Composite cladding

[stuarta]

Hi guys, I'm contemplating installing some cladding around our outside steps which backs into a box that we use as a bench.

Installation looks straightforward enough but what I can't seem to find is if I install them horizontally, can the boards be cut horizontally should you end up with a gap that's narrowing than the full width of the board? If they lap into each other I can't see how you can but then what do you do with gaps? For instance the wall is 900mm and 1200mm deep but the boards are 157mm wide.

Many thanks

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Maybe it's me but I'm not following?

 

[stuarta]

Ok sorry maybe it's me being dumb.

So basically my wall is 1200mm deep and the boards are 157mm wide so I'm going to need 7.6 boards. 7 boards will only cover 1099mm so what do I do with the remaining 101mm because I can't see how you can cut the boards to fit with the way they are designed to slot into each other

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Choose a board with a different width. Don't forget that you need say a 6mm gap between each board so you need to add that into the equation.

 

[stuarta]

Ok so that's it, they can't be cut and you either have to find the width you need or just start and stop wherever the board finish with maybe a bit of trim to pad it out

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Well they can be cut but it won't look as slick as if no boards are cut. Same with timber decking. I may be wrong but pretty sure comp decking is available in al-sorts of widths so just find a deck you like in the width that works, in an ideal world I guess it will be something like 165mm wide with 6.5mm gaps but if boards that size are not available you'll have to get bigger or smaller or not have the full depth decked. Or put up with a cut down board. In actual fact I did exactly this many moons ago when my budget wouldn't permit anything else and it looked OK, the cut board was next the wall.

 

[stuarta]

Ah sorry I'm talking cladding not decking. I can see it could be done easier with decking as they are straight edgings but the cladding is to gue and groove.

It's just a way of improving the some steps on a budget where the render is peeling off. Just chatting here because I think it would be near impossible to do the inside of the steps with cladding because of the actual steps, we may resort to chipping off the render the either re-render and paint, or just prime and then paint the bricks.

 

[DAZB]

Fill the main area with full planks and then cut an equal width piece to finish each side so visually it has symmetry and then an angle trim for the edging.