Hi there

I've just started building my garden office. It's gonna have a full wooden frame covered with plyboard and insulated walls. My question is if anyone's got any advice on good materials to clad the walls with. I could of course use waterproof paint but was thinking there may be some materials which would give it a nicer finish.

Any ideas gratefully received!

Tim

The great thing about using the standard timber frame section shown by Simon is that the waterproofing is really carried out by the building paper. The cladding provides a 'rainscreen' , UV and weather protection to the structure beneath. (Using a breathable building paper such as Tyvek the structure would be weather proof for quite a while without any cladding.) You can fix anything to the battens, steel sheet cladding, feather board(cheapest and looks good), shiplap cladding or match board.

I would consider using exterior wood stain rather than paint as it is easier to maintain. Paint requires a lot of scraping and sanding down after a while whereas wood stain only needs a good stiff brush to remove debris before you re-coat. Paint the window frames possibly for contrast and also the paint stops expansion and contraction due to changes in moisture content better than stain. This helps as it stops the window sticking.

Definitely consider using OSB rather than ply for the sheathing. For a well constructed wall this performs very well and is half the price.

John