How to Install Board and Batten Siding in 6 Steps

Before you can start installing the boards, protect your home by applying a water-resistant barrier over the wall sheathing. You can fasten it with staples and cut out openings for doors, windows, and vents with a utility knife.

You should also install self-stick flashing around windows and doors and at the corners of walls.

To start, you’ll need to install a skirt board around the perimeter of the house, right below where the siding will bottom out. Make sure the lumber you use for the skirt board is wider than the boards you’ll be installing above. If your siding is going all the way down the house, you’ll want the bottom of your skirt board to hit 2 inches below the sill plate.

Snap a chalk line to ensure you install the skirt board straight across. Check your work with a level. To attach the skirt board, hammer in two or three vertical nails roughly every 1½  to 2 feet. You can also use a nail gun for this work—it’ll make a huge difference if it’s a big project and you’re tackling it solo.

For long sections of skirt board, join multiple skirt boards together with a scarf joint. You’ll need a miter saw to cut this joint.

After you’ve installed the skirt board, create a drip edge by installing metal flashing on top of the skirt board.

For board and batten installations, you’ll nail in the lumber to solid plywood or oriented strand board (OSB) behind the wall sheathing. If there isn’t plywood or OSB behind the sheathing, you’ll need to install vertical wood strips, called furring strips, at intervals ½- to 2-foot intervals up the wall so you have something to nail your boards and battens into.

You should also install furring strips around all windows, doors, and air vents.

Install your first board at the edge of the wall, about ¼ inch in from the corner if you plan to add corner trim. The bottom of the board should rest atop the drip edge you created in step 2. Use a level to ensure the board is perfectly plumb, then nail it into place at 1½- to 2-foot intervals. (If you installed furring strips, you’ll be nailing the board into these strips, rather than plywood behind the sheathing.)

Use two nails at the top, bottom, and at each interval. Either nail should be about ⅓ of the way in from the side of the board. For example, if you’re using 1x12-inch boards, you’ll hammer your nails in at the 4- and 8-inch marks.

Use a piece of lumber with the width of your planned gaps to serve as a spacer. Wedge this spacer up against the first board you’ve installed, then line your second board up with the other side of the spacer.

Nail in the second board as you did the first, move the spacer to the other side of the second board, and continue down the row, installing more boards in this fashion.

You may need to make special, angled cuts to work around gables, doors, windows, and air vents.

Use a batten to install a top trim, butted up against the soffit. This will cover any gap between the boards and the roof and will serve as a top piece for the battens to be installed vertically.

Place your battens over the gaps between boards. Ensure each batten is dead center over the gap, leaving at least ¾ of an inch on each side to overlap with the boards. You’ll need to use longer nails than you did for installing the boards.

Once you’ve installed the last batten, you can also install corner trim for your walls, if desired.