[Split98]

Originally Posted by Ducay

Commenting on this post and the other about Green board:

First, green board is just expensive drywall. Go look at any tiling forum with tiling pros and they'll basically just laugh you off for suggesting it as a backing material alone.

Densglass, Diamondback, etc, are all better than cement board as a "naked" backing material, which are all lightyears better than plain drywall, but there is a reason a proper installation features (you guessed it) proper waterproofing, both for tub and shower installations. This is something like Kerdi or Redguard (or the 100 other competing systems).

And yes, Diamondback, Densglass, or even cement board alone are likely going to be "fine" in most applications for a long period of time. But under regular use, or over time, they will fail due to moisture penetration. A properly waterproofed installation will be out of style long before it fails.

That being said, in my own tub installation I used Densglass alone, and I am fine with that. I don't expect infinite longevitiy, and given the light usage of the tub's shower, will last plenty long for us. If it were used daily or multiple times daily , I'd be waterproofing it properly.

Thanks for mentioning Red Guard. I was going to use that as well considering I'm building a niche, and this confirms I should pick some of this up as well.