How To Install Cement Board and Waterproofing For Tile Shower Walls - Complete Step-By-Step Guide

In this video, I'll show you how to

install

cement

board

for a

tile

d

shower

and waterproof it. If you're new to this channel, my name is josh, the channel is about building your own house and saving a ton of money. to subscribe, hit the bell so you get a notification every time you post a new video and hit the like button for me, that's all I asked you to come back from making this video, so without further ado, let's get started with some Important details about

cement

board

that you should know before you start. For starters, it comes in half inch and quarter inch sheets for the most part and they're usually three feet by five feet and there are different brands, there's a heavy duty backing, there's permanent underlayment, which is what this is. product, and then there is hard rock and there are I'm sure there are others, but those are the most common and they all work the same.

They only give you one place to

install

the

tile

s too, so you can't install the tiles over sheet rock in a tiled

shower

that is definitely going to break. over time and you definitely don't want to do that so definitely use cement board so now that you know you should know that you have to install half inch sheets on the

walls

because they will be a little bit stronger as a backing and now a quarter of inch is fine to install on the floor because you have the subfloor as a backing, so now that we've gone over some important details, let's go ahead and start installing this.

In my last video, you saw me install this shower tray. so I really want to make sure that it's protected so what I do is I go ahead and put down a piece of cardboard or cardboard and then I take a piece of liner, just a piece of liner and I always cut it to the size of the shower pan to This way, it gives me a surface that I can drop something on and not break it, so I don't want it to fall directly on this shower tray because it could break it. The standard length of a tub and shower is five feet and that's what this one is too and that's why cement board comes in five feet long so if you start at the back of the shower , you won't have to cut the first sheets if you install them on the back first, now if you install them on the back.

The sides will first shrink back to where you will have to cut each one a little, so I always start at the back of the shower, the items you will need to install the cement board are the wall. board adhesive and in this case I'm just using heavy duty liquid nails and this is the larger tube the 28 ounce tube the next thing you'll need are 5 8 inch cement board screws which can be found on my amazon. store, the link is in the description below, if you make a purchase I get a small commission with the nurse all year round and I help support the channel, and you'll want to get the inch and a quarter if you're doing a trimester. one inch cement board on the floor and then you will need an impact driver or drill to install the screws and you will need a caulking gun for the wall board adhesive.

What I like to do because I work alone is I take my sheet of cement board and I'm going to measure up to the first stud, it looks like about 12 and a quarter and then what I'm going to do, I'm going to go ahead and put my design 16 in the center, it's the space between my studs and Then what I'm going to do is the same thing with the center so I'll have a good reference of where my studs are going to be and then what I'm going to do is take my impact driver and a screw from the backing plate and Put a screw in the center of each stud so that when I hold the board there I can anchor it, but I always do this before placing the adhesive on the wall so that there is no delay between when the heatsink is attached. the wall and the cement board, as you can see, the screw is started, but I don't have it

complete

ly sunk in, so it will be ready when I lift the board towards the wall.

This part is pretty simple, all we have to do. is to take our wall board adhesive and just go ahead and run it over each stud, always put a nice liberal amount because this has more in it than you think so I don't go down any more than the piece of cement board that I'm getting . ready to install drops because we don't want it to set up before our next part is ready for the next part. I recommend having a helper, but I'm short staffed today so it's just me, so I have my impact driver hooked up.

On the side of my tool belt, I'm just going to lift this cement board into place and then secure it with my pre-installed screws. Now that it's up there, it's holding on well with a few screws now. I'm going to check and drive a screw about every five or six inches on all the studs for the half inch cement board in the

walls

. I recommend about 30 cement board screws per sheet and for flooring, I recommend about 60 screws per sheet when you install the screwdriver, make sure you don't sink it to where it is out of sight, just enough to reach just below the surface , as seen here, it is your preference whether you want to start from the ceiling and work down or from the floor and work up.

The piece will need to be ripped to fit into place, so if you take a measurement in this case, it looks like we need about a 33 inch piece and I also want you to take note of the edge of the shower base. Actually cut just a little bit off the back to go through the slit because if you don't that cement board is going to fall off and then shoot out at the bottom and you don't want that so we have to take just a little bit. of that cement board, so to reduce this to 33 inches, all we have to do is measure each side, put a mark at 33 and then take a chalk line and hook it on one side of the mark and pull it . to the other side of this mark and then hit your line so that we have a cut just below that line.

There are a couple of different tools you can use to tear cement board. One is a diamond blade on a circular saw. Two is this scratch knife. This works well but it creates a lot of mess when you go to cut it just throws up a lot of cement but the best thing I have found to use is an oscillating tool and you can use it and it doesn't throw up too much. a lot of dust and it doesn't throw up a lot of cement crumbs, so all I have to do now is go ahead and start from this edge and cut that line and always put on ear protection because this can be very loud and also take some time.

Keep in mind the plywood that is under this piece because you don't want to cut the subfloor so just a piece of siding is fine, now we have our piece ripped off so now I have to cut a little bit off the back for the edge of the plate shower, so I'm going to use the oscillating tool to cut the cement board from the back, so same idea, except we're going to put this blade on the cement board like this, I'm just going to glue it right on. there, about halfway through, you just have to go deep enough to make up for that rise, so now to turn it over, now we just have to cut off about an eighth of an inch or so and rip it off, this is where you really have to be. be careful depending on how sharp your oscillating tool is because it can go through it in no time so now as you can see there is enough room for the shower base flange to go behind the cement board without it bulging , all five feet work. great on this back wall now when it comes to the side walls because the dimensions are five feet by three, it's easier to just lay these things down and put them up against the wall instead of going a long way so that the five foot piece can clear up to here and because it's three feet wide, I made the drywall stop at three feet and a half inch, so squeeze it nice and tight in this opening and I'm going to run my tile a little further now I have to draw for the shower head and in order.

