How to Install a Shower Niche and Cement Board

This post is part of a series of posts about our complete bathroom remodel. At this point in the remodel, it is time for the shower niche and cement board installation. Follow along to go through all the steps!

You can read all about this entire remodel from start to finish here.

(If you were following along, this update was part of the journey through the One Room Challenge: Remember the marble countertop that arrived cracked? Well, the replacement hasn’t arrived yet. Between that, sickness and just this being a huge project, we’re no longer participating in the One Room Challenge since we won’t be able to meet the deadline. Maybe next time! ;))

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Shower Niche Installation

We figured out the size and height of the shower niche. I wanted it to be large enough to hold all of the bottles and soaps and never run out of room. Also, it needed to be at a height that would be easy to reach for mostly showers and the occasional bath as well. You can read more about determining heights in a bathroom here.

We were able to find a niche insert in the size that we wanted on Amazon. Tim built a frame for it to size, and it fits right in.

He first installed the cement board and then secured the shower niche to the framing by screwing it in with cement board screws using an impact driver.

Next, he taped the seams on the walls and used thinset to fill in the gaps between the boards. The corners don’t get filled in to allow for expansion. He also smoothed out the border of the niche.

Edited to add: We’re thrilled with the end result!

Installing the Cement Board and Drywall

Again, the cement board was installed on the walls and floor using thinset, and then cement board tape was used to go over the grooves.

The cement board on the walls is to support the tile that will be going there. The tile will be only going up the wall part way and all around the room. So, the top part was then drywalled. Again, since this is a bathroom, we used mold resistant drywall and drywall tape. Where the drywall met with cement board, you use the cement board tape. Then the drywall was smoothed out with joint compound, and the cement board with thinset.

By the way, this new laser level is incredible! It made this job easier, and we’re looking forward to using it for the tiling as well.

This is where it stands as of today. Next up is putting up trim around the window and everywhere else, then waterproofing and finally…. TILING!! (Check out the end results here.)

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