I’m going to be starting the bathroom part of my house renovation this weekend and wondered if anyone had any experience of boarding a bathroom ready for tiling?

I’ve ripped out everything and I’m back to bare brick on all 4 walls and my understanding is that I now need to employ a technique called “dot and dab” to get the boards up..

My specfic queries are around the types of board for this application as tiles can be pretty heavy and also how to deal with corners around the window etc. so I give myself a nice edge/platform to work with when tiling.

Any suggestion advice would be most appreciated.
Cheers.

Can’t advise you but having done it in a small bedroom in an extension and been staggered at the result, I would advise you to insulate the exterior walls before boarding.

The house has apparently been cavity wall insulated but I’m going to rip off the window sill and double check as this wasn’t the case in the kitchen.. Cheers

You might find it cheaper to get it plastered as the finish won’t need to be perfect.

Corners etc. not a great deal of care required as the tile adhesive will give you a couple of mm to play with.

Remember all the weight is going downwards with tiles. It’s fine to tile straight onto 9mm or 12.5mm board as long as the board is well supported.

I use a mix of ordinary board, the green moisture resist board and hardiebacker cement board in bathrooms depending on where it is in relation to the shower.

I’ve never got the hang of dot and dab. I prefer to use battens and lots of drywall screws. That way I can get the wall really nice and flat. Just about to finish one off this morning. In the past I have screwed the cement board directly onto the brick.

Is there any special reason you want to dot and dab? With wooden battens you can achieve a similar end result and easier for DIY. You can add rockwool batts between the battens before screwing on the panels. To save a little cash just use wettable tile backing boards in areas likely to get most water, and regular plasterboard on the rest. Buy a nice long spirit level before you start.

Thanks for the advice. The plasterer left quite a bit of “ordinary” boards in the garage from the rest of the house so may just use those for areas away from the bath/shower.

Hadn’t considered wooded battens but space is really at a premium so I’ll have to weigh up space Vs getting a good DIY finish.. All the intenal walls are brick also so not sure how much space I’d lose.

Ta

dot’n’dab is easy; I’ve just done the same with mine. I’ve used aquapanel boards on the floor to create a tiling surface (tile adhesive to bed them down then screwed through to the subfloor) – 12.5 mm plasterboard on the wall applied with board adhesive. I’d recommend cutting all your boards to size before you start sticking them; remember to stagger the joints too.

Adhesive is relatively easy to mix; though it’ll take more than you expect. Prime the walls first; especially if they are dusty with some PVA/water mix.

A long length of something straight is useful for making sure the boards are level with each other (and make sure they are plumbish – though it depends on how wonky your house is…)

I hadn’t considered staggering the joints or how to prime the walls, so thanks for the pointers. The house has a small degree of wonkyness but not huge..

Cheers!

Seal the brickwork before dot and dab – to avoid the brickwork pulling the moisture out of the bonding compound too quickly ..

Ive just finsihed doing this in a 6ft by 6ft shower room. I used wooden battons, got it all square and then its easy when you fit the boards. Packed the gaps between the battons with rock wool and screwed 12.5mm boards using 25mm dry wall screws. Use cement based boards for the shower/bath area such as aquapanel and as above, get a 6ft spirit level.

Speaking as someone who tiles for a living, I’d dot and dab with 12.5mm boards, staggering the joints, don’t skim as this will reduce the amount of weight the boards will take in tiles, then tank any wet areas with a paint on tanking system. Unless you’re tiles are VERY heavy this should be enough, boards will take 32kg/m2 (from memory) if they are heavier then 12.5mm Hardie backer will take more weight but is a bit of a pain to work with and is pretty expensive.

Spend time getting the walls as flat as you can, this will help you greatly later!

Thanks for the detailed response. Off to the builders merchants to get some 12.5mm boards..