Vinyl soffeting material on porch ceiling

[nighthawk]

I have a porch that measures 14' by 37' that I want to cover the ceiling with vinyl soffet that comes in a max 12' lengths. I want to run the the 12' length on the 14' side of the porch which means I will have a splice 2' from the edge. Should I do that or buy 7' or 8' lengths and use a T or H channel down the middle of the ceiling? Any other suggestions will be appreciated.

[XSleeper]

To my knowledge, vinyl and aluminum soffit only come in 12' lengths.

I'm not a big fan of vinyl soffit (don't like how it sags) but yes you could break it up with h-channel however you think would look best. 12+2 or 7+7 or 1+12+1. IMO you will want to install several rows of trim nails through the middle groove in the soffit after it's installed (mark locations w/string lines) to prevent it from sagging.

Even aluminum soffit will sag if the field isn't supported with a few nails, but vinyl seems to do it worse.

Other ideas: run your h-channel the 14' direction to split the 37' long porch up into 6.5+12+12+6.5, running the soffit lengthwise.

note: I prefer to see the soffit come straight out from the house perpendicular rather than run lengthwise.

If you can't find h-channel, place two j-channels back to back, connected with pop rivets or zip screws if desired.

[nighthawk]

Thanks for the tips. Sounds like I have several choices.

[Wirepuller38]

To my knowledge, vinyl and aluminum soffit only come in 12' lengths.

My experience has been that double 5 comes in 12 ft. lengths and triple 4 comes in 10 ft lengths. Could be a manufacturers thing I guess.

Unless it is perfectly straight, a joint through the center looks horrible.

When you cut the 2 ft piece to finish the first run, use the left over 10 ft. piece to start the next run. By always using the cut-off piece to start the next run, your waste will be minimal and the joints will be staggered. Just my 2 cents.

[nighthawk]

That's a thought. I'll sleep on that and decide another day. Thanks

[XSleeper]

Vinyl soffit doesn't have factory cut notches on the ends so that it can overlap on itself, like vinyl siding does. But I guess that doesn't necessarily mean that you couldn't cut those notches yourself. Not a bad idea, you'd have seams on every single row, stairstepped. But not having as much waste might be appealing.