The Schluter Kerdi System: A Step-by-Step Guide to Waterproofing Your Shower or Tub

As we begin our project, it's essential to start by removing any existing tiles and grout from the area. This will give us a clean slate to work with and ensure that our waterproofing system is applied correctly. We'll be using the Schluter Kerdi system, which is designed to provide a reliable and long-lasting solution for waterproofing showers and tubs.

First, we need to apply a layer of mortar to the floor and walls of the shower or tub area. This will help create a smooth surface for our membrane layers to adhere to. We'll be using a mixture of cement-based mortar and water, which we'll mix according to the manufacturer's instructions. The mortar should be applied in a thin layer, about 1-2 mm thick, to ensure that it doesn't interfere with the membrane layers.

Next, we need to apply the kerdi-band, which is a waterproofing membrane specifically designed for use with the Schluter Kerdi system. We'll cut the kerdi-band into sections, depending on the size of our shower or tub area. It's essential to ensure that the kerdi-band is applied correctly, as it will provide the primary barrier against water ingress.

To apply the kerdi-band, we'll start by cutting a piece of kerdi-band to fit along one edge of the shower or tub area. We'll then press the kerdi-band into place, making sure that it's securely attached to the surrounding surface. It's essential to ensure that the kerdi-band is pressed firmly into place, as any air bubbles or wrinkles can compromise its effectiveness.

Once we've applied the kerdi-band, we'll use a specialized tool to smooth out any excess mortar and feather out the edges. This will help create a seamless transition between the kerdi-band and the surrounding surface. We'll also make sure that the kerdi-band is lapped over at least two inches onto each corner, where it meets adjacent sections of kerdi-band.

As we work with the kerdi-band, it's essential to be mindful of any air bubbles or wrinkles that may form. If we notice any issues, we can use a specialized sponge to smooth out the area and prevent further problems. We'll also make sure to keep an eye on the temperature and humidity levels in the shower or tub area, as these can affect the performance of the kerdi-band.

Once the kerdi-band is in place, we can begin applying additional layers of mortar to create a stable surface for our tile installation. We'll use a mixture of cement-based mortar and sand, which we'll mix according to the manufacturer's instructions. The mortar should be applied in a thin layer, about 1-2 mm thick, to ensure that it doesn't interfere with the tile installation.

As we work with the mortar, we'll need to be careful not to create any wrinkles or excess mortar, as these can compromise the integrity of our waterproofing system. We'll use a specialized tool to smooth out any excess mortar and feather out the edges, creating a seamless transition between the mortar and the surrounding surface.

One of the key challenges when working with the Schluter Kerdi system is dealing with screws and other hardware that may be exposed after the tile installation is complete. To address this issue, we'll use specialized strips to cover any exposed screws or hardware, ensuring that they are protected from water ingress.

Finally, we can begin applying the tiles, using a mixture of adhesive and grout to secure them in place. We'll make sure to follow all the necessary safety precautions when working with tile installation, including wearing protective gloves and eyewear. With careful planning and attention to detail, our Schluter Kerdi system will provide a reliable and long-lasting solution for waterproofing our shower or tub.

By following this step-by-step guide, homeowners can ensure that their showers and tubs are properly waterproofed using the Schluter Kerdi system. Remember to consult the manufacturer's instructions for specific guidance on application and installation procedures, as well as any necessary safety precautions.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi its Shannon here from house improvements calm and in today's video I'm gonna show you how to waterproof the shower using the schluter kerdi-board system now just to get it out of the way right from the start we aren't sponsored by this company they haven't sent us any product any of that stuff we have purchased all these products that you're gonna see in the video so there's no affiliation with them at all we will have a link though in the description if you want to check out these products online or or anything like that so like I said we're gonna use this product which is basically a fabric surface I think they call it a weave if I'm not mistaken on a styrofoam backing and this product can be directly mounted right to the framing that you already have in this case we've got 1/2 inch we've got 1/2 inch kerdi-board and it can go it can span as far as 16 inch centers on your framing so for the most part it's gonna fit to any framing that you're gonna have in your shower already-existing the nice nice thing about this product is once it's on the wall and the seams are sealed it's a completely waterproof it's you know there's nothing here to promote to grow on or anything like that it's really lightweight so it's easy to carry around compared to some other products like if you're gonna do use a cement board back or that sort of thing super easy to cut again this is this cuts like drywall but it's lighter than drywall so it is really user friendly so basically the product you can buy it in different ways you can buy it in four by eight sheets generally is the most common way or you can buy it with a four by eight sheet cut in thirds so 32 by 48 inches as well which makes it a lot easier for transporting if you know you're buying it down at your local big box store or something there's a lot of little accessories to that goes along with this entire system one of which is this niche product so this is a niche that would go in your wall you know for your shampoos soaps those sorts of things can be installed vertically or horizontally I think there's three or four different sizes we're using the largest size they have at this time and the bigger ones that are rectangular come with this shelf item so if you were install installing it vertically and you wanted to have it with a shelf in it it comes with the piece already made up to use okay I'm actually installing this one horizontally because we're not gonna be using the shelf there's really no need for it and I'm gonna be installing it in the in the back wall of the shower so along with that you're going to have special fasteners and we're gonna get to all this obviously during the install I just want to kind of go through them so you're gonna have a washer with a I'm not sure if these are galvanized or maybe stainless I'm assuming they're probably stainless I've never really looked that close at them screws and that's what holds the product to the wall there's different seals in that that you can get this one's for goes around the hole where the shower valve is if you're using a single valve like that there are small