what to use to fix cement backer board
How to Install Cement Board for Tile Projects
The best base for ceramic tile is waterproof cement board.
Time
A full twenty-four hours
Complexity
Beginner
Cost
$51–100
Introduction
Installing cement lath correctly is the most critical part of a splendid tiling project. Here's how to do it.
Tools Required
Materials Required
- ii x 4s
- Cement board
- Cement board screws
- Fiberglass mesh tape
- Thin-set mortar
Step 1: Overview
Move over solid mortar bed, and say hullo to cement boards. The traditional method of installing ceramic tile chosen for setting information technology in a solid mortar bed. Troweling a perfectly apartment bed required dandy skill, simply the reward was a tile job that lasted for decades. Today, nearly professional tile setters dorsum their tile with cement lath instead, because it offers near the same durability with a lot less piece of work. And the best role? Do-it-yourselfers can use it too.
Cement lath is a thin layer of mortar sandwiched betwixt sheets of fiberglass mesh cloth. The one/2-in. thick board is unaffected by water, making information technology a great substitute for a mortar bed.
In this article, we'll prove you how to create a strong, durable and waterproof tile base around your bathtub using cement board. Nosotros chose the tub environment considering it's highly leak-prone, and an ideal spot for cement backer board. Although cement board is heavy and a bit awkward to cutting, fifty-fifty a novice should be able to complete a professional-quality tub surroundings, gear up to tile, in a day. (Allow half a twenty-four hour period to tear out the old tile and maybe several more days to let damp wood dry out out.) Once you are done installing the cement board, hither are some bath tile trends you'll want to explore.
Figure A: Cement Board Installation Details
Add blocking and other framing details before hanging the cement lath.
Project footstep-by-step (eighteen)
Step 1
Buying materials
Cement board, technically chosen cementitious backer unit (CBU), is manufactured under unlike brand names. The standard size canvas is 3 x 5 ft. and 1/two in. thick, weighs 45 to threescore lbs. and is available at virtually full-service lumberyards and building supply centers. The i/2-in. thick cement board spans studs spaced sixteen in. on centre. Other sizes, like three x iv ft., iii ten 6 ft. and 4 x iv ft., are bachelor, but you may have to contact a tile supplier to discover them. Our projection, tiling the walls effectually a standard five-ft. tub to a height of 6 ft., requires four 3 x v-ft. sheets.
To attach the cement board to the studs, y'all'll need special 1-1/4 in. cement board screws (see Fig. B). These screws have a blanket to resist corrosion, a special broad head with cutting flutes and hi-low threads for a stiff grip. If yous can't find them at a home center, phone call tile specialty stores. If special screws aren't available, attach the cement lath with i-1/2 in. hot-dipped galvanized covering nails.
You'll also need a roll of 2-in. wide fiberglass mesh cement board tape and a 25-lb. bag of thin-set adhesive, both available at dwelling centers. For the fiberglass mesh record be sure to use the special, heavier blazon sold for utilise with thin-set up mortar, every bit regular drywall mesh record will rot. The thin-set is a cement-based powder that you lot mix with h2o or latex additive to form a thick paste, which is used to seal the seams in the board and can also be used to set up the tile.
Finally, y'all'll need an 8 x 12-ft. slice of 4-mil plastic sheeting and some straight 2x4s.
Step 2
Check for bowed studs
Protect the bathtub with a dropcloth and seal the edges with tape to keep out debris. Tear out the one-time tile and backing to the bare studs. You'll accept to remove the faucet handles, tub spout and shower head.
Now'southward the time to straighten crooked studs. This is a disquisitional footstep. Tile is easier to prepare and looks better on a straight wall. Press a straightedge confronting the studs. Shim low spots with strips of roofing felt stacked up to the right height or with thin strips of wood. You can too screw or smash a straight stud aslope a crooked one.
Step 3
Add blocking
Extra blocking installed now makes it easier to screw in the edges of the cement lath subsequently. Screw full-length studs to the framing to support the outside edge of the cement board. Add studs to the inside corners if necessary. The goal is to provide at least 1-1/4 in. of bankroll at every edge. Spiral in blocking at the height edge of the tub to support and strengthen the lower border of the cement lath. Add together wood backing where grab bars, shower drape rods or shower doors will be.
Measure the thickness of the drywall or plaster where the cement board will meet it. If this dimension is more than 1/2 in., add strips of wood to the studs so the cement board will be precisely affluent with the erstwhile wall.
Footstep iv
While your walls are open:
- Add woods blocking now where you will exist installing towel bars, grab bars or shower doors; then you won't take to rely on those frustrating little plastic anchors to hold upward your fixtures.
- Upgrade the insulation on outside walls with new, higher R-value fiberglass batts.
- Yous can supplant your old tub faucet with a new pressure-balancing shower valve.
Step five
Waterproof the walls
Add the vapor barrier. Staple 4-mil plastic sheeting to the framing. Drapery the plastic into the tub and cut it off after the cement lath is installed. Apply a single slice to avoid seams. Push the plastic tightly into the corners before stapling to avert creating a bridge of plastic that will tear when yous install the cement lath.
