Waterproofing Tub Shower Walls | Easiest Method for Beginners

A nice and very deep niche in this area. So having these things custom made really provides a nice look, is very easy to do, and honestly doesn't cost me any more money because they are just the extra pieces I already had left over from the tub surround.  And if you're using this existing corner bead, I don't want to have to do any more drywall work than necessary. So I leave this corner account. But what you want to do is mark the edge of this because you don't want that drywall mud. Basically, I don't want to adhere tiles to drywall mud.

And you'll want to waterproof this system.   We'll show it a little bit here in the video on how to approach this corner count. This is an area where if water actually got into any of these corners, it would rust very quickly.  We have our notched board as you can see. Basically, we just create an "L" cut in our board, and this will allow the

waterproofing

to go over our flange. Again, you're basically going to need a little bit of sealant where this plate meets this flange.   So put a bead on top of this.   And then, just because this is pretty flimsy, I'm going to put a little bit along the entire length of the flange.

To the end and even to the bottom. Because again, you really want that eight-inch space between the bottom of that backer board and the panel. And then we'll go around the corner.  Alright. So that slides down over the top of that flange now.   Again, it's a little flimsy on the bottom due to the thickness of the flange.   That's why I have that extra support of the sealant underneath.   That's the third way you can address this tub lip. And you'll most likely only be able to fix that problem with a foam board like this that you can cut notches into.  Smooth out this excess.

And we'll get to that here in a moment.   And it eliminates our niche. So you're 27. Forty-seven.   Let's cut this out with a knife.   Okay, so we'll continue with our 12-inch screw pattern here.   Make sure we have washers around our niche here.  Just flush, you can use an oscillating tool. I think this is a little easier than a razor.  There's another bedroom on the other side of here, so I won't be able to screw anything in. But what I'm going to do is just use the sealant as an adhesion. And then when you have the sides, bottom and top in place, it will hold the back

waterproofing

in place.

So just use a generous amount of sealant on the back here.  And then we'll take out the trim that we cut and do it on the back of the niche. And then we got basically 7 inch pieces. We are going to protrude it and cut it flush with the exterior wall. I think it's a little easier. So we'll cut some 7 inch pieces.  This is a kind of leaning towards the

shower

. It doesn't have to be much; maybe like a sixteenth or so. So make sure your bottom plate... and if it's not, you're going to want to build something or maybe put a shim back in there or do something to achieve this pitch.  So what I'm going to do is put a bead here on my outside board.   And then I'm going to put a bead right against the backing here.   Screw it into place.  Okay, so use our oscillating tool to get it nice and flush with the outside board.  Okay, so once we get the right sides together, place all the corners, the bottom here and then along the side of the edge of the board.  Well, this tip is also very important: make sure you have waterproofing next to the bathtub.

I always recommend at least a couple of centimeters of waterproofing.   This is a very problematic area. If this were just drywall running into the tub, this is a common area where water runs down the side of the tub and deteriorates the drywall. So if you can line it and waterproof it, you will be much better off using waterproofing against that tub.  Then we'll seal all of this against the tub.   Apply some sealant to this part of your Wedi board.  Okay, now we have the entire board here.  Go ahead and re-attach our corner heel.  So we're going to seal all the corners of this foam board.

You should always make sure you pay attention to the technical manual for the product you are using and that you are using the correct amount of sealant. The rule of thumb for Wedi is any screw hole, making sure you have an inch of sealant around that actual washer. And then in the corners, with a one-inch layer on each side.  Now what really helps with that is using a corner trowel. This will ensure that you have a continuous account in that corner. Again, I like to use the sausage gun because it gives me a lot more sealant than a regular tube of caulk.   So we're really going to give a good account in that corner.   Okay, and then I'm going to go down the side just because I have all these washers holding my system together.

And then I just want to make sure I have that inch of overlap. And then let's place that third bead along the corner here, making sure we hit all of our washers. And we're going to keep that inch of sealant.  Okay, I'm going to use a little bit of this excess sealant. I don't want to waste any of this.   And as long as I have this excess, we will go an inch through these corners of my niche. I'll go ahead and do the same thing on the corners of the niche. And   you also want a one inch overlap on the main seams.   Don't worry about this corner.

We'll get to that in a moment. But we only want to finish the ones in the main field. And where I missed the screw areas, you can always patch them. So I missed my stud here. I'm just going to add a little bit of sealant in there to make sure it covers every inch of the board.  Hey, if you like these tips, give us a thumbs up. Help other people find these videos and we want to make sure you're doing these things correctly.  So these next tips are probably the most important in this entire video. So keep looking.

You have to make sure you do it right. When you do this tub surround option where you are actually placing the board on top of the surround, you want to add a sealing strip in addition to overlap the board and the surround. In this particular case we are using Wedi, so we have the Wedi sealing tape that we are going to install. And this will only ensure that this joint between the flange and the board is well waterproofed. So   let's just cut this to the size of the bathtub. Now, what we are going to use is not the Wedi sealant.

It is the 620 sealant that we are going to use. Therefore, it is a little more fluid than this traditional Wedi sealant. It's not that thick. As you can see, it is a little more watery. And this is fluid enough to attach the sealing tape to the board.  I want you to put a good, generous account there. You want to just clarify this.   Okay, and then you're going to embed it.   Then you'll want to be able to see some of that sealant coming out of the top.  We don't want water to get into this corner, so we will also use sealing tape on this corner.

So let's run a bead across the width and into the Wedi.   And this same

method

would be used if it were just a straight drywall wall. This is the way you will want to transition the drywall using sealing tape.  So I'm going to insert that sealing tape here. I'll cut this little flap off here.  Okay, so this area I always see a problem. When I take out so many bathtubs, I see caulk around the tub spout. I see large open holes around my pipes. The way to eliminate it is to use a flexible collar. This is made by Wedi, but many different manufacturers make pipe seals to go around pipe bosses.  So I find this to be very important, especially around the tub spout because the water goes down the wall, hits the body, and goes right behind the tub spout.

And this is a perfect area for water to get behind the wall and into the wall cavity. Therefore, having a pipe seal will ensure that there are no leaks.   And this is basically made for ½ inch and ¾ inch pipe sizes. So just seal around that pipe. As you can see, it has a little collar around it that will really seal this. Therefore, you can be sure that this will properly seal the pipe coming out of the tub spout. So again we're going to use the 620. Incorporate it into... and that will ensure that you have a good seal around the pipe.  We have a flexible mixing valve collar.  This collar will surround my valve.   The purpose of this is to allow water, if any water came back here, it would hit the outside of this edge and go down the wall.

So there are two sides to this. It has a wider piece and then a thinner piece. This part actually goes towards the wall. Unfortunately, the way I cut this is a little wrong. So I'm going to cut this a little bit with a utility knife and center it more. And again, we'll use the 620. We have this transfer valve. Unfortunately they do not make a valve seal for this. So to address this, I'm going to cut a little bit more first because I don't want it to be so tight against my valve.   Let's give ourselves some space here.  But really the way you want to approach this is to simply apply a bead of sealant, lifting it up above the board around the opening.

Actually, the idea is to basically do the same concept as this valve seal. If water gets there, it will go around and not into the hole. Basically, all this is going to do is create some sort of dam. And if there is water behind the shield plate, it will simply be rounded around the opening.  Well, I hope these tips helped you today.  If so, please give us the thumbs up.   And if you're stuck with your own bathroom project and have questions, leave us some comments below. We will be happy to help you. Also, check out our dad at bathroomrepairtutor.com.

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