Today we’re going to waterproof a tub and shower
surround in a bathroom. I want to give you tips on how to do this. It’s very easy, especially
with a lot of the new systems that we have today. So I just want to jump right into it
and give you the tips and give you the confidence to be able to do this yourself.
A few tools that we really need in one: we’re going to just use a roofing nailer.
You can obviously use a screw gun, but this quickens up the speed of installing some of our
furring strips. We’ll get into that later in the video on how to install these and what we’re
using them for. A spade bit for around your tub spout or a shower port. We’re going to need
a corner trowel and just a 4-inch knife. This is to spread sealant over our boards. A simple
chalk line. And we have a drill with a 4 ¼-inch hole bit. And then a standard drill. And for this
specific system, we’re going to use a sausage gun. Some scissors. And probably the most
important tool is just a simple utility knife. Majority of the work, I’m going
to be using just a simple utility knife. Please stick around because the last tip
is something that I see a problem with all the time, and I don’t want to see
you having that issue in your shower. Tip #1 is always to make sure that your framing
is all in line with one another, and you’re going to need your studs 16 inches on center. So making
sure that you have a distance between the center of one stud to another that is a minimum of
16 inches. So we’re about 15 here. So you want to make sure that everything has some kind of
support every 16 inches. And then you want to be in line with each other. So just take a straight
edge like a level and make sure that everything is even with one another. And the main reason
for this is because the flatter the surface, the easier the tile installation is going to be.
Tip #2, if you want to save a lot of time, is to use a foam backer board that is
already waterproof. This is a light-weight foam board. We’re actually using Wedi in this
specific situation. And it’s a half-inch foam board. It’s already waterproof on the outside
surface, so that eliminates me having to do a second step of actually waterproofing it.
Keep in mind: cement board, hardiebacker, they are not waterproof. You need to waterproof
that before you set tile over them. We can do this entire system within less than two
hours and be ready to install tile. So this will save you a lot of time by using a
high quality backer board for your tub surround. Tip #3 is to always use the proper materials
for the system that you’re installing. I see way too many times people using just regular
silicone in the joints, in the corners of things. That is not something that thinset will bond to,
and you could end up with problems with it. So always use the products that are associated
with the system that you’re using. For this particular project we’re using Wedi, so we want
to use the Wedi sealant. We don’t want to be using anything else other than the approved
sealant for the system that we’re installing. Tip #4, this is a really critical area that you
have to address properly or you could possibly have leaks. And that is making sure that the
tub flange area is waterproof. Now there’s a couple of different ways to go about this,
and we’re going to show you three different, easy methods of addressing the tub flange.
But number one is to simply furr out the wall and allow your backer board to come down over top
of that tub flange. So using plywood strips—I just ripped these down on a table saw; just get a cheap
piece of plywood OSB; it doesn’t really matter—cut them down and use them as furring strips to
overcome the flange that you have for your tub. What these furring strips will allow you to do
is to overhang the backer board over top of the tub flange and have a nice, flush surface for
your tile and making sure that it’s waterproof. We’ll show you how to do that in a few moments.
So I like to use a roofing nailer for this. You can obviously just use regular screws to
do this. This just speeds up the application a little bit. But basically we’re just going to be
sticking this on all of the studs in the corners. And if your tub flange is thinner than this, you
don’t have to use half-inch strips. You can use ¼-inch, 3/8. I mean they make plywood about every
1/8-inch increments. So you can use different size furring strips to do this.
The TCNA handbook actually recommends this method of taking the
backer board over the flange. And a lot of the tub manufacturers
prefer this method as well. So we’ll use a utility knife to scribe cut and
go over this flange on the left and right side. So as you could see, when I take my board up, I
can now overcome my flange and bring this down to my tub deck. Now this is not the only step.
Hold up because my next tip is going to show you how to address this area properly.
So when you’re using sausage tubes, not only does it save you a little bit of money
because you get so much more sealant out of it. It’s really easy to use. You don’t have to cut
off the top of it. You just have to stab the top of your sausage tube. And then I’m going to cut
the top of this so we get a nice, larger joint. I always go for the larger hole for that because
I really want to use a lot of the sealant and make sure that everything is waterproof. So we’ll
even go a little bit bigger. Something like that. And just so you know, on the
sealant on Wedi, everything needs a one-inch overlap on it. And when you’re
bonding it to the tub, you need a half-inch bead of sealant to embed this board into.
Okay, so and this tip—and this is about all backer boards—is that you need to have expansion and
contraction in all planes of the board, especially against the tub deck. You always want to have an
eighth-inch gap between your tub and your backer board. In this instance, we’re using Wedi, and
they are asking for a half-inch bead of sealant along the tub deck. And that half-inch sealant
is actually going to buffer us an eighth-inch for that expansion and contraction. But no matter what
backer board you use, you don’t want to just butt it straight down the tub deck. You need to have
an eighth-inch gap for expansion and contraction. And this is a Wedi joint sealant that’s
specific for their product. You always want to use the manufacturer proper sealant
that they have recommended for it. Actually, let’s go over these little screws too.
