Do You Put a Soffit or Roof on First?

Eaves

• Soffits below the eaves need to connect to various parts of the framing, including the roof rafters. The roof framing must go up first so that the soffit has a backing to support its nails. Although roof framing goes up first, the actual roofing material, such as asphalt shingles, tiles or wooden shakes, does not need to be installed before you put in the soffit boards.

Kitchen

• Soffits occur in a home's interior as well as on the outside. Soffits often appear in kitchens where they fill the space between cabinets and the ceiling. You can also use them in areas of the house to hide various heating or plumbing components, such as pipes or ducts. Interior soffits typically consist of a wooden boxlike frame covered with drywall. Since you usually finish the interior after the exterior framing has been finished, soffits inside the home go up after the roof.

Porch

• Soffits also appear on porches. Since the soffits will fasten to the ends of the porch rafters, you need a existing porch roof frame to install them. You do not nail the soffit material, such as plywood, directly to rafters. Nailing them to small pieces of wood, called nailers and lookouts, attached to the rafters gives best results, according to home repair expert Dean Johnson of the HomeTime website.

Garages

• Buildings not connected to the house may have soffits installed. In a detached garage, for instance, soffits might cover the roof overhang on both the front and back eaves, as well as any overhang on the gables. Garage soffits, like other exterior soffits, require rafters for installation. In certain instances, you might also need the fascia board put up before adding the soffits. The installation technique for garage soffits varies, depending on whether the soffit goes on the flat side of the structure or the slanted gable side.