# Caulking board and batten style siding?



## Damon T (Nov 22, 2008)

The house we are currently working on has board and batten style siding. All the vertical 1x3's were caulked before or at least sealed with paint. They had a lot of peeling and I'm inclined to think the house was too well sealed. Would you caulk board and batten or no? I typically caulk where rain water can enter so that would be yes. But I don't caulk vertical channel siding for example. Thoughts? 
The house is about 15 years old and may have been painted with elastomeric at one point. The side facing the water (puget sound) had the most peeling.


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## Gough (Nov 24, 2010)

Damon T said:


> The house we are currently working on has board and batten style siding. All the vertical 1x3's were caulked before or at least sealed with paint. They had a lot of peeling and I'm inclined to think the house was too well sealed. Would you caulk board and batten or no? I typically caulk where rain water can enter so that would be yes. But I don't caulk vertical channel siding for example. Thoughts?
> The house is about 15 years old and may have been painted with elastomeric at one point. The side facing the water (puget sound) had the most peeling.


Damon, I think you're on the mark. We don't like to caulk seams in vertical siding either. You know water is going to get in. All caulking does is make it harder for the water to get out. 

Vertical siding can be fine as part of a "ventilated rain screen" system, but I don't think many people were doing that 15 years ago.


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## Epoxy Pro (Oct 7, 2012)

We haven't done many of these styles. We didn't use caulking except where you said. To me it would seal the house up to tight. If there are bad gaps we will fill with caulking.


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## kmp (Jan 30, 2011)

Where I live most batten board is 4by8 sheets of plywood with the battens spaced so only one seam is covered so I caulk them all. The batten wood is so poor and twisted I have to caulk them to make them look decent.


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## slinger58 (Feb 11, 2013)

kmp said:


> Where I live most batten board is 4by8 sheets of plywood with the battens spaced so only one seam is covered so I caulk them all. The batten wood is so poor and twisted I have to caulk them to make them look decent.


Here there is some 4 x 8 Masonite sheets with wood battens (I call it imitation B&B). I caulk those. Did one last year that was 5/4 cypress boards with 5/4 cypress battens, coated with solid color stain. Didn't caulk those.


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## DeanV (Apr 18, 2007)

We have seen it done both ways with wood siding. To be honest, they hold up equally well. For cement board and batten siding, installation requires the battens to be caulked.


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## SemiproJohn (Jul 29, 2013)

I have painted some houses with T111 siding and battens. I caulked next to the battens. I haven't had any issues yet, knock on wood.


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