Timber Cladding

[MortarThePoint]

Our garage is designed to have timber cladding above a brickwork plinth. It's now ready for the timber cladding and prices are very high. We've not been overly clear on which wood we want to go with. Options we're considering:

• Oak - £26/m2 for Green Oak.
• Larch - £20/m2 to £40/m2 latter being Siberian (Siberian was £26 just last week).
• Western Red Cedar - £107/m2 so that's a no then. It is double what it was in April 2021 (i.e. 2 months ago).

 

Green Oak worries me as a self install since I don't have experience and could all warp and crack nastily. Does anyone have any advice to make me more confident as it is our preferred choice.

 

Lots of suppliers I've spoken to have said prices are expected to go up >=30% at the end of the month.

[Redoctober]

Not sure whether the same applies to oak cladding but our larch cladding, has been through a process whereby the reverse side has a horizontal cut / saw line across the entire length. This by all accounts, stops the cladding "curling" up.  Hope this helps. 

[saveasteading]

I think I would fix the vapour barrier, perhaps with some tile battens to hold it tight,  and wait for the timber prices to come down again.

[MortarThePoint]

2 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

I think I would fix the vapour barrier, perhaps with some tile battens to hold it tight,  and wait for the timber prices to come down again.

 

I've been wondering about that and perhaps even covering over with DPM plastic. DPM plastic is about £0.40/m2 and saves the UV damage to the battens and roofing membrane.

 

I want to get the job done though, so I have to way that up. The Oak price seems to be less affected, but I worry about it being fresh sawn. Could end up with a lot of firewood! 

Edited June 19, 2021 by MortarThePoint

[saveasteading]

The oak will shrink and distort a lot. Others may know more about oak and whether this is acceptable.

I once had supposedly kiln-dried T and G pine cladding that shrunk so much it had to come off and be replaced. Fortunately the supplier agreed to replace the material, but the work was a cost. The boards shrunk about 10mm across the width.

[IanR]

41 minutes ago, MortarThePoint said:

Green Oak worries me as a self install since I don't have experience and could all warp and crack nastily. Does anyone have any advice to make me more confident as it is our preferred choice.

 

I have fresh sawn European Oak, feather edge, horizontal cladding through the top half of my build. Mines an agricultural conversion and needed to link to an old oak framed adjacent barn.

 

The board size I went with was 17mm to 5mm x 175mm ranging in lengths 2.5 to 3.5mtr

 

My thoughts are that I love the finished look, but if I did it again I'd change what I did a little.

 

5mm is too thin, there are some splits, and it is in the thin area of the board that the splits occur (around the fixings). I went with around a 30mm - 35mm overlap, which I would increase to 35mm - 40mm.

 

I was persuaded by the very capable chippies to not go with the pre-drill and screw fixing that I had planned, and to go with 1st fix nailing. I'm on the fence whether that was the correct choice. The 1st fix nailing is not strong enough to hold the boards that want to twist, but perhaps screwing would have caused more boards to split as they shrank.

 

All sides of the house eventually silvered evenly, but it did take 3 years or so. The NE & NW facade distorted less and split less, SE & SW have more boards needing some attention. I have probably 4 - 6 boards in 180m² that need replacing, and another 10 that need re-fixing.

 

NE facade

 

SW facade

 

It does take some time for the "fresh" honey colour to start to grey, so you may have to live with a colour clash for a couple of years

 

 

[SimonD]

Have you considered British western red cedar? It's more knotty and has a slightly shorter life expectancy but I'd expect it to be half the price of imported cedar under normal circumstances, might be even better value right now. Depening on your location, you could try Vastern Timber or Cedar Direct for price.

[Redoctober]

7 minutes ago, IanR said:

 

I have fresh sawn European Oak, feather edge, horizontal cladding through the top half of my build. Mines an agricultural conversion and needed to link to an old oak framed adjacent barn.

 

Looks lovely. ? Can you recall whether or not your oak panels had the horizontal cut in them on the reverse, like my larch panels do?

[IanR]

17 minutes ago, Redoctober said:

 

Looks lovely. ? Can you recall whether or not your oak panels had the horizontal cut in them on the reverse, like my larch panels do?

 

Thank you. No, mine didn't. Mine came from Brooks Bros Timber and that wasn't an option. 

Edited June 19, 2021 by IanR

[MortarThePoint]

8 hours ago, IanR said:

I have fresh sawn European Oak, feather edge, horizontal cladding through the top half of my build. Mines an agricultural conversion and needed to link to an old oak framed adjacent barn.

 

The board size I went with was 17mm to 5mm x 175mm ranging in lengths 2.5 to 3.5mtr

 

My thoughts are that I love the finished look, but if I did it again I'd change what I did a little.

 

5mm is too thin, there are some splits, and it is in the thin area of the board that the splits occur (around the fixings). I went with around a 30mm - 35mm overlap, which I would increase to 35mm - 40mm.

 

Looks nice. I was thinking of 200mm 25-6, but shrinkage probably makes 200mm a bad idea.

 

 

[MortarThePoint]

I read the following on one website:

   "If your boards are exposed to varying weather conditions before fitting, they are likely to cup, warp and split; the ideal time to fit cladding to keep this to a minimum is between the months of October and April and within 7 to 14 days of delivery." [link]

 

Perhaps a good excuse to hold off then. That is of course on the hope that the prices come back down any time this year.