Wall Panel 17B Light Grey: measuring up before you order

Most problems with a panelled wall are measuring problems, not product problems. The Wall Panel 17B in light grey is a wide-slat panel listed at 60 x 240 x 1.5cm with 5cm slats and 1cm gaps, four pieces to a pack. Here is the order to do the measuring in.

Measure in three places first

1. Height, three times across the wall. Floor to ceiling at each end and in the middle. The panel is 240cm. If any reading exceeds that, you need a taller panel or a planned gap closed with a trim, and it is better to know now.
2. Width, at the skirting and at the ceiling. Take the wider of the two. Walls lean, and a panel cut to the narrow reading leaves a tapering gap at the other end.
3. Everything on the wall. Sockets, switches, a thermostat, a radiator, the centre line of a television bracket. Mark their heights and distances from one fixed corner before anything is covered up.

Where the part panel goes

Divide the width by 60cm. The whole number is your full panels and the remainder is the decision. Three ways to handle it:

• Corner it. One cut panel in the least-seen corner. Quickest, and fine behind a sofa or in a hallway.
• Split it. Halve the remainder and cut both ends to match, so the wall looks centred. This is the right answer on a chimney breast or any wall seen straight on.
• Stop short. Panel a whole number of panels and finish the edge with a trim, leaving painted wall either side. On a long wall this often looks better than a cut at all.

With a 1cm gap between 5cm slats, a cut that removes a whole slat is barely noticeable. A cut through the middle of a slat leaves a half-width rib that the eye finds immediately, so set the panel out so the saw lands in a gap where you can.

17B in figures

A pack therefore runs 2.4m along the wall at full height. A 3.6m wall takes six panels, so two packs with two spare; a 5m wall takes nine, so three packs. Order whole packs and keep the spare until the job is finished and signed off.

Corners, edges and the named trim

The listing names one finishing piece, the Wall Panel PVC Trim Acoustic, and it is sold separately. Decide at the order stage how the top edge closes, what happens where the panelling meets the skirting, and how any external corner is turned, because the listing does not describe how the slats finish at a cut edge. A 1.5cm thickness is a small step, but it is a step: a door architrave loses 1.5cm of its projection, and socket faceplates have to come forward, which is an electrician's job.

The rest of the 17 group

The same wide-slat profile is listed in oak, dark grey and black, all listed at 240cm and four pieces to a pack, so you can change the tone without redoing any of the arithmetic above. For light grey with a narrower slat and a wider gap, see Wall Panel 15B. The whole group sits in Slat & Acoustic Panels.

On sound, the listing says the felt backing absorbs sound and reduces noise transmission, and gives no absorption figure, acoustic class or test standard to go with it. The shade of grey is not referenced either, so ask us to check it against your paint before the order goes in. Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond. When the three measurements are written down, the Wall Panel 17B light grey page has the photographs and the rest of the detail.