ppf - I actually like the last photo better too. What I have seen done, is to skip the dry wall all together and install the planks of wood (over the insulation of course) and attach them to the framing. I'm pretty sure that is how indomom did theirs. It seems like double cost to install and paint drywall, then go back and cover it up with planks of wood. Some would surely question the wisdom of skipping the dry wall because of the gaps. But if the gaps are small and the wood is painted on all sides before it's installed you wouldn't have raw edges. Nonetheless, I have these arguments with myself too because we're building a nice house and only want that "shabby" thing in small doses. Plus I want an energy efficient house so I worry about heat and AC seeping out. I understand what you are saying about the reveal and maybe some form of t&g is the right option. My only reference point for t&g is what is in my house and there is no reveal or set back. The boards are really more beveled to created the slight indentation between the boards.

hayley - I was all over You Tube this morning.

For someone willing to spend the money, I'd order, or mill myself some of this.

Here's my final suggestion.

Don't skip the drywall. It's important, especially on an exterior wall.

Paint it black, or brown, or whatever color suits. Install S4S (surfaced 4 sides) boards, prepainted, onto the wall. Putty holes and touchup.

Now you have created the ilusion -- the look you are after, but without the problems.

In the pictures you have posted, you are seeing shadows caused by the reveals, not looking through a crack into the wall.

Post back on your solution please!

ppf.....thanks for all your great advice!!!!!

You are welcome, but I don't feel like your questions were answered.

I've forgotten what the question was at this point! LOL Actually, not ripping an 8ft section of plywood was probably good advice. And probably best to do this over drywall makes the most sense.

I have done this by covering a drywalled wall with roofing felt and then face nailing random width/random length boards. We do this with more "rustic" boards and don't work too hard on edge to face square. You definitely see lines and they are NOT consistent, the black roofing felt will solve issues with seeing through.

Other than this technique I agree with ppf to use a pattern stock to achieve the desired results.

last thought....we have used corn cribbing (parallel 45% angles) and nailed it to walls to create a similar look. Only on interior walls and made sure to paint everything inside the wall black.

Corn cribbing?

Standard WPA pattern...the attached photo has corn cribbing on interior walls, and T&G WP116 pattern on ceiling and exterior walls.

for line drawings of common patterns....Search Western Wood Products Standard Patterns you will see corn cribbing, ship lap and many others.

Corn crib. Never seen it on the diagonal.

thanks for the great shot ppf...we see those all over iowa.

I learned something -- never knew there was a corn cribbing pattern!

Corn Cribbing

Since we didn't want the gaps, our guy used t & g with no "v" joint. And to stop any slippage, he used Liquid Nails first and then used 2 1/2" finishing nails to nail the tongue to the studs. Good luck with your project!

Thanks indomom. Lots of varying information!

That is a wp116....most home improvement sell a wp4/wp116. V groove 1 side flat on the other.

Pearl - is that a reference to that wood pattern you mentioned?

116 Pattern

In Cashiers we butt up 1''x6'' after each board it has been painted, we do not caulk we let the wood naturally expand great look

Pictures? Maybe The Clay Team should visit the eastern part of the state?

Thanks Lynn. What you described is exactly what I'm talking about. Maybe it's something indigenous to our area. BTW...we're good friends with Tom and Pam.

Lynn - I meant to ask you, do you install the boards over drywall or attach them directly to the framing?

Attach to framing.

I am re-doing an old mill house in Greenville, SC I found t&g pine at Lumber Liquidators in different lengths that I am going to use. Then white wash them

As an added note, I have been researching this and a lot of lumber people have no idea what I am talking about. I am going to install mine over the studs and insulation. But I am not going to have a gap, I may put up a vapor barrier as an added precaution. You have to be careful when buying. Some places sell it in bundles and you end up with a lot of little pieces that are not reallyl useful for interior walls. As I said before I found that at Lumber Liquidators I can buy the boards in specific lengths so there is less waste. You just make sure that you square the ends as they do butt up against each other. Then trim out in the corners and window and door edges for a neater look.

I just did this in my house using 7" mdf boards. It gives a smooth surface for paint and looks great.

Lila, do you have pictures to share? i'm interested in a more clean contemporary look, not the 'farm' look. thank you.

just remember when you do these "effects" that wood moves and you can not stop it. MDF and other man made products work well as they have no grain direction and will expand and contract more evenly, but they are still wood and will move. Wood expands 4x in width to length.....Humidity levels in your area will drive what it will look like day 1 and day 1000. The harder (more dense) a wood will make it move more......pine will not move as much as hickory. To avoid cupping or warping think about moisture penetration and attempt to even it out....eg. finish both sides of the board before nailing to the wall.

Hey all. My contractor created "ship lap" by ripping 7" boards, slightly routing the edge, sanding, priming and nailing them up over my drywall. We butted them right up against each other and they looked great ... until we painted. Many of my horizontal lines are going away. Even though the painter is clearing paint out of the cracks with his putty knife, many of the boards are just too tight to create any shadowing. Any thoughts or tools or ideas we might try to get my horizontal "cracks" back?

