Needing basic instructions on how to notch an eave / soffit

[ericj]

I've never worked with a soffit before. I'm thinking about passing a chimney up the gable end of our house and perhaps going through the soffit. It overhangs 9 inches. I have a few questions:

1. Will this greatly affect the strength of that rafter? Any problems here?

2. I assume that I frame around the cutout with lumber. I'm guessing from picture that I cover this with aluminum. Do I need a drip edge on the high side of the cutout? How much overhang of the shingles on each side?

3. What will be the hardest part of this?

This seems like an opportunity for leaks. How can I safeguard against them?

Thanks everyone for your help. I've been thinking about how to install a stove for a while now and getting around this soffit has been the highest hurdle!

 

[nate379]

You say it overhangs 9". Now you will need to keep your pipe away from the wall at least 3-4". Is it worth notching it out to save ~5"?

If it where me, I would just run the pipe out a bit further and clear the overhang.

If you had a larger overhand, like my house, which has 18" ones, I would consider notching though.

 

[ericj]

You say it overhangs 9". Now you will need to keep your pipe away from the wall at least 3-4". Is it worth notching it out to save ~5"?

If it where me, I would just run the pipe out a bit further and clear the overhang.

If you had a larger overhand, like my house, which has 18" ones, I would consider notching though.

Thanks for the reply. I figure that notching it will prevent me having to offset the chimney by nine inches. I'm exploring the option in another post of using offsets to go around the soffit too. One problem with that is the price, offsets are expensive!! (About $250) Also, the brand of chimney I'm looking at -Supervent- doesn't allow offsets around a soffit. (I'm going to call them next week and ask if there are exceptions to this rule.) Right now, notching seems like the cheaper way to go.

 

[nate379]

I was thinking an offset would be a pain to clean out so I didn't mention that.

If you really want to notch it, there really isn't a problem doing that. Hard for me to say how the pipe would look with it sticking 9-10" off the wall you know.

The last rafter is run flush with your wall normally. With a 9" overhang, more than likely they just built a "ladder" off that last rafter to support the sheathing. The "rungs" on the ladder are often 16" OC (not always though) so if luck is on your side, you could just cut between 2 "rungs" and have the opening for the pipe.