Bricklay or stud bathroom walls?

[Jidderberg]

Hello!

I will be building a bathroom on my concrete slab with embedded underfloor heating. The house is being built with timber framing.
From a moisture safety perspective, is it advantageous to build the bathroom walls with Leca compared to building them with wooden studs?

Best regards, Nicklas

 

[sixten88]

No, absolutely not. A properly executed waterproofing layer works just as well on plasterboard with wooden studs as on Leca.

 

[justusandersson]

If you are going to have ceramic materials on the walls, in my experience, it is better with a brick wall. There will be less movement, although the effect may not show until after 20 years.

 

[sixten88]

If you only brick one room in a house, you will get cracks where other walls join.

If built correctly, a bathroom with wood studs and gypsum will remain without cracks until you're tired of the color of the tiles.

 

[justusandersson]

Cracks between masonry sections and wooden structures are a classic problem in small houses. Most common are perhaps cracks between a chimney and surrounding walls. It is important to plan so that material boundaries end up where they can best be controlled, e.g., with moldings. Tile is a fantastic material that, when used correctly, lasts for a thousand years. On a wooden stud wall, at most 20 years. It is possible to build bathrooms without waterproofing layers in the walls if you use a shower booth and splash protection behind the washbasin and bathtub. Splash protection can be made of stainless steel or laminated glass, for example. They must cover the wall down to the floor skirting. The building code (BBR) does not contain any general requirements for waterproofing; it is expressed more generally. Everything depends on furnishings, usage, and material choice. It is possible to have wood paneling on bathroom walls if it is ventilated on the back.