One thing to think about is local fire codes, and just plain safety of your family. Drywall creates a "membrane" that keeps fire from spreading too fast. Boards nailed to framing with gaps can lead to rapid fire spread. Check your local codes. The fire-taped drywall does what the name implies... helps contains fire for a period of time. (I am a professional fireman as well as a former GC and home inspector) Good information here... thanks

This might not be the right area for this, but since a lot of you in this thread seem so well-informed, I thought I'd ask. I would like to install vertical car siding in varying widths in our mud room (see photo- I think that's what this is?). This isn't new construction, though, so we have mop board that tapers to 1/4" and doors that are already framed out and their depth is about 3/4". The car siding I've found is about 3/4", so I'm wondering if there's a way to resolve the door jam issue this would create if I put the siding underneath the door frame aside from making a new one. Can I put the boards right up to it and have the frame flush? If I do this, what about the mopboard? Is there another option to get this look with a thinner depth (i.e. a wood paneling- I am painting this)- another consideration is we have 9' ceilings and I don't want a line so 8' paneling is out. Thanks for your help!

I don't know if you can really tell from this photo but this is using the mdf boards just butting up to each other on the walls. The ceiling was existing tongue and groove.

I don't believe the picture you posted is lap siding since it does not appear to lap. If the pic shows the look you want, then, no, ripped plywood will not get you the look you want.

To get the look in your pic, if you don't use tongue and groove boards, you could end up with spaces between the boards as the boards dry out with age -- even with some kiln dried lumber. You do not want actual spaces to form between your boards, especially on an outside wall. Putting a solid thin layer plywood or unfinished sheetrock behind the boards is one solution to avoid that being a problem. Relatives of mine that rebuilt an old store as a home first put black roofing felt on the studs so the tiny spaces that have formed in close proximity to the heater are not visually spaces but shadows.

There are also some 4'x8' wall panels with the look of boards that might serve your purposes but take note that the grooves carved into plywood are usually a bit rough and are likely going to be dust catchers.

You could consider using bead board plywood horizontally if you don't mind the narrower board look for your purposes. Ditto rough grooves / dust catchers.

Check out Hardi board exterior siding. It might prove to be your solution:

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Wood+Siding&view=detailv2&&id=5ACC18F978BA73FF8F6D63B6AEF442D04A6C464D&selectedIndex=0&ccid=TebUgHB5&simid=607992083680137071&thid=OIP.M4de6d4807079260d55e53c7744133329H0&ajaxhist=0

The material is called nickel gap its manufactured by Pacific MDF Products its available in 6" and 8" widths website www.pactrim.com

This is the 1x8" shiplap with a "nickel-spacing" reveal. Just need to find it now! http://pactrim.com/pioneer-series/south-carolina-profiles/

http://pactrim.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/PIO140-17MM-X-7.25-Single-Nickel-SC.pdf

Mark if you are in the Carolina's there are many outlets for this product. The product is being distributed by BlueLinx

Any custom millwork shop should be able to produce this and that will allow you to get it locally. A good carpenter could also make it with a router

PPF photo is a great example of shiplap looks like 1/4 shadow gap with Sq cut, rabbet joint. It's nailed install. Advantage to wider shadow gap easier to clean , paint less likely to puddle. Sounds like what you are describing is nickel gap board. No rabbet joint or locking. Spacers used to distance the boards and glued to drywall.. It's preference.

Rabbet joint locking Shiplap allows movement. The cut of the board gives shadow. Best if home is located in high moisture or house had not settled. Good luck should be nice.

Also if you use Shiplap -measurement allowance minus 1 inch for jointing. If you want 8 inch width, order 9 inch. it's smart to apply a moisture barrier/dry wall and insulation to prevent buckling.mill lumber yard can advise you.

It's all about "the look" and there are so many looks...very subjective.

"Butt board" is one look and you will find this in many high end lake homes and in family rooms. You can use common pine, clear pine, ship-lap...etc...but, I can't imagine a need to have this type board milled or custom run unless you want something very specific and unusual.

Go to a good lumber company (no big box) and ask about "Penny Gap". Penny gap is a tongue and groove board designed to leave a 'penny gap'. The groove part of the back side is a 'penny' winder than the groove part of the front side...thereby leaving the 'penny gap' when complete...and, it's consistent unlike the old days when carpenters would actually use a penny or something similar to provide the gap.

Just saw the above post...Pactrim shows this profile...on their site.

Good Luck out there.,

atlantanative, is that photo showing the product you sell?

Looking for advice regarding my particular situation. Just bought a 16' x 20' cottage directly on a tidal river bank. No heat, no a/c. No insulation. Concrete floor. Decent chance of flooding up to a few feet with the occasional hurricane which has happened a number of times in the cottage's 40-year history. Previous owner had cheap wall paneling with instances of damage. I plan to strip down to the stud for full inspection and to make any repairs, upgrade electrical, etc. Certainty of future flooding affects wall decision. My wife wants shiplap which I think will work great because if there were any future flood damage I could easily remove and replace the lower sections. I want to install directly on studs as cheaply as possible and am thinking of 1/2" plywood cut into 8" strips at store. Because there is no underlayment I think 1/4" too weak and 3/4" too expensive. We want a gap for visual effect and to take advantage of shiplap's inherent ability to allow for wood movement. But neither of us want to see bare wall through the gap and I'm too cheap to put a layer behind the shiplap. So a rabbet seems the best option to provide the gap AND a backstop and I already own a table saw. Another poster (ppf) posted the picture below.

My # 1 issue - We want the visual gap shown with # 1 but would like to know if we should have a gap between the actual panels at # 2 to allow for wood movement.

My # 2 issue - Any advice for how large to cut these rabbets and how much overlap?

My # 3 issue - Any advice for anything else I am not think of?

I am doing an old mill house over very similar to what you are doing. Don't waste your time on plywood. Go to Home Depot. They sell tongue and groove pine that works perfect. Doing my entire house that way. East to install, don;t really need any help

Tongue and groove would look great but more money than I want to spend on my particular project.