Tiling Bathroom - Going overboard?

[ChrisSG]

Hi All,

New to the forum but not new to DIY...

Been reading a lot of posts on here recently to get some ideas on the best way to go about tiling the bathroom in my new house. It's not going to be anything too complex - L-shape bath with shower, sink on counter top unit, toilet and tiled floor to ceiling on all four walls. I'll be taking the old plasterboard walls out with the tiles on for speed as they'll no doubt get damaged taking the tiles off anyway.

My main question is, how far do I go with waterproofing behind the tiles?
I've read lots about using Wedi, Jackoboard etc but that would work out pretty expensive if I was to replace all plasterboard with new plasterboard then whack Wedi boards over the top to waterproof the whole room. Think that would also be unnecessary as it's not a wet room.
I was thinking of using Hardibacker board instead of new plasterboard on all the walls as this can be tiled straight on to and is water-resistant (right?!). Then around the top of the bath and the shower area, using some thin (6mm?) Wedi (or equivalent) board on top of Hardiebacker to make sure this area is waterproof.

I find it quite confusing as there's a lot of conflicting advice out there especially when you factor in the cost of some of this stuff!

Any advice or confirmations on the above would be really appreciated. Might even post some pics when it's done so you can judge the work accordingly

Thanks in advance,
Chris

P.S. Sorry if this is a repeat of other questions asked. Other threads I found led me to posting this though!

 

[Tile Shop]

My preference would be to stagger 12mm hardie around the whole room, either screwed to the studs, or a combination of adhesive and mechanical fixings to masonry. Alkaline resistant tape and adhesive over all the joints and then just tank the immediate wet area in the shower and part way over the bath and the other way (as far as the tanking kit will allow to be safe), with something like the Ardex WPC (Hardie is water resistant, not waterproof so tanking in wet areas is a must.)

You could go the Wedi type route. @Tile Fix Direct do a version called Orbry Board which is very reasonably priced. Could be worth weighing up against Hardie and see how it compares:

Orbry Tile Backer Boards

Shop our range of cement tile backer boards from the trusted brand Orbry. Supplied at our famously low internet-only prices by Tile Fix Direct

www.tilefixdirect.com

 

[Boggs]

I would just use plasterboard and use a liquid tanking kit to waterproof the wet areas.

 

[acaciaguy]

As Boggs says. Just done exactly the thing on a recent job. Although I use mr board

 

[ChrisSG]

Thanks all for the quick replies!

I think I'll go for the MR board and tank the shower and above bath areas, as suggested. I thought the other options might be a bit too keen/expensive currently.

Appreciate the advice

 

[ChrisSG]

Just a quick one as I'm currently putting uo the MR PB. It's tapered edge board so is it advisable to tape and use jointing compound before tiling, let that set then tile over as normal? Or can you use tiling adheasive?

The tiles are quite big (600x300mm) but I dont want any weird voids behind them where the tapered edges are!


Thanks again,

Chris

 

[Spare Tool]

Scrim tape the board joints and give the tapers a skim over with your tile adhesive..

 

[ChrisSG]

Sweet! That's what I was hoping.

Cheers!

 

[ChrisSG]

Well, as promised, here are some pics. Had to unexpectedly put extra studs in too as the spacing was too wide according to Knauff's spec (even though it had worked up til now; rather be sure than the walls fall down).

Started on the tiling too but can't say it's enjoyable yet. We've gone brickbond pattern with 600x300 porcelain and that's fine but im struggling to get the tiles to stay flush with each other using 10mm notch and back buttering Walls are mostly flat/not much variation in them either.

Judge away!

Don't be too harsh though, this is the first big tiling job I've undertaken!

Cheers, Chris

 

[Boggs]

Looks ok so far
Better prep than other jobs I have seen today.
Check the tiles for flatness by laying them face to face, if they are out you could try using levelling clips, like these


Cheap enough on eBay and should help a bit.