Wall Panel 88T Walnut: access, handling and checks on arrival

Most of what goes wrong with cladding happens off the wall: in a gateway too narrow for the lengths, or in a pack nobody checked until the fitter arrived. Wall Panel 88T - Walnut - Outdoor - 290cm, code AWS-OWP022, comes six panels to a pack at 290cm a panel, and those two facts are worth thinking about before the order rather than on the morning.

Getting 290cm to the back garden

A 290cm length will not turn a tight dog-leg, and it will not go through a standard house doorway and round a hall. Walk the route you expect the panels to take and look for the pinch points: the width of a side gate, the swing of a garden door, a low meter box, overhead cabling above a drive. If the only way through is the house, measure the diagonal of the narrowest turn rather than the door width, since that is what actually governs. Where the route genuinely will not take the length, the question to put to the shop before ordering is where the pack can be set down and how it is packaged, not whether it can be cut shorter on the lorry.

Open a pack before the fitter is standing there

Open one pack when it arrives, while there is still time to raise anything. Worth looking at:

• The code and title on the label against what you ordered. This part of the range carries both an 88 and an 89 series in overlapping colours at the same published size, so the full code is the only reliable identifier.
• The count. Six panels a pack is what the listing states.
• The ends. The interlock is the working part of the panel; a crushed edge on a long length usually shows at the ends first.
• Colour across panels. Lay two or three side by side in daylight rather than judging one in the hall.

Keep one panel back

Order so there is a spare, and leave it whole. A panel damaged after the job is finished is much easier to replace from your own garage than to match later, and the cost of carrying one spare is small against the cost of a part-clad wall waiting on a single length. The listing's figures make the sum simple: 2.78m² of cover per pack, 16 x 290 x 2cm per panel when fitted and interlocked, and the dimensions printed without labels, so check which figure is the cover width with the shop before cutting.

Order the edges at the same time

Panels arriving without their trims is the other common stall. The listing names the Wall Panel 88/89 End Trim - 290cm for cut and open edges and the Wall Panel 88/89 Corner Trim - 290cm for external corners, both in packs of four and both sold separately. Add them to the same order and they arrive together. The rest of the fittings are in Outdoor Trims & Fittings, and the other colours at this size are in Outdoor Wall Panels, including Wall Panel 89T - Walnut - Outdoor - 290cm.

What is not published

The listing gives no weight for a panel or a pack, no pack dimensions, and no fixing method, clip or spacing. It describes the material only as engineered PVC composite with textured slats and UV resistance. If the lift, the fixings or the cutting method matter to how you plan the work, those are shop questions, and better asked at the order stage.

When the route is walked and the trims are counted, order here: Wall Panel 88T - Walnut - Outdoor - 290cm. Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond it.