My bathroom remodel. My plan was to install poly, cement backer board and then tile. On this forum I’ve heard people mention Red Guard, which I saw yesterday at Home Depot. Should I use it? What is it mostly used for? To waterproof a nonwaterproof surface? Applied over cement board, are you creating the ultimate tile backer for wet areas? – like a Denshield made out of cement. Can you/should you eliminate the poly? Is it a waste of money in my application?
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RG is a topical waterproofing material, it's good and it's sometimes not so good, it depends on how you use it.
As far relying solely on a topical material for waterproofing, some materials are better than others. I personally prefer sheet membranes such as Kerdi or Noble to a roll-on like RG, as the roll-on is only as good as the applicator, and even with perfect applications, the rol=on membrane can fail if there are poorly detailed stress/flexural raisers in the shower itself, like in corners.
In your case I'd recommend sticking with what you have...poly and cement board.
When using those materials, I do use RG to treat site-built shower niches. I treat the inside of the niche itself, as well as the cement board about 8"-12" around the face of the niche.
Mongo