I hate to bore you guys with a typical question, but couldn’t find the answer in the archives. We are in the process of remodeling one bathroom at our home, and finishing a bathroom (new construction) at our cabin. We are the DIY’ers from Hell. Our motto: We’re not very good, but we’re slow.
I do the drywall. Badly. It does, however, clean the broiler pan nicely, which is what I use when doing drywall mudding.
First, the house. It is a basement bathroom, square footage about 64 square feet. Shower, toilet, vanity. Will have tile floor and sheetrock walls with a prefab shower. What would you all recommend for the walls and ceiling. Behind the shower walls? Other walls? Ceiling? We were going to put green board on all, but then our neighbor at the cabin, who’s an engineer, told us not to put sheetrock on the basement ceiling, because of moisture problems over time. I’ve also read not to put green board behind the shower. Is even greenboard a bad idea on the ceiling? Also, I recently read to put 5/8″ bathroom ceiling drywall on nailers 12″ O.C. because ….. why? Is it less likely to sag, I’m guessing?
I should mention that we will be covering waste lines, water lines, and gas lines with this sheetrock job. We’ve looked at suspended ceilings (not to mention lowering the present ceiling lower than 7′), and tin ceilings (wrong style). Any thoughts?
Second, the cabin. It is a teeny-tiny bathroom, 35 square feet. Has a ventilation system, plus the toilet is plumbed to hot water, so it doesn’t “sweat”. Do we do tile walls with a sheetrock ceiling? Or, is all sheetrock ok? Or, should we consider wood? The rest of the cabin is trimmed with recycled Doug fir with pine ceilings, and some sheetrock walls. If we do tile, should we look at Durock, or is Hardibacker better, or green drywall. How about the sheetrock ceiling? Should we look at the new paperless drywall?
Suggestions very much appreciated!!
Thanks
Replies
A boatload of questions. Here's my take on as many as I can get to.
Greenboard is fine for the ceiling. If you go with 5/8" greenboard on the ceiling, you will be fine on 16" centers, (though I vaguely recall some code issue with bathroom ceilings, so check with you local building inspector -- 12" centers might be required -- I can't remember but I always work over 16" centers and haven't had a problem yet, knock wood). Yes, sag over time is the issue.
For behind the prefab shower, check the install instructions. Some prefab units have to be mounted directly to the studs.
For the walls, couldn't hurt to use paperless sheetrock. Many lousy basement sheetrock jobs I've seen have mold at the bottom 1/4 of the walls.
For preping the basement walls prior to framing and rocking, you'll get a lot of debates on that. Buildingsciences.com has some info and I'm sure you'll get many opinions on what to do there.
For the small bathroom, my preference with small rooms is to make them sort of "jewel boxes" with lots of details. When people go into a small room with few details, it's like "OK, it's a small room." When it's detailed over the top it's like "wow, what a cool room; love it, etc." So from my ecperience anyway, the more detail you put in, the better (as long as it looks good, of course).
For tile, I use hardibacker and have never had a bad experience.
Best of luck with it.
"A job well done is its own reward. Now would you prefer to make the final payment by cash, check or Master Card?"
I pretty much agree. On the small bath,and even the larger for that matter, beadboard wainscote with a chair rail adds a nice touch. The beadboard panels come preprimed on one side but, in a bath, I always backprime it.
I agree about the beaded board, looks good painted white with a color of your choosing on the drywall above.
About the basement bath, is the rest of the basement ceiling open? If you have access, i would definitely put in a fan/ light combo in the ceiling. This should help ease some of your mold/ sag issues with the greenboard. But, do NOT put in a fan if you dont have access to run a duct from the fan to the outside of the house. If you have an open ceiling, this is pretty straight forward. If you simply install the fan without venting it, it will just blow warm moist steam from the shower all over the back of your ceiling.
Thanks for the help; we are going to vent it outside of the house.
Something I just stumbled onto is a company called Wedi that makes a foam board with a fiberglass and cement face for tileing. The foam is not only waterproof, but also would give a little insulation too. Plus it's light and easy to work with. Downside is that it's pricy and might not be sold near you.
I would look at the fiberglass faced drywall. Most big boxes seem to have a bunk of that somewhere on the floor now.
Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
On this side of the pond we use Wedi board all the time, you pay a bit more for the product compared to other products, but if installed following the instructions, you are guaranteed a water tight room, especially if used in conjunction with the floor drain system.
Starting a new shower room tomorrow and will be using Wedi.
Have 2 more booked in, once the client understands they are getting a quality product they are willing to pay.
Since no one else mentioned it, hold your wall board up about 1/2" off the basement concrete--this will prevent "wicking" into the wall board (what ever it is).
You might want to wander about the gypsum construction org site; or US Gypsum for that matter.
"Greenboard" is generally useless--but that's my experience with it in a hugely damp climate, though. The 1/2" will only span 12" OC in any direction, so using it commits you to either strapping or lots & lots of blocking.
The paper-less (or unfaced) gypsum wall board products out there can really shine in a damp spot, though. Or, using the USG "Dens" (DensGlas & DensShield) products can be a good deal. It can help to print the material page off the internet, so that when you go to the board supplier, you can sort out best price for what has/can get. (I once made a really good deal with a rural dealer who had a mis-order of 1/2" Durock, sure it was overkill, but it was cheap to get it out of his yard.)
"Or, using the USG "Dens" (DensGlas & DensShield) products "
I agree - these are good products, to' a bit of a pain to use (fiberglass needles almost as bad as installing insulation), but I think it's made by GP, not USG. DensShield is a nice tile backer (tho' some would disagree, I like it), DensArmor is a mold-resistant DW and DensArmor Plus is a similar product in MR.
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
but I think it's made by GP, not USG.
Oops, reading wrong web site again . . . or having one too many open <g>Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)