How to DIY Exterior Board and Batten Siding Trim

The exterior on the Fixer Upper Main House is soo close to done and the rainy season is quickly approaching. We’re in a race against time to install the final exterior trim and get the house painted before the rains start. This post will show you how to DIY install exterior trim for a cute board and batten look over T1-11 plywood panel siding.

I want to clarify: this will achieve a low-cost version of the board and batten siding look. However, it is not true board and batten siding. In my opinion, it is better because the exterior plywood panel siding is more dimensionally stable than wood boards and therefore provides better resistance to water and air intrusion. This option is also less expensive than cement board siding as that requires separate structural sheathing behind the cement board. Thus more materials, more labor, more cost. Ok, so here is how to achieve a board and batten look using only T1-11 plywood panel siding and exterior trim boards.

The photo shows where we left off. The house is fully sided with smooth T1-11 panels. You can buy T1-11 with built-in grooves. That’s what the house had originally, but I prefer the board and batten look. So I opted for smooth T1-11 plywood panels. Here they are installed with a one coat of primer and ready for exterior trim.

Exterior Board and Batten Trim Boards:

The exterior trim boards we are going to use will typically be 1×3 Radiata Pine Primed Boards that you can likely find at Home Depot or your local lumber supplier. They come in various lengths from 8 feet upward. The boards also have a smooth side and a textured side. Here is a photo of the textured side that I will install outward as the texture closely matches the wood grain texture of the smooth plywood siding.

How to Install Exterior Board and Batten Trim:

It is actually really simple to achieve a board and batten look with this method. Here is the order in which I installed the exterior trim.

1. Doors and windows first! These take precedence and get a solid, uninterrupted trim on 4 sides for windows and at least sides and top for doors. I used the standard 1×3 trim for the windows. For the doors I used a 1×4 trim to emphasize the door opening.
2. Add 1×3 horizontal trim along the top of the walls. Trim detail photos lower in this post will explain this more.
3. Once those basic elements are in place, complete the board and batten look by adding 1×3 vertical boards spaced along the walls at either 12 inches, 16 inches, or 24 inches – your preference. I chose 16 inches on center as that matched the wall stud spacing. This way the vertical boards would cover the nailing of the plywood panels to the wall studs.
4. Make sure to use a level when nailing the trim so that your lines are straight!

It’s that easy! Oh, I should note that I nailed the trim to the siding with small galvanized 4d nails shown below with two nails at about 12 inches on center along the trim boards.

Installed Exterior Board and Batten Trim:

Here a full view look at the installed exterior trim at the front wall. The vertical trim stops short of where the future deck will be. Also notice the thicker trim around the door for a slight emphasis?

You may notice that some of the trim is white. I primed the trim around the windows with white Kilz primer before nailing them up. Then I realized that was overkill and just nailed the factory-primed trim in place.

The back wall is very similar. The back door has the thicker trim here as well. We’ll have a deck back here so the vertical boards stop just above the deck line.

Here is the trim at the shorter gable wall. It’s in progress at the upper gable section but you get the idea. I trimmed around the gable vent before adding the vertical piece, similar to trimming out the windows first. There is a continuous horizontal piece at the double top plate and along the top of the sloped gable.

The other gable wall is a bit challenging as it is quite tall. You can see the scaffolding that really came in handy here along with extendable ladders. The gable trim is still in progress here too. You can see I started with the gable vent first.

Exterior Trim Details:

Thought you might like some close up photos to really show more of the details. A few *spoilers* here though because these photos were taken after painting.

Oh well, for the sake of better information, I think it’s good to share these. Here is a close-up view of a pair of nails along a trim board after everything is painted. You should be able to click on the photo to enlarge it. Do you see the small nail heads? I circled them to help. So, yeah, not very noticeable at all. Also check out the wood grain texture on the siding panel and the trim.

The next photo shows the top of the wall with the 1×3 horizontal trim butted up to the bottom of the rafters.

I simply butted the vertical trim pieces together at the corners. Here is a view of the corner looking up at the gable. Our gable framing stepped out about 1/2 inch from the wall siding below. I’m not sure why it was framed that way, but I couldn’t change it. So the siding and trim reflect that outward step. In retrospect, it might look good if I had beveled the vertical trim at the gable sections to remove that harsh edge. But I was in a rush to get this project wrapped before the rains came…

And then looking at the corner base. Remember that messy corner in the siding post? Well these vertical trim boards hide it nicely! The vertical boards simply butt up against each other. You could miter the corners if you wanted. I simply placed the full board towards the front of the house to overlap the side board. That way, you see this edge from the side of the house, not the front face. The front face is what people see first and most often. Make a good first impression right? lol.

So that’s it for trim! What do you think? Do you like this method to achieve a board and batten siding look? Let me know in the comments below. I hope this post helped you install cute but low cost siding to your project.

Next post I’ll show you how I quickly caulked, primed (one more coat!), and painted the exterior to get this house weather tight juuuust in time for winter. Stay tuned.