one of the most important things you shoulddo when remodeling you bathroom is to completely—and i’ll repeat this—completely waterproofyour shower. so how do you waterproof your shower and tile in the same day?well, today we’re going to show you how to do that using ardex 8+9. this is a liquidwaterproofing and crack isolation membrane that you apply to cement board, and it allowsyou to completely waterproof your shower and then tile it within a few hours. it’s prettycool. and my buddy, steve white from srw contractingis going to show you how to apply this. he’s a master bathroom remodeler. he does thisevery single week. he’s always tiling and installing luxury bathrooms. so if you’regoing to learn how to waterproof your bathtub
or shower, he’s the guy to watch. let’sjump to the tutorial. hi, i’m steve white with srw contracting,and today we’re going to waterproof this tub surround. we got all the concrete boardup, and we’re going to waterproof it. there’s one particular thing i hear more than anythingelse when i get called from clients that are having issues with their tile work or havingmold issues and a lot of it because they’re not waterproofing the substrate behind thetile. and that’s the number one thing you need to do before installing tiles.so today we’re going to use a product called ardex 8+9. it’s one of my favorite products.it’s a liquid membrane, so it’s easy to seal off all the corners and the edges ofthe tub. and we’re going to get into that.
okay, so the ardex system comes with two parts:there’s a liquid, and then there’s the bag form. and you mix these to certain consistenciesfor what we’re going to do. and we’ll explain that shortly. so it comes with bothparts. also around the tub surround, it’s prettyimportant to have the mesh with it as well so that we can fill in the gap between theconcrete board and the tub. and this is a great way to do it. and also you use thisto seam between the drywall and the concrete board, so you’re going to need this as well.and really the only tools you need are the putty knife for the thicker stuff that we’regoing to put in-between the tub and the concrete board, a paintbrush, and then the majorityof it we’re going to be rolling on. so pretty
simple stuff. doesn’t really take that long.you can pretty much use this system and be ready to tile in about 2 or 3 hours, dependingon how long it take the first coat to dry. but it’s something that you can pretty muchtile in the same day. okay, so we have this gap all the way aroundour tub, and that’s basically to keep that concrete board from bellowing out and causingissues with lining up the drywall and all of that. but you want a nice, straight surfacefor your tile. so what do we fill this gap with? how are we going to make this waterproofto this tub? well, there’s really two different ways.there are several ways, but one, a traditional way would be just to do thin set. fill thisin with thin set and then use like a waterproof
membrane that you can embed all the way aroundto it. and then do a waterproofing membrane all the way up the walls. it’s a great wayto do it. there’s nothing wrong with doing it that way. it just takes an extra day becauseyou’re going to be thin setting this. you’re going to have to let this sit overnight. andthen you can start waterproofing the following day.so the product i’m going to be using is that ardex 8+9, and what we do is we mix theproduct to a caulking consistency. and ardex has its own mesh membrane that we’ll beembedding to the tub all the way around. so we’re able to basically waterproof and fillthat gap all in one afternoon, which definitely saves time.we always read the back for the specifications.
they come with a little booklet to show youhow to mix it, but we’re just going to briefly go through how we’re going to do this. andthe fill in this gap, we’re going to make it to caulking consistency. and basicallythat’s just 3-parts of the powder and 2-parts of the liquid. and that should get us to thecaulking consistency. it allows to fill that in. and we’ll be filling this in and thenpainting. and that’s another thing i should mention.is anywhere that there’s a â¾â€ gap or more, you want to use that caulking consistencystuff that we mix up with the ardex and fill in those grooves. for instance, right aroundthis recess niche, this ore-built niche, we’re going to use the mesh that goes all the wayaround it. so we’re going to fill in these
cracks around that. so i’ll go ahead andget started here. it’s always smart to use the liquid firstand put it in your bucket so that when you pour the powder in, it’s going over theliquid. it makes it easier to mix it. because if you put the powder in first, it’s kindof stuck to the bottom of the bucket. so do the liquid first.so i got 2-parts of liquid. so then use a separate cup for the powder so that you’renot losing any of the amount that you need in it. then i just got a standard mixing paddle.i’m going to put it on low speed. and use this caulking consistency of the ardex andfill anything that’s more than â¾â€ with a putty knife.so you definitely want to wear some latex
gloves with this stuff because this stuffis pretty sticky. it will probably be pretty tough to get it off your skin. so we’regoing to fill in the same here. i recommend putting some green tape or some kind of tapeon the tub just to keep that from getting the waterproof on the tub. you can scrapeanything off. you get off the tub with a utility knife. it’s just nice to prevent any futureproblems with it. and i’m not sticking the tape underneath of the board. i’m just keepingon the front edge of it. so we’ll go ahead and just fill in the gap between the concreteboard and the tub. so that anywhere around the pipe, like foryour tub spout, you can just use this and fill in around. if you had excess bigger holearound it so then everything’s complete
