What do you use to line a bathroom? Normal plasterboard?

[Soonish]

I have Someone who shall remain nameless has knackered the bathroom walls a bit while trying to remove the old tiles.

They were put straight onto normal plasterboard, and not particularly well, which is why they had to come off, but of course half the board is now not there any more and will want replacing.

We are on an already stretched budget but I wondered what we ought to do, basically.

Do we:

a) somehow cut at about 6" above the highest knackered bit (tiles were only about 3ft6 up the walls) and remove the board and then cut some new board to fit into place, tiling over the join - I don't possess a circular saw and am concerned about cutting it badly tbh, especially round the window - then make good the gaps in the corners etc etc using ready mix, which I am good at

b) get someone else in to do this boarding fiasco, AND have the room skimmed after

c) take off all the plasterboard (room is about 7x10'6) as it has been put on with large gaps in some of the corners anyway (there was pipework there, they clearly were bewildered by this) and start again?

If c, what sort of board do we use? The whole house is lath and plaster, but I think most of the lath has been removed in the bathroom. Which is a shame.

Do we skim all of it whatever we do? Is there a specially good way to do it?

I will be tiling (superbly ) up to about 4ft at least once it's been made sound.

We have no flooring yet btw and the existing skirting is partial and recent and very badly fitted, in fact I don't think it is really attached to anything.

Sigh

Thank you

This is the last remaining bit of L&P in the bathroom, which is also coming off I think. Poor house.

if it is going to get wet, e.g. it is a tiled area around a shower, then use tile backing board, which is a cement-based product, and not harmed by getting wet. It is strong enough for heavy tiles, and quite heavy.

Thanks, PigletJohn. Yes, part of it will be above a bath and will get wet when we finally have a shower installed.

Should we use normal plasterboard in the rest of the room?

You don't need to cut plasterboard with a saw , you use a stanley knife and then support the edge and give it a whack . That will leave you with the paper hanging on the other side , you just score this with a blade.

you need aquabord as pj says
at least around thd shower area but ideally all around the room and on the floor.

There is a routine for scribing in the gabs, you get a bit of wood the same size as the gap and with a piece of plasterboard pushed up against the wall you scribe down with a pencil , with the pencil resting against the edge of the wood . You then have transferred all the profile of the wall onto the board . After cutting along the pencil line you will have a piece of board that fits snug

Oh the floor? Crikey. I was going to ply that with some 12mm as floorboards are ropey.

It's an upstairs bathroom btw. Not planning to tile the floor.

Roneik - I'm not sure I could do that with it still attached to the walls - would I have to take it down to cut it that way?

Thinking tbh it might be best just to unscrew the damaged boards from floor to ceiling and start again. I've just called a really good plasterer I know and he didn't want the job.

Oh crossed posts. Thanks Roneik. I might have to try that.

Is it harder to cut the aqua board stuff than the normal stuff? I have visions of it all going horribly wrong.
I need to find a good builder. They are all blooming busy.

If you use waterproofed grouting ordinary plasterboard will do. I have a power shower that has had daily use 8 years and never a problem, it's mounted on standard plasterboard.
I think that corner edge in one photo looks rough though.

if you are planning to tile a wooden floor, it needs to be incredibly rigid or the tiles will crack or come loose. It can be done with cement board, or with very thick ply (some people say 25mm WBP ply, but IMO if you are doing that, you ought to take up the old floorboards, and screw it tightly to the joists. There is a chance the tiles may still crack at any joints in the floor ply. if you have a chipboard floor, pull it up. It will be very useful on 5th November.

If you are just putting vinyl or carpet down, a thin ply will make the floor flat and smooth.

The shower has tiles under it of course. senior moment but I have done a few bathrooms and always been ok. Others might differ, but you do say you are on a budget

cement board can be scored and cracked. I put it on a length of wood, with the score line centred, and press both sides. The boards are not as big as plasterboard sheets, just as well, as they are heavy.

should be more on the Knauf site

saw it on offer last week

Yes you only put the board up to get the scribed mark, you then cut it when you have it on the floor. Wheres the stud work to support the plasterboard?

you can get plastic bathroom wall panels now - sounds awful but actually looks good. Cheaper than tiles, even with buying the right sealant, and no grout to go mouldy.

can it go up instead of aquaboard? Not sure, but suppliers will advise.

Plasterboard is very easy to cut it's only gypsum encased in paper, If you are doing it on a shoe string tile straight onto it nobody will know and the tiles wont care either. Use waterproofed grouting though. The tiles will make it rigid enough.

I fitted a plastic panel instead of tiles for a shower cube when times were hard, it is fixed to the wall (so you would still need plasterboard or a plastered wall) and is quite thin. It seems to work fine and is easy to run sealant to the tray.

If you had an unsupported plastic panel it would sound hollow and might suffer impact damage if you fell on it or hit it with something.

Wheres the stud work to support the plasterboard?

You can get some really nice vinyls , mines blue raised little circles and goes with the tiles.
Good for anti slip too, cost about 70 quid for the bathroom

I also like vinyl in a bathroom. Very easy to clean, waterproof, and is not likely to get damaged as it does in a kitchen.

You do need a very smooth floor, though, as it will show lines and wear out otherwise.

Thank you so much.

There is a budget but I would like to do it properly, if in a basic sort of way - I already have a load of tiles to use, so that's all paid for already and I can do a really good job of tiling so really, we are saving already.

I just want to do the poor old house a favour and make sure I do a standard, sensible job of things. Nothing has ever been done well since she was built, by the look of it - joists and boards all hacked about and really bodged stuff like wiring etc.

I just want to put some effort and common sense into the basic shell of her so that I feel I've done the best I can, if that makes sense? Sorry to be sentimental about a house.

I will look into the aqua board, thanks for the links. Not sure about how many studs there are remaining behind the board - some are new, I can feel at least one which is newish wood anyway, but there are also I hope most of the old original studs. I may be able to put in some noggins to help support whatever we use.

Bit worried about the hollow noise, too. But would require an awful lot of plaster to fill the depth of the studs iyswim. It would need to be either board or re-lath the lot. That would take some days!

When I was a kid we lived in a house with lathe walls and bits fell out regularly. The wood was little strips and the plaster had hairs in it. Gosh that was sixty odd years ago and I can remember even the shape the hedge outside was cut too. Anyway I reckon you will enjoy doing up your little house. Save a lot too