Joint compound also known as drywall compound or Mastic is a white powder of primarily gypsum dust mixed with water to form a mud the consistency of cake frosting. How to Install Cement Backerboard for Floor Tile. The days of grabbing a three dollar bag of thinset and sticking floor tile right to the plywood in a bathroom are long gone for professionals, anyway. For a proper tile installation you need a proper substrate. One of the most readily available are cement backerboards. These include products such as Hardiebacker, Durock, Fiberboard, wonderboard and a host of others. When properly installed on your floor it is an ideal tile substrate for a quality and lasting installation. Notice I said typed properly installedLaying them down on the floor and shooting drywall screws through them does not constitute proper installation. Choose your weapon. I prefer Hardiebacker or Fiberboard. Whichever you choose make sure you get the proper thickness. With rare exception the 12 variety would be the best choice simply because I like to overbuild stuff. With proper floor framing and deflection ratios, though, you can use 14 to minimize height differences. This is not to say that 12 adds significant sturdiness to your floor it does not. Dry fitting Backerboard on floor. You need to realize that cement backerboards, or just about any tile flooring substrate, does not add deflection stability to your floor. That is the up and down movement in your floor when you walk, jump, or use a pogo stick on your floor. The backerboards will not significantly diminish that movement. This needs to be addressed by adjusting your floor joists and framing not by adding stuff on top of them. If your floor is bouncy without the backerboards it will still be bouncy with them. Bouncy is not good for tile. Theres a sentence I never thought I would say type. I will, however, address deflection ratio in another post. Start by dry fitting all your pieces. Filling Gaps In Drywall Seams' title='Filling Gaps In Drywall Seams' />This simply means cut and lay your pieces into the room without attaching them. Get all your pieces cut, holes cut out, and doorways undercut to fit and lay everything in there just like it will be when installed. DIYNetwork. com compares the different types of drywall and offers tips on how to choose the right type for your project. Filling Gaps In Drywall Seams' title='Filling Gaps In Drywall Seams' />This saves a load of time, mess, and headaches. Backerboards dry fitted notice gaps in seams. The joints in backerboards should be staggered. By staggering the seams you add strength to the installation simply by not having a significant weak point in the substrate. You also want to leave 11. If you butt them together you leave no room for expansion. The backerboard will not expand, but your walls will. If everything is butted tight and your wall expands into the room guess what happens. Is Rigid Foam Insulation or Extruded Polystyrene right for your basement insulation How do you install it Come see how I did it and why. What kinds of soundproofing material are best to use What are the most practical and effective soundproofing materialsThats right, your dog may burst into flames and no one wants that It will also cause your floor to pop loose and possibly tent or peak at the seams. Beneath the backerboards you need thinset. Just about any thinset will work but you need to have it there. Filling Gaps In Drywall Seams' title='Filling Gaps In Drywall Seams' />You need it really. Installing thinset beneath backerboards. Buy the OldFashioned, TimeTested MaterialsTheyre What Pros Use. Just as with tools, there are many new drywall products on the market purporting to make. ABRASIVES 17. Sanding Pads Sandpaper Waterproof Sandpaper Garnet Scrubbing Pads Steel Wool Sanding Sheets Drywall Sanding Screens. The vinyl walls in mobile homes are the 1 complaint from homeowners. Learn 6 ways to redo, repair or replace the vinyl walls in your mobile home today. My wife and I like most all old home owners are fans of a lot of the restoration themed DIY shows these days. Rehab Addict, Barnyard Builders, American Pickers and of. Now that you have them all laid in there properly pick one side of the room to start on and pull a row out. You should only pull out one row at a time to place thinset beneath. That way you can replace them easier and in the proper position. If you pull out the entire room you may get to the last piece and discover everything has shifted 12 and the last piece needs to be cut again. Not really a big deal but you wont realize it until the backside of it is covered with thinset and you now need to pull it up, wipe the thinset off the wall from pulling it up, cut it, clean the thinset off your saw, snuff out the flames engulfing your dog again, and replace it. Its a bit easier just to pull one row at a time. You need to trowel thinset onto your floor. I cannot overemphasize this well, I could but youd get sick of hearing it. This step is imperative for a proper tile installation. The thinset is not meant to stick down, adhere, or otherwise attach your backerboard to your subfloor. It is simply put in place to eliminate voids beneath your backerboard. Once laid into the thinset bed the floor becomes a solid, fully supported substrate for your tile thats what you want. If you have an air pocket or some certain spot in your floor that is not level or flat with the surrounding area and you simply screw your backerboard onto it this will create a weak spot in your floor. Virtuemart File Upload. Constantly stepping on that spot will, over time, loosen the screw and your floor will move. When your floor moves your grout cracks. When your grout cracks your tile may become loose. When your tile becomes loose your tile may crack. When your tile cracks your dog will burst into flames again. Put thinset beneath your backerboard. And put your dog out. Installing thinset beneath backerboards. Once you have the area fully covered with thinset you can lay your backerboards into the bed of thinset and screw it down. DO NOT use drywall screws Let me repeat that THAT Drywall screws are not made, nor are they sturdy enough for your flooring. You will either bust the heads of the screws off or be unable to countersink them into the backerboard. Hard to get a tile to lay flat over the head of a screw. There are screws made specifically for cement backerboards. You should be able to find them at any hardware or big box store. They have grooves on the underside of the head which will dig into the backerboard and create its own hole in which to countersink the head as it is screwed in. How cool is that  If you look closely at the photo you can see the grooves beneath the head. They are more expensive than drywall screws just so you know. But you need to use them. Each manufacturer has their own specific spacing instructions for screwing down the backerboards follow them really. Some say every 1. The board you use will determine the spacing. And its right there on the sticker so dont tell me you couldnt find it. Start your screws in the center of the board and work out. This eliminates undue stresses on the boards. If you screw all the way around the outside and it is not perfectly flat you are going to have to release that pressure somewhere and it. Backerboard screwwont happen until you have all that pretty tile on top of it. Working from the center out eliminates that. It would probably never, ever be a problem but if youre anything like me your installation would be the millionth one for that one in a million occurrence. Backerboard placed into thinset and screwed down. Your floor is probably too thick should be for the backer screw to actually penetrate into the floor joist. If not, or just to be safe, do not place screws into the area above the floor joists. The plywood or chipboard which makes up your floor will expand and contract at a different rate and, more than likely, in different directions than your joists. If you screw your backer into the ply and into the joist six inches over it will cause inconsistent movement no good. Avatar Legend Of The Arena Database. Do not screw your backerboard into your joists. After I have all my floor down I will go back and double the screws around every seam. Just put another screw between every screw along the seams. It helps me sleep better at night. The last thing you need to do is tape your seams. Get an alkali resistant mesh tape similar to drywall tape and place it over all your seams in your floor. Then mix up some thinset and trowel it over the tape with the flat side of your trowel. Just like taping and mudding drywall. This will make your floor one large monolithic structure and lock it all together. You want alkali resistant tape so it will not break down due to chemicals present in most thinsets.