We are getting ready to tile the showers. Has anybody used Redguard or Ultraset as a waterproofer straight over the drywall? Or for sealing the shower pan?
For cost reasons I would like to get away from the mud set on the walls – as long as it’s to code and will last as long as the tile is in style.
Eric
Replies
Unless you are using a sheet membrane like Kerdi or doing a mud set, no drywall in the shower.
Cheap? maybe DensGuard or DensShield or cement tile backer board.
Note: Water has a way of making "cheap" very expensive.
The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man.
- Fyodor Dostoyevski
Agree w/ FMbenthayer,
NO drywall in a shower!! Cement backer board is not that expensive. It is WAY more stable than drywall. Better base for thinset mortar.
Take out the drywall and invest in a few sheets of cement board. THEN consider your options ...
OK, I'll replace the drywall with wonderboard. How high up must I go? Can I stop at say 5'? I will be tiling up to and perhaps on the ceiling in the showers.
Thanks for the help,
Eric
The wonderboard, or hardibacker, will be 3' X 5'. I don't know what type of pan you are using. In any case, the material will take you up to 6' at a minimum. I would expect you will be safe with other materials above that point, but I would go all the way. For the last few inches and bucks, why risk it?
I have done the same thing, using scrap backerboard even on the ceiling. I think it holds tile there much more reliably than the paper covering on gypsum.
Think of it as insurance, cheap insurance!
Edit: I would like to point out one more fact. The cost of backerboard above the six foot level should not be calculated as the cost of just backerboard.
First, use your scrap and subtract the cost of the square footage you save. For the remainder of the square footage, do not consider the cost of backerboard in isolation.
Instead, subtract the cost of the square footage of the extra drywall that you would be using from the cost of the backerboard. This will give you the actual cost increase, which I believe you will find to be insignificant. The additional value of having backerboard all the way up will, OTH, be significant.
Edited 5/30/2008 5:23 pm ET by Sasquatch