Traditional-Looking Clapboard Siding for a ProHome

Boral siding will stand up to the weather without moisture concerns.

Boral Bevel siding looks really sharp. The lines are crisp and blind nailing makes for a clean appearance. Other than blind nailing, it is installed just like wood clapboards. Chalk lines are snapped every four inches and boards are cut tight to fit.

Because Boral is more brittle than cedar clapboards, one trick we’ve learned so that you don’t have to carry a full-length piece alone is that you can lightly score it with a utility knife just past the length needed and snap it very easily. It only takes a second to do and makes transporting it to the saw easier for the finished cut.

As a manufactured siding there are no split ends to cut off and no knots to cut around so there is very little Boral waste. The cut-off from a finisher becomes the next starter.

The siding is blind nailed except at the end of each piece where an additional face nail is required. I have not noticed the siding puckering at all from the force of the nail being driven in by the gun, something I was originally concerned about before we started.

The Boral siding is flexible, more so than the trim boards. Long runoff tables are a must to prevent them from snapping under their own weight and to make them easier to work with.

The best way to carry long pieces is to hold them vertically with someone on each end.

At each joint, we slip a piece of Tri-Flex underlayment behind the joint to provide an extra measure of flashing. It’s standard procedure for clapboard installation that helps prevent water from working its way behind the siding where two pieces come together.

Painted is rolled onto the siding and then back brushed.