I am currently in the middle of an en suite revamp and could do with a little advice. Its a low level shower tray (40mm) that will sit at one end of the room and a toilet and wall mounted sink at the other. There is studwork on two sides of the tray and a blockwork wall on the third. A wetroom style screen will complete it. Im all first fixed and am now looking to cover the walls and floors prior to tiling. The floor is floor boards. The tiles are 600 x 300 x 10mm and the room will be fully tiled. I do like to do things right first time so what would the best approach be?

hi daz,i would be happy with installing moisture resistant plasterboard and tanking the wet area

also if the floorboards are solid then sheet over with 6mm cement knauf boards and tile direct

As above, you could look at using a backer board for the walls. As for the floor, have a read through the link below. The floor boards will have to be over boarded with a cement board or replaced with ply and then over boarded.


Plywood floors...

Hi Daz

All good advice above, dont forget to get timber fixings in the stud walls for glass panel and shower riser bar etc...

Thanks for the advice guys. I was originally going down the MR plasterboard route with a tanking membrane, but, reading a few threads on here made me start thinking about a Marmox type product. What is deemed to be the 'best' tanking membrane?

What sort of usage will the shower be getting? If it's not heavy, i wouldn't even bother tanking (I know i'll probably be crucified for saying this lol!). If it's tiled and grouted properly it'll last longer than your taste in the current trend, and you (or more likely the lady of the house hehe!) will want to update it before it fails. In which case any membrane you put on will be destroyed when you remove the tiles. Bare in mind that i've only been in this game for 2.5 years, and am mainly basing my opinion on conversations with customers and other tradesmen, and obvioulsly from ripping out existing showers that have been in place for decades without tanking.

To be fair 'our lass' does like a shower or two so it will get medium useage i guess. I will still tank it, if only for piece of mind. Another couple of hundred quid isnt going to make much difference.

Originally Posted by daztheoneclaw

To be fair 'our lass' does like a shower or two so it will get medium useage i guess. I will still tank it, if only for piece of mind. Another couple of hundred quid isnt going to make much difference.

i would defo tank it to be safe, you can get a bal tanking kit in topps for £70 or £47 if you have /know someone with a trade account

Tank it to be sure but I am with Beanz on views on tanking.. what did everyone use before it became popular.?????

Originally Posted by Gazebo

Tank it to be sure but I am with Beanz on views on tanking.. what did everyone use before it became popular.?????

There are loads of threads on this on here. The out come is always the same, its better to do it than not.

i'd guess people didn't use anything, that's why we're ripping out so many failures, i'm half way through doing one at the moment. nealy every old installation i rip out had mould/mildew, some bad some really bad. why pay a lot oif money on tiles/labour and skimp to save £50/£100

That's my point though Mike. They're "old" installations, and probably over-due an update anyway. Say thay were tanked, and you had to go in to rip it out, to bring it up to date? How much MORE work is that gonna create? A lot of times, you can get the tiles off without completely destroying the substrate; i'm not sure how easy it's gonna be in 10/20 years when all these tanked jobs start coming up... Maybe it won't make any difference, only time will tell i guess.

i have yet to get a job where the substrate isnt damaged with tile removal to be honest

if its plasterboard i dont even bother i just rip the whole sheet off the wall with tiles

i know what your saying about tanking and customers,when i explain it to a lot i get the look of your ripping us off

im sure someone said on here they include tanking in every job as part of general installtions and dont even bring it up as an option....if you have a good customer base and are confident of getting the work i reckon this is a good ethic

With low level trays (40mm) it's sometimes a good look if the floor tiles come flush (or very nearly) with the tray. This can be achieved with fitting the tray to the floorboards and then overboarding with thick WBP ply followed by a 6mm cement board.
Obviously this rise in height can cause a major issue at the threshold to adjoining rooms, so in those circumstances the floorboards can be removed where the tray is to sit and be placed directly on the joists - extra noggins for support is usually needed to adequately frame the tray. The pic below shows a 40mm tray done like that (chipboard not floorboards but same principle) - only needed 6mm cement board and a 10mm thick tile comes flush.

Well im deffinately going to tank. Ive spent way too much time and money to even think about skimping now. Im looking Mapei Mapelastic AquaDefense at the moment as it seems easy to apply and PHG Wetrooms is about 2 miles from me. Is this considered to be a decent product. Cost isnt a massive issue to be fair, just as long as its right. Can i bond the tapes to the shower tray to create a waterproof seal from top to bottom?