What’s one of the worst things that can happen in your tub or shower? Water getting
into the stud bay. So how do you prevent that from happening if you’re doing a bathroom
remodel? Well one of the best things that you can do is install Schulter KERDI-BOARD
like this right here that’s behind me. And in today’s video we’re going to show you
how to install all the boards around a tub/shower surround. In the end you’re going to feel
way more comfortable doing this. We’re going to show you how easy it is to do it. Basically
it’s a one-day job. Actually, it’s not even that. You can probably do this in a few
hours and be done ready to tile the next day. So let’s show you how to install Schulter
KERDI-BOARD. You’re really going to like this video. Let’s do it.
Okay, so today we’re going to show you how to install Schulter KERDI-BOARD around a tub
surround to make everything water-proof. What we’re going to use to make it easy is a
pre-made niche. They come in all different sizes, but this is a 16” x 22”, and it’s
already 100% water-proof. So you just screw this into place. You don’t have to worry
about doing any water-proofing on the horizontal surfaces. And then we’re using a ½” KERDI-BOARD,
which is already water-proof. It makes it really a lot more simple than using a concrete
board or a HardieBacker, and then you’d have to water-proof that surface somehow.
So this is like already included with the surface that’s waterproof.
So the things you’re going to need is washers. These mechanisms you use to secure the boards.
And for the seams you’re going to be using some KERDI band. This is just a 5”, or actually
I think it’s 4” membrane that you seam all the joints that you put in. So this is
a very quick and easy solution, and we’ll show you how to put that together. But it
doesn’t take long at all to get that underlayment for your tile installed. So we’ll get right
to it. First thing, especially when you’re using
any of these foam products—there’s a lot of foam products out there like Schulter;
Wedi, there’s a bunch of different companies that make a backerboard that’s not concrete
board. And one of the things you want to be particularly careful about with that is making
sure that all your studs are in line with one another. Because with the foam, it’s
very easy to bellow out that foam. And that’s going to make it difficult for your tiling,
especially when you’re going to go with like a larger format tile, like a 12” x
24”, if this substrate isn’t totally level, you’re going to be fighting yourself trying
to thinset behind that tile to make everything level. And you want to fix that at the substrate
level rather than trying to fix it with all your thinset and everything.
So for the most part if you have drywall and the other side of the room is a drywall bedroom
or closet, most of the time the studs are going to be pretty level. But I would say
anything that’s more than 1/8” you’ll probably going to want to address. And what
I’ve done in the past is either one shim out the rest of my studs to do that. Or I’d
even gone to where just right in the middle everything was bowed out, I would actually
just use and old planer, a handheld, electric planer and just plane down that stud until
everything is just completely level. So that is just one important thing you want to do
before you go installing this stuff. It’ll just make your life a lot easier.
So we’re going to go head and install the first board. I’ve made some measurements
up where my framing is for my niche. So this is going to fit pretty much exactly for my
pre-made niche. So I marked the edges of it. And we’re going to cut this out after I
have the boarding and then put our niche in. So it just makes it a little bit easier than
measuring and trying to cut around the niche. I’ll show you that here in a second.
So just like any substrate on a tub surround you just want to come down to that tub flange.
You don’t want to go over the flange and bellow out the bottom. You want to make sure
that you’re up above it so that everything is straight. And then we’re going to come
in and we’re going to fill that in afterwards. So about every 12” spacing on these washers.
Just cut that. And that’s one nice thing about this stuff: it’s very easy to just
scribe cut it. I mean if you would’ve done that with concrete board, that would’ve
taken a little bit of time. You actually had to take it back off and try to scribe it.
You won’t be able to just do that very quickly. The minimum KERDI-BOARD panel thickness for
installation on wall framing with stud spacing at 16” on center is ½”. Now the other
thing to know is the maximum on center fastener spacing is 12”.
Okay so we’re going to cut out our niche. 4 5/8”. This is going to be like a first
rough cut, and I’ll be cutting it closer. Now I can see my framing. Cut this out more
to be able to get the niche in it. Something you definitely couldn’t do with concrete
board. If you did you’re probably going through six plates by now to do it.
So we got our niche. So now we’re just going to outline what I need to cut. I want to make
sure this sits level or sits properly with spacing. 17 7/8”. So I’m actually going
to hold that in place to cut around the niche. You don’t have to be worried about too much
precision with this because you’re going to be still doing a KERDI-BAND membrane that’s
going over the seam. But the tighter it is, the less thinset you’re got to use. The
better it looks, too. There you go. That’s fits pretty nicely.
