What Are Bargeboards?

Look at a house with a gable end, the triangular wall that rises to a point under the roof. The angled roof edge along that wall is called the verge. The board fixed beneath it, climbing from the bottom corner to the peak, is the bargeboard. Some people call it a gable board or a verge board.

It is easy to confuse with a fascia. A fascia is the level board at the eaves that holds the gutter. A bargeboard does a similar job up the slope: it covers the timber ends, called purlins and rafters, that reach past the gable wall, and it gives the roof a straight, finished line. No gutter shelters it, so it usually weathers faster than the fascia does.

On older houses the bargeboard may be carved or shaped as a feature. On most newer houses it is a plain board, usually painted timber or uPVC, with a soffit tucked beneath it. A hip roof, which slopes down on all sides, has no gable and so has no bargeboards at all.

Most bargeboards are either softwood or uPVC. Timber is cut to size on site, takes paint well and can be shaped to match older detailing, but it needs repainting and will rot where water finds a way in. The most vulnerable spot is the lower end, where rain runs down the board and sits on the cut grain.

uPVC boards come ready-made and need only cleaning. They are usually fitted as a cover over, or in place of, the old board, and the board is held with fixings that allow for the way plastic expands in warm weather. Cheap thin boards can bow and discolour, so ask which board is going on and how it is fixed.

Trouble shows from the garden. Look for paint that has bubbled or peeled, soft or dark patches, a board that sags away from the wall at the bottom, or gaps where the board meets the soffit. If a screwdriver sinks into the timber, it is past patching. A short rotten section can be cut out and spliced with new timber; rot along the length means a new board is the lasting fix.

Replacement starts with access. A gable end on a two-storey house is high, so a tower or scaffold is normal, and it is the main reason bargeboards cost more than their size suggests. If you are already scaffolding for fascias or chimney work, ask whether the bargeboards can be done in the same visit and share the cost of access.

The old board is taken off carefully, because the verge tiles or dry verge units sit on top of the roof edge behind it. The roofer checks the timber it was fixed to, replaces anything soft, and fits the new board square and straight. The new board is then sealed or primed, painted or fitted with its trim, and the soffit below is checked at the same time.

The job should leave the gable looking tidy and the roof edge sound. It also gives you a chance to change the colour or the material. If the soffit beneath has failed too, doing it now avoids a second visit; our answer on rotten fascia board signs applies equally to bargeboards. Ask whether VAT and access are in the written total.

A dry verge is a modern way of finishing the roof edge without mortar. Instead of bedding the end tiles in cement, the roofer fixes a specially made plastic or metal unit along the verge and clips the tiles into it. Marley points out that after BS 5534 was revised in 2014, mortar by itself stopped counting as a sound fixing for bedded fittings, and BS 8612 is the standard that tests dry-fixed units of this kind.

The bargeboard and the verge work together. The dry verge sits on top of the roof edge and the board hangs below it, so the unit overhangs and sheds water clear of the board. If the verge is cracked or the mortar has crumbled on an older roof, water runs down the back of the bargeboard and rots it from behind. Replacing a board without checking the verge above it can mean doing the job twice.

Checkatrade's September 2026 dry verge guide puts the work at approximately £10 to £25 per linear metre. Our survey checks the board, the verge and the tile ends in one go. Our answer on fascia capping versus replacement helps you choose between covering a sound board and renewing a rotten one, and the gutters, soffits and fascias page sets out our other roofline jobs. Email a picture of your gable taken from the garden to begin.