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Exterior siding help - board & batten

7 years ago

Trying to decide on exterior colour and materials. We are sure we want a board & batten look, but unsure of materials. We live in Southwestern Ontario and are building on a farm. We had originally thought of vinyl board & batten to keep costs down but mostly I don't like how it never looks as good as wood. Is using wood with a stain very high maintenance? We like this dark blue but aren't married to it.. yet.. Any advice is appreciated!

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Comments (4)

PRO
DONATO BUILDERS INC.
6 years ago
I would agree with MSDG; the Hardie board and batten system is hard to beat if your going to paint and not stain. Cedar & clear redwood sidings will be the most expensive to install and maintain. Your next options would be paint grade material like Advantage (finger-jointed pine that is treated for rot and insects) which is also a good choice but I'm not sure what would be available in your area. I've also seen decent results with resawn plywood install directly over the exterior ply or OSB. The framing needs to be clean and flat but with thoughtful layout to keep the battens symetrical it can be very cost effective and clean with good primer and paint. did I say the Cedar and RW would be very expensive...
User
6 years ago
Hardie board here. This is before paint
After · More Info
after paint
House build · More Info
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My opinions only. OP, it's a little difficult to know what you mean by making the siding more modern. But to answer your specific questions: 1) Should I alternate siding materials? No. IMO alternating siding material can be done well but for the most part is poorly executed. From what I have seen it becomes a jumble of materials that detracts from the house. 2) Should we incorporate stone? No. Board and batten siding is classic and timeless. Stone is a passing fad in its current application, especially now with it being added to places where it doesn't belong. Don't get me wrong, stone can be appropriate and also classic, but not the way it is thrown about now on the exterior as some sort of stick on applique. Scroll through houzz's images to see which contemporary board and batten home appeals to you. Here is one in white that is contemporary. Naturally you would look for colors that you prefer (dark) rather than the white shown below. This is just to give you an idea of contemporary board and batten siding appearance.
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Not sure if this is helpful at this point, and how the sider can even make design decisions instead of the homeowners. But, there are some inconsistencies with the design language on the whole house, maybe picking one might help solve the garage conundrum: - In RED you have full gable returns on what is supposed to be the main focal point of the elevation massing, but not on the garage front or back of garage. In PINK is horizontal siding under these. - In BLUE the gable end eave is different on the garage and Great Room, in part because the band height in BLUE ARROWS differs (on the back I imagine was placed at that height because of the transom window, but doesn't carry around the sides). - In GREEN the front of garage has vertical battens, on back horizontal siding yet with the same gable representation as the front. If I were fixing this front garage elevation, I'd probably go with a full gable return and keep the blue horizontal siding.
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ontariomom
6 years ago
Hi danamyt,

We are also in Southwestern Ontario. We used Maibec board and batten siding (out of Quebec) with an opaque colour on it. The architect strongly recommended the painted wood vs the stained wood for maintenance reasons. However, we did not investigate Hardie Wood as an even lower maintenance option.

Carol
kaciead
6 years ago
We have cypress board and batten. I don't know what it's like where you are, as I'm in Mississippi and I assume our climates are very different. ;) However, just know, carpenter bees LOVE our wood. We have such terrible problems with them - and no matter how much primer is used, the boards just soak up the paint on the exterior. When we build, we will for sure have vinyl.

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