is there a better kind of roofing / cladding batten?

[Alan Ambrose]

Having monkeyed around with some blue 'graded' roofing batten a couple of days ago I was unimpressed - a pilothole-less screw driven through it would cause it  to shatter.

 

Is there a better quality of batten? e.g. What are the people with fancy cladding, cedar, larch etc using as battens for their nice hard wood rain screen?

[Tony L]

Yes.  Dura Composites, who sell very nice, expensive cladding, will sell you some special aluminium batten bars.

[Mr Punter]

I have used plastic lumber for below ground.  Over twice the price of timber and may not have good fire rating for cladding but it does not rot.

[G and J]

We're using thermowood battens for our cladding (russwood).

 

Our roof battens were "gold" SIG roofing, which we also plan to use on the man cave cladding

[JohnMo]

If you use thin battens they will split, but there are screws and screws. Using self drilling screws makes a big difference, 50mm battens makes things better also

[BadgerBodger]

Red batten, nail. Never had an issue.