They sell special cement board screws. Use those. A regular drill with a phillips tip will work fine.
Ron
Ron
Screwing Cementious Wallboard
Will be putting up some of this stuff as a tile backer around a tub. Any tips on: 1) cutting it 2) screwing it or otherwise attaching to wall- do I use regular black wallboard screws or go with galvanized deck screws? 3) will the little wallboard thing you can put at the end of a drill to properly set screws work with cementboard?
1 - 3 of 3 Posts
Disclaimer: I'm not a pro.
I just did a shower surround with CBU, and was my first time installing it - onto metal studs, but a couple things I learned:
- Cutting: my circular saw did well with a special carbide blade attached... DONT try to use a regular blade, will spark and probably ruin your saw. BUT, it creates a massive amount of dust, so do well away from the house outside with a mask and goggles. Also, I found that a utility knife w/ carbide blade worked better, just a little slower. I bought a carbide tipped 1 1/4" circle hole cutter bit for my 12 volt cordless drill, and that worked real well for getting the shower head and handle fixture holes cut.
- Mounting on the wall: like Ron said, they sell special screws for Hardibacker/Durock. In my mind, worth the extra couple bucks because I was worried about water/rust. Be sure to spread a separate coat of thinset over them.
- Mounting: I'm curious if the pros will agree, but I found that pre-drilling with a carbide tipped bit through the CBU and into the metal stud, then going back in with the Hardi screws on my screw gun made it much easier. I arrived at this method because some of the initial screws I just went in on the end of the CBU on the stud came real close to the edge of the CBU piece and caused it to crumble on the edges.
Just my 2 cents.
I just did a shower surround with CBU, and was my first time installing it - onto metal studs, but a couple things I learned:
- Cutting: my circular saw did well with a special carbide blade attached... DONT try to use a regular blade, will spark and probably ruin your saw. BUT, it creates a massive amount of dust, so do well away from the house outside with a mask and goggles. Also, I found that a utility knife w/ carbide blade worked better, just a little slower. I bought a carbide tipped 1 1/4" circle hole cutter bit for my 12 volt cordless drill, and that worked real well for getting the shower head and handle fixture holes cut.
- Mounting on the wall: like Ron said, they sell special screws for Hardibacker/Durock. In my mind, worth the extra couple bucks because I was worried about water/rust. Be sure to spread a separate coat of thinset over them.
- Mounting: I'm curious if the pros will agree, but I found that pre-drilling with a carbide tipped bit through the CBU and into the metal stud, then going back in with the Hardi screws on my screw gun made it much easier. I arrived at this method because some of the initial screws I just went in on the end of the CBU on the stud came real close to the edge of the CBU piece and caused it to crumble on the edges.
Just my 2 cents.
1 - 3 of 3 Posts
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