How to Install Cement Board for Beginners

okay so we've talked a little briefly about our system here for the shower how we got a built-in bench but let's talk about our finishing because this is what I would consider it to be a superior waterproofing system shower installation than a lot of others and I know we've got some flack on the channel before because we've used drywall with waterproofing systems and yes there are some areas in North America where it's building code that you have to use some in fiber board so we thought we'd do this video with the cement board just to demonstrate the differences and largely the differences are in the cutting techniques to be honest with you I mean putting in cement board or drywall or anything else doesn't make a whole lot of difference but you need the right tools so what we're gonna use real quick we have to switch out our wooden blade and that's one of the reasons why I love this saw because everything I need for change my blades is right here if I can do it there we go how much forget skill saws are backwards mate there we go now you can't use a wood blade with carbide tip to cut cement work because it'll almost blind you the amount of dust decrees let's be honest I'm switching now to bleed that's got 62 for a cement fiber board blade that has 60th now this blade is not a huge investment is less than $20 it's worth picking up it's available at your local home depot and it just pops on like any other blade just make sure your carbide tips our face pointing because the blade rotates counterclockwise so the blade will be cutting that direction if you put them on backwards you'll just sit there and burning a hole and nothing driving yourself crazy wondering why you can't cut the board the funny thing is it will cut but it won't go straight you'll just be all over the place driving yourself crazy I love my saw I just push this little button here and I can tighten this back on with the wrench that nice and easily stores in the handle I love this song now we can use this we're only cutting half inch material so we'll set the blade a little bit shorter so that we're not increasing the amount of heat that were causing if you bury the whole blade through the cement board then all of that blades making contact as it goes around it overheats really quickly and then you'll just start veering off track as it always worked so there we go call this back in the case for now and then we are going to cut the last few boards here that go on this wall so they're basically two kinds of cement fiber board quarter-inch in half inch thickness and you will notice that the quarter inch comes with this grid and the idea behind this is if you take your utility and I if you can just score and snap usually you can just score it and snap it but not like with your hands you want to set that edge up on a 2x4 and then stand on the other piece and it'll break off and so you couldn't measure and cut that way without the blade but honestly I just suggest getting the blade it gives you a lot more versatility the half inch doesn't score and snap you're gonna need the blade and you're gonna need that half inch anytime your shower wall is connected to another drywall or surface of the room drywall is half an inch so you want to use half inch cement poured here if you only use the quarter you've got to attach two layers and I just think that's bad business these screws that come for this product there's a blue coating and there are gonna be specially marked for use with cement board there's also a product out there with green screws as well boom and installs on the surface okay it's going to be about don't worry about that you don't have to go flush because when you're applying your cement for all of your stone you're gonna be using the 3/8 or quarter or half inch cement line anyway now of course our system for that is to use the fiber tape on all the corners it's kind of like doing drywall only after we put the tape on you want to get some quick-set cement and you want to apply with a four inch knife just to set up and seal all the corners before you use a waterproofing membrane and yes with cement board I suggest using a waterproof membrane this board itself does not get damaged when it gets wet but if you don't have a waterproof membrane you're not diverting all the water that gets behind your tile back into your drain you're still allowing this to soak up the water and sooner or later that water will find its way to your frame and it will create a siphon and that's safe and every time you shower will pull water into the wood and at one point that would all have so much water it'll start to drip that's when it's going to come through the ceiling underneath you the cool thing about these screws is that the really sharp points so they get through that cement pour like nothing the difficult part is if you have a bunch of your hand you're gonna poke yourself full of holes now you want to install this about the same as you would drywall okay one screw every 12 inches [Music] this is where this gets interesting right hey well we're just putting on our self-adhesive fiberglass mesh tape part of the process for dealing with this cement board the product recommendation is that we use a little bit of quick-set on the top of that cement once it's dried we can take out our aqua defense green membrane it's the roll on and we'll just paint the shower before we tile yeah really handy inside corner trowel putting mesh on these corners it's not too often you use mesh in a corner have you stuck in the drywall job you can do it you want to use a quick set cement in those applications and the same thing here since we're using a quick-set cement I can use this corner towel just to embed the tape and the reason we're using this is to give the cement something to bond to so it's a continuous bond from one surface to the next and then yikes when it's all said and done and the cements dry and we paint our waterproofing membrane on there this would be a very very very effective way to create a waterproof shower DIY and save a ton of money there we go okay this is actually a great time to ask if you have any questions about waterproofing systems just put them in the comment section below because we've used shaloo derp we've used regular drywall we use a Schluter membrane the kerdi-board we've used Red Guard with use aqua defense on drywall now we're using it on cement board every one of these systems a little bit different has different pros and cons including cost and availability so if you're not sure you can always ask your questions yeah we even did a tile over tile video once which shows you how to waterproof your existing space and then put a new look inside of the existing one so I mean there's a lot of options out there and there's no such thing as one right way to do it there's just a whole lot of different right ways to do it according to what's best for you so here's a question they get all the time basically it's the understanding of how do these assemblies