Board and batten styles
The calculator lays out four kinds of wall from the same few measurements.
- Classic vertical. Battens from the floor or the baseboard to a rail, a batten at each end of the wall. This is what the page opens on.
- Grid. The same battens crossed by rows of the same width: enter how many rows in the options.
- Half wall. Enter the height the battens stop at instead of the height of the wall, and tick the rail along the top.
- Exterior siding. Wide boards side by side with a batten over each joint. Choose "Siding" and enter the width of a board: the battens then follow the joints, not a gap you choose.
Choosing the spacing
There is no rule to break here. Inch Calculator’s layout guide gives 10 to 12 in as the most common spacing and adds that battens can be as close or as far apart as you like.
What changes with the gap is the number of battens, and so how busy the wall reads. On the 10 ft wall of the example, a gap of 16 in or under takes 7 battens; a gap of 12 in or under takes 9, 11 1/16 in apart. Try two or three gaps and look at the drawing: it is to scale.
Equal gaps
A wall is almost never a whole number of gaps wide, so the gap you ask for is a target. The calculator finds the fewest battens that keep the gap at or under it, then divides what is left of the wall into equal gaps.
Worked example. A wall 10 ft wide and 8 ft high, battens 3 1/2 in wide, a gap of 16 in at the most, a batten at each end and a rail along the top.
- Battens: 7, with 6 gaps between them
- Gap: 95.5 in of wall left ÷ 6 = 15.92 in, or 15 15/16 in on a tape
- Centers: 19 7/16 in, from the left edge of one batten to the left edge of the next
- Marks from the left corner: 0, 19 7/16, 38 13/16 and so on to 116 1/2 in
- Lumber: 66 linear ft, bought as 7 boards of 8 ft and 1 of 10 ft
Every mark is measured from the left corner, not from the batten before it, and is worked out from the exact gap before it is rounded to a sixteenth. Marks stepped off one gap at a time would carry each rounding along the wall.
With a gap at each end of the wall and no batten there, the same wall takes 6 battens, 14 1/8 in apart.
Materials
The layout is the same whatever the battens are made of; the width you type is the one that counts, so measure a batten. A board sold as a 1 × 4 is 3.5 in wide, which is the width of the example.
Inch Calculator’s guide names poplar, maple and pine as woods that take paint well, and says PVC will not rot, which is the property to look for where a wall gets wet. MDF and primed boards are sold for the job too: ask your supplier where each may be used.
The boards to buy come from a cut list. Each batten and each rail is taken from the shortest stock length that holds it, from 6 to 24 ft in steps of 2 ft, and an offcut is used again where it is long enough. Nothing extra is added: a board with a flaw is one more.
Working around outlets and windows
A batten that lands on an outlet has to be notched or moved. In the options, add an outlet or a window with its distance from the left corner and its size. The drawing shows it as a dashed box, and a line under the result says which batten lands on it, if any.
When one does, change the gap by an inch, switch to a number of battens, or take the battens off the ends: each moves every mark. The page checks again as you type.
Questions about board and batten
How far apart should board and batten be?
As far as you like the look of. The guide we cite gives 10 to 12 in as the most common spacing. Ask for a gap, and the calculator gives the nearest equal gap that fits your wall.
How many battens for a 10 ft wall?
With 3 1/2 in battens and a gap of 16 in or under, 7, a batten at each end included, 15 15/16 in apart. At 12 in or under, 9.
What size boards for board and batten?
That is a choice of style. The example uses battens 3.5 in wide, the real width of a 1 × 4. For siding, the same guide says boards and battens were traditionally 1 in thick.
Should there be a batten at each end of the wall?
Either works. With a batten at each end there is one gap fewer than there are battens; with a gap at each end, one more. Choose in the calculator and compare the two drawings.
Sources
- Inch Calculator, Board and Batten Layout Calculator. The most common spacing is 10 to 12 in apart, but battens can be as close or as far apart as you like. Woods that paint well, such as poplar, maple or pine; outdoors cedar is the most common, pine may also be used, and PVC will not rot. Traditional boards were 1 in thick, as were the battens. Read on .
- Archtoolbox, Lumber Dimensions: Nominal vs Actual. Surfaced softwood lumber: a 2 x 10 is 1 1/2 x 9 1/4 in and a 2 x 12 is 1 1/2 x 11 1/4 in; a 4 x 4 is 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 in and a 6 x 6 is 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 in; a 1 x 4 is 3/4 x 3 1/2 in and a 1 x 6 is 3/4 x 5 1/2 in. Standard lengths run from 6 to 24 ft in steps of 2 ft. Read on .
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