First time shower fitting and tiling

[Fridge03]

Hi all,

After some advice. Renovating our cottage and the old bathroom has been completely ripped out.

We will be building out a stud wall for one side of the shower enclosure.
The original plan was to use ply and then tank however I’m know much more keen to use a tile backing board.
So, should I ply the stud as normal and then fix the boards to the ply and the other walls in the enclosure or should I ditch the ply and just fix the backing board to the stud work?
The ply wall will be where our shower controls and fixings are going so I’m inclined to put the ply up and board over.

There seems to be different options of thickness from 6mm, 10mm and 12mm. I’m only using small metro tiles so not hanging heavy/large tiles on the wall. Would the 6mm suffice?

Thanks all

 

[Fridge03]

Just another quick question as well, should I install the boards and then shower tray in flush to the boards or tray first and boards after so they sit flush on top of tray?

 

[JaimieH]

Hello Fridge03, ply would be a good idea under tile backer boards as it will provide something solid to fix your shower valve and fixtures to. In addition to this work out where the frame enclosure will be put in extra studwork here rather than just relying on the ply. I'd use a construction board like Marmox, STS, Q-Board instead of cement based tile backer boards like Aquapanel, No More Ply or Hardibacker. Follow the instructions when fixing, use the correct washers and then you'll only then have to tape the joints and screw heads instead of tanking the whole walls. 6mm marmox will be fine to use but only if they are over the top of the plywood. If you want to fix direct to the studwork you'll need 10mm, 12.5mm or 20mm depending on the stud centres. Fit the walls before offering your tray into position and run a nice fat bead of sanitary silicone around the tray edges to seal and bond it to the walls. Is your tray raised or a low profile one on the floor?

 

[Fridge03]

Hello Fridge03, ply would be a good idea under tile backer boards as it will provide something solid to fix your shower valve and fixtures to. In addition to this work out where the frame enclosure will be put in extra studwork here rather than just relying on the ply. I'd use a construction board like Marmox, STS, Q-Board instead of cement based tile backer boards like Aquapanel, No More Ply or Hardibacker. Follow the instructions when fixing, use the correct washers and then you'll only then have to tape the joints and screw heads instead of tanking the whole walls. 6mm marmox will be fine to use but only if they are over the top of the plywood. If you want to fix direct to the studwork you'll need 10mm, 12.5mm or 20mm depending on the stud centres. Fit the walls before offering your tray into position and run a nice fat bead of sanitary silicone around the tray edges to seal and bond it to the walls. Is your tray raised or a low profile one on the floor?

Thanks for the advice.
Its a low profile tray.

 

[JaimieH]

Your tray will need to be bedded down on the floor so make sure the area below the tray is strong enough to support it as any flex in the floor is bad. Add noggings to strengthen if required when you've got the floor up to fit the waste. The instructions will probably say to use a weak sand and cement mix to bed the tray but personally I always use a flexible cement based tile adhesive instead, it's easier to level and provides a much stronger bond. The important thing here is to make sure you fill any voids under the tray or else you'll have hollow weak points. If you have any 6mm insulation board left screw this to the floor first and then you'll have a waterproof surface to fit the tray onto. You could also use 6mm No More Ply or Hardibacker for this instead. Good luck.