ones that you can put around your tub spouts shower heads that sort of thing anywhere there's a protrusion if you feel you need it and then I didn't bring the box in here there's a some this same fabric right here in a band kerdi-band and that's what we're gonna seal all the joints and everything with just comes in a roll so you'll see that as we go get into the video into that part okay so we've got those products those are the basic things you're gonna need to do this as far as cutting really all you need is a utility knife the sharp blade huh that'll make 99% of the cuts you need to make if you wanted to you could have hole saw for cutting out around the shower valves and and those sorts of things but honestly it's not really necessary that those holes are perfect if you're using these other seals afterwards anyways okay I think that's the main majority of what I'm what I've got to talk about oh I was just going to show you we will cut some some of this product but I just wanted to show you just how easy this is to cut so another nice feature it has is it's got all these 1 centimeter squares on here so you can use that a little bit when you're you know cutting and marking out and that sort of thing and even when you're doing your tile you will have those series of lines on the wall and if you line everything up right you could use them for tiling I generally find that I probably don't take enough care in making sure the the sheet is completely level in the beginning so I find usually these lines aren't level for me for my tile layout but they still do work as a reference but so cutting this product you could use a straight edge or just freehand or whatever I'm just gonna cut down here on the floor if the camera can get that just so don't cut my leg so you'd measure whatever you want to do and just like drywall really as long as you get cut through the first surface like that it will just it'll just snap if I would have cut a little further it it breaks even easier than that but it'll snap like that and then you can just cut the back off now it is good enough that you can I think probably pretty much cut right through it with a couple passes if you prefer that and it like I said it's just foam Center and it basically weighs nothing so once it's on the wall and you've got your tiles on it's very strong and completely waterproof ok so I I want to start out with the niche and I'll talk a little bit about that normally if you're doing a niche maybe wouldn't be on an exterior wall like we have here this is an exterior wall so I've got my vapor vapor barrier going back into the opening everything's sealed so I don't want to take any chance of cutting that with the knife because normally what you would do is put your put your big sheet which is over here against the wall you probably can't see it but it spans walled wall here and it's 4 feet high you'd fasten that on making note of where your opening is for the niche but you'd fasten that on you'd have it on the wall let's just do this quickly so here's our piece we would have fastened it we would have fastened it onto the wall made a bit of a reference as to where the niche opening was in the wall and then you take your niche line it up with your reference marks trace around it and just simply cut it out with a knife so you trace around it cut this piece out then Tourmaline each back around and insert it into the hole ok so in our case I can't do that because I for sure cut the vapor barrier and I don't want to do that so we're gonna do it just a little bit different it's still gonna be fairly easy I think I haven't actually done it this way before so but I think this is gonna work out alright we're gonna basically mount the niche in here get it all level and everything centered up where we want it get some measurements transfer them to that piece cut it out and hopefully it fits so like I said this is a bit of an experiment on my point apart there's no reason it shouldn't work but I just I don't want to take the risk of cutting the vapor barrier here so if you didn't have a niche at all you'd obviously just take that board cut it to length put it on the wall and start screwing it on we're gonna deal with the niche first a lot of times you're gonna see these niches more likely in the end wall in a stud cavity and probably vertical or they might be smaller than this even but like I said we're gonna do this one here horizontally so so yeah that should work actually I just thought of something that's probably easier if I if I just set it in here where I know it needs to be and I'll level it up I'll get a reference mark couple reference marks and then I will take the knees out of the wall lay it on the product and cut it out but it just have to be on the floor that probably would be just as easy so so we'll cut away here I'll take some measurements we'll probably have to move the camera back a bit to have the room in this in here to do it and then I'll show you how I cut it out okay so I got my reference marks and I've laid the niche in position where I want it and I'm just gonna simply cut with my knife around it around the perimeter I'm holding the niche obviously so it doesn't slide and also I don't want to lean right here because I might damage the knee shits doesn't have as much strength right there as it does on the edge okay I might have to do some fine-tuning on that I'll just stand this up I might not have got rate to the corners it's a little hard to see my cup line here at the way I'm doing this okay so we've got our spot here that the knee should fit okay so I've cut the knee show one thing though that I thought of while I was cutting that that I didn't mention is it's important to make sure that the plane of the face of all your framing is I would say within an eighth of an inch so if you just use a straight edge just put it on there and make sure that everything is pretty flat to each other because this is just a foam board you don't want any too big up humps anywhere because it it deflects the board a little bit and then you've got an uneven surface for putting your tile on and if you're using bigger tile it can give you some problems so I would say as long as everything's within the eighth of an inch should be good if it isn't let's say you've had a bit of a crown here in this stud you'd mark it out ahead of time maybe use a power plane or something like that to change it if it's really severe you might have to do some trimming that sort of thing but if everything's within eighth of an inch it should be okay okay so I'm going to take this board and I'm going to get it roughly into place tack it and then we'll just double check that that niche fits in fine because I may have to do a little fine-tuning this this product is going to sit on top of the lip of the tub you don't want it to sit down here because if it sits down here you're gonna have to make the board kick out or notch the back which is going to leave a very little strength so sits right on top that ledge and will seal that up afterwards as you'll see later okay so just take your product get it roughly in place you can see obviously you need to have your framing set out ahead of time if you do have a