Fitting soffit vents.

[Harry Bloomfield]

1/. PVC will not be easy to use a circular hole cutter in to, the PVC will buckle deform and possibly splinter? in short because the PVC is a hollow structure and not supported between the fixing noggins, trying to cut a clean circular hole will be to say the least "Problematic?"

Sorry, but I did it, off a ladder, and no problem at all fitting them. Just get a hole saw of the correct size, and take your time. The saw will part cut, part melt its way through the UPVC, so no splintering.

 

[chatlow]

thanks for this. I'm fitting the felt vents tomorrow (20 of them) and plan on seeing how this works over the week before thinking about adding soffit vents. I've made sure there's a gap around the edges when we added more insulation - I was wrongly assuming we had vents at that point!

 

[chatlow]

Sorry, but I did it, off a ladder, and no problem at all fitting them. Just get a hole saw of the correct size, and take your time. The saw will part cut, part melt its way through the UPVC, so no splintering.

thanks - good to know - was your uPVC covering the original soffit? and did you find it easy enough to seal the vent in the plastic?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

thanks - good to know - was your uPVC covering the original soffit? and did you find it easy enough to seal the vent in the plastic?

No, fascia, no sophits, until I fitted them, just bare ends of the roof joists. The vents just clicked up into place.

 

[amfisted]

No, fascia, no sophits, until I fitted them, just bare ends of the roof joists. The vents just clicked up into place.

In both the situations where I fitted soffit vents, the UPVC soffits were fitted directly over the old wooden ones. So there was a good solid surface for me to drill into. I’d imagine that if it was UPVC soffits only there might be some vibration, but drilled with care, no problem.

 

[chatlow]

it's got me wondering how much lower these uPVC soffits might be, below the old wood. Might have to get a very long extension to reach the wood and continue drilling up through there. Knowing my luck, i'll end up hitting the roof

 

[amfisted]

it's got me wondering how much lower these uPVC soffits might be, below the old wood. Might have to get a very long extension to reach the wood and continue drilling up through there. Knowing my luck, i'll end up hitting the roof

In both the instances where I’ve drilled UPVC soffits, the plastic has been fitted snugly against the original wooden section, so I don’t think you’ll need any kind of extension. From memory the plastic vents fit snugly into a 70mm hole.