Board and Batten construction

[Furu]

What is the normal (if there is such a thing) size of board and batten siding?

It seems that nominal 1x10 wide boards with 1x3 inch wide boards is somewhat common but just wondered what folks do.
Of course those are really 3/4 x 9 1/4 and 3/4 x 2 1/2 dimension.
Was going to do a board and batten siding on a building and trying to figure out what is the norm.

Thanks

 

[MacLawn]

Good question furu, I'll be looking forward to an answer too!

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Board and Batten goes back to before kiln drying when siding boards were green lumber. The batten covered a joint that widened as the boards shrunk. Usually the batten (pine and Fir) was nailed on only one side so it wouldn't split when things started to shrink. I have seen several widths of battens usually 2" - 3" wide. In those days the boards were all full inch sizes rough sawn. Shrinkage brought them down to approx what we have today in kilned dried milled lumber.

Ron

 

[Sodo]

I like Board & Batten, it's a classical old style and I highly encourage it!

It's not used much anymore because people don't understand the nailing pattern necessary. There is a specific way it needs to be nailed, or your boards will split. Basically it's one vertical row of nails in the middle of each board, and in the middle of each batten. You have to let the wood on the left and right of each nail shrink (or expand) with each season. They must "float".

You CANNOT nail board& batten to 1/2" sheathing, sheathing does not offer even 25% if the engagement you nee to hold a board& batten nail. You have to use LONG nails, they need a couple inches of engagement or the boards will cup and pull the nails out. You need horizontal "Gurts" to nail to. You CANNOT nail wherever you feel like it, or wherever the board is cupping, because when the board shrinks, if it can't float it will split. Also consider that the battens nails have to "gap' the thickness of the boards, they are extra long. Batten nails do NOT go thru the boards, they go thru the gap between the boards. Be sure to do your research on this special classical siding technique, there's lots of info in books and on the web.

You have to really UNDERSTAND what's happening, and why the B&B method was developed. As Ron said it was developed because people had to saw up trees and nail them on the house, they had no time or place to wait for the boards to dry.

Some people use T1-11 siding and nail battens on it, that looks "ok" but it's cheating. I hope you are doing the real thing! Don't use pine boards for outdoor siding, use fir or cedar, pine won't last but a few years exposed to weather.

 

[bcp]

Put tar paper over the boards, then nail on the battens. You will now have another classic style of siding.



Bruce

 

[forgeblast]

The person who built my barn, didn't add the battens. The gap was under a 1/2''. What I did with a gap that small was cut 1/2'' thick strips from rough cut hemlock and then use a brad nailer to put them in place. Its worked great. On my field stone shed what I did was put the hemlock on and then rip a board into a 1x3 and then use that to cover up the gap. I left more space.

 

[randy41]

i have board and batten siding on my house which is about 15 years old. I used stainless steel ringshank nails into plywood sheathing. its still holding on. i wouldn't use this method of siding if i had to buy the boards (mine is pine) but i used pine milled on site from my pine trees. this kind of siding provides a lot of entry points for insects and a lot of nesting places for wasps. if you have to buy the boards there are probably better and cheaper siding choices. mine is i think 8" wide with 3" battens.

 

[wngsprd]

I built a 10 by 24 foot small board and batten barn in 1988 not knowing too much about construction. I used cedar poles cut on the property. I guess I broke all the rules since I used rough cut pine and used 3 nails across each board and 2 on each batten, nailing one nail to each board. Stained it with oil based stain. Have had no splitting. Used it for goats, then horses, and now my tractor fits nicely inside.

 

[dave1949]

The width of the boards can be random as long as they are enough wider than the battens to look proportionally okay. I wouldn't use different width battens though.

I used northern/eastern white cedar B&B on a house we built in Ohio ~1980. It's still there and looks solid when I drive by it. One nail in the middle of the batten passing between the boards is what I did.

 

[radioman]

Sodo is correct on all points. When I built a shed for my dad, we milled the lumber at a nearby site and built shed pole barn style. We didn't wait for lumber to dry, and we used t 11 for siding but used milled lumber for doors. It shrunk and spaces developed so we covered it with batten strips just like how sodo said and why.