If they rotted, and you had to replace them, why didn't you replace them wih something besides plywood?

^^
 

The carpenter said that the old plywood was too thin and if they put in a thicker plywood it wouldn't rot away. It's rotting away anyway.

use cedar plywood and seal or paint it.

Especially since Iraq is such a plentiful source for it these days.

UT i am NO expert on this , but if the plywood is rotting, where is the water comeing from ???? Use Marine ply wood , or Aluminum or ceder , or cyprus . Cyprus will last for a LONG time !!!
Or seal and paint ALL sides of the plywood befor it is put up .

Thanks guys for the ideas!

That's what I was thinking about. You may want to crawl up in your attic and look for water stains. I'd expect that your soffit wasn't designed to have a water barrier like plywood in that space. I'd bet the original material was supposed to be well ventilated. Perforated aluminum would seem to be the way to go, but this is without seeing your house.

Further thought: Many buildings have retro-fitted to make them more energy efficient. This often was accomplished by stuffing the attic full of insulation, sealing air leakage, and screwing up the airflow of the house. This keeps warm moist air in the building. One worry is that the warm moist air will condense on any cool surface, in this case your soffits (hopefully not in your attic insulation). You can grow some interesting fungi this way. They can be harmful, although not generally as bad as the paranoia that was in the press a while back, unless you have an allergy.

Sorry for taking over the thread lj.

http://cellar.org/2004/soff1.jpg

http://cellar.org/2004/soff2.jpg

http://cellar.org/2004/soff3.jpg

Now that I look at it, the rot is not yet bad enough to replace all this stuff... unless I'm gonna sell the house... which I would rather not do because I live in it.

YEH, you've got a leak in that roof somewhere

drain holes for a temporary fix, consult a roofer for a cure

my step dad is a roofer if you want his contact info

Re-did the whole roof 3 yrs ago. :)

So maybe this rot won't get any worse and I can just solve the problem by pretending it might go away.

uh huh. assuming the rot occured prior to the roof replacement.

you might just want to tap a few holes at low points just in case, though.

UT , I think you need some sofit vents . These are perferated pieces of aluminum sheet about 8"x12" (?????) . you cut an ovel in the soffit every few feet (??????) and nail these over the hole . I don't know if you guys use them up north but they allow good air flow and drainage so condensation doesn't collect and rot your wood . Go to home depot and talk to them about this . Also do you have any ventalation from the attic , those spinner thingees ???? these help as well . IMHO

I'll check that out, thanks.

The thing is, half the house doesn't have an attic, it's a cathedral ceiling; the other half there is some attic but, thoughtlessly, no access to it!

Did you see inside the soffits when they replaced them?
The one along the back of the family room is probably warm, moist air leaking out between the upstairs floor joists and condensing inside the cold soffits. Probably the only way to stop that is tear off the soffits and seal between the joists.
The cathedral ceiling "should" have an air space between the underside of the roof and the insulation, soffit vents to draw in cold air plus a ridge vent to exhaust hot air. This air flow keeps things dry, keeps the roof from overheating and keeps the snow from melting and refreezing further down causing ice dams. Ice dams cause the water to back up under the shingles and wet the plywood underneath. Unfortunately this is where unscrupulous builders cut corners.
Where you have an "attic", the same would apply except instead of a ridge vent, you might have vents in the wall at the peak. It would be a good idea to cut an access someplace like a closet ceiling to get a look at how it was put together.