If you have seen our Pergola garden reveal you would have seen our stunning larch batten screening. I love how it makes our pergola more of a cosy intimate space, but also lets light in and allows air to flow through on those hot sunny days. So, do you want to see how to make batten screening? Take a look at our how-to guide and also a look at our Ryobi nail gun review, as that really made the job a lot easier and quicker!
Everyone loves a before and after, so here is the garden pergola without any batten screening on so you can see why we chose to do it and what a difference it made to the pergola.
Video On How To Make Batten Screening
Ryobi Nail Gun Review
We received the Ryobi R15GN18-0 18V ONE+ Cordless 15 Gauge Nailer to complete this project. We’ve never used a nail gun before, but we knew this would be the perfect tool for creating batten screening. We’ve built batten screening before (you can see it in the picture above, to the right-hand side), but only used screws, so we were interested in seeing how much easier and quicker it would make the job.
So we received the Ryobi nailer tool body, a 4.0Ah battery, some safety goggles, and a fast charger.
When it comes to the Ryobi ONE+ range of power tools you only ever get the tool body along with some instructions when you purchase one. All of the batteries and chargers that are required to use it are an additional cost so you must factor this in when deciding if to purchase one or not. As we are already deep into the ecosystem that is Ryobi ONE+ we already have an abundance of batteries and chargers but Ryobi was kind enough to provide both this time.
When it came to the nails that the nailer use, Ryobi supplies a small selection in the box but this is only just enough to get you started and find out what the nailer is capable of. But for any sort of project, you’ll have to source your own nails and I’ll admit that we had a little trouble finding the correct sized ones in the normal DIY hardware shops. The Ryobi nailer uses 15Gauge nails (1.8mm diameter) and can use nail lengths from 25mm up to 64mm. But as usual, Amazon came up trumps…. with the only downside that we had to buy a box of 4000 nails!
Plenty of nails to do this job, and a good many more for years to come I would imagine!
How To Make Batten Screening
I think that when it comes to making batten screening there are 3 golden rules that you must remember and adhere to without fail, otherwise, the end result will never be quite what you hoped for. Keep these things in mind all through the process and you won’t go far wrong.
So, what are these 3 rules I hear you ask? Well, the first one has to be to make sure that you keep everything level. A spirit level is an essential piece of kit for this and it will save you plenty of headaches along the way as you will see later on.
Secondly, ensure that all the timber you use is cut square. Now I know that this might sound obvious, but as you can see in the picture below the gravel board that was delivered to us certainly wasn’t cut square! Never assume and ALWAYS check before you start cutting.
Finally, the last golden rule is a simple but often overlooked thing, measure correctly!
Then, after you’ve measured, measure again! You can even measure a third time if you like just to make sure. Now I know this sounds like overkill but if I had a pound for every time I’ve measured, and then cut, something incorrectly instead of just double checking in the first place then I would now be wealthy, retired and sunning myself on a beach instead of writing this!!
So that’s enough about rules, what you really want to know now is how we created this screening so here goes…
Firstly we wanted a taller base length at the bottom of the screening area that would act a little like a gravel board, and also helps frame and finishes off the screening at ground level
So we measured the length of space between the two posts (then measured again just to be sure!), cutting to length. We used a compound mitre saw from Evolution which makes the job of cutting a lot of timber accurately and squarely a lot quicker and easier.
Once you’ve cut your gravel board to size then take some sandpaper and lightly sand off any roughness or small splinters of wood on the edges to finish off. This is much easier to do now before it’s fixed into place than after.
So now we have our gravel board cut and sanded it’s time to refer to our first golden rule, making sure things are level.
By this I mean the boards should be perfectly horizontal when placing a spirit level along the top edge of them and NOT flush and level with the ground. This means that if the ground has any variation in its level (which is quite common and ours certainly did) your battening will stay level and won’t look like it’s at an angle once it’s complete.
This initial leveling of the first gravel board is incredibly important and is worth taking your time over as everything else runs parallel to these boards so if there is any variation then it WILL show as your progress.
Once you have your first gravel board in place and level you can look to repeat the above process with the second gravel board. Fitting the second gravel board now is easier as you can span your spirit level between the two boards to make sure they are level with each other as you can see below.
Also, making sure that both sections are at the same level means that all your battens on each side of the post will match up at exactly the same height as each other, creating a much smoother and more polished look for your finished screening.
