Why would anyone put a nail anywhere behind hanging clothes? Massive overthink.

When my husband built a niche in the shower wall in our last house, we did not worry about anyone messing up the back of the niche and our niche was on the other side of one of our bedroom walls.

Sophie, this wall in the closet is actually to the right of a wall with a hanging rod. It's a natural place to put a bunch of hooks for hanging belts etc. so I could see someone thinking to add to the hook rack I will carefully reinstall there!

"but if I sell the home, how do I fix it so no one will put a nail or screw through the back of the niche from the closet?" If the new owner is dumb enough to put a nail through their niche I am not sure why you would worry about it. But if you are worried, just tell the new owner, BTW don't forget to not to put a nail in this area as there is a niche behind it.

This is why we always install the shower niche on an outside wall. Make sure it's water proofed properly.

Would prefer not to remove the insulation in an outside wall to install a niche!

Once you've framed out the area and added your concrete board you could used a product called RedGuard and paint the entire niche then tile over the RedGuard. RedGuard is a water proofing membrane.

such a small amount of insulation wont' affect the heat output in your home

it would in a cold area, and it would be in the shower where i'd rather not have more cold than necessary.

anyway, i would totally put a sign on the closet side...'no drilling'. you could include a photo of an oil rig.

we need to remember when we sell our home to tell the buyers they cannot put any nails into one of the bays between the bedroom and bathroom.... water hoses going to an air handler up in the loft... ooof that would be a mess....

Cinar I'm using schluter products.

I found sheet metal in 12x24 pieces at my local big box hardware store. Just the right size to put in the back of the niche under my kerdi board. Won't be easy to get a nail or screw from the closet through that . Might slow someone down long enough to read the warning on the wall!

Be careful, drilling or nailing in your niche opens ways for water to get into your walls. All it takes is a hole the size of a needle prick and you will have problems down the road. Would be best to use the redguard product I mentioned after you install said metal sheeting.

http://www.custombuildingproducts.com/products/surface-preparation/waterproofing-membranes-underlayments/redgard.aspx

If the person who buys your house puts a nail in the niche that is their problem maybe the simplest is to put a piec of metal in the closet and they maybe figure it out, Just another reason i dislike niches in showers.

Per nnigrt:

Regarding your niche situation. There are preformed inserts for shower niches that are quite heavy and made from a waterproff shell. Ordinarily, you place this shell between studs and tile over it. No nails penetrating here. The redguard product sounds interesting. Anything to prevent a water leak. Take a look at a big box or tile store to see these inserts. Many shapes and sizes for you to choose. Good luck.

Good one nnigrt

flopsycat gets the win.

No, nnigrt, you are my inspiration.

I realize this is a very old post, but I stumbled on it because I was looking for the same advice. I have bathrooms that are back-to-back from each other. The half-bath has an existing medicine cabinet and towel ring that was anchored into where my new shower niche is going. I've added more framing to anchor things in the small bathroom (to use short screws vs long screws with anchors), but I was concerned that someone, even stupid me, would screw into the backside of the niche in the future. I figured I would comment on it in case someone in the future might find my solution useful.

Someone had mentioned protecting the backside of the niche from screws with a piece of metal. But I think the only metal you could use would be somewhat heavier gauge steel, maybe 14-16 ga. Anything softer or less thick would be somewhat easy to screw into. But unless you go with quality stainless sheet steel (expensive and not easy to find at a box store), I would be concerned about any moisture that would possibly create rust that could bleed through the tile or grout.

So I had the idea of using a glass sheet. I experimented with about a 3/16 inch thick sheet of glass. I clamped a 2 x 4 to it and tried to screw through the 2x4 into the glass. The screw actually moved the 2x4 under the clamp without penetrating or cracking the glass. I think this would be more than adequate to help prevent screws from penetrating the backer board or tile. So since it is cheaper and more readily available, if you know how to cut it I think that would be the best option. I plan to silicone/adhere the sheet of glass behind the shower niche backer board. So it would basically be sandwiched between the drywall of the back side wall and the tile backer board. rust Factor Bleeding Through the tile. So I experimented a little bit with sheets of glass and we'll be going that route.

I am installing a niche that backs onto my daughter bedroom. Never mind the next home owner, I can see me or my daugher forgetting about the niche and damaging it by mistake.

I have some 1/4" porcelain tile left over from another project so I am planning to adhere that to the back of the niche (smooth side against the drywall). Porcelain is extremely difficult to drill through without a diamond bit, more difficult than metal, and is less prone to cracking than glass if someone were to hammer a nail through the wall. Both mortar and liquid membrane should adhere well to the back side of a porcelain tile. It is also easy and cheap to buy a couple of large dimension porcelain tiles if you don't have any. You'll need a diamond blade to cut them to size though.

" smooth side against the drywall "

In a shower?

millworkman,

Yes the large format porcelain tile takes the place of the cement board for the back of the niche, finished out with mesh tape and thinset and multiple coats of liquid membrane.

Or if you prefer, sandwich it between a piece of cement board and the drywall. That would cut down the depth of the niche somewhat though.