plasterboard around baths & shower

It's best to let the bath/shower tray 'tuck' in under the boarding. Take care at the end where the taps are on baths , as you have to leave enough room to get the tiles dwon the back & still be able to turn them on.
Plasterboard ain't really suitable around baths & showers.
you should use a tile backer board such as aquapanel which wont absorb water. The joint between edge of bath/shower tray & the wall is the most critical to get right, so spend time making sure everything is well supported & fixed firmly to reduce movement.
This is a major problem, that i've encounterd especially on fairly new houses. They always use plasterboard around showers & baths & never seal em in properly, it ALWAYS goes black, mouldy & stains the ceiling below. Try getting the major house builders back to sort it out (NHBC ain't worth the paper it's written on!) ur normally wasting your time.

 

I would take the board to the floor,skim then fit shower/bath.That`s what I did to mine anyhow.Put a good seal around.i`d imagine if the board came to the top of the bath/shower and water got under the seal it would eat away at the plaster between paper.result...soggy board.

 

i wouldnt put plasterboard anywhere near the bath shower. use aquapanel or marine ply.

 

Aquapanel or wbp plywood is the only real option taken down to the top of the fitting. That ensures that the seal is correct at the bath and that there is additional room under the bath at its head to carry out any plumbing work around the taps. It also makes it easier to deal with any problems later on

 

i think this post illustrates exactly why we have "rampant DIYers" and "Kent trading standards dress up as old women to catch cowboys" !!!!

Seriously, do it how you want to do it. As long as it's not completely stupid, or involves electric or gas... even the 'expert' can't agree. "i did it this way........ so it's better.." ****** !!!

Plasterboard and water....?.... fine if you've got tiles in between.

Common sense rules.... !

 

Of course common sense....and tiles.Who`d be daft enough to leave plasterboard with just skim near water?

 

In the days before "aquapanel", plasterboard was used with a solid bed of waterproof tile adhesive for the tiles, waterproof grout & a good sealing with silicon at the bottom. Water didn't get near the plasterboard!

 

i know which way id choose and i know which way when it comes to stopping the panel the plumber is most grateful for!

 

That was as a point of interest to Martians post - of course "aquapanel" is best - I thought that had been made clear.

 

kesh i know where you are coming from it was more aimed at martians point

 

... what do you know about my point !!!!!! you aint seen it !!!! and never will !!!! either of them !

but seriously.... point is, plasterboard and water aint that dangerous.... electricity and water is !!!

use you common.. !!

 

water and electric together are dangerous,damn ive just fitted and electric shower

 

i certainly never suggested it was dangerous to put pb near the shower/bath. i just said i wouldnt put pb anywhere near the shower/bath. for the sake of a few quid extra, use the best option.
the reason the oldies used it, was cause there was nowt else and it was cheap. plus they werent there when it started getting wet some yrs later.

ive just ripped off some chipboard that was behind some tiles in a shower. the cb was rotton with wet. the shower was leaking behind the unit.
still, the builder must have saved a couple of quid.

 

I would not sugget using plasterboard behind a shower, I certainly used WPB ply (with bonding)before tiling

 

After having just had to pull off a tiled plasterboard wall (in my shower refit)I think that the Building Regs should be changed to prevent tiling on plasterboard. All new houses bathrooms are done in this way. Okay it was easy to pull the lot off rather than try to chip off the tiles but I had to do a bit of remedial work where water had penetrated through defective grout and blown the plasterboard.

I am a big supporter of Aquapanel and I think it is the perfect substrate for tiling in shower areas. It did occur to me what it would be like to take the tiles off in a few years time but I pushed that thought from my mind. I think it is better than ply because wood is wood and it will always expand and contract, whatever it is sealed with, leading to tiles popping.

So f* plasterboard (in this instance)

DWD

 

In the past I was using WBP plywood to line the studwork in showers, then sealing with varnish as i found the tiles adhered better than sealing with diluted pva. I began to find that pink staining of the grout was much more obvious after approx 12 months where plywood was used as the substrate, after further investigation with adhesive suppliers & sheet material suppliers the general consensus was that something was leaching out of the plywood. Has anyone else also had thes problems? I now only use aquapanel within the wet ares of bathrooms & 2 years down the line the grout is staying much whiter, compared the plywood installations(especially the customers who clean their bathrooms properly)

 

Mr Martian, on your planet plasterbaord may be ok. In the real world it's F***G **** when used in showers, just covering it over with tiles don't cut the mustard.
I've removed alot of showers where plasterboard was used, on every occasion it has absorbed moisture either though the grout (Cement grout ain't waterproof) or poor construction of the joint between tray & wall.the end result is wet smelly plasterboard that never dries out properly.

 

Hello mj.. I had the problem a few yrs ago with pink staining of the grout on a wbp substrate.. I did a bit of research and discovered it was caused by the tannins in the wood reacting with the tile cement. Now I always use Aquapanel... never any problem. Dont let plasterboard near a shower!!!!