waterproof. because most tub spouts don’treally have an escutcheon that really makes the back of the tub spout waterproof, so it’sreally important to waterproof around the pipe for the tub spout. everything else, likethe valve cover, it has a, escutcheon with rubber backing on it. they sometimes recommendyou silicone the back plate. but most of the time, they usually have like a little rubberseal that when you screw that escutcheon plate down, it kind of makes a water-tight sealagainst the tile. but really there is not usually too much for a tub spout, so it’snice to have that completely waterproof. we just have a little excess of the stuff,so we’re just going to fill in even gaps that aren’t really â¾â€ but might as welluse this stuff. and the seams are a perfect
place for that.okay, so we got all the areas that are a â¼â€ or bigger filled. we have the areas betweenthe top deck and the concrete area filled with the caulking consistency of the 8+9.and now, the next step is to brush the corners and to roll all the walls and do a first coatof that. and that is going to be the paintable consistency of the 8+9.it’s basically just a 1-to-1 ratio that we’re going to use. we’re going to do2 cups of the ardex and 2 cups of the powder. for this stuff to be paintable, you don’tget a whole lot of working time with it. so only mix up enough that you can roll and brush.and it’s always easier to mix up another batch.you kind of want to mix smaller quantities
of this stuff because this stuff will be dryin a half an hour to 45 minutes. so start out small. and then if you need to mix somemore, mix some more. but this will get us enough to paint majority of the tub.okay, then we just have a standard 3/8†nap roller. pretty standard, regular roller.okay, just like you paint a house or paint a room, you want to brush in the corners andstuff first. okay, and we’re going to paint down along the tub here as well and try tostick with our line. so we have a line we marked for where we wantthe edge of our tile to really be and overlaps the drywall. so we’re going to fill in thatgap with the caulking consistency, but also, we’re going to try and stay close to thatline when we do the waterproofing. now it’s
hugely important to me when we got a finisheddrywall, after we have the tile in, we can actually just feather joint compound overthis. so try to keep it smooth if you can, but really, it’s going to have a line forreference of where we want to have at that line.okay, so we’re going to paint over the edge of the corner beam because we’re going tobe embedding mesh there as well. so you want to paint the corner. and stay away from theedge of the corner because that’s where you’re going to finish your drywall on theother side. so it only just has to cover the edge of it, and then we’re going to wallto waterproof against the tub here down to the floor.so we’re ready to do our first row of this.
so your first coat in one direction, and thenthe second coat in a different direction. and so we’re just going to go verticallyon the first coat. and i would just stay shy of the ceiling. you don’t want to get thisstuff on your ceiling that you’re going to try and finish. and, you know, as waterproofinggoes, it’s not necessary to be there because there’s really not going to be any waterthere. and if you wanted to, you can tape the ceiling and go all the way up. but i usuallyjust stay a good every â¾â€ point from the ceiling so i might not roll over them. allright. so that was just one batch. we’re going to mix another batch and continue here.it’s kind of like painting drywall mud for the most part. it basically turns into a liner,into a waterproof liner, essentially what
it is. so you want to make that thick so thatit’s 100% waterproof. so there are some areas like where i see somescrews and stop. i’m probably going to mix up a little bit more of the caulking consistencyand fill in some areas that… this isn’t really painting over, but we are doing a secondcoat of this. but before that second coat, i’m just going to fill in some of thesescrew holes that i could still see here. so i’m just going to reapply an area wherei’m putting my mesh with this. this mixture is basically what i’m embedding that meshinto. so this mesh will just go straight up against the tub. i just do a continuous jointin the corner here and just roll it out. you’re filling that in, and it sinks in a littlebit. it’s not a big deal just as long as
it’s waterproofed to the tub. because whenyou go to do your tile work, if this is indented a little bit, it’s better than being outtoo much. you can’t do much about it when it’s out too much. but when it’s in alittle bit, it’s not a big deal. what i mean is that joint is going to be filled in.some of it’s just kind of recessed in a little bit with this mesh. that’s not abig deal. so don’t be concerned with that. we’ll just cut this with a utility knife.we’re just going to cut this around this pipe. you see i’m not too worried abouthow big that hole is. just fill it in with more waterproofing. all this certainly isn’tgoing to be completely accurate, so it doesn’t really matter. we get that mesh around here.i’m just going to brush this over with the
brush, make sure this embedded in well. becausewhen we do our second coat, we’ll go over everything.so we’re also going to go up to my line here with a little bit of fresh ardex. we’regoing to put this mesh right along that line or close to it. just as long as you fill thatgap between the two. you kind of get down along the side of the tub, but it might overlap.so i’m going to cut this piece first, and then i’m going to cut a small piece forthe bottom. so it’s just kind of like drywall mud ona tape joint if you don’t have anything underneath it, it’s not going to stick.so just wipe a little bit underneath it there just to make sure that everything’s embedded.so we’re going to put a second coat on top
of this.next, we’re going to cut down our mesh a little bit so i don’t want to have thatmuch overhanging on that tub. kind of like any other membrane, too, you just want tooverlap the other one. so that’s outside my line. so once i finish the tile, i’lljust be feathering some joint compound there so it’s not a real big deal.so same thing over that corner. just got to paint a little bit. where this overlaps, makesure you have enough covered underneath it to seal this. really anywhere you see likean air bubble or where this is lifting up, you want to just make sure you have enoughunderneath it. like up top there, pull this back a little bit and get some underneathit.