niche so there's wood at the joint all the way around so that you can get it all secured in there I'm just gonna throw a couple of fasteners in just to get it kind of held there for a minute I'd say the honestly the only thing about this system I don't like is that they use Phillips head screws on their screws but I guess that's pretty minor otherwise so I will just get probably one here I'll hold it good enough to try okay sitting in there check it make sure it's left and it is so that worked out fine okay so we've got it in there level these fasteners basically they recommend them on every stud like every 16 inch stud and no more than 12 inches spaced apart and then on places like this where you've got a seam between like the niche or another panel or whatever you can place the fastener right on the seam that way you don't need a fastener on each side of the seam so for right now I'm just gonna get enough fasteners in it just to kind of hold it up there I'll maybe get a few of these prepped up with the fasteners and I don't think you're gonna be able to see it from that angle we'll get a better shot at it from the side when I do this end you want the fastener to snug up and then just indent into the product a little bit so it doesn't stay proud of the surface okay so so you obviously would put more fasteners than that I'm just kind of getting it held and held in place so that we can move on now we've got this piece here above the window to do or below the window I mean so I've already got it roughly cut tight and I've just got a mark out and cut out the window so again it's really easy to use just use a marker to write on it easily get a few marks on it and you should be good with all those lines on there you kind of have a pretty good guide all the times for your cuts I don't even need a straightedge now but I said this said that I'll get it up there and it probably won't fit it's a little tight right here I'm just gonna give it a little trim if this was Hardiebacker or something like that we'd be whole night right back outside to cut the special saw on everything this we can just simply make adjustments Reed in the room folk too much trouble that's better so a few fasteners in that well maybe maybe go ahead and I'll put all the fasteners in and we'll come back and we'll start that other wall okay so we cut away there just you don't need to see me putting a million screws in but so we've got our screws space no more than 12 inches apart and there's 16 inches on center where the main studs are we went around the perimeter here this is the joint right here between niche and the kerdi-board I don't know if you can see it so we put our fasteners in there and got that all secured and while we're off camera I just did this and wall - because we're gonna focus on doing this this and with the faucet and everything in it okay so for this end like I said I think earlier you could use a hole saw to make these cuts really not necessary just marco your centers transfer it to your kerdi-board here draw the appropriate marks that you need and you can just easily cut that with your knife so that's what I'm gonna do just kind of a little bit here so I don't cut anything behind it it doesn't have to be fancy I'll cut this one first my arm the way these hereby lay it down I thought I could leave it standing so you guys could see your buddy she's here to cut down here okay and you can see obviously I've got the blade sticking out further than normal so you just need to be cautious of that in case it snaps off you don't want to cut your arm off okay so we've got that one maybe if you have this one I don't know if I actually showed you the back side so the back side has the same fleece on it just doesn't have all the marks on okay so we'll give that a little try see how that fits so I've obviously got my plumbing all ready to go back there ahead of time okay so we got a good dry fit got a pretty good cut there I'll maybe just trim that a little bit I could trim it right in place but oh well maybe just pull it off and give it a trim and then it's ready for screws okay so we got that fitting there now because my framing behind here is a little irregular you know around the valve I marked a couple of these spots just so I know where I can put a screw and make sure it hits the wood so I talked earlier do you have the right angle to kind of see that that caves in just a little bit okay so yeah you want all your screws to be sunk in you know good 16th to maybe an eighth of an inch of the most that's what I didn't want to do that wasn't one of my slots they here's where I want that else it'll get sealed up when we do the bottom song okay and I'll just go ahead and screw the rest of this off put in that little piece up there and then we're ready to talk about waterproofing okay so what I usually like to do is pre-cut all my pieces this is the product here so you'll buy this kerdi-band which is the same fleece fabric is what's on here buy a roll of it like this and you just cut it up into what you need so I like to pre-cut all my pieces so we're gonna need a piece that goes around the base here all the way around the tub it could be three pieces one piece whatever you want we need a piece to go up each corner we need a piece on any seam we there seams around here and then we also need just some little squares to do every one of these screws but while this will get covered but any of the screws though in the field that need to be covered okay so just so my pieces are all cut and my mortars not sitting here drying out while I'm measuring and cutting pieces we've also removed our discussion guard there and this will be ready to go in as well our seal now when we come back what one of the first things we're gonna do that I always like to do the bottom first and I'm gonna use this do they call this Kirti fix it's basically I don't know if it's I don't know if it's silicone I'm not even sure what it is it's a caulking product and we're gonna use it to fill this space between the bottom of the board and the top of the tub because in most instances you're gonna have about a I don't know maybe a quarter inch or eath inch space from the face of this ledge of the tub here to the face of the curve the band our kerdi-board I mean so we've got to kind of basically goop that all in there just to take up that space and then we're gonna apply a mortar and kerdi-band or HOF it and that's just to get the seal down here okay but I won't do that till we come back in we're gonna go out to the garage and mix up some mortar slews recommendation is non-modified mortar when you're attaching the kerdi-band to the kerdi-board okay so non modified and actually I'm not using it but they do have their own mortars now for a long time with their systems because they're very specific people really struggled with what mortar to use for the right application and actually Schluter does have their own sets of mortars now that they that backs up their warranty where they didn't have it before I'm not using that just because availability I didn't have a chance to get any but I'm gonna use just a regular non modified mortar what's the code that meets has to meet the ANSI 118 point one I