To do that, all I have to do is measure to the center, it looks like it's 17 inches and measure above it, it looks like it's 15 and a half. I have to transcribe that measurement on the piece of cement board and then drill it and I'll show you how to do it, this is where the shower head comes out and this is just a standard inch and a quarter drill bit and all I have to do is go ahead and drill it and make sure you have scrap plywood underneath. This is exactly for this reason, as you can see, it went through and hit some of the wood of the frame underneath.

One nice thing about working from the floor up is that you have an edge to place it on so you can hold it easier for the next one.

step

, you're going to need to get fiber mesh tape and a utility knife because what we need to do is tape all the joints and then cover them with mortar and I'll show you how I do it. I like to start. open up the corners so all you have to do, take out a little strip of this fiber mesh tape and just stick it back in where the cement boards meet, run down until you get to the shower pan now once to get to the shower tray I just take my knife and cut it where it will join the tray and this cuts very easily and then we just stick it back into the corner like we were doing above now that we applied the fiber mesh tape We have to go through through the corners and make the horizontal joints next and as you may have noticed there is probably a little indentation by now where the joints are and that is to allow a place for the mortar to sit here so that it will be flush once it is is level. so you just do the same thing you did on the corners except now it's flat so it's very simple to apply it to these joints because you just put it right over the joint like you were gluing drywall and you keep running it until it hits the another corner and then we'll cut it to where it ends and then we'll just flatten it out and I still have to put mesh tape on this corner but I just wanted to show you how to lay the floors now it's time to mix the Thinset and I have the Thinset that's made for porcelain, that's because I have porcelain tile that will be used in the shower and I have water and I have a bucket to mix it in and then I took my half inch drill with a mixing blade in order. to mix it up so all we have to do is go ahead and estimate how much solvent I'm going to need and put it in a bucket and now I'm just going to add a little bit of water to start and then I'm going to take my half inch drill with blade mixer and I'm going to start mixing it, I'm going to keep slowly adding a little bit of water and mixing it until we get a peanut butter like consistency.

I've been mixing this for about a minute to two minutes and as you can see I have a peanut butter like consistency. Now I have to let it sit for five to ten minutes and then mix it again. It's been about eight minutes and now I'm going to mix this again for a couple more minutes now that I have the thin layer. mixed up, I have a drywall knife that I've had for years just for thin applications, as you can see it's old and has had mortar before and that's fine, and now I just have a standard mud pan that a lot of people use for paneling of plaster. but in this case I'm going to use it for the skim, so all we have to do is scoop some out of the bucket and get ready to start taping and muddying those joints.

I am going to start. in the corner where I first put the mesh tape, so all I'm going to do is put a little bit of water on one side of the knife and then run it over the side of the fiber mesh and it's like when doing work with drywall, you just pack it up and level it, it's really not that complicated guys, but it definitely takes a little practice to get used to always going down one side, clean my knife and then I'll go down the other side of the drywall. and so. The guy would be great at this job.

Typically you would let one side lead and do the other side, but since this is only for a tiled shower, it doesn't have to be perfect for these floors. What I do, I'm just going to pick a little bit up on my knife like this, then I'm going to go through it and pack it into that joint and then I'm going to smooth it out like this, if you can make a corner, you can easily make one of these planes, another very critical place that you want to make sure you put thin coat is on each screw, just put some thin solution on your knife and scrape over it and I already did that a couple of hours ago.

Another important place to make sure you have mortar is here with the shower valve. I went ahead and just taped it around and mortared it so that when we put down the

waterproofing

it would seal around this square. I also did it up here, but this is not as critical because the water is going to get in. Off this shower head and down the drop here is right behind the cement board, so we're ready now that the fiber mesh and adhesive are installed. I'm going to let this dry overnight and then move on. For the next

step

, it's time to tackle the

waterproofing

process, so the product I'm going to use is called Aqua Defense and can also be found in my Amazon store.

The link is in the description and before we start, like it. Put a mask on around the shower because you don't want this stuff getting all over the base of the shower, but clearly, if you're doing a mud shower, you need to waterproof that anyway, it wouldn't matter, but in this case we're going to mask this shower base the items you will need to install the aqua defense is a roller with a 3 8 snap a paint tray a stir stick because you have to stir it well and a paint brush of some type and normally I would use a standard paint brush, but all I had here on site was a foam brush which will also work well so the first thing we need to do is open up our water defense.

You will notice that it is quite thick and we are going to want to stir it. It rises very well and this is almost like a jelly. I'm going to go ahead and wear some safety glasses because you don't want this to get in your eyes and then I'm going to go ahead and pour it into my paint tray and just go ahead and paint it on the walls like you're painting a wall with latex paint , as if it were normal paint. The first coat really absorbs the cement board and the second coat doesn't require as much product to cover it as after.

I put on one coat, I just take my brush and go into the corners to make sure I get enough coverage, like we're painting walls with latex, but I always put it on really thick because you want a good coat, especially in these corners this is a good spot. for the water to settle. I put on the first layer of waterproofing. I'm going to let this sit for about 30-40 minutes and then apply a second coat if you're curious. how much did it take to put two coats in this shower, as you can see I actually use a little less than half or about half the full bucket to do it, so a bucket this size will be enough for a shower this size.

I just finished applying the waterproofing and I recommend removing the masking and tape now because if you don't the coating will dry on the masking tape and when you go to remove it it will try to remove the waterproofing as well. so it's always good practice to remove this while it's cool, the waterproofing has been drying for about an hour and now I'm going to install a towel on top of it. If you need how to install the tile, watch this video, it will help you.