go together you'll see that this is a shower pan and it has what we call an integrated tile flange okay this this rising piece here is part of the continuous part of the pore of the shower pan and it goes right up against the framework of the space it's exactly the same as the tub a tub has an integrated tile flange as well so whether it's 16 inches high 20 inches high or 2 inches high they all operate exactly the same the base gets put up against the framework and then your substrate with her cement or drywall or kurti board or wedi board whatever you're using comes in six on top of this the secret here is it doesn't matter if it sits directly on top of it and in most cases I suggest leave a space because these products have a tendency to flex around when you're walking in them or sitting in the mixer tub what you do is you just take your mesh tape or your Kirti bands that orange tape that comes with the kurdish looter system and you tape the gap it almost seems ridiculous when you think about it but it's so effective okay and then what we're gonna do is follow the manufacturer's instructions we're going to put our quick-set cement over top of all of this just to fill it up it's kind of like doing dry well when we use our our our 20-minute mix and all of our gaps and cracks before we take similar kind of concept here we're going to be filling that gap with cement then we're going to be applying our membrane which would then get painted from this point all the way up the wall so there is no way for the water to get in behind any of these substrates or in between any of these cracks once you're finished that way and that is how you complete your assembly so that you have a complete water diversion system all the way through your shower right to your drain this is my favorite waterproofing membrane aqua defense by matt by it's just a simple roll line - coach you're good to go rolls on thick doesn't run and the best part about it is one of these tubs will do about four hours so it's awesome what we're gonna do now is I actually have to run to the store pick up a bag of quick-set cement cuz I don't have one I thought I did but it's been in storage too long and it's gone all clumpy so I'm gonna grab another one we'll do the quick joints and then after that set up in about 20 minutes or so we'll be able to roll this on and of course it's just part of the whole process right get your board on get it attached to get it taped get it filled get it waterproofed and then it's tile time but we can do all of that tomorrow so by the end of tomorrow we're actually gonna have all of our tile done in here and it'll start to look like a bathroom I am so excited so now we're our cement board is done our mesh tape is all installed we're gonna use our cement compound just to fill in the gaps to create a nice bond from one surface to the next we're using speed set there's a product I found the local building store sets up in like 15 or 20 minutes so you got to work quick make it in small batches put the water in the pail first add the mix give it a quick whip and then run to job it's gonna be a little nutty but I will probably do two or three applications of this get it all done and in butter half an hour from now we'll be able to actually do the waterproofing membrane on the shower the recommendation from the company that sells the fiber board is just put the tape on but to add the cement so I'm gonna show you all of the proper procedures today just to make sure that you got the right information I've got an hour I'm just a little bit thicker than a slurry which is perfect now we got to run the idea is to fill in the gap at the base this is the most crucial point then we can always revisit this again after this cement starts to set up doesn't have to be pretty right now just get it in there just one application to do the job we can clean it all off afterwards although the cement the cement sets pretty quick there's lots of working time while it's finishing in the hardening process for us to clean it off the shower pit of course make sure you peel back your plastic if you're putting in a new shower fan get it out of the way because if you waterproof while the plastics in place the water will find a way behind it and that would be disastrous okay so now it's kind of like drywall right La Crosse the drywall for cement forest a little tree here in the mountains quick here just to get everything really the goal is just to get the cement in the fiber so that you have a surface that's a water prefer breaking bond it's starting to get stuck now this is actually he's actually the way I like it I do like it a little stiffer this is just kind of like waxing your car put it on then you take it off let's try to leave your surfaces smooth and flat as possible so nothing's in the way of the tile installation [Music] okay now if you're working on making a steam shower the only difference in your application is you want to take your cement board or a waterproof drywall or something put on the ceiling and continue all these mesh joints do the entire ceiling as well now generally steam showers they hold the steam and they have full doors to the system's floor-to-ceiling so you really are encapsulating yourself more like a submarine in this system I'm just creating water diversion and protecting myself against a little bit of steam but not a big deal and you're when you're in here the wiring is set the fan will be on with the lights and it's guaranteed to evacuate all of the moisture in this room so again to what degree you want to prep yourself for out what kind of longevity is up to you but if you cement board and you seal the joints and you use a waterproofing membrane system most shower systems with a decent fan in the room you're looking at a 50 to 75 years shower not going to be a worry and I'm more than happy with that so we had enough time to get our subfloor down and now that stuff is hard it's not completely dried out and cured yet but it does not matter it is a solid substrate and it's ready to receive our waterproofing system which is our Aqua guard now I love this product I've used it before matter of fact the last bathroom we use this in was in her Mother's Day video actually it was the tile of her tile video yeah and I mention a night one before that the tub is a little bit too big for one shower so if you keep it handy you can use it again and here we are using the rest of this tub you know good value most houses are two-bedroom homes if you have a three bedrooms in it so you're gonna have two showers of renovate over your lifetime you know one of them you might want to redo it completely like this and the other we might just want to give it a bit of a facelift like a tile over tile job you should check out that video we'll put the link in the description you can see how you can remodel and the differences versus renovating now this stuff is awesome we've just gonna be cutting in this is just like painting a wall right this brush and roll we're bringing our waterproofing system