Hello.

The extension on my mother's house has "shiplap" cladding on three
sides between the roof and window frame.

Two faces of cladding were in fine condition and I just rubbed
down, undercoated and repainted this.

The 3rd face of cladding was "crumbling" in places and had a fair
amount of filler.

I have bought and prepared (prime/ucoat/topcoat) pre-cut lengths
of pine T&G cladding (not an exact match to the shiplap, but all that
I could find).

The cladding is ready to go up on a dry day.

My question is how to fix the cladding. Will I need galvanised
nails or brass screws or something similarly special? Or will standard
nails work fine? Should I predrill holes through the cladding to
reduce the risk of it splitting when I nail it? I'm intending to wack
frame sealant at the ends of the boards as they meet the vertical
corner "pieces" of 1 x 1 timber. Water tightness will take priority
over looks.

I'm hoping to pull the old cladding down and fix the new in about 4
hours.

Once it's all in place I'll give it one final top coat.

Anything else I should consider when doing this job?

Thanks

Clive