The Lemon Fool

OK, I finally got around to buying tiles for my bathroom, to make a real feature of the recess at the foot of the bath. The recess is to be tiled right up to ceiling height, along with splashback around the non-recessed majority of the bath.

I also bought Hardie backer board, which I think may help, not least where the walls are not entirely even or of questionable quality. Today I looked for studs in the existing wall to attach it, and I find at the back of the recess - featurewise the most important wall - there is only the one stud. So my backer board won't be as well-attached as one might wish

The width of the recess is 69cm, the height about 190cm bath-to-ceiling, and the stud is in the centre. Will I get away with that, or do I need to rethink?

I would use mechanical fixings and a load of Gripfill or similar. Hopefully the stud is towards the centre of the space. Another option would be to fix thick battens to the wall (stud) and then fix the board to that. That might provide more rigidity but personally I'd just screw and glue

Thanks. I had half thought of lots of glue, but people I've asked are negative about it. There'll be enough kerapoxy mounting the tiles to the backer board!

The idea of introducing new battens - maybe half-a-dozen horizontal struts attached to the real one in the wall and with glue and with rawlplugged screws at the ends - has some appeal: there's space for making a small false wall. Should I then worry about the long-term health of my softwood in a bathroom setting?

I wouldn't be concerrned about the softwood battens. Fix them, then fix the backerboard. That should be reasonably good at protecting the timber from moisture laden air. If there are gaps round the edges of the board you could go belt and braces and mastic over the gaps. (tile cement won't stick to a lot of mastics but that should be ok unless you slap it all over.).

By the time you have fixed and grouted the tiles it should protect the wood anyway.

I often use rapid set adhesive in wet area/ high moisture, it doesn't mind getting wet unlike normal tile adhesive. It can be a bugger if you ever need to take the tiles off though.

https://www.wickes.co.uk/Mapei-Mapeker- ... lsrc=aw.ds

Other brands available.

I phoned Hardie's own technical department today. They advise against using glue, but think the additional wooden supports (false wall) should be fine.

I've been to our local DIY shop, and find they have very little stock of wood battens and nothing of a suitable size. They recommended coming back on Thursday. But I bought some zinc-treated screws, so I can get on with it on the other walls where the battens are sufficient.