aquapanel or wedi stuff vs ply vs plasterboard for stud walling in new shower room

[jim]

I'm getting ready to fit out a new shower-room - currently the stud partition walls are dry lined (but not plastered yet) and other (external) walls are rough old plaster in need of some treatment before tiling / painting - they are out of true in both planes as you look at them and would be a b*gger to try and tile as is....

Floor is old boards and new chipboard "patchwork", no ceiling yet either! Plan to do ceiling in foam backed plasterboard and skim, possibly same on other walls too?

In the planned shower corner (traditional not wet room nonsense) I would appreciate comments/recommendations for what to do to the walls prior to plastering, installing shower tray etc - at the least I expect to tile in the shower cubicle, altho I have seen the new "formica" type sheets that are "new" trhese days - anyone bought/ fitted em?

cheers jim

[The Medway Handyman]

Yes. Real pain getting the sheets ti fit into the corner moulding & a real pain to seal at the base e.g. if walls have a slight bump in them. Wouldn't use them again.

[jim]

Noted - thanks any thoughts on what would be best thing to use to subsequently tile onto - for longevity, ease etc?? seen aquapanel mentioned here and there but not seen a reasonable pros/cons type discussion to decide if worth extra over plasterboard...

ta jim

[Newshound]

For my own use I would go for the laminated ply every time in a shower. Expensive but lasts forever. Yes, they are tight fitting the corner mouldings. You do need to pack them out to avoid bumps. But sealing at the bottom is OK if you go over a conventional plastic angle as you would for tiling. I'll never tile over ordinary plasterboard again (though the cement/fibre stuff like aquapanel is ok).

[Dave Plowman (News)]

If you are tiling, straight onto plasterboard will be fine - assuming the stud work is properly constructed so there's no undue movement which could crack the grout. Obviously you'll need to seal corners and wall to 'floor' with silicone.

[Huge]

I just stripped out and refitted the shower in our en-suite (actually, fitted a 90x100 cubicle to replace the 80x80 already in there). The bottom few inches of the plasterboard behind the tiles was totally wrecked by moisture. So I've replaced it with Aquapanel up to about 18" above the floor. The remainder of the p/b was sound, so I left it.