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Vern Heiler
01-16-2009, 02:14 PM
What do you call the trim piece at the end of the eave? (other than moisture damaged) One I've heard is "dog ear".

A.D. Miller
01-16-2009, 02:39 PM
Techincally speaking it is just the fascia on a closed cornice with a level soffit. The framing behind it is a vergre rafter with a level lookout block.

MaMa Mount
01-16-2009, 03:50 PM
I feel embarrassed cause I have just been calling it the trim board on the corner of the soffit.:)

Vern Heiler
01-16-2009, 04:05 PM
I feel embarrassed cause I have just been calling it the trim board on the corner of the soffit.:)

Probably as good as any! I was just trolling to see if anyone has a better name to direct handyman/carpenter to the offending part.

Kevin Barre
01-16-2009, 05:23 PM
All the framers I have ever worked with called the entire assembly "bird boxes." That may be a regional term; I don't know. Regardless, your average home buyer probably won't know what that means. So if you don't have photos, I probably would not use that term.

Trent Tarter
01-16-2009, 05:42 PM
Fascia board

Erby Crofutt
01-16-2009, 08:54 PM
Put the picture in your report with an arrow pointing to the area.

Repair people can't read but they understand pictures with arrows.

John Goad
01-17-2009, 05:19 AM
Bird box or Rake return

A.D. Miller
01-17-2009, 06:12 AM
What do you call the trim piece at the end of the eave? (other than moisture damaged) One I've heard is "dog ear".

Vern: Sorry, I thought you wanted to know the official name and not the mythological names that float around in the vernacular of the common construction class. Those would be too many to list here.

Google "calloused country-ass redneck carpenters forum", sign up, and ask the question there. You'll get some real hoots.

Better yet, get on the Journal of Light Construction's forum. That question will likely spark up a long thread - and a couple of fights.

But, no matter who you ask (I think), "dogear" is not correct. Dogear in every dictionary I have - and that's a few - means to trim the top two corners off the end of a board, usually at 45°, for decorative effect; most commonly found atop fence pickets.

However, that's just the crass cynical cosmopolitan carpenters' definition. It may not be universally accepted.:)

Jerry Peck
01-17-2009, 07:15 AM
Bird box or Rake return

For one thing, it is part of the rake, not the fascia ... but it is not a return, so ... ;) ... rake where it intersects with the fascia return? :)

Aaron said "Techincally speaking it is just the fascia on a closed cornice with a level soffit.", except that the part which is decayed is not the fascia return, but the part which is the end of the rake board, an added piece to 'flare' the end of the rake board to match the size of the fascia return on the closed cornice.

A.D. Miller
01-17-2009, 07:56 AM
For one thing, it is part of the rake, not the fascia ... but it is not a return, so ... ;) ... rake where it intersects with the fascia return? :)

Aaron said "Techincally speaking it is just the fascia on a closed cornice with a level soffit.", except that the part which is decayed is not the fascia return, but the part which is the end of the rake board, an added piece to 'flare' the end of the rake board to match the size of the fascia return on the closed cornice.

JP: "Rake board"? Sure, why not. I prefer "verge" or even, if you must, "barge" "rafter". It may well be a board, but then it is also lumber, a piece of wood, a segment of a tree, a piece of a plant, an otherwise-utilized stick of firewood, etc.

It is certainly not a return. The return redirects the fascia from running parallel with the roof and underlying wall to a 90° turn where it runs or (returns) back to the wall. Just like a stair handrail return.

The "flare" is there just to help the carpenter to distinguish, at least in his own mind, himself from the schmuck across the street who cuts his on angles because he doesn't own (or know how to use) a keyhole (kataba-pad-alligator-jab-drywall) or reciprocating (saber-jig) saw. A little board bravado, if you will.:rolleyes:

Richard Pultar
01-17-2009, 09:14 AM
pork chop
I never met a person who acted like they did not understand what I was talking about when I used that term.

A.D. Miller
01-17-2009, 09:21 AM
pork chop

Closer than dogear.

Vern Heiler
01-17-2009, 09:54 AM
I had heard "Pork Chop" but not "Bird Box" before. Dog ear came from working with a local boxing and siding contractor a few (quite a few) years ago.

I have pictures in my report but the first thing the customer or realestate agent does is send a copy of the summary to the handyman. No pic's in the summary. Sometimes it seems the summary is the only thing anybody reads:mad: .

I have been using "The eave closure at the (left right front rear) corner of the (house garage)", but it seems a little cumbersome. They do look at me like a grew a third eye when I use "dog ear".

I can find most any other trim piece defined in a glossary somewhere...but not this piece. I'm thinking no one wants to claim the piece that is so often rotten!:)

Scott Patterson
01-17-2009, 10:17 AM
I have always called it a "soffit return".

Jeffrey L. Mathis
01-19-2009, 11:10 AM
Bird box works in North Carolina for carpenters. Stumps agents. I tend to have to reduce my knowledge of terminology to the lowest common denominator and we generally know who that is. I'll inevitably have to explain-"the triangle at the end".
If you really want to mess with some one, call a soffit the fancy term: "plancier" (Stanley Badzinsky's book on framing")

JLMathis

A.D. Miller
01-19-2009, 11:27 AM
Bird box works in North Carolina for carpenters. Stumps agents. I tend to have to reduce my knowledge of terminology to the lowest common denominator and we generally know who that is. I'll inevitably have to explain-"the triangle at the end".
If you really want to mess with some one, call a soffit the fancy term: "plancier" (Stanley Badzinsky's book on framing")

JLMathis

JL: Actually the plancier (also plancher) according to Webster's is the soffit and not the fascia. The OED also defines plancier as the soffit, and admits to plancher as a synonym, though obsolete.

Wayne Carlisle
01-19-2009, 12:21 PM
Returns

Wayne Turley
01-20-2009, 08:47 AM
Fascia board on lower right side rake edge.

A.D. Miller
01-20-2009, 08:59 AM
Fascia board on lower right side rake edge.

Exactly.

Rick Fifield
01-20-2009, 10:42 AM
The field guys around here, and the JLC, refer to it as a pork chop. If it is larger, steeper, and has roofing on it, it is sometimes called a return or an eyebrow (by my roofer anyway), although to my mind an eyebrow extends across the gable. But then, my painter calls a stair stringer a "riser". And then there is the subject of common names for fish.:rolleyes:
Rick

A.D. Miller
01-20-2009, 12:00 PM
The field guys around here, and the JLC, refer to it as a pork chop. If it is larger, steeper, and has roofing on it, it is sometimes called a return or an eyebrow (by my roofer anyway), although to my mind an eyebrow extends across the gable. But then, my painter calls a stair stringer a "riser". And then there is the subject of common names for fish.:rolleyes:
Rick

There seems to be no formal taxonomic schema in the residential construction world. There is a certain degree of agreement in the nose-bleed section the architectural realm, but then architects don't usually design residential structures - unless of course they are overpriced or they themselve plan to inhabit them.

So then, what the hell? Pork chop, dogear, stringer, riser, whatever . . .:rolleyes: