Understanding Roofing Terms: What is an Eave on a House?

Do you understand what eaves are? If you are unsure about pointing out the spot, you come to the right place to learn. In this article, you will know ‘what is an eave on the house’ and some more details about it. Now, take your notes, and let’s learn about it.

What is an Eave Height on a House?

Before knowing what the right eave size for your house is, let’s discuss the definition of the eaves first. So, what is an eave on the house?

what is an eave on a house

An eave can be defined as the edge of a roof that overhangs the exterior side of your roof. There are two parts of an eave, which are:

  • Soffit

Soffit is the part of an eave that is positioned under the roof’s eaves.

  • Fascia

Fascia is defined as a part of an eave that is placed as the vertical facing board.

Now that you know ‘what are eaves,’ let’s learn the proper eave height on the house. There is no exact rule you can apply in determining your eave height, but that doesn’t mean you can recklessly choose the roof’s eaves.

Housebuilders have specific thoughts to determine the height of the eaves. According to sources, the bottom of the eaves and the top of the windowsill should leave around 30% space, measured from the windows’ base to the eaves’ bottom.

For example, if the height between the windows’ bottom to the soffit is 100 cm, it means that the soffit to windowsill height is 30 cm.

What about the fascia height? Fascia board typically already comes in a specific measurement, so you cannot adjust it anymore.

Talking about eaves, you might wonder what the difference between rakes and eaves is. Both terms are often misunderstood by many people, given that the form of both is placed on the side of a roof.

Rake is basically what you can find on a gable roof. This is the edge that comes slanted at the end of a house wall. At the same time, eaves are the overhanging structures on a roof—which have two parts called soffit and fascia. The definition of each part is already explained in the previous explanation.

What is an Eave Vent on a House?

As you proceed with the talk of eaves and roofing stuff, you might stumble upon another term called an eave vent. What is this?

Just like its name, an eave vent is a kind of ventilation. However, it’s not like you mount it on a windowsill or a wall. Builders put such vent on the underside of your eaves. It can also be defined as the soffit vents—a set of vents placed on the soffit, the bottom of an eave.

Read also: Roof Vent Pipe Boot Repair

Why do you need this? Indeed, each roofing system requires this since this item will help the air to flow under your roofing sheets. This will help in reducing moisture built up under the shingles.

Eave vents should be smartly positioned. This is because this structure cannot be owned by too many or too few. Too few vents cause the roofing underlayment to be too moist from having no outlet for the moisture build-up. While too many vents even cause weak spots and leaking as well.

Well, that’s the information which answers your question about what is an eave on the house. Hopefully, this explanation will be helpful for you.

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RoofLast is an experienced author and roofing expert. With years of practical experience in the field authored several informative articles on various aspects of roofing, including installation, maintenance, and repair