We used Durock when we tiled our upstairs bathroom. I hated it because it was so difficult to cut. I swore I would use Hardibacker next. So we picked up 10 sheets of 1/2" Hardibacker and a couple boxes of the screws that are made for it. The dude at Lowes remarked, "Yeah, Hardibacker is so easy. You just score it and snap it like drywall." Boy was he wrong.
Melissa and I made a nice deep scoring line and proceeded to break our first piece...nothing. I got angry and draped it over a 2X4 on the ground. We tried to break it by stepping down onto it...Nothing. I wanted to determine the breaking strength of this stuff so we both essentially stomped on the damn piece until it broke. It broke nowhere near our score line. Instead it bent, dented, cracked, splintered, and flaked off all over the place, but not on our score line. It was at this point that I decided I hated Hardibacker, too.
I got out my concrete jigsaw blade and showed Melissa how to cut. I don't know how she did it, but she cut ten pieces over the course of two weekends. Of course, we couldn't use a single full sheet, all ten had to be cut.
Cutting it was one thing. Hanging it was another. The pieces that are within standing reach were not that big of a problem. I was able to get enough footing to put my weight into the drill enough to get the screws flush with the Hardibacker. However, for 50% of the pieces, I had to hang from a ladder. This is when I really started hating Hardibacker and whichever company made the philips-head screws I was using. How about some hex-head or square-head screws? Hello!? Why on earth anyone would make philips-head screws with tapered driver slots is beyond me. Each damn screw either stripped or failed to countersink itself (when driven from the ladder). I just couldn't get a way to push hard enough from the ladder.
As I cursed and invented new ways of screaming how frustrated I was, Melissa did some Googling and determined most people have the same problem. She came up with a suggestion to use galvanized roofing nails. This saved the day and I backed out most of my misplaced screws from the higher sections and used the roofing nails, which I was thrilled to already have.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Hanging The Hardibacker
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4 comments:
We discovered the "easy cutting" of hardibacker, too... and also resorted to the diamond bladed jigsaw. Our hardibacker screws were square headed ones... sorry you didn't get them! I ruined the first square drill bit, though, driving them in. Had to go buy more!
Hardibacker in all of my use has never been a "score and snap" product. Durock however is score and snap.
I have done 3 bathrooms so far and never had a problem scoring and snapping hardibacker. I will say this, to get a clean snap, I need to score almost an 1/8" amount of the product so it takes patience and repetition to get that groove. also if you score both sides you will get a perfect snap 100% of time. the diamond blad way works great too but BEWARE the dust will give you cancer. Use a breathing mask with filters! Get the hardi screws with the square hole. No problems. Much better than durock.
Dude - patience... it does take a proper score line. And the screws saying hardi work perfectly. Just did a round shower with it. Then Redguard will wrap it up tight.
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