Material for external timber cladding

[Tony K]

Hi all.

I am planning to clad a reasonably modest surface area (external) in timber. It will be horizontal, stained, painted, or maybe burnt black or dark grey, and have shadow gaps. Inconsistent board widths are fine. This sort of thing...

 

Most websites seem to advise cedar, larch, oak, or Douglas fir, but I wondered if anyone had experimented with other options?

 

Someone on here once suggested buying sheet material and ripping it down, which is an interesting idea, but I'm not sure what material I would use? 

 

Any ideas or experience?

 

Ta

 

[Beau]

What are you looking for from an alternative?

 

Douglas fir and larch should be as cheap as you are going to get per m2

[Tony K]

1 hour ago, Beau said:

What are you looking for from an alternative?

 

Douglas fir and larch should be as cheap as you are going to get per m2

I was thinking of a mix of deck board (smooth side showing) and roof batten maybe. Both are 25mm. I would have to paint or burn them as the battens are blue, of course, but seems pretty cheap per M2.

Edited 22 hours ago by Tony K

[ProDave]

For our sun room I went to Jewson and bought their cheapest Sarking boards.  These are sold as both 4" and 6" wide planks.  I detest letting wood age or go silver, to me it just looks "tatty old shed"  (sorry to anyone I may have offended)  so it is painted with shed paint.  One coat each side before fixing then a second coat on the outside for the bits exposed.

 

5 years or so and it is still looking fresh and the same colour and showing no signs of needing another coat of paint yet.

 

[Conor]

I did my shipping container in planed 150mm fence boards. Ripped them in to different thicknesses, 100, 70 and 40mm I think. Still need to sand down and paint. Don't think it could be done cheaper.

 

 

 

[Jenki]

46 minutes ago, ProDave said:

I detest letting wood age or go silver, to me it just looks "tatty old shed"  (sorry to anyone I may have offended) 

  I love the silvered effect of Larch, and you can even buy very expensive treatments to speed up the process.  MY tatty old house will never need a coat of anything in my lifetime and no offence taken.

 

Sarking 6" and Wall plate 4" boards in 4.8 m lengths treated are the most cost effective solution I think the 6" boards are £6 a length. I've clad an external shower / WC block and painted with shed paint to good effect.

[ProDave]

2 minutes ago, Jenki said:

 I love the silvered effect of Larch, and you can even buy very expensive treatments to speed up the process.  MY tatty old house will never need a coat of anything in my lifetime and no offence taken.

What you have highlighted is that you have to choose the right good quality wood if you are going to let it silver.   There is a self build quite close to me that has done this with the wrong wood and when it rains, the whole thing becomes soaked and black.  He probably used something like these cheap planks but with no treatment or paint.

[Jenki]

4 minutes ago, ProDave said:

What you have highlighted is that you have to choose the right good quality wood if you are going to let it silver.   There is a self build quite close to me that has done this with the wrong wood and when it rains, the whole thing becomes soaked and black.  He probably used something like these cheap planks but with no treatment or paint.

I found a "Eco" treatment, that is water based, basically a sachet of crystal substance that you mix with 5 gallons of water. It must chemically react with the Larch, as you can see it change colour when the sun hits it as your treating it. It was a little more Brown than silver initially but 12month in the cladding even on the North is uniform and silver, and does look like its been here years (A look we were after, didn't want the Orange fading to silver in patches look ). I think it only cost £60 for the whole house.

[ToughButterCup]

 

Siberian Larch : starting to fade nicely. No treatment : 8mm shadow gaps (now often 10 or 12mm in some cases)

 

@ProDave's detestation (above) is our preferred '   look   '  Nowt so queer as folk eh?

@Conor - your post above has just solved a problem for me. Thanks!

[garrymartin]

We used Red Grandis on our garden room. Lovely material. https://co2grandis.co.uk/

 

The two photos are 2 years apart. The black staining on the second photo is just from the construction behind. The weathered look is best seen as the top boards before the roofline.

 

[Tony K]

Interesting stuff. 

Regarding my vague plan to use a mix of deck boards and roofing battens, that would of course lead to inconsistent finish on the edges of the boards, in that the deck board has a slightly rounded edge, whereas the battens do not. 

 

I'll investigate sarking boards. Do they go by any other names? Initial web searches are returning mixed results!

[ToughButterCup]

6 minutes ago, Tony K said:

.... that would of course lead to inconsistent finish on the edges of the boards, in that the deck board has a slightly rounded edge, whereas the battens do not. ...

 

Run the boards through a thicknesser ? 

Excuse to buy another tool 🤐

[Jenki]

18 minutes ago, Tony K said:

. Do they go by any other names? Initial web searches are returning mixed results!

Possibly Yorkshire board cladding

[Tony K]

7 hours ago, ToughButterCup said:

 

Run the boards through a thicknesser ? 

Excuse to buy another tool 🤐

I did think about that. Or round off the edges of the battens.

 

Either way it's all extra work!

Edited 4 hours ago by Tony K