Thread: Dog ear?

What do you call the trim piece at the end of the eave? (other than moisture damaged) One I've heard is "dog ear".

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.

I feel embarrassed cause I have just been calling it the trim board on the corner of the soffit.

Originally Posted by MaMa Mount

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.

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.

Fascia board

Put the picture in your report with an arrow pointing to the area.

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

Bird box or Rake return

Originally Posted by Vern Heiler

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.

Originally Posted by John Goad

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.

Originally Posted by Jerry Peck

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.

pork chop
I never met a person who acted like they did not understand what I was talking about when I used that term.

Originally Posted by Richard Pultar

pork chop

Closer than dogear.

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 .

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!

I have always called it a "soffit return".

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

Originally Posted by Jeffrey L. Mathis

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.

Returns

Fascia board on lower right side rake edge.

Originally Posted by Wayne Turley

Fascia board on lower right side rake edge.

Exactly.

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.
Rick

Originally Posted by Rick Fifield

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.
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 . . .