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Board and Batten Siding Cost in Ontario: Vinyl, Fibre Cement and Engineered Wood Versions, Why the Vertical Look Costs More, and Where It Belongs on a House
Exterior Finishes
Board and Batten: The Farmhouse Look Costs a Dollar or Two More a Foot, and Most of That Is the Second Piece and the Strapping Behind It
Board and batten is wide vertical boards with a narrow strip, the batten, covering each joint. It was how barns were sided when lumber was cheap and labour was free, and it is now the look on half the new houses in every subdivision north of Barrie. Installed, it runs $18 a square foot in engineered wood and $20 in fibre cement, against $17 and $18 for the same materials in lap. In vinyl it is a one-piece panel pretending to be two, at the vinyl rates. The extra money is the batten itself, the 12% waste of cutting vertical boards to a sloped gable, and the horizontal strapping a vertical siding needs so water has a way down the wall.
The numbers
| Board and batten in | Installed | Same material in lap, mid | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engineered wood (LP SmartSide or equal) | $18 | $17 | 4×8 or 4×9 primed or prefinished panel, or 12 in. boards, with a 2 to 3 in. batten strip. Light, cuts like wood, holds paint. The default for the look. |
| Fibre cement (James Hardie or equal) | $20 | $18 | 4×8 and 4×10 panels with a fibre cement batten over the joints. Heavy, non-combustible, flat. Needs the panel joints flashed and the panels kept off the roof and grade. |
| Vinyl vertical panel | $9.50 to $12.50 | $9.50 | A moulded panel with the batten formed in. Budget the premium vinyl rate; the thin vertical panel ripples worse than lap because the long run is up and down the wall. |
| Steel or aluminum vertical panel | $18 to $23 | $18 | The modern version. Flat panel with a formed batten, or standing seam; see metal siding. |
| Real cedar boards and battens | $20 to $26 | $20 | 1×10 or 1×12 boards and 1×3 battens on strapping. The original. Needs stain every five to seven years. |
Waste is 12% on board and batten against 10% on lap, because every board that meets a gable slope is a cut and the offcut rarely fits anywhere. The rates carry it. The exterior cladding cost calculator prices the gable ends in batten and the rest in lap, which is how most houses end up.
Why vertical costs more than horizontal
Lap siding is one piece, nailed to the studs through the sheathing, each board shedding water onto the one below. Board and batten is two pieces, the board and then the batten over the joint, so there are two trips up the wall for every joint and twice the fastening. That is the first dollar.
The second dollar is behind the wall. A vertical board nailed flat to the sheathing has no way for water that gets behind it to run down and out; the boards are a dam every 12 in. So vertical siding goes on horizontal strapping, which holds the boards off the wall, gives the water a path and gives the nails something to bite. On a wall that does not already have a drained cavity, that is the $2.50 a square foot rainscreen strapping line, and most of the time the batten rate assumes it. A quote that is doing board and batten straight on the house wrap with no strapping has saved $2.50 a foot and built a wall that holds water against the sheathing.
The third cost is at the top and bottom. A vertical board ends somewhere, and that end is open grain pointing at the sky or at the ground. The bottom wants a drip edge or a starter and 6 in. of clearance from grade. The top wants a flashing or a frieze board. On a gable, every board is cut to the roof angle and the cut is the end grain, so on fibre cement it is primed and on wood it is sealed. None of that is hard. All of it is slow, and slow is what the rate is paying for.
Where it looks right and where it does not
Board and batten reads as tall, so it makes a wall look higher and a house look narrower. On gable ends, dormers and a two-storey front it looks right. On a long, low bungalow with 8 ft walls it makes the house look like a row of fence panels, and the proportion is wrong no matter what colour you paint it. The usual fix is the one most people land on anyway: batten in the gables and on the upper storey, lap or stone below, with a trim board at the change.
Colour matters more than with lap. White board and batten with black windows is the look everyone is asking for, and it hides nothing: every dirty batten, every spattered board above a mulch bed, every bit of green on the north wall. Charcoal or a mid-tone shows the shadow lines without showing the dirt. On an engineered wood panel a dark colour also wants the manufacturer’s light-reflectance limit checked, because a dark board in a south wall cooks.
The mistake I see most is the batten spacing. Real boards are 10 or 12 in. wide, so battens land every 12 in. or so. A 4×8 panel with battens at 16 in. to save material reads as a panel with strips on it, which is what it is. At 12 in. it reads as boards. The difference is one extra batten per panel and about $0.40 a square foot of material.
