I have a medium sized barn to Board & Batten. Of course, there are window and door openings, evenly distributed in each wall. I want to achieve the most regular (even) spacing possible, and could use some advice on how best to lay it out.
My boards are 9 1/4″, and they will be applied first, then battens. I am thinking of starting from the middle of the wall, and working out to each corner. Problem is that will leave me with too narrow a board at the corners, which looks bad.
Is it permissible to change the board spacing above doors or windows, as long as each window or door is similarly spaced, and this different spacing is carried all the way up the end gables?
Thanks.
Replies
Many barns are built with boards directly from a mill. Sometimes they are different widths. If this is the case they are installed "running wild", at irregular intervals, and then the battens are attached as usual. Ie. its no big deal if you change widths through a stucture. If the width does change, I would match above and below the window.
Good Luck
Thanks for a great suggestion M&D. I will run this by the owner.
The cedar is of good quality, smooth on 3 sides, so his intention may well be to go for regular spacing. The horse barn is on a small acreage ranch, rather than being a real working farm. Accuracy and neatness seems to count on this job, which is a great way to work.
I'd love to hear what method you guys use to generate board & batten spacings that works for a wall with windows and doors.
Cheers. Pierre
I suggest you place your windows, then secure a board either side of each window and rip/space to fill in the rest of the space - you can rip up to an inch off each board and the width difference will not be obvious - - what will be obvious is if your battens don't hit each opening identically -
I'll try again, I lost my first response.
I've been putting 9.5"X 1" (actual) rough boards, 2.25 battens on my house. At the windows and doors I first put on 2" thick (actual) trim and lay a board up to the trim. Where there are two openings on a wall I work back from each laying boards until I get to the centre. As I get closer to the centre I've adjusted the spacing so that I've ended up with a 8-9.5" centre board. With 1" thick battens, the difference in width gets lost visually. Over windows and doors I've spaced the boards so the centre board is 5-6" wide above and below the window. With the battens added, the effect is to highlight the windows. My wife and neighbours, who will be looking at it more that I will, say they like the effect.
Of course after a month of seeing tar paper, they are happy to see the siding going on!
how are you detailing the battens to the 2" trim? also the flashing above the doors/windows?
just wonderin' - DOUD
First off the house has a mansard roof with a 31" overhang. The doors and windows are 12" to 6.5" below the soffits. The windows are Loewens with brick mold. I've run felt paper down from the soffits and over the brick mould then out to the edge of the projecting window frame on the top and sides. The trim then tightly abuts the window frame sandwiching the felt. I had to notch out a piece of the back of the trim to accommodate the felt covered brick mold and screw heads. Before screwing on the trim I caulked the felt to the window frame. I considered using metal flashing above the windows and doors, but given the clearance to the soffit, it seemed like overkill. We'll see. If water does get past the caulk between the felt and the metal window frame, it should hit the inner layer of felt over the sheathing.An ex-boat builder treading water!
I may have mis-read your question. The battens above the trim come down to about 1/8" of the trim and level with its edge. I've put 3" sills under the windows, so the battens abut under the sill. An ex-boat builder treading water!