Just an extra insurance on the system. Okay, so now I can embed this down into that bead. You can see how it’s oozing
out there. That’s a good thing. So we’re going to be using the proper screws
that are made for the Wedi. These are just basically alkaline-resistant screws. And we also
have the washers that come for Wedi as well. So you always want to use the screws and the
washers for the system that you’re using. And on your first screw, obviously you
don’t want to be screwing into your flange. Keep it up a couple of inches. And you just want to screw these washers in to where
you’re kind of indenting it into the board. Okay, and then when you’re placing these
washers, you always want to make sure you follow the technical handbook over the product
that you’re using. And for Wedi it’s every 12 inches for your screws. So you want to make
sure you have your washers every 12 inches. And then this last screw, you can actually pinch
both of these boards together and save yourself a washer if you wanted to. It’ll save a little bit
of sealant too because you you’re not having to put sealant over a whole other washer as well.
So on this particular system we need to put a bead of sealant along the top edge of the other
board before setting the second board on top. And then any of this excess here at the
bottom you want to use your putty knife and just make sure that’s all nice and smooth. You don’t want to have a bump out at the bottom.
That’s going to cause a problem for you tile work. So one thing about foam board that’s really
nice is that it’s easy to scribe cut. So if it’s a little tight, just do that in place. Makes
it much easier than your traditional cement board. At this point, you can pinch both of these boards
together and save yourself a couple of screws. So one thing about choosing a backer board, this
day and age it’s thinking about: Is it safe for the installer? Is it safe for the person in
the home? With Wedi, this particular product, the sealant doesn’t have any VOCs. It doesn’t even
have an odor to it. So it doesn’t really smell like a chemical. And the board itself isn’t
emitting, when I’m screwing screws into it, it’s not emitting any type of odor or any
CFCs. So it’s a good idea to kind of pay attention to what you’re purchasing and making
sure that you’re not emitting harmful chemicals and installing something in your home that
might be emitting something harmful to you. So the second way you can go about achieving
waterproofing around your tub flange is just to simply run the board on top of your flange and
then filling in the tub gaps. So again, all backer boards need an eighth-inch spacing for expansion
and contraction. And we’re going to be using a bead of sealant to embed on top of our flange.
So we’re going to measure on top of our flange. Now, you always have to make sure that your
flange is actually not going to be thicker than your backer board. And if so, then you might
have to actually shim out this wall as well. But this is actually showing just about a half-inch.
So the half-inch backer board will meet up with the top of that. So let’s go
ahead and measure what we need here. So we’re going to go from the corner,
and we’re going to be slipping this underneath of our existing corner bead here.
And we’re going to be re-fastening our corner bead after we get the board up. So 33 ½
is our width. Thirty-three and a half. Okay, so we’ll measure over to our tub spout. And we’re going to measure on top of our flange
to the center of our tub spout. So it’s 2 ¼. So I just like to use a one-inch spade bit. I like
to have a lot of room around my piping so that it slips over easily. Make sure it sits above the tub deck. And then
since it’s a foam backer board, I can just mark where my valves are
by simply hitting my board. Then I have an indicator here and here
for where the center of my valves are. Okay, for the main shower valve I
want to use a 4 ¼-inch hole saw bit. Okay, then for our transfer valve we’re going to
use a 3 3/8 bit. This will be for our hand-held. Okay, so I just need to cut a little bit here.
This needs to be underneath that corner bead. Okay, so in this particular
installation we’re going to put another half-inch bead of caulk on my
tub flange to sustain that eighth-inch gap for expansion and contraction. But it
also helps seal this board to my flange. And then we’ll go along side with the
bead where the boards meet in the corner. Okay, as you can see now I
have my board where the flange sits nice and flat all the way along.
Now we can just make sure that we have plenty of sealant within this void. We’re going
to address this a little bit later as well. But we just want to make sure that we
enough sealant bonded to that flange. You don’t have to use hole saws. You don’t need
to be spending $100 on hole saws to do this. You can actually cut all of this with a utility
knife and get pretty accurate with that as well. But we’ll show you a little bit later how we’re
going to address the valves and the ports. It’s really highly important that you address
these to be waterproof because this is obviously a hole in the system that could potentially leak.
