Fixing to a Pocket Wall - Tile Advice

[Steve H]

Good Morning Tilers,
As usual, I mainly come to this forum when I have a question. I am doing an ensuite rebuild at home. I am installing a pocket wall for a sliding door, please see pictures attached. When I stripped the ensuite, I decided to replace the external plasterboard wall with 12mm Hardibacker, that is up. I have now constructed the frame for the pocket door and I am not certain of the best way forward. My thoughts are either:
Fix a 12mm plasterboard to the pocket frame, then tank thoroughly and tile.
or
Fix a 12mm plasterboard to the pocket frame, then 6mm jackoboard, tank and tile.
or
Fix 12mm hardibacker, like the external wall, then tank and tile. The electric shower will be in the corner where the pocket door frame meets the external wall.
I would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions.
Thanks
Steve

 

[Flintstone]

I have recently tiled a room where this exact thing was fitted and I can tell you this much the wall will be extremely flimsey, I would do whatever you can to give it some rigidity

 

[Bopster]

As above, if you have the space maybe board the wall with 18mm ply then overboard with hardibacker then tank

 

[Qwerty]

Metal c-stud walls & similar have no place in any domestic build IMO

 

[jobdone]

I always build a stud wall and make up the door frame as the metal stud has to much flex.

 

[Old Mod]

Osb 3 over the metal studwork, tile backer board (wedi style) glued, screwed and tanked.
Plenty rigid enough.
I’m seeing a lot more metal studwork now, and it generally provides a much flatter substrate than many others, especially over longer distances and in my experience, it’s generally much closer to plumb too.
Like anything else, you just have to adjust the prep to suit.
The doors are always built in the traditional way.

 

[Flintstone]

The one I came across was because of a small apartment where the lady was in a wheel chair so the need was there to have wide openings and no doors in the way. I've tiled metal stud walls quite a lot over the years and maybe it's just how they were fitted but they never seem quite as solid as a timber frame wall, good point about the flatness tho, no warped timber

 

[Old Mod]

Single skin metal studded walls are far too unstable usually.
The fact that it’s double skinned it works in a similar way to overlaying floors, it increases the rigidity by some considerable amount.

 

[Waluigi]

I’ve seen metal stud work in use in germany for over 25 years, as already mentioned- you would just double tack the wall. Incredibly strong and no banana studs to worry about.

The reason people don’t like it in this country is because of installation errors. Take a look at the British gypsum spec for metal studs, more complicated than you would think.

 

[Steve H]

Thanks everyone. The external side has now had plasterboard fitted and it is a lot firmer. I think I am going with the 18mm ply and then backer board to tile onto. Excellent advice as usual. Thanks again.

 

[Concrete guy]

Off on a tangent slightly, we're in the process of fitting two of the Eclisse pocket door systems identical to the one pictured. Make sure you have enough clearance at the bottom of the pocket, they are very unforgiving when it comes to height. We fitted the entire pocket on 30mm packers to lift it.

Unless you're using solid doors many won't have enough "meat" on the bottom to trim off if you find your door is too low.

We're also building a 100mm stud frame on the shower side to make everything solid. Initially I was going to use OSB on the frame and overboard with plasterboard, that creates a problem with the jambs not properly covering frame/OSB so we decided to make the entire ensuite 150mm wider so we could build stud work around the tray and make is all nice and solid.