Battens for cladding

[Nick1c]

The frame of our house is being clad in a mixture of cedar & render, with some pressed aluminium details. The carpenters on site have been great, but over the last couple of days have been battening out one of the elevations with untreated softwood. We are on an exposed coastal site & they have been using stainless fixings. I have asked if this is a good idea & been told it will be fine as the cladding will (should?) keep it dry, it does however make me nervous. 
There are three options - leave as is, leave it up but paint with preservative or tear it down & replace with treated timber.

Which of these is the sensible route?

[LA3222]

I think for outside I'd be using treated timber - I don't have a technical reason for why, just that like you, my instincts say outside should be treated.

[nod]

I cladded this two weeks ago and used normal tile batons 

Very quick and easy 

[Temp]

Regular tile battens are always pressure treated, probably for good reason. Can't see why cladding battens would be any less critical.

[Gone West]

My BCO insisted that all external softwood be treated, even behind cedar cladding.

[nod]

We inherited this job 

The guys that where doing it had there materials delivered Then they decided to Furlough 

Three weeks in the company asked us to drop on it for a week so that the scaffolding could come down 

 

We do a lot of battening for cement board and render Always treated tile batons 65 mil STAINLESS screws 

[Nick1c]

Thank you.
It sounds (as I thought) that they should be treated - the next question is take them off & replace with tanalised or paint with preservatives. I suspect the former ?. It’s not just 25mm batten as the rainwater down pipes are hidden behind it. 

[Miek]

I don't see why you can't treat it in situ. 

 

What fixings? If screws then you could remove it, if ring shanks then definitely leave in place

[Mr Punter]

You could also use stainless staples to attach some cheap dpc to the faces.

[nod]

58 minutes ago, Nick1c said:

Thank you.
It sounds (as I thought) that they should be treated - the next question is take them off & replace with tanalised or paint with preservatives. I suspect the former ?. It’s not just 25mm batten as the rainwater down pipes are hidden behind it. 

All the Batons that are used are pressure treated Just the same as the ones on your roof

The membrane and cladding or render Baird will keep them dry as a bone 

 

The building pictured Had been built and stood empty since 2008 crash The  guys that cladded originally had battened  out and boarded directly without a membrane So all had to be stripped off 

Even the batons  that where in perfect condition