I am redoing my bathroom in a 50 year old house. I am tearing down the plaster walls and putting up water proof (do not know the term for it) gyp board. My question is I am using 16x16 ceramic tiles for the shower walls, ceiling and floor and am wondering what I need under it? Do I use backer board of some sort? Also how can I make sure the ceiling of the shower won't cave under the weight. The ceiling will be 48x36

thanks in advance,

chad

Depends, what kind of foundation floor do you have?

We have a crawl space so it is timber.

Chad...

You need to install a 1/2" hardiebacker cement board (or 1/2" durock/wonderboard) on all wet area walls in your shower... You can install a mold proof greenboard or paperless board on the rest of the walls.

Also need to install this cement board on the floor (although you could use 1/4" board if your subfloor is at least 3/4" thick)...

Check out this link for more info. On how to install the baord correctly:

James Hardie: HardieBacker 500 backerboard (http://www.jameshardie.com/homeowner/products_backerboard_halfInch.shtml?openTab=jsnavL ink4)

DO NOT install 16"x16" tile on the ceiling... too large. Stick with 6"x6" or even 8"x8", but 16" tiles are simply to large to stay up by itself... and if 1 falls it will surely puncture the shower or damage something else.

Let us know if you need more here...

MARK

Great thanks for the info. I will look for something smaller for the ceiling.