Shower room - Bonding + skim OR plasterboard + skim?

Newuser0

Hi everyone, 

I’m currently renovating a small shower room (2m x 1.7m) and have taken it back to brick.

I’m getting different information in relation to the best way to go about plastering.

The walls will be half tiled and half painted, with the tiles being approx 30x10 in brick formation, the shower area will be fully tiled top to bottom.

I have 2 questions:

1. Is it better to plasterboard and skim? Or better to bond and skim?

2. If it’s plasterboard, should I skim the whole shower room or only the the parts that will be painted? Leaving the tiling area and shower area to be tiled straight on to plasterboard?

All help will be appreciated.

Thank you! 

floppydisk1

Do not use  normal plasterboard in shover, use tiling board or as minimum moisture check green plasterboard  instead - that is the cheapest option and yes, no need to skim what is going to be tiled, tile directly on the board and plaster only above tiles bit. Other option is bit better ( use hardwall or even better sand and cement - not bonding coat ) but will cost you more  if you pay someone to do it for you( not an issue if you can DIY )  and takes longer . Either way is OK .

FreeBear

Cement board (tile backer boards) for the area being tiled - Don't bother slapping plaster over them, the tiles & adhesive will do the job.

For the rest of the area, I'd be tempted to use a lime plaster, but finding anyone to do a proper job at a reasonable price is not going to be easy. Certainly do not use regular plasterboard - It will turn to mush eventually due to the moisture in the room.

fenwick458

floppydisk1 said:

no need to skim what is going to be tiled, tile directly on the board and plaster only above tiles bit. 

Disagree with that. what happens when someone wants to change the tiles, or a tile cracks and needs replaced? the paper gets pulled off the board and the board is ruined, or it takes a whole lot of effort to get it flat and prepared to be skimmed or tiled onto again.
your not saving anything by doing it either, to get the plasterer to make a neat line around the bathroom where the tiles will meet up to, takes just as long as to skim the whole lot.
you'll save a bit on plaster mind, but thats only £5 a bag!
and back to the original question, it's quicker to just dab boards on and skim, than it is to apply boding, level it up and skim. plus depending on the abilities of the plasterer and the state of the walls, you'll probably end up with a neater job using plasterboards

floppydisk1

No Fenwick - I would use hardibacker/tiling board and green board above, skim plasterboard only ,finish it simply where the  green board stops and ease off right after that,  then tile directly onto a proper tiling board that has no paper so if tile cracks you change it.  Thickness of adhesive will go over last bit of thin skim so no need for any neat line. Its not about saving on a bag of multifinish, you  should tile directly onto a tiling board, bond is much stronger than on finishing plaster and they don't take in moisture - they are designed to be tiled  on directly.

Astrozombies

Don't use adhesive with cement boards...they need a mechanical fix. Trying to Dan them on will result in them falling of the wall.
  Skimming will only his about 20kg/m so if you skim boards then your tiles need to be light.