The nail gun we used was the Ryobi R15GN18-0 18V ONE+ Cordless 15 Gauge Nailer. Now I’ll admit that I’m a big fan of the Ryobi range of ONE+ power tools and I already have a selection of them in my toolbox so it was a no-brainer to stick with Ryobi for my choice of nail gun.
Using a nail gun made the process of fixing over 50 pieces of wood quick and easy, simply one press of the trigger instantly drives a nail into the wood and secures it to the wooden post. Just remember to nail from the outside of the pergola inwards so that you don’t see any of the nail heads when you’re sitting inside.
Please make sure though that you only ever replace the nails or unjam this Ryobi nail gun when you’ve removed the battery. I know its easy to think it will be fine but safety should ALWAYS be at the forefront of your mind when using a nail gun
This isn’t really a problem though as the battery is incredibly easy to slot in and out, and as there are two actions that you have to do before you can even fire a nail out of it you should be fine… but you just want to make extra sure as accidents can happen even to the most cautious of people!
Because I’ve never used a nail gun before the last thing I wanted to do is go wading in and start firing off nails left and right and potentially ruin the screening I’m trying to make. therefore I found a scrap of wood and started practicing.
So, remember the nails that I said came supplied with the Ryobi nail gun? Well, these came in really handy now. I could get used to using the nailer and it was a good job that I did. It comes with an adjustment that drives the nails into different depths. As you can see below it’s a very simple grey dial that you turn to set the nail depth.
Another good feature of this nailer is what happens if you have a nail that jams in the tool. Invariably this will happen from time to time but I can honestly say that I never had one single jam while I was using this nailer to make my pergola batten screening. This could have just been luck or maybe it’s a testament to the build quality of the Ryobi nailer.
Either way, if you do have a jammed nail there is a simple quick-release mechanism that allows for quick and easy removal of any bent or jammed nail. Just remember to remove the battery before attempting this!!
So once the gravel boards are installed on either side of your pergola, you can now make a start on the batten screening.
Again, make sure that they’re square at the ends, measure your gap between the pergola posts, and cut each batten to the correct length.
I found that there are slight differences in the distance between the posts (possibly due to slight warping of the posts or maybe I didn’t quite install the vertically) so I found it better to cut each batten individually and not en masse. I did try the en masse approach a couple of times but the results weren’t as good. 
Again, once you’ve cut your batten a quick sanding of the ends to tidy them up, and then you’re ready to start fixing it into place.
This brings us nicely to the spacing of your battens. This is something that really is down the personal preference, do you want a small gap that lets in less light but is more like a wall? Or do you want a larger gap to allow you to see more of what’s behind? We decided to have a gap that was approximately half the size of the width of the battens. Therefore we could use two offcuts of batten as the batten size was 47m x 22mm.
We felt that this gave us a good balance between having enough light coming through and screening what was actually behind the pergola, which is kind of the point really isn’t it?
As you can see below, we could just place our offcut wedge at each end in between the batten you’re about to fix. This meant it was incredibly easy to keep our gaps between the battens exact and consistent all the way up the screening.
Then you simply use your nail gun to nail into the back of the batten to fix to the posts, the Ryobi nail gun will fire these nails in at an angle so it made it much easier to direct them into the post. We fired on two nails at each end to create a secure fixing, if you only use one nail then the batten can easily twist and pivot and won’t stay straight.
So, once you’ve fixed your first batten into place then it’s simply a case of measure, cut, sand, nail and repeat all the way until you get to the top!
In the picture above you can see that some of the battens are all slightly bowed, or wonky. Some of the battens came like this and it’s not uncommon. So to get rid of this bowing we added a vertical support batten into the middle at the back.
Again, this process is the same as for the battens except you’re fixing it vertically and not horizontally. Don’t forget to measure the middle point of the screening battens to fix your support and to use your spirit level to make sure this is super straight as you will notice it if it isn’t!
Simply add a couple of nails in at the bottom once you have lined it up, then work your way up each batten putting in two nails into the batten from the back. Don’t forget to put your two wedges in between the battens before you nail the support in as this will even up the gaps between the battens at the midpoint which makes everything line up.
You can see the two nails going into each batten from the back.
Then that is it! This is how to make batten screening for a pergola, or any screening or fencing ideas for your garden.
I love how the sunshine shines through it in the morning sun, giving us that sun, but creating an enclosed area for us to stay dry and sheltered from the full sun.
Then the larch batten screening really comes alive during the evening lighting. Look how warm and cosy the solar outdoor lighting looks against that wood.
Thanks to the Ryobi Nail Gun this job was made much easier and quicker!
