I've ripped my ensuite to bits to reinforce the studwork in an alcove for the shower prior to putting up aquapanel then quartz tiles.

For the 3 wall alcove, it's 800mm width for each of the 3 walls in a "U" formation.

The left and right wall are studded, and i'll be adding in extra noggins, but the back wall had the old plaster board spotted onto the blockwork wall (the heavy duty blocks that are structural behind the outer brick wall in a house) behind with some cement based adhesive (type unknown), as the front to the back of the alcove is only 819mm deep now that the board has gone, but the other 2 walls are 800mm apart.

So I literally have 19mm to play for increasing the thickness of the back wall with adhesive. Should I spot the aquaboard to the wall, or should I drill and fix rawlplugs into the wall and screw the aquaboard into those holes with the ceramic coated screws?

Third option is to use rawlplugs to screw batons made from 2" x 1" dressed (planed) to the blockwork (as 1" dressed is 19mm thick), and then screw the aquapanel to the batons. The screws are 40mm long, so knocking off 12.5mm thickness of aquapanel leaves 28mm of thread and only 19mm of wood to bite. Are these screws hard enough to go into the blockwork for 9mm depth?

The 2 studded walls will have their aquapanel fixed with the ceramic screws.

So Spot adhesive or rawlplugs (into blockwork), or 19mm thick batons rawlplugged into blockwork?

If spot, which adhesive would you recommend?

If rawlplugs, would you put a thin bead of gripfill on the back of the board before you screw it to the wall (or am I just over engineering)?

I intend to put the back run of aquapanel in first and then the 2 sides will go in to overlap the left edge and right edge of the back board (leaving 3mm gap between boards to silicone in of course).

Originally Posted by monkeyhanger

I've ripped my ensuite to bits to reinforce the studwork in an alcove for the shower prior to putting up aquapanel then quartz tiles.

For the 3 wall alcove, it's 800mm width for each of the 3 walls in a "U" formation.

The left and right wall are studded, and i'll be adding in extra noggins, but the back wall had the old plaster board spotted onto the blockwork wall (the heavy duty blocks that are structural behind the outer brick wall in a house) behind with some cement based adhesive (type unknown), as the front to the back of the alcove is only 819mm deep now that the board has gone, but the other 2 walls are 800mm apart.

So I literally have 19mm to play for increasing the thickness of the back wall with adhesive. Should I spot the aquaboard to the wall, or should I drill and fix rawlplugs into the wall and screw the aquaboard into those holes with the ceramic coated screws?

Third option is to use rawlplugs to screw batons made from 2" x 1" dressed (planed) to the blockwork (as 1" dressed is 19mm thick), and then screw the aquapanel to the batons. The screws are 40mm long, so knocking off 12.5mm thickness of aquapanel leaves 28mm of thread and only 19mm of wood to bite. Are these screws hard enough to go into the blockwork for 9mm depth?

The 2 studded walls will have their aquapanel fixed with the ceramic screws.

So Spot adhesive or rawlplugs (into blockwork), or 19mm thick batons rawlplugged into blockwork?

If spot, which adhesive would you recommend?

If rawlplugs, would you put a thin bead of gripfill on the back of the board before you screw it to the wall (or am I just over engineering)?

I intend to put the back run of aquapanel in first and then the 2 sides will go in to overlap the left edge and right edge of the back board (leaving 3mm gap between boards to silicone in of course).

i would use dry lining adhesive to dot and dab it to the wall, as for the screws going into the block, they'll probably push the battens off the wall before penetrating the blockwork

You can't dot and dab aqua panel if it's a hardie backer type board and tape over the joints not silicon
Any chance you can render that wall?

You'll have to fix it with plugs and screws, as Faithhealer says you can dot and dab with cement board

Can you get a sheet off scluter kerdi board for this wall? this you can dot and dab using tile adhesve spf, and they supply anchor fixings that you can then screw this back to the masonry wall with!

you can get a sheet off schluter kerdi board this is a tile backer board that is waterproof, this you can dot and dab with spf addy and they supply the anchor fixings so as it can be screwed back to the masonry wall as well.