think I forget if you look in the Schluter handbook you'll you'll see what they need but as long as it's basically a good quality non-modified mortar you should be good okay so like I said you need to have your right kind of mortar again we're not sponsored by Mapei but we're using their care bond it's a non modified mortar so we're good to go with that whenever mixing mortar you always want to have your water and the water in the pail first and I don't like to mix a whole bunch of this at a time just in case there's some kind of issue so I'll mix enough that keep me going for a little bit and then if after next morning mix more so so just follow the directions on your bag for your product you wanted to be able to not fall off your trowel but flow fairly good yeah so you want it to be able to just kind of drop off you don't want it running off the troll that's pretty good and it's gonna sit here and sleep for a few minutes just basically cure up and then we're gonna give it another little mix usually let it sit for about five minutes give it another mix for a minute or so and then it's good to go okay so this is sad about five minutes we'll give it a quick little mission should be good and we'll run back in and start putting some of this kerdi-band on okay so we've mixed our mortar and we're back here in the bathroom now where I like to start is at the bottom and we just need to get a seal here so I've got masking tape protecting the tub we're gonna basically fill this void with this caulking and it's kind of a messy slobbery job but we're gonna fill this up and then we're gonna add the mortar above and get our kerdi-band in place so it just takes a credible amount of this product and I'm just gonna kind of squeeze it in there it's basically just a stiff caulking really from all I can tell I've often wondered about using just thin set - honestly fill in this bottom thing but I think you probably could I just don't know that it would bond to the tub edge very well and you might have troubles down the road I don't know this is what Schlueter recommends is there Kirti fix okay so we're just kind of getting it on there to pick up that gap and and I usually I go all the way around but just for the length of the video keep it under control I'm just gonna go part way here I won't need quite as much on the BAC this back flange is a little bit thicker so you can see why I've got the tape there basically keep from getting this on everything I think that's gonna be far enough for where I want it to go and just since I've got this going like I said before you can buy at one of those like a small seal to go around here like this one for up there I usually because you've got this going I usually just use this stuff squirts them around in there seal that all up and quite honestly I don't usually even do anything around the shower head it's my enough up there there's any amount of moisture getting in there then you've probably got different problems just seal that hole around there like so okay so we've got that now we've got our mortar and I'm gonna get some on the wall it's kind of a kind of a tight place to work now this band I don't know what that is 4 inches 5 inches it's 5 inches we need to get you know say 5 and a half inches even up mortar up on the wall there and then we're gonna comb it in with our notched Rall so I just want to get some in there and kind of get it and add it into the into the fleece and I don't I'm not worrying about if I get it down on that this stuff that I just put on this Kirti fix stuff but I definitely want to make sure I'm getting it into the flea so I'm making sure it's worked into that we'll worry about making that look pretty here yeah right around the corner okay like so and then you take the trowel they I forget what they recommend Oh what is it basically basically they have their own trowel and then they they have a recommendation on another one for v-notch I think it's uh might be quarter-inch by 3/16 I just kind of forget now this one's really close to that this as you can see I got a nice shiny new one I figured my other one looked way too ugly too we might be embarrassed to show you that that's what I usually use so I got a new one just for you guys and we're just getting some notches in there I always find a car awkward working in these little items seen directly I've also got the plastic liner that came on the tub still on just for the fact that during the tiling process you're probably going to drip some stuff on it and everything so kind of protects the tub so now we can take our fleece there's really no front or back side to it just put it on to the bottom edge of the tub keep it within where your tile is going to be it doesn't show obviously push it right back in the corner like so and I think this little guy here it's just more manageable and you just want to basically work all the arrow and the excess mortar all the way out all the way around keeping the crew deeb and flat and straight hopefully we don't get too many wrinkles any of the excess that's spot here any of the excess mortar just wipe it back in your bucket nice and flat on the street break back nicely into the corner - don't leave your corner round it if you can help it just make your life tiling a lot easier get all your hedges down tight push it back now I think this corner yeah I don't have any you want to get a a good 90% coverage on the back of this so every now and again just peel it back to double-check we definitely got that except for raid on this corner anywhere where you come across two pieces of kerdi-band you want to lap them by two inches and I usually have a bucket and a sponge close by just to smooth it up a little bit makes it a lot nicer when you're tiling if you don't have big lumps of X out of mortar build open the lid here and there so I usually just give it a little wipe just kind of feather out all those little edges it's just an old tiling grouting sponge that it's too old for groaning anymore I just keep one around for this just like so okay so that's the bottom band now maybe I'll do this seal while I'm kneeling right here so same idea we just got to get some mortar on the wall press the Oh nicely into the fleece get some notches in it and there's kind of a thicker edge here and a thinner edge the thick edge goes into the wall just kind of eyeball it on the center of your center of your valve excess off make sure your seal is down flatly actually I'll maybe do this patch on the screw to six right here all your screws that are still exposed not to be covered so I've just got a strips cut for that product under it and I see you have one more screw up top here just above the valve okay so we're gonna go up that corner and that probably pretty much covers it so you basically get the idea what we're doing here now on the corners we've got obviously get some on both sides the reason I like to start at the bottom is so that all the membrane layers are basically laughing the right way to shed water if you do get moisture behind your tiles it can't get behind a lip so the upper upper pieces or joints would be overlapped on to the bottom pieces if you have if you have to do it in multiple pieces I'll just go