Drip edge: the bent metal that earns its name
Drip edge is an L-shaped metal strip running the entire roof perimeter, under the roofing layers and over the fascia's face. Its job is managing the last inch of a raindrop's journey: water reaching the roof edge wants to curl back under the shingle overhang by surface tension, right onto the wooden fascia. The drip edge's profile breaks that curl and drops the water cleanly into the gutter.
It's cheap, invisible from the street, and the difference between fascia boards that last decades and ones that peel and soften in a few wet years. Older roofs around here sometimes lack it entirely; any replacement we do includes it as standard.
Starter strips: sealing the first course
The bottom edge of the roof is also where wind gets its best grip, prying upward at the first course of shingles. Starter strips are purpose-made shingles under that first course, placing a factory adhesive band right at the edge so the wind meets a sealed seam instead of a loose flap.
The shortcut version (cut-up regular shingles, adhesive in the wrong place) is invisible on day one and explains a lot of first-course shingles in yards after storms. It's a classic tell of a rushed install.
The fascia and gutter handoff
Behind the gutter sits the fascia board, and the gutter's brackets are anchored into it. That makes the whole edge interdependent: a clogged gutter soaks the fascia, soft fascia loses its grip on the gutter, and a sagging gutter dumps water exactly where it does the most harm. Edge problems travel in groups.
The maintenance answer is mercifully boring: gutters kept flowing, edge metal eyeballed at inspections, paint on the fascia kept intact. (It's all on the care calendar.)
What edge trouble looks like from the driveway
No ladder required for the early signs:
- Peeling paint or grey, weathered streaks on the fascia boards
- Gutters pulling away from the house or visibly out of level
- Water staining on siding directly below the gutter line
- A first shingle course that lifts visibly in wind
- Vegetation in the gutter (the ecosystem is thriving; the edge is not)