okay, and i’d still say the most importantarea is right along this tub line here. make sure that’s nice and waterproof. okay, sowe’ll let this set up. okay, so this is still on the first coat,but we’re just applying a little bit more around the niche because we want to put themesh between this pre-built niche. so in between the concrete board, we want to use the mesh.just to cover over the seam between the two materials. just embed that tape. i like todo the bottom and the top seam first and then overlap the sides. it doesn’t really matterwhich order you do it, but you want to overlap the seams. just use a paintbrush. a rollermakes it a little bit easier. so i’m using a utility knife on this board,but i’m putting another coat of this membrane,
and i’m going to paint over it right now.because technically by just scoring that, i’m actually piercing the membrane. thisis basically a paintable membrane i’m putting on here. so i’m just filling in the areathat i’ve put that utility knife score. and then we’re still doing a second coatover everything. and then some of the thicker stuff, we’re just going to put again someof these screw holes and get recotated. because by now, this bucket of stuff is getting alittle thicker. and you’ll see anywhere that it’s a little bit thicker than â¼â€,too, because you’ll see somewhat of a gap. so get the chance to go over those areas,too, with a second coat. and like i said, i’m only about â½-â¾â€from the ceiling. i wouldn’t find it necessary
to go all the way to the ceiling. if thiswere a steam shower, then yes. it’s going to be pretty important. but we obviously havedrywall up here. and you’re safe from any water damage being done that far up on theceiling. okay, so we’ll let this dry for about a half an hour. and then we’ll putour second coat on everything. and then we’ll be ready to tile.okay, so we let the first application set up for about a half an hour or 40 minutesuntil it’s not tacky anymore, until it’s pretty much dry. and what we’re going todo, we mixed up another paintable consistency of the ardex 8+9. and this time, we’re goingto roll it the opposite direction we started. so we’re going to go horizontally ratherthan vertically. and that kind of just applies
that layer more efficiently and get to a betterwaterproof ability to it. so we’re going to go over the mesh that we put in, embeddedand everything as well. so, yeah. we’re going to take the stuff, and we’re readyto go. so i also want to mention that it’s a goodidea to drop cloth off your tub a little bit. and you don’t want to really necessarilylet this stuff dry on the tub. i’m not saying you can’t get it off. it’s just a littlebit easier not having to clean it up right afterwards.again, we’re just going to apply another coat in the corners as well. we’ll alsogo down along our tub line here, too. okay, so before this completely hardens, iwould recommend pulling the tape off off your
tub just so that it’s not very difficult.you don’t have to score the edge of the tub. because right now, that waterproofingmesh that still on here is still wet, so it just kind of peels off. versus if you do ittomorrow, you’ll probably have to take a utility knife and cut that waterproofing.just pull that off all the way around. and in anything that you splattered on the tub,i would recommend trying to clean out this evening or the day that you do it versus waitingand it’s all completely hardened. it’s just really just a little bit of water anda rough sponge would probably get most of it off.all right. so that’s pretty much it. that’s all there is to it. that’s the second coat.we’ll let this set up for about an hour,
between an hour and 90 minutes, somethinglike that. just make sure that everything is completely dry, and nothing’s tacky.and you can pretty much start tiling within 2 hours after applying this product. so, yeah,it’s as simple as that. now everything’s 100% waterproof. you got no worries aboutanything getting into those grout lines and causing any damage. it’s all waterproof.so thanks! all right. so there you go. that’s how youwaterproof a shower using ardex 8+9. we want to thank ardex for giving us the 8+9. we’reactually pretty lucky because they’re right here in the pittsburgh area. and we reachedout to them because we wanted to show you how to use the 8+9 and be able to tile inthe same day that you waterproof your shower.
it’s pretty cool. and we only reach outto companies that we really feel strongly about. ardex not only makes 8+9, but theymake really awesome thinset mortars and grouts. so we’re going to show you how to use someof their other products down the road. and ardex x77 is one of those products. it’sa thinset mortar that you use to apply large format tiles to your shower wall. and we’redefinitely going to get into that in a little bit.but for today, we just wanted to show you how to use the 8+9 if you’re going to betiling your bathtub or shower surround. it’s a pretty cool product.we hope that you enjoyed this video. it was a lot of work to put together on steve’send. you can tell that he’s really meticulous
about his work. and i feel privileged to beable to video him. so, thank you, steve, for taking the time to share your knowledge withall of us. if you like the video, click on the thumbsup over on youtube. if you haven’t already done so, subscribe to our youtube channelbecause we’re going to have a lot more videos on how to do bathroom remodeling projects.and it’s specifically going to focus on tiling and creating a luxury bathtub or shower.i think you’ll really like these videos. so make sure you subscribe to the channel.or head on over to homerepairtutor.com, and sign up for the email newsletter.all right. so that’s it for today. thanks again. take care. we’ll talk to you soon.