Bathroom Aquapanel or Plasterboard

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Hi all

Just been advised by my tiler who is doing my bathroom to buy Plywood (waterproof), Plasterboard (green) and PVA.

Its primarily going to be used in a walk in shower, and I believe the Plywood is for the bathroom floor for the floor tiles whilst the Plasterboard with PVA is for the shower walls.

Been looking at Wickes and saw that there is an Aquapanel.

Would I be better off buying the Aquapanel instead of the plasterboard?

Also would i still need to apply the PVA to the aquapanel? (is this known as tanking?)

Appreciate the comments.
 
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Its primarily going to be used in a walk in shower, and I believe the Plywood is for the bathroom floor for the floor tiles
What type of ply has he told you to buy WBP? What thickness? How is the walk in shower to be constructed? You’d be better off buying a shower tray former than making your own from ply which is not ideal & it must be tanked or even WBP will fail quickly due to warping. What type of floor is it? How is he preparing it?

whilst the Plasterboard with PVA is for the shower walls.
NO, NO, NO see below.

Been looking at Wickes and saw that there is an Aquapanel. Would I be better off buying the Aquapanel instead of the plasterboard?
Aquapanel is a far better bet than MR plasterboard in wet areas. MR PB can be used in dry areas & tiled straight over. PB of any sort must be tanked in a wet area or it won’t last.

Also would i still need to apply the PVA to the aquapanel? (is this known as tanking?)
DO NOT use standard PVA as a tile primer, it’s completely unsuitable; it remains water soluble & if you use it in a wet area, your tiles will most likely fail & your wall tiles will end up on the floor. Only ever use acrylic primer & then only if the adhesive manufacturer recommends it.

There are many things to catch you out particularly if you intend tiling a suspended timber floor. I would advise you read the Tiling Sticky & Forum Archive posts before doing any more work or buying materials, it could prevent you making disastrous & potentially expensive mistakes. It’s also important to use only quality trade tilling materials of the correct type for your tiles & tile base; cheapo own brand & DIY stuff is mostly crap.

I’m a little concerned about your post especially as your tiler is recommending PVA as a primer :rolleyes: . If you post more detail about what he intends by way of prep & what materials he proposes I will advise but, frankly, it might be wise to find yourself another tiler.
 
pva....... :evil:

bejeez.....

if your going for MR boards use a tanking wall membrane,homelux etc...

floors aquapanel/wedi/etc....or a floor membrane..
what type/size tiles are to be fixed...
 
Thanks again for all the responses, this is a fantastic forum!!!
Unfotunately its a whole contract to do the whole house, but as i'm in charge of materials and with your help i can hopefully make sure that he has no choice to use cheaper materials.

So to clarify a few points

The whole bathroom will be tiled with porcelin 30 x 60 (on walls and floors)

The walk in shower is actually a shower tray, the actual bathroom floor (where we will be walking to the basin or toilet) will be covered with WBP 18mm thickness. Its a timber based floor at the moment, so i'm guessing the WBP is going straight on top and then tiled

For shower walls i will buy aquapanel as suggested by the sticky
For walls near the basin will moistureshield tapered from wickes be sufficient?


After doing more reading on this forum looks like i also need to get bal wp1 for tanking the floors and the aqual panel?

thanks again to everyone
 
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The whole bathroom will be tiled with porcelin 30 x 60 (on walls and floors)
Big tiles; the walls will almost certainly be an issue if plaster is involved & may even be too much for raw plasterboard; you need to check the tile weight. You must only use cement powder adhesive with tiles that size not tub ready mix; plaster/plasterboard must be acrylic primed to avoid possible reaction between gypsum & the cement in the tile adhesive.

The walk in shower is actually a shower tray, the actual bathroom floor (where we will be walking to the basin or toilet) will be covered with WBP 18mm thickness. Its a timber based floor at the moment, so i'm guessing the WBP is going straight on top and then tiled
Is it a replacement floor or overboard? If overboard what sort of timber floor, boards, chip (chip will be a NO in my view)? If it’s a replacement floor, what size/pitch/span are the joists? Ply should be acrylic primed on the underside & edges before it’s laid & must be securely screw fixed every 200mm into the joists.

For shower walls i will buy aquapanel as suggested by the sticky
For walls near the basin will moistureshield tapered from wickes be sufficient?
Moisture resistant plasterboard is fine for “dry” areas but not taper edge; use square edge boards even if you intend plastering ½ tiled areas (MR PB must be primed before plastering) but you don’t want to plaster if tiling, just tile over the PB as plaster will restrict tile weight which could be a problem with your 60 x 30cm tiles; you must check the tile weight!

After doing more reading on this forum looks like i also need to get bal wp1 for tanking the floors and the aqual panel?
Wet rooms should be full tanked on floor & at least 1m up the walls, full height in immediate wet areas.
 
Tile weight is 1.8kg per tile, will this be sufficient for MR board/Aquapanel/normal plasterboard?

Its a timber floor at the moment and I believe the WBP Plywood (18mm) will go straight on top.

Thanks again!!
 
Are you sure they are 1.8KG per tile? i am currently fitting 600 x 400 tiles in my bathroom and they are 4.8KG each, not much bigger than yours and certainly not 3KG of difference for the sake of 100 mm, either the tiles weight is wrong, or they are not porcelain.
 
Your right, I'm being a numpty

Weight is 3.78 kg per tile.

Do we reckon this is alright?
 
Sorry for chasing

ordering the tiles tomorrow, the shop said they didn't think the weight would be issue provided i use the right adhesive (powder)

Planning on putting the 3.8kg tiles (30x60) onto the aqua panel and onto the MR plasteboard for walls and WBP (18mm) for floor (overboarded onto timber)
 
Hi Papereyes,

That works out at about 21KG per Sq Mtr for the tiles you need to add about 4KG for adhesive and grout, so you have no issues

The below details the weights for different substrates,

Wall Substrates Maximum Weight of Tiling per m²
Gypsum Plaster 20Kg/m²
Gypsum Plasterboard Direct (without a plaster skim) 32Kg/m²
Plywood (WBP) Up to 30Kg/m²
Lightweight Tilebacking Boards* Up to 40Kg/m². Dependant upon the type and thickness of the board.
Glass reinforced Cement Sheets Up to 50kg/m², Dependant upon the type and thickness of the board.
Gypsum Fibre boards Approximately 35- 40Kg/m²
 
Have just dug out the bottom 6inchs of all the tiles around my over bath shower, because the pb there on is rotten as a pear, i would say go for the aquapanel!
 

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