Shower niche

[johnc86]

Hi, I have just boarded out my bathroom, the area where the shower is going to be had 12mm Hardibacker board over a stud wall. The studs are 400mm centers. I put noggins at the half was point between the floor and ceiling.

I'd quite like to add a 'shower niche', or recessed shelf. I used 2 x 4 for the stud wall so I have quite a bit of space for the shelf. I'm looking at these:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Thermopa...FAuE3UctJEEtZYvD_mZw:rk:1:pf:1&frcectupt=true

I still have access to the rear of the stud wall which is not yet boarded so I can access the whole of the inside of the wall from behind.

I am thinking that all I'd have to do is make a hole in the Hardibacker and then put 2 more noggins, 1 above the shelf and 1 bellow to support the shelf. I can pack something in either side as well to effectively 'box in' the niche.

Is this easy enough to do? Is it worth the hassle? The niches I am looking at done have a 'lip' on the front, the front of the niche would be flush with the face of the hardibacker board. Would I need some sort of waterproof tape on the inner sides of the niche folded out onto the hardibacker to seal it?

Thanks

 

[opps]

You may want to consider tanking the whole wall below the niche just in case water ever gets behind the tiles.

I have only ever done one in a wet room shower, I tilted the bottom tiles very slightly to help run off. I just used marine ply for the niche as the rest of the wall was marine ply. I taped and tanked the whole wall including the niche. My niche was pretty tall though. The client wanted it to be able to accomodate the shower head when the two exterior walls of the shower enclosure was pushed back against the wall.

https://www.duravit.co.uk/products/all_series/openspace.com-en.html

Not cheap but a brilliant way of fitting a shower into a small bathroom. Fold it away when you finish showering.

If you are using a porous natural stone such as marble or limestone I would advise against the niche unless you are going to religious about resealing the stone tiles on a regular basis.