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I was just reading the posts about tiling a shower cubicle, I am a touch confused. My bathroom has solid walls but there is a plywood wall used just to hide the feeds to the shower. Now, previously it was tiled around the shower controls) on top of plywood. I need to remove this plywood cos at the bottoms its all rotted away. I notice the advice on using aquapanel, however would this be rigid enough to hold the thermostatic shower controls in place.

Else should I fix the aquapanel to a new sheet of ply wood.

Also for the solid walls, removing the tiles is pulling a lot of plaster with it, must I re plaster the wall before tiling or wall the tiling adhesive be sufficient, to smooth out the lumps and bumps

I'd fix a piece of external plywood and then a sheet of aquapanel. You will get a better fixing on the ply.

As for the plaster, it really depends how bad it is.

If it is not too bad you can often use adhesive to fill the missing plaster, but if it is bad then it is best if you repair the plaster first.

great thanks, would 12mm ply be sufficient? I see that B&Q sell hardwood and softwood plywood, which one would be more suitable?
There is a timber merchant near me but generally need to order this stuff to be delivered for B&Q etc, unless I try bring a 2m sheet of ply on the tube

I have a few questions but will post them on the bathroom forum.

12mm should be suffucient.

Get WBP ply- water proof and boil proof

12mm hardibacker/aquapanel would be ok to use.........defo strong enough Sooooo much better than ply

Only-Me wrote:12mm hardibacker/aquapanel would be ok to use.........defo strong enough Sooooo much better than ply

Never used it before only-me, I thought it was like plasterboard, but cement based. Can you screw into it?

Yes Chez..........it is a bit like plasterboard............until you fill ya undies trying to lift it

The 12mm is structural stuff and does take screws..........but it fooks up ya saws.

Its ideal for putting up on timber studs for a shower cubicle

I see there is a 12.5mm available in wickes, will get that, seems cheap enought too. Can this be used on the floor screwed to the floorboards, rather than 12mm wbp plywood?

I'd say yes after reading this-

2/ Secure the existing floorboards to the joists and replace/repair any damaged areas. Glue and screw 12mm Aquapanel to the existing floor using rapidset flexible tile adhesive and Aquapanel screws, this gives the same rigidity as 18mm ply with a smaller increase in height.

Taken from here-

Floor tiling

great, thanks,. I found a pdf document on the wickes web site which gives a good run down and how to install it. It suggest that you can use thermal aquapanel for the floors and standard aquapanel for the walls.