Ecoscape Forma - Silver Birch Slatted

Composite Slatted Cladding is cladding made from Composite Materials to resemble natural timber cladding. You can install this type of cladding horizontally or vertically.

Cladding is a material that is fixed in place over another material, such as one of a building’s exterior walls, to form a layer or skin. A Composite Material is formed by combining two or more materials to create a material with different properties, such as enhanced durability and UV-resistance.

To fit our Composite Slatted Cladding easily and efficiently, start by choosing a horizontal or vertical laying pattern for the boards. Next, install a subframe or battens, which will leave a few millimetres of space for ventilation between the boards and the wall.

Fix starter clips to the rows of joists when the subframe or battens are in place. Start mounting the boards in a horizontal or vertical pattern, following the  instructions. Fix the concealed groove to the top groove when laying the last board, and then finish with trim and edging from BM Steel.

Composite Slatted Cladding from BM Steel is available in a range of nature-inspired colours, and thanks to its expert design and excellent UV-resistance, won’t fade in sunlight. That said, you can paint our Slatted Cladding that’s been manufactured from Composite Materials, provided you use an outdoor acrylic latex bonding primer and outdoor acrylic latex paint.

The lifespan of our Composite Slatted Cladding depends on whether it is installed properly and maintained regularly. With the proper care, our Slatted Cladding products made from Composite Materials last between 25 and 50 years.

Both our panel and slatted cladding can be installed vertically and horizontally. Refer to our installation guide for further details

Composite decking, cladding, and fencing come in two different WPC forms, which are capped and uncapped. Uncapped composite was created first and is slightly less durable than capped composite.

The reason for this is that capped composite cladding has an extra outer layer of polythene, which provides some extra protection, allowing your composite cladding to last even longer.

Uncapped composite cladding is less resistant to sun exposure and will fade over time, it is also more prone to stain. Both our Slatted and Panel cladding boards are capped, UV stable, and come with a 25-year guarantee.

Various options - block/brick construction using either a tanalised timber, 100% solid plastic (recycled plastic) or aluminium joist (BM Steel offer both plastic and aluminium options upon request). Our Cladding can also be fixed straight to a steel frame building (using our special cladding clip).

You can, but the gap between boards will change as the temperature fluctuates.You need to be prepared that the gap will open and close as other products do. We offer a butt joint trim upon request to hide the gap where boards meet end to end. You will need to follow our expansion and contraction table which can be found in our cladding installation guides.

You can create a slot say every 800mm with a multi tool, if any water does get into the trim it will find its way to the slot and drain away.

One of the reasons that people love composite products so much is that they are incredibly easy to clean, and composite cladding is no exception. Both of our slatted cladding and panel cladding boards are capped which makes it much easier to clean than the first generation composite cladding boards on the market.

As with any other composite product, you can easily clean off any grime, dirt, or algae with a pressure washer without doing any damage to your composite cladding whatsoever.

Alternatively, if you don't own a pressure washer and don't want to shell out money to buy one, then you can also use some warm soapy water, a soft-bristled brush, and a little elbow grease, and you should be able to get it just as clean.

No, all our cladding profiles come with a 25 year UV guarantee - to 5 delta E. Our capped technology prevents fading. Timber cladding boards can be quite susceptible to fading over time if they are not oiled, cleaned, and maintained thoroughly over time, and even then, they will still fade sooner than composite cladding will.

Our products don't need to be stained or sealed. Very little maintenance, just a clean periodically.

There's no adhesive out there at the moment which we can guarantee to hold the composite together, we recommend pre-drilling and countersinking our colour-coded screws.

Our cladding is more expensive than entry-level softwood cladding, which can be around £25+ m2, we are more comparable to Cedar. But don't forget, once our cladding boards are installed there is very little ongoing maintenance - timber cladding generally requires a lot of upkeep especially if you want to keep the colour.

A Cladding clip should be used every 500mm. We also recommend locking the cladding board with a locking screw on the centre cladding clip.