up that high just trying to speed the video up here a little bit which one was my corner hmm I do prefer to do as many pieces in one piece as I can but okay so with the corners it helps if you take your product or kerdi-band and just kind of fold it in half and get a crease started in it this makes it easier to go into the corner I'm gonna get a bit of a corner started on it oops I didn't forgot to draw little overlapping down here at least two inches push that back into the corner that you fold it into it or it'll sit real nice yeah we're getting it on there though and air bubbles kind of awkward because I'd normally get right in that corner but I'm trying to stay back so you can see basically what's going on if you get this mortar too thick it's hard to get it to squeeze out from behind there so if you get too thin that's not going to stay on the wall while you're working with it okay so that's that okay so I don't think there's any point in showing you anymore so basically you've got to do that on all your seams use the kerdi-band once that's dried then I'm basically ready to mark up my tiles and start tiling okay so hopefully this video was helpful for you if you're thinking about using the Schluter Kerdi system on water proofing your shower or your tub shower again this is this is my method of doing it and you may want to just consult their their directions that they have online to be sure that you can get your full warranty from the steps that you do but this is what I would do and again we're not sponsored by them or anything but we will leave a link down below in the description so you can find some of these products there if you just desire to check them out as always we appreciate watching and we'd really appreciate it if you give us a thumbs up if you like what we do here and also if you want to have any questions you can post them on our forum if you just have a comment post them down below here in the comments I try to check those every few days and yeah we appreciate you watching and we'll see you in the next video youhi its Shannon here from house improvements calm and in today's video I'm gonna show you how to waterproof the shower using the schluter kerdi-board system now just to get it out of the way right from the start we aren't sponsored by this company they haven't sent us any product any of that stuff we have purchased all these products that you're gonna see in the video so there's no affiliation with them at all we will have a link though in the description if you want to check out these products online or or anything like that so like I said we're gonna use this product which is basically a fabric surface I think they call it a weave if I'm not mistaken on a styrofoam backing and this product can be directly mounted right to the framing that you already have in this case we've got 1/2 inch we've got 1/2 inch kerdi-board and it can go it can span as far as 16 inch centers on your framing so for the most part it's gonna fit to any framing that you're gonna have in your shower already-existing the nice nice thing about this product is once it's on the wall and the seams are sealed it's a completely waterproof it's you know there's nothing here to promote to grow on or anything like that it's really lightweight so it's easy to carry around compared to some other products like if you're gonna do use a cement board back or that sort of thing super easy to cut again this is this cuts like drywall but it's lighter than drywall so it is really user friendly so basically the product you can buy it in different ways you can buy it in four by eight sheets generally is the most common way or you can buy it with a four by eight sheet cut in thirds so 32 by 48 inches as well which makes it a lot easier for transporting if you know you're buying it down at your local big box store or something there's a lot of little accessories to that goes along with this entire system one of which is this niche product so this is a niche that would go in your wall you know for your shampoos soaps those sorts of things can be installed vertically or horizontally I think there's three or four different sizes we're using the largest size they have at this time and the bigger ones that are rectangular come with this shelf item so if you were install installing it vertically and you wanted to have it with a shelf in it it comes with the piece already made up to use okay I'm actually installing this one horizontally because we're not gonna be using the shelf there's really no need for it and I'm gonna be installing it in the in the back wall of the shower so along with that you're going to have special fasteners and we're gonna get to all this obviously during the install I just want to kind of go through them so you're gonna have a washer with a I'm not sure if these are galvanized or maybe stainless I'm assuming they're probably stainless I've never really looked that close at them screws and that's what holds the product to the wall there's different seals in that that you can get this one's for goes around the hole where the shower valve is if you're using a single valve like that there are small ones that you can put around your tub spouts shower heads that sort of thing anywhere there's a protrusion if you feel you need it and then I didn't bring the box in here there's a some this same fabric right here in a band kerdi-band and that's what we're gonna seal all the joints and everything with just comes in a roll so you'll see that as we go get into the video into that part okay so we've got those products those are the basic things you're gonna need to do this as far as cutting really all you need is a utility knife the sharp blade huh that'll make 99% of the cuts you need to make if you wanted to you could have hole saw for cutting out around the shower valves and and those sorts of things but honestly it's not really necessary that those holes are perfect if you're using these other seals afterwards anyways okay I think that's the main majority of what I'm what I've got to talk about oh I was just going to show you we will cut some some of this product but I just wanted to show you just how easy this is to cut so another nice feature it has is it's got all these 1 centimeter squares on here so you can use that a little bit when you're you know cutting and marking out and that sort of thing and even when you're doing your tile you will have those series of lines on the wall and if you line everything up right you could use them for tiling I generally find that I probably don't take enough care in making sure the the sheet is completely level in the beginning so I find usually these lines aren't level for me for my tile layout but they still do work as a reference but so cutting this product you could use a straight edge or just freehand or whatever I'm just gonna cut down here on the floor if the camera can get that just so don't cut my leg so you'd measure whatever you want to do and just like drywall really as long as you get cut through the first surface like that it will just it'll just snap if I would have cut a little further it it breaks even easier than that but it'll snap like that and then you can just cut the back