Originally Posted by Scottley

You'll have to fix it with plugs and screws, as Faithhealer says you can dot and dab with cement board

do you want me to edit that Scott?

Originally Posted by doug boardley

do you want me to edit that Scott?

't

Yes please Doug was written in a hurry!

Originally Posted by Scottley

Yes please Doug was written in a hurry!

more like

Originally Posted by peckers

more like

not at that time of day!

After speaking to my Dad (Civil Engineer) I made a shallow set of studwork, only 30mm deep (deep enough to incorporate the depth of the ceramic screws, beyond the aquapanel), but lots of noggins, fixed to the masonry wall with Fisher hammer plug fixings 8 x 100, and also screwed both left and right studs into the stud walls that lie at 90 degrees to it. The side of the shower tray will end up being overhung by the wall 10mm more than on the other 2 walls, but theres still plenty of lippage of the shower tray exposed for sealing.

I've probably gone way overboard on the studwork, it's all 3" x 2" planed, 400mm centres and a noggin every 300mm height.

I'm ready to start tiling tomorrow.

Still cant believe how time consuming it all is - it's taken me about 30 hours to rip out the old sanitary ware, rip out plasterboards where the aquapanel is going, set up the plumbing for the new sanitary ware, do studwork/noggins, take everything to the tip (the builders left so much old rubble and offcuts behind the partitions into the eaves), take the soil pipe a totally different direction for the toilet and made 2 recessed cabinets (from some plywood, which will be lined with the strand woven bamboo flooring we're putting on the floor) to fit in one of the partition walls. Is that slow for 1 person?

Originally Posted by monkeyhanger

After speaking to my Dad (Civil Engineer) I made a shallow set of studwork, only 30mm deep (deep enough to incorporate the depth of the ceramic screws, beyond the aquapanel), but lots of noggins, fixed to the masonry wall with Fisher hammer plug fixings 8 x 100, and also screwed both left and right studs into the stud walls that lie at 90 degrees to it. The side of the shower tray will end up being overhung by the wall 10mm more than on the other 2 walls, but theres still plenty of lippage of the shower tray exposed for sealing.

I've probably gone way overboard on the studwork, it's all 3" x 2" planed, 400mm centres and a noggin every 300mm height.

I'm ready to start tiling tomorrow.

Still cant believe how time consuming it all is - it's taken me about 30 hours to rip out the old sanitary ware, rip out plasterboards where the aquapanel is going, set up the plumbing for the new sanitary ware, do studwork/noggins, take everything to the tip (the builders left so much old rubble and offcuts behind the partitions into the eaves), take the soil pipe a totally different direction for the toilet and made 2 recessed cabinets (from some plywood, which will be lined with the strand woven bamboo flooring we're putting on the floor) to fit in one of the partition walls. Is that slow for 1 person?

Sounds ok to me, if its for yourself it doesnt matter. As long as you do the best job you can time is irrelevant, although your partner may not see it that way!

I allow 10 working days for a full refit with the average room having 3/4 days worth of tiling so i reckon your pretty much on target for that

I dropped a clanger - make that a tile! I put the shower tray in first and lined it with 4 layers of cardboard and still a dropped tile holed the tray - gutted!

I've only been able to mix 5kg of adhesive at a time, even then the stuff seemed to be so quick to go off (Keraquick), just about used around 95% of it on every mix before it looked beyond safe useage. Did about 2sq.m in 2.5 hours, including cutting 16 tiles, then knacked the shower tray and finished up. I thought that was really slow - it'll take me forever to get finished!

I'm going to do my tile cuts tomorrow after work and lash on with it on Saturday, then pull the tray out when i'm done - a new one is on the way - a £42 mistake!