right down to the acrylic base okay before we tile here we go so we're just gonna do use this just like we're cutting a wall get a nice little coat here we want to put this on pretty thick the secret to an effective membrane is actually in the thickness of the material when it's dry so unlike a wall where less is more with waterproofing systems the more you can leave on the better mattify is a Canadian company and it has a pretty big distribution circle but depending on where you are in this country North America or the world you're gonna have a tile company that'll have a role on membrane this is not a unique product been on the market for twenty thirty years and you can find out whatever distributors you have for tile supply and cements they'll have this product as well it's very common in commercial applications to use a roll-on membrane when you're tiling actually have somebody just the other day you mention that they're a guard in the prison system in the UK and they just redid all of the prisoners showers and they just used the rule on membrane tiled right overtop of whatever was there before and that is how they did the job there and they saved a fortune for the taxpayers I don't think it was on my advice but the point hints said it's a good system it is used by professionals it is accepted in the industry so I know there's a lot of guys that like to talk trash about that kind of a product but at the end of the day there's a reason these products are on the market and these kind of roll-on membranes are worth your weight in gold you don't necessarily have to upgrade to fancy board systems and we D and Kirti and Schluter all these things I like to say it like this based on the investment in the tile and the renovation and the life expectancy of the project then your substrate systems and your waterproofing system should be relative to that so if you're only spending $500 on tile for your bathroom makeover it doesn't make any sense to spend $1000 on waterproofing especially if you're doing it yourself but if you're spending $1,000 on tile maybe you're in that market we're looking at protecting that investment for a longer period of time might make some sense get it rolling awesome so depending on the design of your shower again if this is a steam shower you wanted waterproof all of the walls and the ceiling this is just a regular shower we're gonna have a fan so really I could get away with just doing the bottom of four feet with the waterproofing system because the cement board it doesn't get damaged if it gets a little bit of moisture in it which is why people like to use it and why some states actually made that part of the building code but the reality is if you really want to protect your investment you want to make sure the water doesn't get to the the framework behind the cement which is why we're using the membrane it's not the cement or we're worried about once it gets wet it'll transfer that moisture into the wood frame behind it over time and once the wood starts sucking up that moisture it'll pull it through the cement create a siphon and start dripping on your ceiling so really what we want to do here is protect the most vulnerable areas from absorbing water and that is the bottom four feet and around the bench so that when you're done your shower and your rinsing off your walls and stuff you're not allowing that water to penetrate and cause an issue [Music] [Music] [Music] yep time for code number two between all of us personally I think that first code is gonna be fine but this is all about being safe than sorry because it only takes one spot for the water to penetrate and cause a whole lot of grief so there's every time in construction till you have a mindset of doing overkill the waterproofing membrane is the time to do it funny thing is most of the time when it's time to do overkill it's the stuff that no one ever sees when you're finished that's one of the reasons why I'm a big believer people should DIY their own bathroom renovations because the most important stuff the plumbing the waterproofing all these types of things these are things that aren't part of the finished project the things that if you don't do right that's where you run into problems and they're usually the areas where people will cut corners if they're in a hurry and that's why I think homeowners are their best general contractors out there okay so here's the million dollar question for you if you've seen some of our other videos you might have noticed we've done it a lot of different types of waterproofing systems there's no one way to do it do you like the green stuff do you like the Red Guard do like the cardi membrane do you like the kerdi-board do you who like cement board versus waterproof drywall a lot of different options out there curious to hear your opinion and actually if you can put it in the comment section below I'd love to know what state or country you live in and what your minimum code is where you live because this is one area that is different all over the board so I chose to waterproof basically at 3 to 4 feet all the way around including the bench because I did not have enough cereal in this bucket to do a whole second shower right to the ceiling but because this doesn't absorb moisture and I'm not gonna be standing here spraying water at the wall all day long I'm not too concerned about it don't worry I'm concerned about it is if water gets behind the tile and it settles down here I want to make sure I diverted back into the shower pan that's why we're sealing up the bench and around the shower nook area that I'm building and sealing it up right down to the acrylic base we're not taking any chances and I know some what people might think oh you're cutting corners I think if I waterproofed all the joints so the water didn't have anywhere to escape and I left the ability for water behind the tile to get back under the pan a little bit just fine unless if you're interested in any of the tools that I'm using and you want to know where to buy them you can always check out our Amazon link in the description of the video below because that has a link with all of our painting gear and all of my favorite tools as well and before we go let's just talk about you're interested to see how this project turns a thing click the link right here and we'll show you this beginning to end 1880s rebuilt on a bathroom gonna be awesome

Channel: Home RenoVision DIY

Views: 2,580,077

Keywords: cement board shower install, how to install cement board, backer board, installing cement board, cement board installation, hardiebacker cement board, how to install backer board, how to install hardi backer, tile backer installation, tile board installation, cement board, durock installation, how to cut backer board, installing cement board on a wall, how to install durock, how to install backer board for tile, hardiebacker cement board installation instructions

Id: MY6jxM2rKhI

Length: 23min 12sec (1392 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 21 2019