In short
Replace them. Capping screws a thin uPVC cover over the old timber and hides it; if that timber is already soft, it carries on rotting behind the cover with the gutter brackets fixed into it. Checkatrade's guide puts capping at around £85 per linear metre against around £150 to replace, and that gap is what pays for the timber being gone rather than wrapped. Capping is only sensible on sound, dry timber that is simply tired paint.
This is a job for our Fascias, soffits and guttering service.
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What the two jobs actually are
Capping (also sold as over-cladding or over-capping) means fixing a uPVC fascia cover over the existing timber board and a soffit cover under the existing soffit. Nothing comes off. Replacement means stripping the timber fascia, soffit and bargeboards back to the rafter feet, checking and treating the rafter ends, and fitting new full-thickness uPVC boards with new guttering hung to fall on them.
Why capping usually goes wrong
- It hides rot rather than removing it. The timber is capped because it looks bad. It looks bad because it has been wet. Sealed behind uPVC with no air, wet timber rots faster, not slower.
- The gutter hangs off it. Gutter brackets on a capped fascia are screwed through the cover into the old board. When that board goes, the gutter sags, the joints open and the water runs down the wall.
- Nobody looks at the rafter feet. Stripping the fascia is the only time the ends of the rafters are seen. On the coast, between Great Yarmouth and Sheringham, that is where we find the wet rot.
- It cannot be undone cheaply. When a capped roofline fails, the whole lot comes off and the job is done properly anyway, with the capping money gone.
What the numbers say
Checkatrade's fascia and soffit guide, updated December 2025, gives around £85 per linear metre for capping and around £150 per linear metre to replace, with replacement guttering at around £45 per metre on top and scaffolding as much as a third of the total. Those are national averages before VAT and not our prices; ours depend on the length of your roofline, the storey height and what we find behind the boards. The point is the ratio. Capping is cheaper, and the saving is exactly the cost of not dealing with the timber.
When capping is fine
If the timber is dry, straight and solid when pressed with a screwdriver, and the only complaint is flaking paint, capping over it does no harm and saves money. That is a minority of the rooflines we are asked to look at, because people rarely call about a roofline that is in good order. We will tell you which yours is after we have been up and pressed it, and if capping is the honest answer we will say so.
What we do on a replacement
Old timber out, not over. Rafter feet checked and any rot cut back and spliced. Ventilated soffit where the roof needs air at the eaves. New fascia, soffit and bargeboard, then new guttering set to a proper fall to the downpipe so it does not hold water. Most houses take us a day or two, with a scaffold or tower on a two-storey elevation because it is a full day at the eaves and HSE guidance rules out doing that from a ladder.
