Vinyl siding
Vinyl siding
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Siding in Frederick & Central MD
Board and batten siding
Vertical siding is having a moment, and most of what goes wrong with it happens behind the face: nowhere to nail, and horizontal joints that collect the water a vertical wall is meant to shed.
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Quick answer
How much does board and batten siding cost in Maryland?
Vinyl vertical panel runs $5 to $8.50 per square foot of wall area installed, and fibre cement panel with applied battens is $9 to $15 including paint. A single gable or one feature elevation is usually $1,900 to $5,200. It costs more per square foot than lap siding of the same material because of the horizontal furring the wall needs and the layout work the batten spacing takes. Most of the houses we do it on get board and batten on the gables and lap siding below, which keeps the budget sensible.
The work
What board and batten actually involves.
Board and batten is the oldest cladding pattern in American building — wide vertical boards with a narrow batten covering each seam — and it looks right on farmhouses, barns, gable ends and the modern-farmhouse elevations that have taken over new builds in Urbana and New Market. We install it in three forms: vinyl vertical panel, fibre cement panel with applied battens, and true board-on-board in fibre cement planks.
The problem a vertical wall has to solve is nailing. Studs run vertically, so horizontal siding crosses them and finds something solid every sixteen inches; vertical siding runs parallel to them and finds nothing at all. The answer is horizontal furring strips over the sheathing, which both give the fasteners a target and create a drainage cavity behind the cladding. Skipping the furring and nailing into sheathing alone is the single most common shortcut, and it is why some vertical walls rattle loose inside ten years.
The second problem is the horizontal joint. Any point where a vertical board stops — at a band course, under a window, at a change of material — is a place where water runs down the face and arrives at an end grain. Those joints get metal Z-flashing, lapped over the course below, not a bead of sealant. Done properly, board and batten sheds water as well as anything. Done by eye, it is the pattern most likely to leak.
Horizontal furring, never nailed to bare sheathing
Z-flashing at every horizontal joint
Vinyl panel or true fibre cement board-on-board
What board and batten costs in Maryland
More labour per square foot than lap siding, because of the furring and the batten layout. Priced on wall area, installed, including tear-off.
- Vinyl vertical panel, installed
- $5 – $8.50 per sq ft
- Fibre cement panel and batten, painted
- $9 – $15 per sq ft
- Single gable or feature elevation
- $1,900 – $5,200
- Horizontal furring over sheathing
- $0.80 – $1.60 per sq ft
- Z-flashing at a horizontal joint, per ft
- $7 – $14
Ranges, not quotes. Real numbers come from a walkthrough — access, condition, height and finish level move a price more than square footage does. Estimates are free and in writing.
Get your numberFull board and batten cost guide for MarylandPrefer to just talk?
Call and describe the job. You’ll get a straight answer on whether it’s something we do and roughly what it runs.
(301) 524-1729
Self-performed
Board and batten siding
What’s included
Everything the board and batten scope actually covers.
Written into the estimate, not assumed. If something on your job is not on this list, it gets priced and named before anyone starts.
Furring strips laid out first
01Horizontal furring over the wrap at the spacing the cladding calls for, levelled across the elevation. It gives the fasteners something solid and leaves a drainage cavity behind the boards.
Batten spacing set to the elevation
02Batten layout planned off the windows and corners so the pattern lands evenly rather than finishing with a narrow rip in a corner. On a gable the spacing is set off the centre line.
Z-flashing at horizontal joints
03Metal flashing lapped over the course below wherever a board stops — band courses, below windows, at a change of material. Sealant alone at a horizontal joint on a vertical wall is a leak with a date on it.
Fastening to the published schedule
04Vinyl vertical panels nailed centre-of-slot and left to move. Fibre cement panels and battens fastened at the specified spacing into the furring, with the batten fasteners missing the panel joint rather than pinning it.
Mixed with lap siding where it suits
05Most Maryland houses look best with board and batten on gables, dormers or a single feature elevation and lap siding elsewhere. We will lay that out on a photograph of your house before anything is ordered.
On the job
Siding work across Frederick & Central MD.
What the trade looks like at each stage. Photos of our own recent jobs come out at the walkthrough, on the actual house.
Straight answers
Board and batten questions
Not covered here? Call and ask — you’ll get a real answer, not a “depends on the job”.
Installed properly, no. Installed by eye, yes — and that is worth saying plainly. A vertical wall concentrates water at every horizontal joint, so each of those joints needs metal Z-flashing lapped over the course below. It also needs horizontal furring, both to nail into and to keep a drainage gap behind the boards. The failures we are called out to fix are almost always one of those two things missing.
The old cladding comes off first. Vertical siding needs horizontal furring on a sound, flat substrate, and furring over old lap siding gives you a wall built on a wedge — every strip sits on a different thickness. It also leaves the sheathing hidden, which on a re-side is the thing most worth seeing.
Twelve inches on centre is the traditional look and suits farmhouse and barn elevations; sixteen to twenty-four reads more contemporary and is common on the modern-farmhouse builds around Urbana and Monrovia. The real answer is whatever lets the pattern land evenly against your windows and corners, which is why we set the layout on a photograph of the actual elevation rather than picking a number off a spec sheet.
Same crew, same visit
The rest of the siding work.
Most siding jobs are two or three of these at once, which is why they are priced and scheduled together rather than as separate call-outs.
From the field
Read up before you book.
Longer answers than a quote page has room for — how the work fails, what putting it right actually involves, and when waiting is the honest call.
Sources worth your time
Check us, and check the work
None of these are ours. They are the offices and standards bodies that set the rules we work to, so you can verify what we say rather than take it.
James Hardie installation requirements
Fibre cement has published nailing, clearance and joint rules. A job that ignores them voids the warranty.
OpenNational Association of Home Builders
Where the residential-construction standards and material research behind these decisions are published.
OpenMaryland Home Improvement Commission
Check any Maryland contractor's licence before you sign. Ours is on file with the Commission.
Open
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