# Forum Home Renovation Cladding  Opinions please, Gal cladding Horizontal or Vertical ??

## Moondog55

Just getting some second and third opinions on how to set the cladding if we decide to do with corrugated steel zincalume. 
running the sheets horizontally uses less battening but using them vertically is sort of "self cleaning" and you get a better airflow under them for summer cooling.
both options look OK and the cost of the extra battens to run them vertically is not that great in the whole scheme of things. *
What do you all think??*

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## Uncle Bob

I prefer the look of vertical personally.

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## stevoh741

x2 vertical. If they are horizontal you will be forever cleaning them. Not sure about the airflow under as if they are flashed properly bottoms should be blocked off.

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## r3nov8or

I just googled 'corrugated wall cladding' and hit Images. The vast majority of houses/dwellings are horizontal, and the vast majority of sheds/barns/garages are vertical.

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## chrisp

Do you want your house to appear taller and narrower or shorter and longer? 
Personally, I'd go for horizontal.

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## SilentButDeadly

Horizontal.  The 'self cleaning' issue is predicted on opinion not experience.  As someone whose house is clad (by choice) in the stuff in one of the dustier parts of this country...I can honestly say that the outside walls are the least of the cleaning issue.   
If you run vertically you will also need a healthy network of battens over the studwork (run horizontally and you fix to the studs) to carry the sheets - which will increase the width of the wall (which could be an issue if you haven't planned for it). Also, in order to make the wall vermin proof,you'll need deeper and therefore more expensive flashing...and there is many many metres of flashing involved!!

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## autogenous

I have a crush on mini orb.  I dont know why. Apparently its quite a wallet impactor.

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## Moondog55

Well battens are a given seeing as we want a decent air gap between the braceply, we are cladding the whole house room by room US style.

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## Black Cat

Horizontal - I am guessing you are replacing either fibro or weatherboards. Weatherboards run horizontal and the house will have been designed with this effect in mind. It will visually distort if you go vertical.

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## ringtail

Vertical for me. Ive done my house in it after having the AC sheet removed and chose to go vertical for a few reasons. Firstly, with the insulation, the cavity is full of batts, then sarking, then 35 mm battens across the studs. So there is a nice air gap between sarking and tin. This is the first summer with the new set up and it works really well. Secondly, I wanted to give the illusion of height without having a wall dominated building.  
Going vertical is a little bit harder to flash around windows but it is so much easier to run a 3 mt vertical sheet than run 6 mt horizontals and have end laps that can look crap and leak. Another downside is running the extra battens plays havoc with existing windows. I had casements and replaced them with louvres with extra wide reveals to make it do - able. End result is great and the only thing to maintain is the timber archs around the louvres

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## Moondog55

We don't remember seeing pix Ringtail, any photos??
All of the windows in this house are really cheap aluminium sliders which we want to replace with better units as cash becomes available.

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## r3nov8or

If you want to go horizontal, and also want the air gap between tin and stud face (brace-ply, sarking) why not batten out the studs vertically?

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## Cecile

> Horizontal - I am guessing you are replacing either fibro or weatherboards. Weatherboards run horizontal and the house will have been designed with this effect in mind. It will visually distort if you go vertical.

  Designed?  These old housing commission dwellings had NO design in mind.  It was a case of build a box, truck to site, and bolt sections together.  Photo is of the house before we did a thing to it. 
That said, I am a bit more comfortable with the horizontal, but it'll depend on price etc.  Personally, I think I would prefer to use an acrylic render on the place.

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## BaysideNana

Whatever you choose why not make a feature area (maybe the front entry) where the sheets run in the opposite direction and also in a different colour (or shade of the main colour) and possibly mini-orb?   I've seen this done, looks great and was a brand new house therefore planned this way.  The main house is in Surfmist, the feature in Monument and looks really clean and fresh.   
Just another 2 cents worth!!  LOL

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## r3nov8or

I would maintain the horizontal approach. IMHO.

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## andy the pm

Horizontal for sure, otherwise it will end up looking like a big shed, plus it will be cheaper.

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## ringtail

> Horizontal for sure, otherwise it will end up looking like a big shed, plus it will be cheaper.

  Cheaper, how so ? Its still the same square meterage

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## ringtail

A few pics. The wall with the louvres is the western wall. The small wall is the south and the timber/tin wall is the east. I did the eastern wall first and made up massive picture frames out of 90 x 45 H3, rebated in the back to take the tin. They have rubber seals down each side and drain holes in the bottom. There are 4 battens across the wall and the pictur frames sit on these and get screwed through the frame into the batten. Each frame has a tag that slides behind the previous one that locks it in place. The wall is not quite finished yet but not far off. Thought I had pics of the frames but I cant find them. I still have to paint the fascias and renew the east and west gutters, renew the window in the east wall and finish the timber work and trim off around the rafters - all cosmetic, so one day it will get done. Sorry about the shadows in the photos - bloody sun.

