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Hi All.

I will get putting in a new shower enclosure soon. Should I be using Aqua panel and the tile on top or normal plaster board and then tank?

If tank please can anyone recommend a good brand to use.

Thank you

If you have the option of using "Aqua panel" or a similar cementatious board , then I would suggest going with that in any wet areas...Make sure you follow the manufacturers installation guide though...

Cement board gets my vote

It depends what your skill level is.

We normally use normal plasterboard but always cement based adhesives.

There was a time when all these 'this is the only suitable substrate for a shower' products were not on the market. Plasterboard was and you can still find shower areas up and down the country which have been in place for over 20 years and still going strong.

It is the workmanship and not the board used.

We do repairs when people have had leaks and using aquapanels or cement boards doesn't make a difference. If the workmanship around them is crap then when a repair is done the board gets damaged and has to be cut out, same as plasterboard does.

If you go for what many scream as the only suitable board, then make sure you use still use best practice for the rest of the job.

And if you don't do it properly you end up with a shower like this - one I ripped out on Friday
This was the 18mm "marine" ply that was totally rotten In this occasion we did use cement tile backer board Finished

exactly mate. My point entirely.

No matter what boards were used, the same result would have been encountered.

How did you manage to do all that on Friday????

Hi Tony,

On any tiled surface the weakness is always in the grout lines. It only needs a small hole in the grout for water to find its way in and if the substrate is porous it will absorb water which will then rot or weaken the tile support. As you are doing it yourself it is worth paying the extra and install a cement based board, getting the best adhesives, grout and sealant as you are not trying to bring the job in to a price like trades often have to.

DWD

royaloakcarpentry wrote: How did you manage to do all that on Friday????

Had to work Saturday too :(

royaloakcarpentry wrote:exactly mate. My point entirely.

No matter what boards were used, the same result would have been encountered.

How did you manage to do all that on Friday????

Whilst I agree that the most important thing is workmanship the difference between cement boards and other substrates is that they won't degrade if water gets behid the tiles. Plasterboard or plaster will degrade and force tiles off the wall making the problem much much worse, the same can be said of marine ply.

Cement boards don't degrade when wet or a substrate that is tanked. Yes if you have to make a repair then you will still need to cut a section out as it will get damaged when removing tiles but a tanked or cement boarded will last far longer than others.

Plasterboard still being intact when ripping out a 20 year plus old bathroom which has had good workmanship and maintenance is about the main endorsement needed that the material is up to the job.

If you have water penetration then you have water penetration. The tiles still need stripping back to a point where the adhesive is still up to par and this damages the substrate and should if good practice is followed lead to it being replaced. I for one don't feel it is good practice to say cement board is water proof therefore because the top surface is degraded and the mesh ripped away.....'leave it in and tile onto it again'.

Wet rooms and some of the high powered showers we do, of course are a totally different scenario.

Oh and make sure the shower tray is fitted securely too, the one above was balancing on 4 pieces of 5" thermalite block

Glad you worked Saturday too. Quite right.

I have seen first hand a qualified tradesmen doing a repair and using naff tubbed adhesive with a 72hour set time and then grout up 30 minutes after finishing the tiling Amongst other things, like using silicone to dot and dab plasterboard repairs to a shower area.

On the other hand one of the bathrooms last year had tile on top of tile lower half, top half was plaster on top of distemper and then tiled to be flush with the bottom half. Bits of patching in with hardboard, 3mm ply and Osb. Amazingly it had been like that for donkeys years and the tiles were a right pain in the bottom to get off. Glad I was only there for the day.

If shower trays are on legs then they should also be supported by battens on the wall.

Thank you for all your advice.

I agree 100% that if the job done is right and you put some time in to make sure you do the correct thing and use the right gear then the job will last as long as us!

Cheers again.

Good luck with it.