Even SpacingHow to space board and batten
Pick the widest board you want to show, then find how many battens fill the wall with equal gaps. No code sets batten spacing, so most of this page is a rule of thumb. The hard limits are listed apart below.
Worked example
A length of 100 in needs 11 battens with gaps of 7.25 in.
(100 − 11 × 2.5) ÷ 10 = 7.25 in
Try your own length
11 battens, with gaps of 7.25 in.
(100 − 11 × 2.5) ÷ 10 = 7.25 in
Center each batten at these distances from the start:
- Mark 1: 1.25 in
- Mark 2: 11 in
- Mark 3: 20.75 in
No fit. At this length the battens cannot sit with gaps of 8 in or less. Try a longer length.
Type a length in inches, for example 48 or 48.5.
The method
- Measure the wall between the corners, in inches.
- Pick the widest board you want to see between two battens.
- Find the smallest number of battens whose gaps are no wider than that.
- Divide what is left after the battens by the number of gaps. A batten covers each corner, so there is one less gap than battens.
This page uses a 2.5 inch batten, the width of a 1x3, and a widest board of 8 inches. Those are example choices. Change them to match your wall.
Hard limits
These bind your project. They come from the siding maker.
- Stud spacing. Hardie allows studs at most 24 in apart. LP allows at most 16 in.
- Batten overlap. Hardie requires that a batten overlaps the board joint by at least 3/4 in.
Read the current install guide for your product before you build. Local code and your building department can add rules.
Rules of thumb
The rest is a rule of thumb from builder blogs. Nothing here is a code or a maker rule. Treat it as a starting point for the look you want.
- Board width, batten width and the number of boards are your choice.
- No code sets batten spacing, width or board count. This is unverified against the International Residential Code siding table, which we did not read.
- The numbers above come from the same calculation as the app, not from an online formula.