Returns Returns can be a few different areas. The easiest way to describe it is where a roof comes in to meet the main roof leaving the soffit and shingles to make the V look.
A lot of times its dormers that have this area. A great deal of times this is out of site and out of mind so most of us don’t even notice this until either a professional point it out or we happen to see a rodent go in or out. The issue with them most of the time is a builder’s flaw. Not running the soffit down fully to meet the shingles, leaving either a hole already big enough or an access point for them to chew in. Most times you cannot see this from the ground and will need a ladder to see, but that’s why we take pictures to show our clients what is too hard to see from the ground, so we build trust and proof.
Every now and again this isn’t a problem, but I would say 97% of the homes go to with them is either a current area of one that could easily become an area in the future. Sometimes they have soffit strip vents that are weak stock and i will have a blog on why ours is better but this is an access for rodents and make a return that much easier to access due to the weak area being a strip vent. Next vinyl soffits are probably the worse over time due to the brittle nature of the and how flimsy they are from the get go. A lot of them are stapled in or nailed and super easy to come loose or worst case water flows around rotting and making them brittle.
With us we can fix them through a number of ways. Strip vent replacement with our galvanized color match vent, metal bending and reinforcing this area and painting, or boxing off and painting.
Either way we have a solutions to this area.