The plastic serves as a vapor barrier for the insulated wall and equally a concluding defense against any h2o that may sneak through the tile and cement board.
Footstep 6
Advice about gaps in cement boards
Hanging cement board is one job where gaps are desirable. Space the bottom sheets ane/4 in. above the tub lip to allow for move of the tub and floor. Use nails or screws as temporary spacers to create a one/8-in. gap between sheets of cement board. When you squeeze the thin-ready mortar into this gap, it will lock the two sheets together and strengthen the seam. Finally, leave extra clearance around each piece by deducting nearly 1/4 in. from your measurements before y'all marker the cement board for cutting. Believe me, you desire to avoid the knuckle-skinning task of trimming a fiddling off. Any gaps will be covered with mesh tape and thin-set.
Step 7
Hang the cement boards
When the prep work is done, commencement the rewarding task of hanging the cement lath. All your hard piece of work will start to pay off every bit the first sheet goes up.
Screw a full-size three x five-ft. cement board to the dorsum wall. Identify special 1-1/iv in. cement board screws every eight in. forth each stud but one in. abroad from edges to avoid breakage. Hold the sheet in a higher place the tub shoulder with one/4-in. spacers. Drive screws affluent with the surface of the board, existence careful not to break through mesh. Avoid driving them at an angle.
Pace viii
Screw the lath in identify
Continue screws 1 in. abroad from the edges.
Cement lath has a smooth side and a crude side. Confront the rough side out if you volition be using thin-ready mortar adhesive to install the tile but the smoothen side out if you volition exist using latex mastic.
Pace 9
How to cut cement board: Score
Mark the next canvas for cutting. Clamp a straightedge along the cutting line, and use it as a guide to score the cement board with a utility knife. Score the full length of the canvas most five or six times using firm downwardly pressure.
You lot'll ruin a couple of knife blades while cutting, so keep some extras handy.
Footstep 10
Snap
Snap the lath along the scored line by laying information technology over the edge of your work surface and pressing down. Agree the broken-off piece while you cut through the fiberglass mat on the back.
Step xi
Remove
Remove bumps and rough edges with a utility knife or a forest rasp with a replaceable bract.
Step 12
Use a jigsaw to cutting shapes
Saw the ii sides of the window notch using a jigsaw. And so score and break out the remainder using the procedures we showed in step 9.
Use carbide dust jigsaw blades to cut cement board. Yous tin also employ regular blades, though they'll article of clothing out after a few cuts.
Footstep 13
Discover centers for plumbing fixtures
Measure out out from the back wall and upward from the tub shoulder (plus the i/four-in. spacer) to discover the centers of the valve, spout and shower head. Make a sketch of the wall showing the dimensions and hole sizes. Add i/2 in. to the pigsty diameters for an easier fit.
Footstep 14
Drill small holes
Mark the hole centers on the cement board. Drill holes smaller than 1-i/2 in. with an one-time spade bit or a carbide-grit hole saw.
Step 15
Punch out large holes
Construct a homemade circumvolve cutter for larger holes. Drill a small hole in i cease of a scrap of wood, adhere it to the cement board at the centre of the circle, screwing through the cement lath into the work surface below. Then spiral in a "cutter" screw where yous want the circle to be scored, for example, 2 in. from the centre for a 4-in. pigsty. Let the point to stick out the lesser. Spin the cutter while applying pressure level to score a perfect circle. Repeat the process on the other side. Every bit shown in the inset photograph, pound out the circle with your hammer. Be conscientious not to damage the border of the hole.
Pace xvi
Finishing up: Set up the sheet on spacers
Prepare the completed canvass in place, spacing it above the tub shoulder with 1/four-in. shims, and spiral it in. Complete the reverse wall and the small-scale pieces adjacent to the tub.
Step 17
Use special mesh tape on seams
Complete the task by piecing in any missing drywall and taping the seams. Cut drywall to fill in between the existing wall or ceiling and the cement lath. Spiral the drywall to the studs. Cover all of the corners, joints and seams, including the articulation where drywall and cement board meet, with the fiberglass mesh tape.
Step 18
Tape the seams with mortar
Following the manufacturer's recommendations, mix the thin-ready mortar adhesive with plenty water to course a thick paste. Wear a NIOSH-approved dust mask when mixing the pulverization. Spread the sparse-gear up over the tape.
Cover the tape with a skim coat of thin-ready mortar, squeezing it through the tape to fill voids and cracks. Remove whatever excess cloth earlier it hardens.
When you're washed covering the tape with thin-ready, you're ready to tile. Y'all don't even take to let the sparse-gear up dry out. Don't worry if the tile doesn't comprehend the articulation betwixt the cement board and the drywall. Just finish it with a setting-type joint compound, which comes in 25-lb. numberless of powder that you mix with water. (Information technology's bachelor at abode centers.) Setting-type compound is stronger and more than water-resistant than the type that hardens by drying. Here are 13 tips to keep in mind when choosing bathroom tile.
Originally Published: June 27, 2019
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Source: https://www.familyhandyman.com/project/cement-board-ceramic-tile/
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