Do they make 1/8 inch cement board? If so, were would I find it?

I'm trying to fit as thick a piece of wood in a wall as I could for grab bar blocking. I have 1-1/2" of space, then will come the tile. So, in that 1-1/2" I can use 1" plywood + vapor barrier (which I'm counting as zero thickness) + 1/4" cement board + 1/4" morter for the tile, but I think I'd rather reduce the thickness of the morter and cement board and use 1/4" thicker wood. I could plane down a 2x6 so it's 1-1/4" thick or glue 1/4" of plywood to 1" thick plywood, then I'd use 1/8" of mortar and 1/8" of cement board. The cement board would be fully supported by the wood and by plaster or setting type joint compound. It's not like there would be a section of 1/8" thick wall.

If it's hard to find 1/8" cement board maybe I'll go with thinner wood and thicker board. I don't really want to make future repairs too difficult.

 

1/2 and 1/4 is it.

I'm not clear on what you are doing exactly but most times blocking is 2x material. If it's supported well, 1" plywood would be fine I'm sure.

 

could you elaborate? most walls are made of 2x4s which gives you a 3.5" deep cavity to install your blocking.

 

It has to do with this thread:

http://www.doityourself.com/forum/wa...lath-wall.html

 

thanks Larry
I agree with Vic that plywood should be ok but if you have a planer and could plane a 2x6 - that would be better!

 

Still confused as to what exactly your intent is, but Wedi board come in 1/8" thickness.

https://www.google.com/search?q=wedi...ed=0CAcQ_AUoAg

 

Wedi board seems hard to get. I'm doing the hand plane workout right now to get 1-1/2" down to 1-1/8". I may have to resort to a lumber yard that can rip or plane a 2x6 for me but I didn't give up yet.

 

Talk to local tile shops, not box stores to get Wedi. Harbor Freight has handheld electric planers for a reasonable price.

 

Yeah, I'll get an electric planer. I'll have to tape the joints before tiling so the wood needs to be thinner than I thought, and I was on the borderline of getting an electric planer anyway.

 

Decided to try without the planer.

It took several days over the course of a few weeks for me to achieve 1-1/8" using a hand plane, rotary rasp on drill, and 24 grit sanding disk on sander. In the same time period I used a 4lb sledge to chip away what I think was a combination of sand and cement from metal lath. I lost track of the time I spent doing that. My arm hasn't healed yet and I still have more sanding to make room for a layer of thinset. So my advice to others needing to plane wood is to get a planer or pay a lumberyard.