Hardiebacker vs Greenboard

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Idoc4u

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I have roughed in a shower so that I will put wall board behind the acrylic shower walls as opposed to attaching the shower walls directly to the studs. I believe this will add stability.

Would it make more sense to use cement board vs greenboard behing the shower walls since I will need to drill a hole for the shower valve and a hole for the shower arm thereby potentially not exposing gypsum to H2O?

This way if water ever leaked behind the acrylic shower wall surround, it would not damage greenboard. So you'd have stud/cement board/acrylic shower surround/and then greenboard over the flange of the shower wall.

An alternative idea I have is to use greenboard, but just leave a gap between the studs where the valve is located behind the shower surround. In this case, I wouldn't need to drill any holes since there would be no drywall covering the valve. It would look like: stud/greenboard/surround/greenboard over the sourround flange.

Thanks for your opions.
 

Krow

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IMO, with the acrylic panels, cement board will be an overkill.

Cover the entire walls with greenboard or blueboard and leave the hole around the shower valve only as if you are going to tile. Then glue the acrylic directly onto your boards.
 

Jadnashua

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Unless the surround installation instructions call for it, I wouldn't put anything there. Greenboard really isn't much better than normal drywall, and in most (national) codes is no longer approved for damp areas. Having it there may make the edges of the surround difficult to position properly to trim out.
 

Krow

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Of course I am refering to the 1/8" shower wall panels. If the walls are rigid and self supporting, then no drywall is required.
 

Basement_Lurker

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Cement board is only used on tile installations to give the tile a proper surface to adhere to, and because grout is porous. The plastic walls you are talking about are not porous, so you don't need to use cement board (and a proper vapour barrier). Your valve trim will seal off any water exposure, and if it doesn't because of improper installation, by the time you have enough water damage from shower spray, you will have bigger problems than soggy drywall...like mold or rot.
 
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