off now it is good enough that you can I think probably pretty much cut right through it with a couple passes if you prefer that and it like I said it's just foam Center and it basically weighs nothing so once it's on the wall and you've got your tiles on it's very strong and completely waterproof ok so I I want to start out with the niche and I'll talk a little bit about that normally if you're doing a niche maybe wouldn't be on an exterior wall like we have here this is an exterior wall so I've got my vapor vapor barrier going back into the opening everything's sealed so I don't want to take any chance of cutting that with the knife because normally what you would do is put your put your big sheet which is over here against the wall you probably can't see it but it spans walled wall here and it's 4 feet high you'd fasten that on making note of where your opening is for the niche but you'd fasten that on you'd have it on the wall let's just do this quickly so here's our piece we would have fastened it we would have fastened it onto the wall made a bit of a reference as to where the niche opening was in the wall and then you take your niche line it up with your reference marks trace around it and just simply cut it out with a knife so you trace around it cut this piece out then Tourmaline each back around and insert it into the hole ok so in our case I can't do that because I for sure cut the vapor barrier and I don't want to do that so we're gonna do it just a little bit different it's still gonna be fairly easy I think I haven't actually done it this way before so but I think this is gonna work out alright we're gonna basically mount the niche in here get it all level and everything centered up where we want it get some measurements transfer them to that piece cut it out and hopefully it fits so like I said this is a bit of an experiment on my point apart there's no reason it shouldn't work but I just I don't want to take the risk of cutting the vapor barrier here so if you didn't have a niche at all you'd obviously just take that board cut it to length put it on the wall and start screwing it on we're gonna deal with the niche first a lot of times you're gonna see these niches more likely in the end wall in a stud cavity and probably vertical or they might be smaller than this even but like I said we're gonna do this one here horizontally so so yeah that should work actually I just thought of something that's probably easier if I if I just set it in here where I know it needs to be and I'll level it up I'll get a reference mark couple reference marks and then I will take the knees out of the wall lay it on the product and cut it out but it just have to be on the floor that probably would be just as easy so so we'll cut away here I'll take some measurements we'll probably have to move the camera back a bit to have the room in this in here to do it and then I'll show you how I cut it out okay so I got my reference marks and I've laid the niche in position where I want it and I'm just gonna simply cut with my knife around it around the perimeter I'm holding the niche obviously so it doesn't slide and also I don't want to lean right here because I might damage the knee shits doesn't have as much strength right there as it does on the edge okay I might have to do some fine-tuning on that I'll just stand this up I might not have got rate to the corners it's a little hard to see my cup line here at the way I'm doing this okay so we've got our spot here that the knee should fit okay so I've cut the knee show one thing though that I thought of while I was cutting that that I didn't mention is it's important to make sure that the plane of the face of all your framing is I would say within an eighth of an inch so if you just use a straight edge just put it on there and make sure that everything is pretty flat to each other because this is just a foam board you don't want any too big up humps anywhere because it it deflects the board a little bit and then you've got an uneven surface for putting your tile on and if you're using bigger tile it can give you some problems so I would say as long as everything's within the eighth of an inch should be good if it isn't let's say you've had a bit of a crown here in this stud you'd mark it out ahead of time maybe use a power plane or something like that to change it if it's really severe you might have to do some trimming that sort of thing but if everything's within eighth of an inch it should be okay okay so I'm going to take this board and I'm going to get it roughly into place tack it and then we'll just double check that that niche fits in fine because I may have to do a little fine-tuning this this product is going to sit on top of the lip of the tub you don't want it to sit down here because if it sits down here you're gonna have to make the board kick out or notch the back which is going to leave a very little strength so sits right on top that ledge and will seal that up afterwards as you'll see later okay so just take your product get it roughly in place you can see obviously you need to have your framing set out ahead of time if you do have a niche so there's wood at the joint all the way around so that you can get it all secured in there I'm just gonna throw a couple of fasteners in just to get it kind of held there for a minute I'd say the honestly the only thing about this system I don't like is that they use Phillips head screws on their screws but I guess that's pretty minor otherwise so I will just get probably one here I'll hold it good enough to try okay sitting in there check it make sure it's left and it is so that worked out fine okay so we've got it in there level these fasteners basically they recommend them on every stud like every 16 inch stud and no more than 12 inches spaced apart and then on places like this where you've got a seam between like the niche or another panel or whatever you can place the fastener right on the seam that way you don't need a fastener on each side of the seam so for right now I'm just gonna get enough fasteners in it just to kind of hold it up there I'll maybe get a few of these prepped up with the fasteners and I don't think you're gonna be able to see it from that angle we'll get a better shot at it from the side when I do this end you want the fastener to snug up and then just indent into the product a little bit so it doesn't stay proud of the surface okay so so you obviously would put more fasteners than that I'm just kind of getting it held and held in place so that we can move on now we've got this piece here above the window to do or below the window I mean so I've already got it roughly cut tight and I've just got a mark out and cut out the window so again it's really easy to use just use a marker to write on it easily get a few marks on it and you should be good with all those lines on there you kind of have a pretty good guide all the times for your cuts I don't even need a straightedge now but I said this said that I'll get it up there and it probably won't fit it's a little tight right here I'm just gonna give it a little trim if this was Hardiebacker or something like that we'd be whole night right back outside to cut