(214) 807-0414Request an assessmentEdge detail guide
Drip edge is a bent strip of metal at the eaves and rakes that carries water off the edge of the deck and into the gutter instead of behind it. It is a small part of a roof budget and one of the first things quietly dropped when an estimate is being sharpened. The damage it prevents shows up in fascia, soffit and wall, so the roof rarely gets blamed for it.
In short
It gives water a hard edge to leave from. Without it, surface tension pulls water around the last inch of the roof and onto the fascia board, where it soaks end grain and runs down behind the gutter.
01
Current residential codes in many North Texas jurisdictions call for drip edge at eaves and rakes on shingle roofs, with requirements for overlap and fastening. Adoption and local amendments vary by city, so the exact requirement is a local question. Its absence on a recently replaced roof is still worth asking about.
02
Rotted fascia, soffit failing from behind, staining down the wall, and gutters pulling away from a board that no longer holds a fastener. By the time any of it is visible from the street the repair has grown from one piece of metal into carpentry.
03
Drip edge, starter course, gutter apron, fascia condition and the way the gutter hangs are a single detail split between roofing and guttering. That split is precisely where responsibility for it tends to go missing.
Questions
At the rake, sometimes. At the eave it is difficult without lifting the starter course and usually the gutter, because the metal belongs under the underlayment. It is one of the reasons to settle the edge detail during a replacement.
Not quite. Gutter apron is a longer-legged profile that reaches further into the gutter, which helps where water has been getting behind it. Some roofs want both details addressed together rather than one instead of the other.
Look at the roof edge above the gutter for a thin metal lip standing slightly proud of the shingles, and along the gable ends for a straight metal line running under the shingle edge. What you cannot see from the ground is the part that decides whether it works, which is whether the metal went under the underlayment at the eave and over it at the rake. On a recent replacement that is worth knowing, so ask for the photographs taken while the edge was open.
Yes, and the gutter is part of the reason. With no hard edge to leave from, water curls back around the last inch of the roof and lands behind the gutter rather than in it, soaking the fascia board the gutter is hanging on. A gutter catches what leaves the roof. It does nothing about water that never left.
Only if it is written into the scope, and frequently it is not. Fascia repair is carpentry, it usually means the gutter comes down and goes back up, and it may want painting afterwards, so a job quoted as roofing quietly involves two or three trades. That is manageable when it is planned and awkward when it surfaces on the second morning. Ask for the fascia to be assessed before the work is scheduled rather than during it.
Assessment request
Short, routing-only questions. Nothing here asks you to diagnose the roof yourself.