Building a shower enclosure - Is plasterboard acceptable?

[Ted]

I have installed a few bathrooms and when building a shower enclosure I use cement board and get a tiler to tile on to that...

However, on the job I am taking on, the previous contractor has used plasterboard. He then plans to skim it, then tank it and then tile on to that...

Is it acceptable to use plasterboard in this case do you think?

Cement board is pricey but by the time you have had skimmed the plasterboard and tanked it, the saving isn't going to be much, if any, is it?

[TarmacLady]

Ted, on this one I'm purely a layman, but I have lost count of the number of shower enclosures I've had to rip out and rebuild (with cementboard!) because the original cheap-arse, throw-em-up-cheap-and-make-a-buck developers would only pay for plasterboard.

The water makes it through the grout and soaks the plasterboard within a few years, leaving the homeowner with a smelly, mouldy, mushy mess of a shower that has to be torn out right down to the studs (if they're lucky -- sometimes the studs are so watersoaked they have to be replaced, too!) -- and rebuilt from the bottom up.

This usually happens shortly after the "builder's warranty" expires, and the sales office has long since skived off into whatever hole they came from -- leaving the homeowner to repair the mess.

Go for cement board.

(sorry to beat round the bush...I should state how I feel) :p



Edited By TarmacLady on 1180978015

[Ted]

I agree with you. I would never use plasterboard.

The arch wrote to the client and suggested using a particular builder even though he was the most expensive one that tendered for the job by quite some way. The arch wrote to the client saying that the builder would do a quality job but it seems that he hasn't and is doing a very poor job.

[lutonlagerlout]

what is cement board when its at home??
we always use 18mm marine ply fixed at 400 mm centres for shower enclosures
plasterboard is not acceptable for showers IMHO
LLL

[Ted]

www.knaufdrywall.co.uk/aquapanel/

I worked in America and used something by a firm called Duroc which is how I came across it... cement board is the dogs bollocks!

[TarmacLady]

IN a pinch, there's also "greenboard" -- which is similar to plasterboard/gypsumboard/drywall -- but instead of paper, there's a water *resistant* (NOT waterPROOF) layer.

I've used greenboard, but would always choose Durock (with a 'k', by the way) or cement board given the choice.

[ski]

Bit after the event, but I always use plasterboard, because my palsterers and tilers now what they are doing. Think about it, the tiles done correctly should stop the water getting beneath it, and I have seen fancy boards used that mean the problem is discovered when ther is one much later and with more damage to timber etc.

[lutonlagerlout]

i spoke to a natural stone fitter and he doesnt like the cement board
he reckons if any water does get through the whole lot falls off in 1 hit
glass brick cubicles i say ,impermeable to water and tres noveau
regards LLL