About the service
I panel walls and ceilings in tongue-and-groove lining, imitation timber and block house, and the job starts long before the first board goes up. Timber arrives from a cold or an overheated store with its own moisture content, so I unwrap the packs, stack them on dry spacers inside the very room they will live in and give them five to seven days. A board nailed straight off the van looks flawless on fitting day and opens gaps in the joints by the next season. While the wood settles I run a long rule and a laser over the walls, find the plane and work out how deep the battens must be to swallow the bumps without pushing the cladding into a wave.
The frame is the part nobody ever sees and everything depends on. Battens go across the direction of the boards, with a ventilation gap behind the cladding and air able to enter at the bottom and leave at the top, so the back of each board dries as fast as the face. In a steam room or a bathroom I add a counter-batten, keep insulation, foil and taped joints in the right order, and leave movement gaps at floor and ceiling. Fixing stays hidden: clips into the groove, or a thin pin driven at an angle through the tongue, so not one head shows on the face and the boards can still breathe with the seasons.
Direction and junctions are decided before cutting. Vertical boards lift a low room, horizontal ones stretch a narrow one, and on a ceiling the boards run along the light from the window so the joints stop being visible. Corners are closed with a mitre or a fillet; reveals, sockets and pipes are cut in place rather than filled afterwards. Species follows the room: spruce and pine for a veranda, hallway or attic; aspen, alder or thermally treated wood for a sauna, where resin and hot metal are out of the question. Then the finish - antiseptic on everything hidden, end grain included, and two coats of oil, wax or a tinted glaze with a light sanding between them. I count the material myself, with an allowance for cut-offs, and place the short pieces above doors and windows.
What the price includes:
— site survey, material take-off and a board layout plan;
— battens, plane levelling, ventilation gap and vapour control;
— fitting of lining, imitation timber or block house on hidden fixings;
— corners, reveals, skirting and cornice, cut-ins around sockets and pipes;
— antiseptic treatment, sanding and a finish in oil or wax;
— waste removal and a clean site at the end.
The frame is the part nobody ever sees and everything depends on. Battens go across the direction of the boards, with a ventilation gap behind the cladding and air able to enter at the bottom and leave at the top, so the back of each board dries as fast as the face. In a steam room or a bathroom I add a counter-batten, keep insulation, foil and taped joints in the right order, and leave movement gaps at floor and ceiling. Fixing stays hidden: clips into the groove, or a thin pin driven at an angle through the tongue, so not one head shows on the face and the boards can still breathe with the seasons.
Direction and junctions are decided before cutting. Vertical boards lift a low room, horizontal ones stretch a narrow one, and on a ceiling the boards run along the light from the window so the joints stop being visible. Corners are closed with a mitre or a fillet; reveals, sockets and pipes are cut in place rather than filled afterwards. Species follows the room: spruce and pine for a veranda, hallway or attic; aspen, alder or thermally treated wood for a sauna, where resin and hot metal are out of the question. Then the finish - antiseptic on everything hidden, end grain included, and two coats of oil, wax or a tinted glaze with a light sanding between them. I count the material myself, with an allowance for cut-offs, and place the short pieces above doors and windows.
What the price includes:
— site survey, material take-off and a board layout plan;
— battens, plane levelling, ventilation gap and vapour control;
— fitting of lining, imitation timber or block house on hidden fixings;
— corners, reveals, skirting and cornice, cut-ins around sockets and pipes;
— antiseptic treatment, sanding and a finish in oil or wax;
— waste removal and a clean site at the end.