the special saw on everything this we can just simply make adjustments Reed in the room folk too much trouble that's better so a few fasteners in that well maybe maybe go ahead and I'll put all the fasteners in and we'll come back and we'll start that other wall okay so we cut away there just you don't need to see me putting a million screws in but so we've got our screws space no more than 12 inches apart and there's 16 inches on center where the main studs are we went around the perimeter here this is the joint right here between niche and the kerdi-board I don't know if you can see it so we put our fasteners in there and got that all secured and while we're off camera I just did this and wall - because we're gonna focus on doing this this and with the faucet and everything in it okay so for this end like I said I think earlier you could use a hole saw to make these cuts really not necessary just marco your centers transfer it to your kerdi-board here draw the appropriate marks that you need and you can just easily cut that with your knife so that's what I'm gonna do just kind of a little bit here so I don't cut anything behind it it doesn't have to be fancy I'll cut this one first my arm the way these hereby lay it down I thought I could leave it standing so you guys could see your buddy she's here to cut down here okay and you can see obviously I've got the blade sticking out further than normal so you just need to be cautious of that in case it snaps off you don't want to cut your arm off okay so we've got that one maybe if you have this one I don't know if I actually showed you the back side so the back side has the same fleece on it just doesn't have all the marks on okay so we'll give that a little try see how that fits so I've obviously got my plumbing all ready to go back there ahead of time okay so we got a good dry fit got a pretty good cut there I'll maybe just trim that a little bit I could trim it right in place but oh well maybe just pull it off and give it a trim and then it's ready for screws okay so we got that fitting there now because my framing behind here is a little irregular you know around the valve I marked a couple of these spots just so I know where I can put a screw and make sure it hits the wood so I talked earlier do you have the right angle to kind of see that that caves in just a little bit okay so yeah you want all your screws to be sunk in you know good 16th to maybe an eighth of an inch of the most that's what I didn't want to do that wasn't one of my slots they here's where I want that else it'll get sealed up when we do the bottom song okay and I'll just go ahead and screw the rest of this off put in that little piece up there and then we're ready to talk about waterproofing okay so what I usually like to do is pre-cut all my pieces this is the product here so you'll buy this kerdi-band which is the same fleece fabric is what's on here buy a roll of it like this and you just cut it up into what you need so I like to pre-cut all my pieces so we're gonna need a piece that goes around the base here all the way around the tub it could be three pieces one piece whatever you want we need a piece to go up each corner we need a piece on any seam we there seams around here and then we also need just some little squares to do every one of these screws but while this will get covered but any of the screws though in the field that need to be covered okay so just so my pieces are all cut and my mortars not sitting here drying out while I'm measuring and cutting pieces we've also removed our discussion guard there and this will be ready to go in as well our seal now when we come back what one of the first things we're gonna do that I always like to do the bottom first and I'm gonna use this do they call this Kirti fix it's basically I don't know if it's I don't know if it's silicone I'm not even sure what it is it's a caulking product and we're gonna use it to fill this space between the bottom of the board and the top of the tub because in most instances you're gonna have about a I don't know maybe a quarter inch or eath inch space from the face of this ledge of the tub here to the face of the curve the band our kerdi-board I mean so we've got to kind of basically goop that all in there just to take up that space and then we're gonna apply a mortar and kerdi-band or HOF it and that's just to get the seal down here okay but I won't do that till we come back in we're gonna go out to the garage and mix up some mortar slews recommendation is non-modified mortar when you're attaching the kerdi-band to the kerdi-board okay so non modified and actually I'm not using it but they do have their own mortars now for a long time with their systems because they're very specific people really struggled with what mortar to use for the right application and actually Schluter does have their own sets of mortars now that they that backs up their warranty where they didn't have it before I'm not using that just because availability I didn't have a chance to get any but I'm gonna use just a regular non modified mortar what's the code that meets has to meet the ANSI 118 point one I think I forget if you look in the Schluter handbook you'll you'll see what they need but as long as it's basically a good quality non-modified mortar you should be good okay so like I said you need to have your right kind of mortar again we're not sponsored by Mapei but we're using their care bond it's a non modified mortar so we're good to go with that whenever mixing mortar you always want to have your water and the water in the pail first and I don't like to mix a whole bunch of this at a time just in case there's some kind of issue so I'll mix enough that keep me going for a little bit and then if after next morning mix more so so just follow the directions on your bag for your product you wanted to be able to not fall off your trowel but flow fairly good yeah so you want it to be able to just kind of drop off you don't want it running off the troll that's pretty good and it's gonna sit here and sleep for a few minutes just basically cure up and then we're gonna give it another little mix usually let it sit for about five minutes give it another mix for a minute or so and then it's good to go okay so this is sad about five minutes we'll give it a quick little mission should be good and we'll run back in and start putting some of this kerdi-band on okay so we've mixed our mortar and we're back here in the bathroom now where I like to start is at the bottom and we just need to get a seal here so I've got masking tape protecting the tub we're gonna basically fill this void with this caulking and it's kind of a messy slobbery job but we're gonna fill this up and then we're gonna add the mortar above and get our kerdi-band in place so it just takes a credible amount of this product and I'm just gonna kind of squeeze it in there it's basically just a stiff caulking really from all I can tell I've often wondered about using just thin set - honestly fill in this bottom thing but I think you probably could I just don't know that it would bond to the tub edge very well and you might have troubles down the road I don't know this is what Schlueter