Ten and ¾. Eleven. Okay, and I like using
a chalk line to chuck my lines here. Okay, so. Okay, so you want some sealant between your boards
on this system. Some along your corners as well. Okay, so again we can just pinch the
two boards together with one washer. Then the third way to achieve this is to actually
notch out your backer board. Now this only going to be probably done with a few select backer
boards that you can do this with. Obviously, Wedi is being one of them. The idea is to
basically cut out where the flange is going to be. So this is just a demonstration of it, but
you want to cut out enough of the flange. So you want to be able to cut this out. So
this is actually going to slide over top of your flange. Now I obviously have to
get much deeper than that, but this is the main concept. It allows me to keep the board
flat on here but also overextend the flange. Okay, so if you’re going to notch over this, first
thing that you need to do is just to determine how far you have the notch in. So we have an inch and
a half. This flange is an inch and a half thick. So we’ll need to be able to notch that backer
board an inch and a half for it to slide over. So we want to make sure that
our blade is an inch and half above here. We’ll just go a
little bit more to make sure that it is. And then what we’re going to do
is slide this through the table saw. So I’m going to take a little bit more
than half because that flange is a little bit thick so that we’ll be able to just
basically leave just the face of this. So this is going to be our niche. We’re going
to cut this out after we get this board up. This is going to be custom made. So we’re going
to be using extra foam backer board to waterproof this niche. This particular situation was kind
of nice. Unconventional. It had a bump out, so we’re able to get a nice, really deep niche in
this area. So custom making these things really provides a nice look, and it’s really simple to
do, and really, honestly, isn’t costing me any more money because it’s just the extra pieces that
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 I have to. So I’m leaving this
corner bead. But what you want to do is score the edge of this because you don’t want
that drywall mud. I don’t want to be basically adhering tile to drywall mud. And
you’re going to want to waterproof this system. We’ll show that a little bit here in the video on
how to address this corner bead. This is an area that if water actually penetrated any of this
corner bead, it’s going to rust out very quickly. We have our board notched out as you can
see. So we basically just created an “L” cut out of our board, and this is going to allow the
waterproofing to go over top of our flange. Again, you’re going to want some sealant basically
where this board is meeting this flange. So put a bead across the top of this. And then just because this is actually pretty
flimsy, I’m going to actually put some right along the whole flange. All the way along and including
at the bottom. Because again, you really want that eighth-inch gap between the bottom of that
backer board and the panel. And then we’ll go along the corner. All right. So that slips right
down over top of that flange now. Again, that’s kind of flimsy at the bottom
because of how thick that flange is. That’s why I have that additional
support of the sealant underneath there. So that’s the third way that you can address this
tub flange. And most likely you’re only going to be able to address that with a foam backer board
like this that you can actually notch that out. Smooth out this excess. And we’ll
address that here in a little bit. And cut out our niche. So
you have 27. Forty-seven. Let’s cut this out with a utility knife. Okay, and we’ll continue our
12-inch screw pattern here. Make sure we have washers around our niche here. Just get this flush with it you
can use an oscillating tool. I find this to be a little bit
easier than a utility knife. There’s another bedroom on the other side
of here, so I’m not going to be able to actually screw anything in. But what
I’m going to do is just use the sealant as my adhesion to it. And then when I
have the sides, the bottom, and the top in place, it’s going to hold that back
waterproofing in place. So just use a generous amount of the sealant on the back here.
And then we’ll take out cut-out that we cut out, and do that to the back of the
niche. And then we got basically 7-inch pieces. We’re going to overhang it,
and we’ll cut it flush with the outside wall. I find that to be a little bit
easier. So we’ll cut some 7-inch pieces. This is kind of pitching towards shower. It
doesn’t have to be much; just maybe like a sixteenth or so. So make sure that your bottom
plate… and if it’s not, you’re going to want to build something up or maybe put shim back
there or do something to make this pitch. So what I’m going to do is put
a bead on my outside board here. And then I’m going to be putting a
bead right up against the backer here. Screw it into place. Okay, so use our oscillating tool to get
this nice and flush with the outside board. Okay, so then once we get that right sides fit, put in all the corners, the bottom here, and
then along the side of the edge of the board. Okay, so this tip is really important as well
is making sure that you have waterproofing alongside your tub. I always recommend at
least a couple inches of waterproofing. This is a very problematic area. If this was
just drywall coming to the tub, this is a common area where water comes down the side of the
tub and deteriorates that drywall. So if you can tile that and waterproof it, you’ll be much better
to go with a waterproofing against that tub. So we’ll seal all of this against the tub. Get a little bit of sealant up
against this portion of your Wedi board. Okay, so now we have all the board on here.
Go ahead and refasten our corner bead. So we’re going to seal all the corners on this
foam backer board. You always want to make sure that you’re paying attention to the technical
handbook of the product that you’re using and making sure that you’re using the right amount
of sealant. The rule of thumb for Wedi is any screw hole, making sure that you have one inch of
sealant around that actual washer. And then in the corners, having a one-inch layer on either side.
