Removing vinyl soffit

[Steve Wurster]

Anyone know how to remove (without damaging, and later replace) this vinyl soffit? I need to remove some of that soffit, do a little bit of work in the bay, and then replace the soffit. The pieces appear to be "snapped" together and possibly "snapped" into horizontal position as well. Any ideas or tips? Thanks.

IMG-9307.jpg

[Tom M King]

There may be some exposed fasteners of some type on one end. If you take those out, it will be obvious. If not, the stuff is fairly flexible, so persuade the edge of the last piece on top off, and it will expose the fasteners.

If it's old enough to have become brittle, it's probably going to break somewhere. It's readily available though, and can be easily cut with woodworking saws. It doesn't take any specialized tools that a woodworker wouldn't already have.

There is a little tool that helps disassemble it, but it's not absolutely necessary.

https://www.amazon.com/Siding-Remova...31048380&psc=1

[Maurice Mcmurry]

The trim nails that attach the custom coverage can be punched through with nail set. Some times you can open an end and slide the soffit out. If it is nailed with roofing nails you have to gain access to pull the nails or work the vinyl out from under the nails. You can cut the L bend off of the facia cover and add a second layer of facia cover after the repairs are done, it has to be cut down to fit under the gutter but not run into the gutter fasteners. Sometimes you can get away with bending the facia cover, this usually looks bad.

[Lee Schierer]

The typical installations of soffit I have seen have one nail in one corner of each piece of soffit. Removing the aluminum fascia will give you access to the nails. However the gutter shown in the photo will make this process much harder. You might be able to pull the aluminum fascia out far enough to get to the nails in the soffit pieces.

[Steve Wurster]

There may be some exposed fasteners of some type on one end. If you take those out, it will be obvious. If not, the stuff is fairly flexible, so persuade the edge of the last piece on top off, and it will expose the fasteners.

If it's old enough to have become brittle, it's probably going to break somewhere. It's readily available though, and can be easily cut with woodworking saws. It doesn't take any specialized tools that a woodworker wouldn't already have.

There is a little tool that helps disassemble it, but it's not absolutely necessary.

https://www.amazon.com/Siding-Remova...31048380&psc=1

I don't see any exposed fasteners except the nail(s) holding up the aluminum fascia. These pieces are not old; they were installed new back in September / October. I'm not overly keen on removing any of the fascia pieces given how new everything is, but that might be my only real option here.

I read something online about using one of those zip tools; I might look into getting one of those anyway.

[Lee Schierer]

I don't see any exposed fasteners except the nail(s) holding up the aluminum fascia. These pieces are not old; they were installed new back in September / October. I'm not overly keen on removing any of the fascia pieces given how new everything is, but that might be my only real option here.

I read something online about using one of those zip tools; I might look into getting one of those anyway.

The zip tools are for removing siding and clipping the pieces back together. I don't believe they will work on soffit.

[Jim Becker]

Soffit often goes up before the fascia with fasteners holding the soffit up which are later hidden by the fascia that wraps under it. You may need to pull the fascia to do what you want to do without damaging things.

[Steve Wurster]

Soffit often goes up before the fascia with fasteners holding the soffit up which are later hidden by the fascia that wraps under it. You may need to pull the fascia to do what you want to do without damaging things.

Yeah, I was afraid of that, and I'm not sure I want to do that on something so new. When this was being installed I told the contractor that I would have to get back into that bay at a later date and asked about removing the soffit in the future. He said it's easy if you've done it before... which of course I haven't. He also said he could send someone out to help me if need be, so I think I might be sending him a text message next week asking just that.

[Tom M King]

You can remove soffit pieces with the unzipper tool. Just milk the piece you're trying to hook in that direction with your other hand to give a little extra clearance under the part that's hooked over the other part. It's not much different than the way siding hooks onto each other.

Since you don't see any fasteners on the last piece of soffit, it may only be snapped in there. It's not hard. Just don't get heavy handed with it.