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.

[Oz07]

15 hours ago, Alan Ambrose said:

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?

How dry and light were the battens? Wetter the better when it comes to not splitting timber. Usually when I've had a pack of battens delivered they are heavy and soaked. Were probably still a tree the week before.