Now what really helps out with that is using a corner trowel. This will make sure that you
have a continuous bead going that corner. Again, I like using the sausage gun because it gives me
a lot more sealant than a regular caulking tube. So we’re just going to really
give a nice bead in that corner. Okay, and then I’m going to go down along the
side just because I have all these washers fastening my system. And then I just want
to make sure that I have that one inch of overlap. And then let’s just put that third
bead up along the corner here, making sure that we’re hitting all our washers. And we’re
going to maintain that one inch of sealant. Okay, so I’ll just use some of this excess
sealant. I don’t want to waste any of this stuff. And while I have this excess, we’ll go one inch around these corners of my niche.
I’ll go ahead and do the same thing in the corners of the niche.
And you want a one-inch overlap
on your main seams too. Don’t worry about this corner. We’re going to
address that in a moment. But we just want to get the main field ones done. And where I missed
my screw areas there, you can always patch. So I missed my stud here. I’m just going to
add some sealant there to make sure that it covers every one inch over the board. Hey, so if you like these tips please
give us a thumbs up. It helps other people find these videos, and we want to make
sure you’re doing these things properly. So these next tips are probably the most important
tips of this entire video. So keep watching. You want to make sure that you do this right.
When you’re doing this option of the tub flange where you’re actually putting the board
on top of the flange, you want to add a sealing tape in addition to it to overlap the board and
the flange. In this particular instance we’re using Wedi, so we have the Wedi sealing tape
that we’re going to be installing. And this is just going to ensure that this bond between the
flange and the board are well waterproofed. So let’s just cut this to the size of the tub.
Now what we’re going to use on that is not the Wedi sealant. It’s the 620 sealant that we’re
going to be using. So it’s a little bit more fluid than this traditional Wedi sealant. It’s not
as thick. As you can see it’s a little bit more watery. And this is fluid enough
to bond the sealing tape to the board. I want you to get a good, generous bead on
there. You want to just feather this out. Okay, and then you’re going to embed. So you want to be able to see some of
that sealant coming out of the top. We don’t want water penetrating this corner
bead, so we’re going to be using the sealing tape on this corner bead as well. So let’s run a
bead down the entire width and on the Wedi. And this same method would be used if this was
just a straight wall with drywall. This is the way you’re going to want to transition the
drywall transition by using the sealing tape. So I’m going to embed that sealing tape in here. I’ll
just cut this little flap here. Okay, so this area I always see a problem. So
many tubs I pull out I see caulking around my tub spout. I see big, gaping holes around my
piping. The way to eliminate that is to use a flex collar. This is made by Wedi, but
many different manufacturers make pipe seals to go around plumbing protrusions.
So I find this to be really important, especially around the tub spout because water is
coming down the wall, it’s hitting your body, and it’s going right behind that tub spout. And this
is a perfect area for water to get behind the wall and into your wall cavity. So having a pipe seal
will ensure that this is going to be leak-free. And this is basically made for a ½-inch and a
¾-inch piping size. So it just kind of seals around that pipe. As you can see like it
has a little collar around it that’s going to really seal around this. So you could feel
confident that this is going to seal properly to the pipe that comes out for your tub spout.
So again we’re going to use the 620. Embed that into the… and that will ensure that you
have a nice seal around the pipe. We have a mixing valve flex collar.
This collar will go around my valve. The purpose of this is to allow the water, if
any water came back here, it would hit on the outside of this edge and come down the wall. So
there’s two sides to this. It has a wider piece and then a thinner piece. This part actually
goes into the wall. Unfortunately, the way I cut this I’m a little off. So I’m actually going
to cut this out a little bit with a utility knife and get this more centered. And
again, we’re going to use the 620. We have this transfer valve. They unfortunately
do not make a valve seal for this. So the way that you can address this, first, I’m
going to cut off a little bit more because I don’t want it to
be so tight against my valve. Let’s give ourselves a little bit of room here.
But really the way you want to address this is just to simply run a bead of sealant, kind of
raising it up above the board all the way around the opening. So really, the idea is basically
doing the same concept as this valve seal. If any water hits there, it’ll go around
and not inside the hole. So basically, all that this is going to do is it kind
of creates a little bit of a dam. And if there’s any water that gets behind your escutcheon
plate, it’ll just round itself around the opening. Well I hope these tips helped you out today.
If they have, please give us a thumbs up. And if you’re stuck with your own bathroom
project and you’re having questions, leave us some comments down below. We’d be happy
to help you out. Also, check out our sire at bathroomrepairtutor.com. We have step-by-step
tutorials on how to start your bathroom to completing it, installing tile, installing
vanities, toilets, you name it. We have a lot of that on our site, and we’re here to help you out.
So thanks, and we’ll see you in the next video.
