Wooden laths, which the soffit will be fixed to, shall be thoroughly dried, impregnated, fixed and leveled. Use min. 25mm x 500mm laths.

Examples of supporting structures for different soffit offsets.

“J” channels shall be fixed to the levelled and impregnated laths. The laths shall be located around the whole eaves. “J” channels must be joint as shown in the Fig. A. The soffit can be finished using a pre-prepared face board flashing. The “J” channels shall be nailed at a nail-to-nail distance of max. 40cm.

Examples of “J” channel installation

Cut-to-size panels shall be fold at a half of their length, inserted into the „J” channels and nailed to the laths. The separate panels shall be joint by snapping the panel edge fold on slot of the adjacent panel. The panels shall be installed in a direction perpendicular to the eaves. They may be positioned horizontally or diagonally. The distance between two neighbouring nails shall not exceed 30cm. Do not tighten the panels.

Examples of soffit installation.

The eaves corners can be installed with two method.

• for assembly purposes use aluminum nails or nails protected against corrosion, length min. 20mm and head width of 8mm 
• nails should be driven in the middle of the holes provided with a 1mm-clearance to allow thermal expansion of the soffit 
• one of the three soffit panels shall be perforated to allow proper ventilation of the roof and the eaves 
• the effective coverage width of the soffit is 20.5cm 
• soffit panels, which length is lower than 1m, shall be cut to a distance 4 mm lower than the span between internal edges of “J” channels. 
  While using panels that are longer than 1m the calculation of their length shall take into account the room temperature and length (the change of the panel length DL due to temperature fluctuations can be calculated using the following formula.

DL = L * Dt * a

a - linear elongation factor - for  PVC a = 0,08 mm/m ^oC

L - length of the soffit

Dt - difference between the minimum (t min. = -30 ^oC)

       or maximum (t max. = + 40 ^oC) temperature and the assembly temperature (t mont.)

Example: 
The soffit is 2 m, long, the assembly is performed at + 20 ^oC

DL₁ = L ^_* (t max. - t mont.) ^_* a

DL₁ = 2m ^_* (40^oC - 20^oC) ^_* 0,08 = 3,2 mm

- the panel will be subject to this maximum elongation.

DL₂ = L ^_* (t min. - t mont.) ^_* a

DL₂ = 2_m^* (- 30^o - 20^o) ^_* 0,08 = - 8 mm

- the panel will be subject to this max. shrinkage.

The calculation shows that the soffit shall be cut to 1.997m. The decrease of its length (DL2) will be not visible (the „J” channel overlaps the soffit by about 18mm).

Packaging

Soffit is delivered in cardboard boxed suitable for the length of panels and laths.

Storage

In order to avoid undesirable deformations all soffit components shall be stored in roofed rooms and supported along their whole length. The height of the pile shall not exceed 1m. The room temperature for the storage areas shall not be higher than 50^oC.