the material they already are is rarely a problem.
We match materials on older roofs, and the same approach applies to the boards: if the existing fascia is timber and a repair will do, we repair. Where replacement is the answer, we will tell you what the original material and profile were and what a faithful copy involves. The written price that follows the survey names the board material. The work itself is described on our page about fascia board replacement, the parts are explained in soffits and fascias explained, and a board that fails because the gutter overflows is covered under overflowing gutters.