recommends is there Kirti fix okay so we're just kind of getting it on there to pick up that gap and and I usually I go all the way around but just for the length of the video keep it under control I'm just gonna go part way here I won't need quite as much on the BAC this back flange is a little bit thicker so you can see why I've got the tape there basically keep from getting this on everything I think that's gonna be far enough for where I want it to go and just since I've got this going like I said before you can buy at one of those like a small seal to go around here like this one for up there I usually because you've got this going I usually just use this stuff squirts them around in there seal that all up and quite honestly I don't usually even do anything around the shower head it's my enough up there there's any amount of moisture getting in there then you've probably got different problems just seal that hole around there like so okay so we've got that now we've got our mortar and I'm gonna get some on the wall it's kind of a kind of a tight place to work now this band I don't know what that is 4 inches 5 inches it's 5 inches we need to get you know say 5 and a half inches even up mortar up on the wall there and then we're gonna comb it in with our notched Rall so I just want to get some in there and kind of get it and add it into the into the fleece and I don't I'm not worrying about if I get it down on that this stuff that I just put on this Kirti fix stuff but I definitely want to make sure I'm getting it into the flea so I'm making sure it's worked into that we'll worry about making that look pretty here yeah right around the corner okay like so and then you take the trowel they I forget what they recommend Oh what is it basically basically they have their own trowel and then they they have a recommendation on another one for v-notch I think it's uh might be quarter-inch by 3/16 I just kind of forget now this one's really close to that this as you can see I got a nice shiny new one I figured my other one looked way too ugly too we might be embarrassed to show you that that's what I usually use so I got a new one just for you guys and we're just getting some notches in there I always find a car awkward working in these little items seen directly I've also got the plastic liner that came on the tub still on just for the fact that during the tiling process you're probably going to drip some stuff on it and everything so kind of protects the tub so now we can take our fleece there's really no front or back side to it just put it on to the bottom edge of the tub keep it within where your tile is going to be it doesn't show obviously push it right back in the corner like so and I think this little guy here it's just more manageable and you just want to basically work all the arrow and the excess mortar all the way out all the way around keeping the crew deeb and flat and straight hopefully we don't get too many wrinkles any of the excess that's spot here any of the excess mortar just wipe it back in your bucket nice and flat on the street break back nicely into the corner - don't leave your corner round it if you can help it just make your life tiling a lot easier get all your hedges down tight push it back now I think this corner yeah I don't have any you want to get a a good 90% coverage on the back of this so every now and again just peel it back to double-check we definitely got that except for raid on this corner anywhere where you come across two pieces of kerdi-band you want to lap them by two inches and I usually have a bucket and a sponge close by just to smooth it up a little bit makes it a lot nicer when you're tiling if you don't have big lumps of X out of mortar build open the lid here and there so I usually just give it a little wipe just kind of feather out all those little edges it's just an old tiling grouting sponge that it's too old for groaning anymore I just keep one around for this just like so okay so that's the bottom band now maybe I'll do this seal while I'm kneeling right here so same idea we just got to get some mortar on the wall press the Oh nicely into the fleece get some notches in it and there's kind of a thicker edge here and a thinner edge the thick edge goes into the wall just kind of eyeball it on the center of your center of your valve excess off make sure your seal is down flatly actually I'll maybe do this patch on the screw to six right here all your screws that are still exposed not to be covered so I've just got a strips cut for that product under it and I see you have one more screw up top here just above the valve okay so we're gonna go up that corner and that probably pretty much covers it so you basically get the idea what we're doing here now on the corners we've got obviously get some on both sides the reason I like to start at the bottom is so that all the membrane layers are basically laughing the right way to shed water if you do get moisture behind your tiles it can't get behind a lip so the upper upper pieces or joints would be overlapped on to the bottom pieces if you have if you have to do it in multiple pieces I'll just go up that high just trying to speed the video up here a little bit which one was my corner hmm I do prefer to do as many pieces in one piece as I can but okay so with the corners it helps if you take your product or kerdi-band and just kind of fold it in half and get a crease started in it this makes it easier to go into the corner I'm gonna get a bit of a corner started on it oops I didn't forgot to draw little overlapping down here at least two inches push that back into the corner that you fold it into it or it'll sit real nice yeah we're getting it on there though and air bubbles kind of awkward because I'd normally get right in that corner but I'm trying to stay back so you can see basically what's going on if you get this mortar too thick it's hard to get it to squeeze out from behind there so if you get too thin that's not going to stay on the wall while you're working with it okay so that's that okay so I don't think there's any point in showing you anymore so basically you've got to do that on all your seams use the kerdi-band once that's dried then I'm basically ready to mark up my tiles and start tiling okay so hopefully this video was helpful for you if you're thinking about using the Schluter Kerdi system on water proofing your shower or your tub shower again this is this is my method of doing it and you may want to just consult their their directions that they have online to be sure that you can get your full warranty from the steps that you do but this is what I would do and again we're not sponsored by them or anything but we will leave a link down below in the description so you can find some of these products there if you just desire to check them out as always we appreciate watching and we'd really appreciate it if you give us a thumbs up if you like what we do here and also if you want to have any questions you can post them on our forum if you just have a comment post them down below here in the comments I try to check those every few days and yeah we appreciate you watching and we'll see you in the next video you\n"