Topspan, Top Hat or Battens – Whats the difference?
Topspan, Top Hat or battens, whats the difference?
Not a great deal really.
Top Hat is a Stramit product.
Topspan is a Lysaght Product.
They are both often referred to as battens.
Similar in shape both Lysaght and Stramit have a range of different battens with shorter or taller profiles and differing base metal thickness (BMT) to suit different purposes.
Topspan or Top hats are commonly used in Domestic Sheds. Often referred to as Battens. They are fixed to the wall columns and roof rafters and your wall and roof sheeting is then screwed to the battens.
Make sure that if you are buying your own Battens for a project that you buy the right type, by that we mean that you check the specifications of the Battens you want to buy against the job you want them to do.
Domestic sheds in Australia tend to use the 60 or 61 mm battens like LYSAGHT TOPSPAN® 61 in the roof and walls of sheds that have bays that are 4m or less. The battens in the Roof often have a thicker BMT than the ones used in the wall.
Bay sizes of over 3m often use a thicker BMT battens than bays of 3m and less.
Domestic Shed battens are available in 3 Base Metal Thicknesses .60mm , .75mm and 1mm.
Sheds with bay sizes greater than 4m use the oversize battens like LYSAGHT TOPSPAN® 120 or Cee or Zed section.
Ceiling batten (a 22mm high profile) is often used by people inside sheds to assist with fixing gyprock. Always check to make sure your shed can handle additional load that the fixing of Gyprock will produce.
Roof battens (usually about 40mm high profile) is used in the housing industry and is fixed to the roof trusses.
