Wall Panel 73D Dark Brown: running it upright or on its side

Most people order outdoor panelling by colour and then discover the fitting question on the day. Wall Panel 73D in dark brown is 290cm long and 21cm wide, which means it will stand upright on almost any garden wall or lie flat in courses, and the two approaches give you a different job entirely.

The figures to work from

The listing gives the panel as 21 x 290 x 2.5cm, six pieces to a pack, covering 3.65m². Slats are 3.5cm wide with 1.5cm between them. It is described as an engineered composite for outdoor use and as UV resistant, and the trims are sold separately. The code is AWS-OWP73D.

Upright: one cut per panel

Stood on end, each panel reaches 290cm, which clears a typical boundary wall or fence line with length to spare. The attraction is the cut count. Every panel gets trimmed once, at the top or the bottom, and that single cut can be hidden under a trim or behind a coping. Six panels cover 1.26m of width, so an upright run is costed straight off the width measurement.

Horizontal: more joints, fewer cuts

Laid flat, each panel spans 290cm of width and builds height in 21cm courses. On a run narrower than 2.9m you may get away with almost no rip cuts at all, which matters if you do not have a saw set up for a long clean cut. The trade is joints: anything wider than 2.9m needs a vertical joint in every course, and those joints want staggering rather than stacking into one line.

Work the courses out before you buy. Landing on a whole course is far tidier than ripping the last panel down the middle of a slat, because a cut through the 1.5cm gap reads as a shadow and a cut through a 3.5cm slat reads as a mistake.

What to settle before ordering

1. Measure each wall face on its own. A corner is two faces and takes panels on both.
2. Decide the direction, then count panels, then round up to whole packs.
3. Count external corners and open edges, because each one wants a trim.
4. Check what you are fixing into. The listing recommends Bracket For Outdoor Panels for installation but does not give fixing centres or suitable substrates, so ask.

The edge pieces the listing names are Wall Panel 73/83 Trim - 290cm and Wall Panel 73/83 Corner Trim - 290cm, both in Outdoor Trims & Fittings.

Dark brown, and the alternatives

Dark brown is the timber-toned end of the 73 set without going to black. If you want the same profile lighter, Wall Panel 73B in grey and Wall Panel 73A in Oak 03 use the same dimensions and the same trims. For a shorter panel on a low wall, Wall Panel 83A is offered in a 180cm length as well as 290cm. Compare the range on the Outdoor Wall Panels page.

The listing does not state the slat count per panel, the weight of a pack, or any tested weathering figure beyond the words UV resistant, so ask about those if they bear on your plan. Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond. When the direction is decided, order Wall Panel 73D - Dark Brown - Outdoor - 290cm and add the trims to the same order.