Clapboard Siding (1,0 x 2,0)

Two credible readings of the same surface

A horizontally grooved sheet of white polystyrene, one millimeter thick, format six by twelve inches. The 2.0 mm spacing is the coarsest of the clapboard patterns offered.

It is with the coarse spacing that it becomes clear one and the same surface can be true twice over. Multiply two millimeters by thirty-five and you get a board seventy millimeters wide, that is, narrow but ordinary soffit boarding or shed cladding. Multiply it by seventy-two and you get one hundred and forty-four millimeters, which is the wide plank board of a barn. Both are sound in building terms and the sheet itself does not decide between them.

The context of the scene decides. A coarse pattern carries light better than a fine one, so it suits places where the surface will be photographed from a distance and has to be readable even in a reduced image. On a small area, on the other hand, say the side of a hut four centimeters tall, only twenty boards fit across the height, and the structure looks visually heavier for it.

For older wood it helps to draw a blade through the grooves in the direction of the grain, add a few irregular notches and only then paint. A spacing of two millimeters is large enough for a brush to reach into the groove and suggest the different aging of individual boards.

A large surface of thin plastic bows under its own weight as soon as a coat of paint settles on it. It helps to back it from the inside with a frame of square rod or to glue the whole wall onto a rigid core of cardboard or plywood. Set the frame so that the horizontal stiffener falls above the window openings, because that is where the surface loses the most stiffness. On a wall longer than twenty centimeters one more vertical brace in the middle pays off, otherwise the structure will warp while being finished.