Im about to plasterboard my bathroom, all walls and ceiling. Walls are all bare brick and ceiling is old board of some description painted. One corner where my Quadrant shower will be I plan to use proper Aquapanel, rest of the room will be moisture resistant PB. Questions:

1) Aquapanel area (inside shower) will be tiled, I can tile straight onto Aquapanel yes?

2) Can Aquapanel be dot and dabbed onto the walls? (And for that matter MR Plasterboard?)

3) Rest of the room (bar splashback area of bath/sink) is just to be skimmed then painted. Does the MR plasterboard need treating before skimming? What with, PVA?

4) For the ceiling and any other areas that I need to screw down, any particular screws to reccomend?


Thanks

1 You can tile directly onto aquapanel

2 Aquapanel cannot be dot and dabbed according to the manufacturer (Knauf)

3 MR plasterboard cannot be skimmed directly. In fact, if you are skimming it, that defeats the object of using it. Either use normal boards, skim and make sure your paint is decent (acrylic eggshell is my favourite) or use MR boards and tape and join them which is what they are designed for

4 Best screws are the wide thread ones for old joists etc rather than the narrow thread which are better for boarding onto metal. Either will do the job fine though. 32mm if going direct onto joists, or 42 if it is already boarded, 50 mm if it is boarded and skimmed.

Aquaboard made by Lafarge seems to be the latest in tile backer board. If you ring their technical helpline, they will be able to tell you if you can dot and dab it or not.

I often dot and dab, with MR boards in the wet areas only, then tile, then use plaster bonding agent on the bare areas of MR board before skimming the whole bathroom. If you tile and grout correctly, there shouldn't be any problem with an MR board in the shower.

I use the lafarge aqua board..........................can't be dot and dabbed.

With Jozeffo about MR boards being adequate. just as normal plasterboards are adequate when used in conjunction with good working practices.

we replace shower rooms all the time where normal plasterboard is still as good as the day it was put up 15 years ago, when the work has been done to a correct standard. We replace shower rooms that have been done for 5 years but got bad workmanship with 'wet area' boards and they are knackered.

mostly it is about the workmanship in my experience.

sand and cement the lot, plenty of waterproofer in it. skim where its not being tiled and where it is, just tile straight onto the s/c

_________________
Plasterer in Coventry

Ok going off the advice above, Ive ordered two MR boards for the shower area, and normal PB for the rest of the bathroom.

So what tips can you give to help ensure "good working practices" are adhered to :)

Thanks

For a bath or shower, square is very important.

make sure you have a seven foot 4x2 and a four foot one to allow you to knock the boards about to make them square.

Mix in a normal bucket with a slow speed drill, dobs at 40cm spaces. Invest in a bucket trowel . plenty at the edges. Also have some packing around so you can support the boards a cm or two off the ground to make it easier to get a good joint at the top. where it meets the ceiling.

Do the ceiling first then push the boards up to meet it and support them.

Leave your cables for lights and pullcord long so that they are easy to feed into holes in the board when trying to board the ceiling.

New blade in the knife and a decent straight edge to score against.

Thanks for the tips! Another question:

I have been measuring up etc tonight. I have this:



Thats a 6x3ft board (I have bought all boards in that size). Its about 100mm short of filling the wall space. The situation is similar on the adjoining walls. Is it better to use that board in one piece and somehow fill the 50mm either side or start cutting pieces up and get square corners? (The bath is going across the room there btw aswell, if it makes any difference)

Start at one edge and fix all your full boards, making sure they are exactly as you want them.

Then fill in the 10cm gaps, making sure they follow the same lines and any gaps are no more than 5mm.

Sorry could you elaborate on the second bit? Fill the 100mm gaps with? and what is the 5mm gap you mention?

Sorry! Thanks

100mm gaps with more board? and the less than 5mm gaps with jointing filler?
http://manual.knaufdrywall.co.uk/knauf- ... e_891.html

_________________
- Dave
http://www.pamperhouse.net
http://www.invertedcircle.co.uk

The 100mm gap you will have left over because your room is 1900mm long as shown in the picture.

5mm is the maximum gap between boards that is accepted as a tolerance. I think this is referred to in the British Gypsum White Book which is considered to be the authority on he subject.

White Book is great.... yes i am a bit sad when it comes to reading product specification manuals, i love it!!

_________________
- Dave
http://www.pamperhouse.net
http://www.invertedcircle.co.uk