We all think about keeping water out of our homes, but waterproofing wet-areas inside the home is just as important.
Today, people are investing considerable sums of money to create beautiful wet-areas in kitchens, bathrooms, toilets and laundries. But wherever there's water, there's potential for moisture and water damage. So it's just as important to consider what's going down underneath those expensive Italian tiles, or what's happening behind the shower wall.
What are wet areas?
Put simply, a wet area in your home is any space that's supplied by water – that means bathrooms, laundries and kitchens. How much waterproofing each of these areas requires depends on how much risk they're at from water damage, and generally, they're divided into two areas – showers which are most susceptible and more general wet areas like the floors and walls next to fixtures like baths, basins and laundry tubs.
Make sure you get it right first time
Bathrooms and kitchens are expensive to install – no secrets there. So it makes sense that if you don't build in adequate protection, they can also be expensive to repair when and if water damage occurs.
Get it wrong and you could be faced with rotting walls and structures that require anything from tearing out the shower or other bathroom fittings to replacing walls and carpets in adjacent rooms, to extreme cases where you're forced to repair structural problems.
The options for walls:
Villaboard® Lining
James Hardie's Villaboard® Lining is the best lining option for bathroom walls and ceilings when used as a substrate for tiles, smooth painted finish or wall paper. It is immune to permanent damage from moisture, will not rot or warp when installed as directed and is impact resistant.
HardieGlaze™ Lining
HardieGlaze™ Lining is a wet area lining that protects and decorates at the same time. Home renovators or decorators can easily install HardieGlaze™ Lining without using specialist tradesmen. And because you can fix it directly to the framing, it makes HardieGlaze™ Lining even easier to install. Use a fibre cement score and snap knife or a circular saw diamond tip blade.
It's a cost effective way to achieve the appearance of a classic white ceramic finish in wet, semi-wet and dry areas including showers, laundries, bathrooms and kitchens (but not floors, bench tops or exterior cladding). In most cases, HardieGlaze™ Lining can be simply wiped clean with a cloth and a non-abrasive cleaning agent.
HardieGlaze Lining has a hardwearing high-gloss polyurethane coating, over a 4.5mm or 6mm sanded fibre cement base board. It is easily installed using wallboard adhesive, with no need for heavy substrates, or grouting, and has been designed so the sheets can be joined almost invisibly using silicone (with 6mm) or a co-ordinating PVC or aluminium jointing strip.
Available in Premium, Tile, Smooth and Satin finishes.
The options for floors:
HardiePanel™ Compressed Sheet
HardiePanel™ Compressed Sheet is an extremely dense, heavy duty structural flooring sheet. It is to be used instead of particle board to provide an excellent base for tiles and won't suffer permanent damage if there is a waterproofing failure. Overflowing baths, burst water pipes, a leaking shower recess – HardiePanel™ Compressed Sheet can handle it all. It is particularly suitable for floors and bathrooms constructed in second storey additions, where it is imperative that water doesn't permeate through the floor. When it's installed as directed, it's resistant to permanent damage from moisture, rot,and fire.
Tile and Slate Underlay
James Hardie's Tile and Slate Underlay is a sealed board specially designed for use as a tile substrate. It can be used in wet, semi-wet and dry areas to provide a stable base and minimise tile movement and the potential for cracking.
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