Shop front

Also called: shopfront, fascia

A shop front is the built timber frontage fitted into a shop's ground-floor opening: the window framing together with, above it, a fascia (the flat board carrying the shop's name) and cornice (the moulded band capping it) that project out over the pavement.

How far it may project

How far a shop front and its cornice are allowed to project out over the pavement is set by the width of the street it stands on. Ellis (1908) gives the rule for a wide street: 'In any street of greater width than 30 ft, such shop front may project 10 in., and the cornice may project 13 in.'

Fascia and soffit

The fascia is the board fixed on edge along the front of the projection; the soffit is the boarding that closes off its underside. A soffit is typically fixed to cleats, small fixing strips, or to L-shaped cradling brackets, both themselves fixed to the side of each rafter at the seat-cut, the line where the rafter is notched to sit on its wall plate, or at the soffit line generally. Where the soffit meets the fascia, the two are usually joined with a tongue rather than a plain butt, though Hasluck (1907) also shows them 'dovetail notched' together. Before it is finally fixed, the fascia is checked for straightness, with nails driven into its face near both ends of the span as part of that check; once it is fixed for good, the nails used, whether oval, wire, lost-head, with a small head that can be punched below the surface, or cut, generally need to run to about two and three-quarter times the thickness of the board itself.

Outriggers and one American framing system

Where the joists run in the same direction as a roof's fall, its slope from ridge to eave, short outrigger joists are used to carry the roof structure out beyond the end walls, and these outriggers also give the fixing points needed for both the fascia and the decking above it. In Benson's American panel-roof fascia system, the fascia boards are cut and nailed straight onto the panel nailers, the timbers fixed along the roof panel's edge for that purpose, and a dado cut into the fascia on the table saw to take the soffit also helps line the soffit up as it is fitted. A split fascia, an extra strip nailed onto the fascia board once it is already fixed, adds depth and a moulded look to the trim. Within that same system, a plumb, or vertical, fascia is chosen over one set square to the roof slope wherever the design calls for a vertical eave, for instance to carry gutter brackets.

Mitring the fascia and setting the pier

The method used to find the bevels for a shop front's angled trim also applies more widely, to special mitred linings and to inclined mitred fascia boards generally. A reliable way to cut a fascia mitre is to set the workpiece upside down against the far side of the mitre box, a guide block with slots cut at the required angles, so that the face meant to end up nailed against the fascia comes out right-side up and plumb once the cut is made. Where the shop front meets a masonry pier, the upright support between window openings, the pier can be built with its face flush with the fascia, or, as an alternative, set back so that the fascia projects beyond it by the thickness of the fascia board itself.