Like I said, we’ll be doing a membrane that goes over the top of this. So even if the
joints aren’t all that great, you don’t have to worry about it. You don’t have to
redo another sheet. But then with these washers you can pinch both sides of that, and that
will be enough to hold it in secure. So you’re kind of using less washers that way.
You use the same method to save screws and washers when attaching the KERDI-BOARD panel
to each other. So you can pinch the screws and the washers adjacent to the KERDI-BOARD
panels. Make sure this feels all flush. That’s pretty
good. Okay so we’re ready to go on to the next sheet here.
So that’s why the nice thing about using a board that’s already water-proof is that
when you put it all the way up to the ceiling, it’s water-proof all the way up against
your drywall. Versus like when you use a liquid membrane, it’s usually pretty tough to try
to get that last little ¾” without getting it all over your ceiling. And that just makes
it tougher to do your drywall work. So having this straight up there makes me feel better
that everything’s water-proofed on this wall. So that’s just one benefit of having
something consistent like this. 25 ¼”. I’ve bellowed out on my ceiling here. So
I’m just going to scribe cut off this KERDI so it could meet tightly up against the ceiling.
That makes it a lot nice and tight up there. So one of
the great things about the KERDI-BOARD is that the gridlines they have on board just
makes it so easy. I don’t even need a chalk line to cut anything up, and everything is
straight with how the board is laid out. So it really makes it easy. Not only that, but
just to line up your screws and stuff. You just follow those lines all the way up to
follow your stud. And if you want to pull out the chalk line, you don’t have to kind
of guess where your stud is. That saves a little bit of time.
Okay so we put on our second board and again, we’re just keeping it right to the top of
the tub flange, which is about ¾”. Every tub flange is a little bit different. But
we’re just resting this board on top of that flange. And then we’re going to fill
in that tub with the water-proofing membrane afterwards.
So I’m going to use a chalk line on this one since it’s pretty far off where my drywall
is meeting, basically like 31 1/8” to 30 ¾”. So it would be kind of hard to use
those lines and be right on. So I’m just going to use a chalk line on the off square
cut we’ll be making. So for this one, we’re going to measure
up the top of my tub to the center of my tub spout. So 1 ¾” x 13 ¾”. I’m just going
to use my utility knife to cut a square hole botch. But being so close to the tub there,
when I put my band around the bottom of the tub, it’s actually going to go over all
of this, including the pipe. So I’m not too overly worried about the size of the hole
that I’m cutting for it. That’s just for my pipe. See I just pumped that through for
my valve. So now I can just get my 3” hole saw. Cut pretty nice through there. So I just
have some integral stops on this valve so I cut out a little bit more on the sides to
access that. So you’ll want to be able to have access to these. These are the turn on
and off to this valve. They’re called integral stops. I just notched a little bit more out
of this so that I can actually access them. And then basically I can just thread in my
face plate. So as long as I have my towel right around where my KERDI is, it would be
good to go. I’m making a little impression on the back
there so I know where my shower connection port is going to be. So I’m just going to
use a power bit for that. All right so then I like to use some of the
KERDI-BOARD and go all the way down alongside the tub so that everything’s water-proof
that’s touching the tub. We’re actually going to use the membrane over the top of
this, but I definitely like to use the KERDI-BOARD against it as well, rather than drywall for
obvious reasons. If this drywall gets saturated for any reason, it’s just going to crumble
apart. So you’re better off to have some water-proof right against there. About 1”.
About 3 lines. Okay now we’ll quick corner beam on this
side. We’re going to use galvanized screws on all these because we’re going to be in
the tub surround area. Just a good way to check your corner beam using your square to
make sure that an outside lip is sticking out so when you go to feather your drywall
on here you’re not going to see the edge of your corner beam. It’s going to cover
all of that. The tub surround side doesn’t really matter because we’re tiling all that.
What is definitely important right here. I’m hitting the edge of my corner beam. I make
sure I pull this out a little bit so that this sits nicely.
All right so that is how you install Schulter KERDI-BOARD. Again this is part 1 of 2. So
we’re going to have another video coming down the road for you. You can check that
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get started or finish your bathroom project. So thanks for watching today’s video. Take
care. We’ll see you next week.