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## andy the pm

> Cheaper, how so ? Its still the same square meterage

  Because you wont have to batten out the stud walls

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## Moondog55

> Because you wont have to batten out the stud walls

  Hi Andy
Using battens is a "Given" we need to allow the wall to breath and by having an air gap with RFL we decrease the amount of heat we gain in summer, a lot of this design exercise is about not allowing the heat into the home.
Even with the battens it is still cheaper than new weatherboards

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## ringtail

> Because you wont have to batten out the stud walls

  
Fair enough. Still, I ran all the battens for under $ 100 so no big deal.

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## Moondog55

> Fair enough. Still, I ran all the battens for under $ 100 so no big deal.

  Heck, I just got quoted 99 cents a metre for rough sawn treated pine, what spacing did you use ringtail??

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## r3nov8or

Ringtail, looks great. Can certainly see why you went vertical in your situation. I like the frames. A question about screwing down - does it matter if you do the peaks or valleys? Looks like you do a bit of both?

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## ringtail

Moondog - 900 ctrs. I should clarify about the price. I had some left overs from a job that supplemented my needs :Biggrin:  
With the screw fixing, I always do the crests but on mini orb I do the valleys. With the west wall Ive done the valleys only on the bottom to fix the flashing a bit better. Even if they were to leak past the rubber seal and get behind the flashing there is till the sarking 35 mm behind which runs down past the bottom of the bearer and onto the brickwork.  
All of the picture frames were built in the workshop and lifted up into positon. Not fun as the battens on the wall have to match exactly to the battens within the frames ( that the tin is screwed to) so careful measuring required. The frames had to be lifted higher than required then dropped down onto the battens which was a real pain because the top plate and rafters are a bit up and down which kept changing the clearances. Once the frame was sitting on the battens it could be slid along and locked into the previous frame and then fixed off. I'm glad I did it but never again. I only did it because there were no windows in that wall except 1 at the front and full on tin might have been a bit much.

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## intertd6

Horizontal sheets & screw through valleys of sheet profile. Nicer to touch & brush past plus wont snag clothing on the more exposed screw heads. Shorter screws cost less & seal better.
regards inter

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## ringtail

Guess it depends if it highset of lowset (exposure to people walking past - not that Ive seen that problem before)

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## intertd6

They would have to be on stilts at your place to have problems, a child hitting a screw at pace will open them up badly & a nasty tear wound that will leave a scar for life, most likely why the manufacturers recommend valley fixing for wall cladding. Main reason for vertical sheet orientation on commercial sheds is the girts run horizontally between the portals.
regards inter

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## Sir Stinkalot

I will throw my two bob in for horizontal. Although that being said the example shown of vertical looked fairly good but typically I would stick with horizontal.

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## ringtail

> They would have to be on stilts at your place to have problems, a child hitting a screw at pace will open them up badly & a nasty tear wound that will leave a scar for life, most likely why the manufacturers recommend valley fixing for wall cladding. Main reason for vertical sheet orientation on commercial sheds is the girts run horizontally between the portals.
> regards inter

  Agree. On the front of the house I had tin running horizontal and valley fixed. Looked good. But then I remodelled the front of the house and have gone for laserlite. Sorry for the crap photo. PS, chicks dig 
scars  :Biggrin:

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## Moondog55

Re-opening the thread to ask about mixing the cladding.
Cecile wants horizontal I prefer vertical but just suggested to the boss that we take the advice in BaysideNanas post and use ripple iron vertically on the chimney (which I want to clad and insulate for thermal mass reasons) but should we clad the whole chimney or just the part to the roof line??
I would only be cladding to the roof line myself

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## toooldforthis

I think it depends on the proportions of the wall involved.
Bit hard to explain, for me  :Frown:  
if the wall is long and not over-height I might run horizontal
if a short horizontal run and/or high vertically I might run the cladding vertically.
also depends on openings in the wall, doors and windows, and the proportions of those, and how that breaks it up. 
Having said that there would be exceptions to those rules  :Tongue: 
done right mixing can work. 
for example, in the photo below I am going to run the cladding vertically on those main walls (the brown ones), mostly because of the shape of the openings but also cause I have 3m in height, but the cladding behind the staircase, which has a different architectural plane to it, (and will get painted a different colour!) the cladding is, and will stay, horizontal.  
as a comparison, you know when you walk into a room and you can tell the floorboards have been run the wrong way for the proportions of the room? that is what I am getting at.

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## Moondog55

Yeah That actually makes a lot of sense.
Nice pix BTW Good job
Looks like the Western wall will be horizontal, price of TP battens had gone up a lot recently, just got off the phone with Barwon Timber and for small lots ( i:e not a house lot) price is now $1.85 L/M. But even with double battens [ for twin airspace] that's only ~$220-
Also had a chat with Brad from Foilboard about cumulative R values.
Using 42*19mm battens in conjunction with the existing wall batts and ply and 15mm Foilboard insulation it adds up to a Summer R-In of R-4 ( Winter out a bit higher) which makes the floor and windows the weak point and double glazing all the more important

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