Board and Batten with James Hardie: A Design Guide

How it’s built

Traditional board and batten was wide wooden boards nailed vertically, with narrow strips, the battens, covering the gaps between them. The fibre cement version uses large flat HardiePanel sheets with HardieTrim battens fastened over them at regular spacing. The battens hide the panel joints and create the pattern.

Spacing is the whole design

The distance between battens sets the character of the wall. Closer spacing looks busier and more traditional. Wider spacing looks calmer and more modern. There’s no single correct number, but there is a correct method: the layout has to be drawn before anything is cut.

A good layout does three things. It lands a batten on every panel joint. It keeps the spacing even across each wall. And it works around windows and doors so you don’t end up with a batten running into the middle of a window, or a thin sliver of panel beside a corner. On a wall with several openings this takes real planning, and sometimes a small adjustment to spacing from one wall to the next.

Where it works best

• Gables and upper storeys. Vertical lines draw the eye up and suit a peaked gable.
• Entry features and bump-outs. A change of direction marks the front door or a projecting section.
• Whole houses with simple shapes. A plain two-storey box or a farmhouse form carries full board and batten well.
• Garages and additions. A way to make a new part of the house look intentional.

It’s harder on houses with many small wall sections, lots of windows at different heights, or very low, wide walls, where the verticals have nowhere to go.

Tall walls and horizontal joints

Panels come in set lengths. On a wall taller than one panel there has to be a horizontal joint somewhere, and it needs flashing so water can’t get behind. The neat way to handle it is a horizontal band board at a logical height, such as the floor line between storeys. Ask where those joints will fall on your house before work starts.

Colour choices

White with dark window frames is the look everyone knows. It isn’t the only one. Deep charcoal, navy and dark green all suit vertical siding, and a tone-on-tone scheme where battens match the panels looks quieter and more modern than contrast. Battens are nearly always the same colour as the panels. Contrasting battens turn the wall into stripes.

Texture

Smooth gives the crisp result most people picture. Wood grain is more forgiving of dust and marks. See smooth or Cedarmill.

Mixing with lap siding

You don’t have to commit the whole house. Lap siding on the main walls with board and batten in the gables or on the front elevation is one of the most common combinations in Calgary. Keep the colours related and limit yourself to two or three siding types in total. Ideas for combining products are on the styles page.

What it means for cost

Board and batten usually involves more labour than lap siding, because of the layout work and the number of battens to cut, fasten and seal. How much more depends on the house. Your estimate will show it. See the cost guide.