Aquapanel Hardibacker cement boards

[twitcher]

Tip off a tiler today on cutting and dabbing cement based boards for showers/wet areas.

Use an angle grinder to cut them - no point blunting down your stanley. Use a moist sponge to run down with the angle grinder to cut down on the dust. You'll get it cut in seconds.

Dot and dab the boards straight onto brickwork if they need to be flush with the existing wall say for a shower enclosure. Don't use dry wall adhesive, use rapid set flexible cement based floor tile adhesive. It's a bit tricky to level out cos it's really thick and flexible - the excess doesn't push out like creamy board adhesive but it'll stay up there guaranteed. Mix it up thick though.

 

[warriorupnorth]

Much quicker with stanley and no dust, i fit 500m2 0f this stuff and found the knife to be the quickest and easiest, but if it works for you then alls good

 

[lucius]

Warriour is right score and snap upwards if if there is enough waste, Hardi do a special scorer for the job. Ive heard about dabbing the with addy but i thought the had to be mechanicly fixed perhaps things have changed.

 

[twitcher]

got this offa tiler yesterday. I've only fitted a little of it to be honest, but it made sense to dab it with floor adhesive rather than board adhesive. Can't see board adhesive being strong enough and if you think about it cement on cement sounds right.

I'll try snapping it upwards in future. Do you only need to score it a little or do you have to go all the way through the top cement layer?

Think I will stick to using an angle grinder for hard to cut areas like the shower mixer though

 

[lucius]

Score through the top layer and snap. Show me if ime wrong but i cant anything on Hardis &Aquapanel website that says you can dab them with tile addy it would be just the same as dabbing a large format tile possible failure over time which could lead to injury, also if large format travertine were stuck to dabbed cemen boardt there would be some weight issues.

 

[twitcher]

Score through the top layer and snap.

sure thing, but it still blunts you knife and takes time, unless I'm doing something wrong..

Show me if ime wrong but i cant anything on Hardis &Aquapanel website that says you can dab them with tile addy it would be just the same as dabbing a large format tile possible failure over time which could lead to injury, also if large format travertine were stuck to dabbed cemen boardt there would be some weight issues.

It's not on any manufacturers website - just a tip off a tiler who's been doing it 20 odd years. The enclosure we dabbed on one wall to keep it flush was only having light tiles on it, but I see you point about heavier tiles. I'd normally screw them onto battens but didn't fancy hacking the whole wall off to keep it level.

 

[lucius]

Ile give you a tip dont always listen to people just because thy have been doing it for 20 years just means the have been doing it wrong for 20 years:RpS_wink:

 

[twitcher]

seen.

just thought i'd share it, sounded good at the time. Still think it's worth doing some cuts with an angle grinder though. At least it'll save saws and blades.

Some things you can think through logically, they add up. I'm always open to ideas. A lot of tips and tricks don't show up on any manufacturers guides, they work and it's proved over time.

It's good to work stuff out on here, I guess that's what it's for.

 

[lucius]

Fair play mate i still learn something new every week, in fact the older you get the rougher you get cos you know what you can get away with but you must learn to differentuate between cutting a few corners and downright dangerous.Istill work to manufactureres spec not worth taking the chance these days.