Beltzington
Platinum Member
I'm using Hardy backer board on both the walls and floor of a walk-in shower. My "custom built" house apparently meant they were very creative at cutting corners and I found I have 24" OC framing in my interior walls. My thought was I will just install plywood over the studs to add more rigidity to the wall without having to work around the existing electrical and plumbing by adding additional studs.
Backer board installation instructions say it needs to be attached to studs at 16" OC max. There are no guidelines for mounting to wall sheathing, although mounting to a 20ga metal stud is "ok." If 20ga metal will hold the board there is no way a 5/8" thick wood panel will not. The additional advantage is in the future I can add grab bars, monkey bars or whatever anywhere in the shower without having to preplan there location. Also, the shower bay is huge so the loss of a couple inches on the wall is not a concern.
Why no specs for wood panel walls?
Backer board installation instructions say it needs to be attached to studs at 16" OC max. There are no guidelines for mounting to wall sheathing, although mounting to a 20ga metal stud is "ok." If 20ga metal will hold the board there is no way a 5/8" thick wood panel will not. The additional advantage is in the future I can add grab bars, monkey bars or whatever anywhere in the shower without having to preplan there location. Also, the shower bay is huge so the loss of a couple inches on the wall is not a concern.
Why no specs for wood panel walls?