shower enclosure over brick walls

[oldnewhouse]

Hi folks,
I'm getting ready to redo the last bathroom in our house and I'm not sure how I need to layer stuff for a tile shower enclosure. The shower sits in the corner of the house. two of the walls that will make the shower enclosure are the external brick walls (our brick house is two layers of brick, no studs). I'm not sure how I should build up the enclosure. do I attach my cement boards right to the brick? and then do all else as normal? what kind of moisture barrier does this situation need? should I put up some 1x2s and then attach the cement board to them?

I really don't want to frame out the enclosure in 2x4's, if I do that it will look odd relative to the rest of the bathroom.

thanks
Mark

[Wgoodrich]

I see no reason you could not stay con the cement board to the brick. However I would parge the brick with cement covering then shove the cement board against the parging then stay con all as a sandwich while the parging is still wet. This should create a solid backing so impact against the wall would be resistant to damaging cracks. Once the cement board is installed your tile would install normally.

Just my thoughts

Wg

[oldnewhouse]

thanks WG,
what do I use to make the parge or where do I buy it? I assume I'm not just using thinset for that, right? what about moisture barrier, do I need one?

gracias
Mark

[oldnewhouse]

oh, I forgot...how thick of a layer between the brick and cement board? I imagine It'll take some work to get everything plumb, but what's the min I want?

[Wgoodrich]

I am taking this to be an old brick home with on site made soft brick. This type brick is hard to thin coat to maintaining a bond with that soft brick. I forget the type mortar but ask your supplier for best type. This is a problem so make sure you find the right bonding motar to bond to the brick. The intent of the thin coat is to level out the uneven brick surface to protect the cement board from breaking in normal living type impacts. You are just installing a leveling layer so the cement board is squeezed to that thincoat creating a smooth even back support.

Good Luck

Wg

[oldnewhouse]

so I've done some checking and there seems to be a lack of info on this one....do I need a moisture barrier somewhere in the assembly? I'm in CO and our general humidity is really low.
gracias
Mark