04 Oct 2026
Outdoor wall panels and composite cladding: ideas for garden walls, sheds and balconies
Composite cladding does outdoors what panelling does in a hallway: it covers a surface you would rather not look at and gives it a texture. Outdoor Wall Panels covers eight panel series in three lengths within the Garden & Outdoor range, and it is the range most often bought for something that is not strictly a wall.
Before anything else: we sell the panels, the brackets and the trims, and nothing beyond that. There is no fitting service and no survey, and nothing here should be read as structural guidance. Whether a particular wall, shed or balcony can take cladding, and how it ought to be fixed, is a question for the manufacturer's instructions and for a tradesperson.
Where it tends to go
- Garden and boundary walls. The common use: slatted panels over blockwork or render, turning a grey wall into a backdrop for planting.
- Shed and outbuilding sides. Cladding only the face you see from the house, often matched to a nearby fence finish.
- Balconies and terraces. The 180cm and 240cm lengths suit a run below a handrail without cross-cutting every piece.
- Bin and bike stores, planters, garden-room exteriors. Short runs where a single pack goes a long way.
Fixing is bracket-based on most of the series. The Bracket For Outdoor Panels 73/83/84/92 pack holds 50, and its description says you slide the bracket onto the panel lip and fasten it to the wall with a single screw. The 73, 74, 83, 84 and 92 listings all name that bracket and end with the line "Brackets recommended for installation"; the 87, 88 and 89 listings name trims only, so check those individually.
Lengths and coverage, series by series
Panels come in 180cm, 240cm and 290cm. Choosing by length rather than purely by look saves a great deal of cutting — a 2.4m-high wall clad vertically in a 240cm panel needs no cross-cuts at all. The figures below are each series' own listing figures.
| Series | Length | Size per panel | Pieces per pack | Coverage per pack |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 73 | 290cm | 21 × 290 × 2.5cm | 6 | 3.65m² |
| 74 | 290cm | 20 × 290 × 1.5cm | 6 | 3.48m² |
| 83 | 180cm and 290cm | 21 × 180 × 2.5cm / 21 × 290 × 2.5cm | 6 | 2.27m² / 3.65m² |
| 84 | 240cm | 16 × 240 × 1cm | 12 | 4.61m² |
| 87 | 290cm | 13.5 × 290 × 2cm fitted | 6 | 2.35m² |
| 88 | 290cm | 16 × 290 × 2cm fitted | 6 | 2.78m² |
| 89 | 290cm | 16 × 290 × 2cm fitted | 6 | 2.78m² |
| 92 | 240cm | 16 × 240 × 1.2cm | 12 | 4.61m² |
The 83 series is the only one listed in two lengths, and not every finish appears in both — Wall Panel 83A – Oak 03 is listed at 180cm and 290cm, while Wall Panel 83F – Khaki is 290cm only. Check the individual listing rather than the series.
Profile, not just colour
The series differ in how the face is broken up, and that reads more strongly from across a garden than the shade does. The 73, 74 and 83 panels are slatted with a 3.5cm slat and a 1.5cm space between slats. The 84 and 92 series use a finer 2.4cm slat with 1.4cm spacing, which is why they come twelve to a pack instead of six. The 87, 88 and 89 listings describe a wood grain texture with an interlocking edge rather than quoting slat figures, so those give a flatter, boarded face. Worth comparing two series in the same finish before choosing.
The trim trap, and how to avoid it
This is the one thing to take away from the article. Trims live in Outdoor Trims & Fittings and they are named after panel series — but the names do not cover every panel.
- Wall Panel 73/83 Trim – 290cm — 4 × 4 × 290cm, ten a pack.
- Wall Panel 73/83 Corner Trim – 290cm — the same 4 × 4 × 290cm section, three a pack.
- Wall Panel 84 Trim – 240cm — 1.5 × 2.5 × 240cm, ten a pack.
- Wall Panel 92 Trim – 240cm — 2 × 1 × 240cm, ten a pack.
- Wall Panel 88/89 End Trim – 290cm and Wall Panel 88/89 Corner Trim – 290cm — four a pack each, and both list the eight 88 and 89 panels they fit by name.
Count the series in that list: 73, 83, 84, 88, 89 and 92. There is no trim named 87, and none named 74. A shopper working from trim names alone would conclude that those two panels cannot be finished, which is simply wrong. The 87 listings name both the 73/83 trim and the 84 trim; the 74 listings name the 84 trim. Read the panel's own listing for the trim it takes, and do not shop by the trim's title.
The same applies in reverse. The 73/83 trim's description says it can also be used with our decking, and it is the part every board in Decking names for finishing a deck edge — something you would never guess from a title that says "wall panel". One profile, two jobs.
A worked example: a 4m wall, 2.4m high
A garden wall 4m wide and 2.4m high is 9.6m². Clad vertically in the 84 series, whose panels are 240cm long, every panel is a full-height single piece and there is nothing to cross-cut.
- Panels: 4m divided by the 0.16m panel width is 25 panels. Twelve to a pack means three packs, which is 36 panels — more than needed, and that is the cost of buying in whole packs. By area it would be 9.6 divided by 4.61, or 2.08 packs; the count is again the figure to trust.
- Brackets: the pack of 50. The listing does not state brackets per panel, so take that number from the fitting instructions rather than from arithmetic.
- Trim: Wall Panel 84 Trim in 240cm lengths, ten a pack — enough for the two vertical edges and the top from a single pack.
Run the same wall in the 73 series instead and the sums move against you: 290cm panels on a 2.4m height means cutting 50cm off every one, and 4m divided by 0.21m is 20 panels, or four packs of six. Matching panel length to the dimension you are covering is usually worth more than squeezing the coverage figure.
Finishes
Across the eight series the finish names include Oak, Oak 02, Oak 03, Light Brown, Dark Brown, Grey, Grey Oak, Dark Grey, Dark Oak, Black, Khaki and Walnut, though no single series carries all of them. The 83 series is listed in more finishes than any other, and it shares Oak 03, Grey, Dark Brown, Black and Khaki with the 86 boards in Fencing and the 85 boards in Decking — the practical route to a wall, a fence and a deck that read as one scheme. Compare listing photographs rather than trusting a shared name across different products.
The panel descriptions state UV resistance and weather resistance as their own specifications, and we are not adding anything to that. Everything in the range is bought in from a supplier and sold as materials.
Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond. If a listing does not make the trim or bracket pairing clear, use the "Ask question about this product" button and we will check it for you.