Two houses priced
Gable ends and a front dormer in engineered wood board and batten, the rest in lap. A 2,400 sq ft net wall two-storey, 400 sq ft of it in the gables and dormer. Board and batten 400 at $18 is $7,200. Lap on the remaining 2,000 at $17 is $34,000. Siding total $41,200. If the whole house had been lap it would have been 2,400 at $17, $40,800. The accent cost $400. That is the right way to buy the look.
A whole modern farmhouse in fibre cement board and batten. An 1,800 sq ft net wall storey-and-a-half, new build, all batten. Siding 1,800 at $20 is $36,000. The same house in fibre cement lap would be 1,800 at $18, $32,400, so the vertical look cost $3,600 across the house. Add PVC trim boards at the corners and the change of storey, 160 lf at $14, $2,240, which a batten wall needs more than a lap wall does because the panel edges have to land on something. Aluminum soffit and fascia 130 lf at $25 is $3,250 and 5 in. eavestroughs 130 lf at $13 is $1,690. Exterior total $43,180 before HST, $48,793 with.
Both of these are new walls. On a re-side, the tearoff, wrap and flashing lines on the siding cost page sit on top, and the strapping line comes into play if the old wall has no cavity.
What good installers do with it
- Strap it horizontally, 3/8 or 3/4 in. furring at 16 or 24 in., over the sheathing membrane, unless the system has a drained panel designed to go flat. Ask which, and ask to see the strapping before the boards go on.
- Flash every panel joint and every horizontal break. A 4×8 panel wall has a horizontal joint at 8 ft, and that joint wants a Z-flashing, not a bead of caulk. On a two-storey, a trim board with flashing over it at the floor line is the honest detail.
- Keep the bottom off the ground and the roof: 6 in. from grade, 1 in. off a roof surface for fibre cement, 2 in. over a deck per the manufacturer. Prime or seal every cut end before it goes up; this is where a vertical board drinks.
- Nail the batten through the gap, not through the board. On real wood, the batten covers a gap between boards and is nailed into the gap so the boards can move. On panels it matters less, and on vinyl the whole panel hangs loose like any vinyl.
- Set the batten spacing on the drawing so the battens land evenly between the windows and do not end up with a 3 in. sliver beside the trim. Lay it out before the first board, like tile.
On the ICF houses I build, batten goes on strapping screwed to the webs, same as any vertical siding, and the foam does the job of the sheathing membrane. The finishes that go on ICF and what they cost are in the best exterior finishes for ICF walls.
Questions people ask
How much does board and batten siding cost in Ontario?
Installed, per square foot of net wall, before HST: engineered wood $18, fibre cement $20, cedar $20 to $26, steel $18 to $23, vinyl vertical panel $9.50 to $12.50. About $1 to $2 a foot more than the same material in lap.
Is board and batten more expensive than lap siding?
Yes, by about 6 to 11% in the same material: two pieces instead of one, 12% waste instead of 10, and horizontal strapping behind it. On a 2,400 sq ft house in engineered wood that is about $2,400 more for the whole wall, or $400 if you only do the gables.
Does board and batten need strapping?
On a wood-frame wall, yes, horizontal furring so water behind the boards can get down and out and so the nails have something to hold. Some panel systems are designed to go flat on a drained wrap; the manufacturer’s sheet says which. A quote with no strapping and no answer is a wet wall.
What is the best material for board and batten?
Engineered wood for most houses: light, cuts like wood, holds paint, $18 installed. Fibre cement where fire or hail matters, $20. Real cedar if you will stain it every five to seven years. Vinyl if the budget decides, in the thicker panel.
Can you mix board and batten with lap siding or stone?
That is the usual way to use it: batten in the gables and upper storey, lap or stone below, with a trim board and flashing at the change. The whole-house version looks right on a tall, narrow house and like a shed on a long low one.
Price the gables and the whole house
The exterior cladding cost calculator does the gable ends in board and batten and the rest of the walls in whatever you like, with the strapping and trim lines in, so you can see what the look costs before the salesman does. If you have quotes already and one of them has no strapping line, the $99 review will say so.
Sources and further reading
- LP SmartSide: engineered wood siding and trim: the application instructions, clearances and the finish warranty.
- James Hardie installation instructions: the clearances, fastening, flashing and primed-cut rules a fibre-cement warranty depends on; the installer is held to this sheet.
- Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation: the Canadian wall-assembly and moisture research behind rainscreens and the second plane of protection.
