Thread: metal drip edge with cedar roof

I'm not a home inspector, but I see you've allowed questions from homeowners in the past.

In my part of the country (eastern PA), 24" wide solid decking with ice-shield is required at the eave, even when installing cedar shingles or shakes on skip-lath. I didn't see anything in the IRC section on cedar roofs that mandated drip-edges. So I would like to make sure that a drip-edge is at the roofer's or homeowner's discretion when installing cedar shingle.

If we need to install a drip-edge on the CDX, the air gap above the fascia board serving as the intake vent would be blocked, and to avoid that problem we'd have to install a special louvered drip-edge, which would in turn require the existing half-round gutters to be remounted farther away from the fascia trim. I'm hoping to avoid that additional expense.

P.S. At present, we have 100% skip sheathing, all the way down to the foot of the rafters. We do not have overhanging eaves. The solid decking at the eave is a new requirement, I think. Here is a sketch that shows something very close to what we will have after the solid decking is installed, replacing the skip-sheathing along the eave, except that we may or may not have a louvered drip/vent.


louveredDripEdge.png

P.P.S. It seems I can edit my original post, but my responses to your responses go into limbo awaiting approval by the moderator.

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No replies to a simple question, so here goes.
You do not need a drip edge.
But your local authority may want drip edge regardless, so you must check with him.

Originally Posted by Henry Blint

f we need to install a drip-edge on the CDX, the air gap above the fascia board serving as the intake vent would be blocked, ...

Originally Posted by John Kogel

No replies to a simple question, so here goes.
You do not need a drip edge.
But your local authority may want drip edge regardless, so you must check with him.

Simple question but maybe because we didn't see it (for whatever reason, I didn't see it until now).

While drip edge may not even be required locally ... why would you not want drip edge - especially where ice damming can occur.

As I envision it, your fascia does not go all the way up to the roof sheathing, in which case what supports the edge of the roof sheathing and what is there to nail that edge of the roof sheathing down to?

If the roof sheathing extended out beyond the fascia, then the drip edge would also be out away from the fascia, leaving a space for ventilation between the drip edge and the fascia.

Not the way we build here in Florida, but we don't need to worry about ice damming either.

Maybe its just Florida, or maybe its just NOT my part of TN, but they usually do not nail the edges of roof sheathing to the fascia, not do they nail the edges at the ridge of the roof. Almost always a gap at the ridge for the vent.

Originally Posted by Jack Feldmann

Maybe its just Florida, or maybe its just NOT my part of TN, but they usually do not nail the edges of roof sheathing to the fascia, not do they nail the edges at the ridge of the roof. Almost always a gap at the ridge for the vent.

May be just Florida which wants to support the bottom edge of the roof sheathing - how do you support that edge when I read so many posts about clips and edge support? No way to use a clip to support those edges when edge support is required for thinner sheathing panel thicknesses (which Florida doesn't allow either)?

Yes, down here we have a tendency to not want the roof sheathing blow off from high winds lifting the bottom edge ... so we nail that bottom edge, all edges, down tight.

Florida isn't the only state which gets high wind events (hurricanes) but maybe we are the only state to nail the roof sheathing down to keep it in place.

They do use clips between sheets. Obviously they nail them to the trusses (or rafters if stick built), but nothing at the fascia or at the ridge. Since we do not have hurricanes here, the AHJ's must not consider it important. The fascia boards are usually 1x material, so they probably wouldn't hold nails very well either, considering how bad most of these guys are at hitting a target.

If they use clips between sheets, what is used for edge support at the top and bottom?

If edge support is not required, why use clips anywhere?

Doesn't make sense to only use clips for some edge support but not for all edge support ... if the edges need support ... the edges need support ... or the edges don't need support.

See what I'm saying?

You would have to ask them. How do they fasten the sheeting edges at the ridge in FL?

Originally Posted by Jack Feldmann

You would have to ask them. How do they fasten the sheeting edges at the ridge in FL?

We don't use sheathing thin enough to require edge support. If we did, blocking would need to be installed at the ridge for that support.

At the bottom, at the fascia, the sheathing is nailed to the fascia or subfascia (2x wood).

Two layers of Cedar shingles at the eaves, a starter row under the first row, forms a lovely drip edge.

Usually there is no problem with flashing obscuring the soffit vents, but this must be a design with no overhang at the eaves, is that right? Is that what you'all call a saltbox?

It appears the OP has left the building.
There are many ways to vent the eave or manufacture flashing with ventilation.
http://inspectapedia.com/ventilation...tion_Specs.php
Even with gutters.
https://www.google.ca/search?q=air+g...Vlh8x6FUqpM%3A

Originally Posted by ROBERT YOUNG

It appears the OP has left the building.

Maybe that was Elvis?

Originally Posted by John Kogel

Two layers of Cedar shingles at the eaves, a starter row under the first row, forms a lovely drip edge.

Usually there is no problem with flashing obscuring the soffit vents, but this must be a design with no overhang at the eaves, is that right? Is that what you'all call a saltbox?

That is right. We do not have overhanging eaves. I have added a sketch to the original post above, showing something close to what we will have after the skip-sheathing along the eave is replaced with 1/2 CDX solid decking. The decorative fascia trim on our house extends up further than shown in the sketch. The part of the drip edge that hangs down would block the gap, or if the decking is extended out a little beyond the foot of the rafters, when the shingles extend 1.5" beyond the (now extended) decking, they would overshoot the existing gutters.

Originally Posted by John Kogel

Two layers of Cedar shingles at the eaves, a starter row under the first row, forms a lovely drip edge.

Usually there is no problem with flashing obscuring the soffit vents, but this must be a design with no overhang at the eaves, is that right? Is that what you'all call a saltbox?

My first reply did not "take". That's right, there are no overhanging eaves. I've added a sketch to my original post showing what we will have after the skip-sheathing is replaced with 1/2" CDX down along the eave, though we may or may not have a vented drip-edge as shown.

The issue is trying not to remount the gutters. The shingles hanging off the decking by 1.5 inches should dump into the gutter, not overshoot the gutter.

Originally Posted by ROBERT YOUNG

It appears the OP has left the building.
There are many ways to vent the eave or manufacture flashing with ventilation.
http://inspectapedia.com/ventilation...tion_Specs.php
Even with gutters.
https://www.google.ca/search?q=air+g...Vlh8x6FUqpM%3A

Yes, but all of the different solutions require several thousand dollars of additional expense for time and materials, and possibly the destruction of our existing cedar fascia trim, which we paid a pretty penny for. I am wondering if we could simply have the minimalist solution we have had for 20+ years with the cedar shingles on skip-sheathing, a screened gap of about one inch above the top of the fascia trim.