Tight Fit in Tub/Shower

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surferob

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Hi guys, first time posting here.

I'm helping a friend remodel his condo and we're going to be doing a lot of tiling. We have quite a few questions.

First is the master bathroom. We ripped out the old fiberglass tub/shower and installed a nice cast iron/porcelain tub. Now we want to tile the walls. We were planning to run green board floor to ceiling and then cement board on top of that as our tile backer (1/2 inch each). This would make the tile protrude from the bathroom wall which can look kinda nice. We'd use 1/4 round at the edges. Sound right so far?

One snag, the tub barely fit into the opening. It's hitting almost stud to stud on the head and foot ends. There's only about a 1/4 inch gap at most. Our wall board and tile composite will be almost 1 and 1/2 inches which sounds like too much overhang at the top of the tub. I'm not sure if it's a problem or not.

So first question is - can we go with one layer of backerboard only? If so, which should I run, green board or cement board? Any other tips on how to deal with the tight space?

Seperate question - how high from the top of the tub is "standard" for the tiling. He doesn't want to go all the way to the ceiling. Is 6 feet considered standard?

Many more questions to follow... :) Thanks in advance.


Rob
 
just hardibacker would do, you don't need the greenboard under it. Is there any way you could remove either the head or the foot wall and replace it with 2x3s instead of 2x4 walls? this would give you more clearance.
Justin
 
It's a possibility. The foot end has the back of the electrical box in it so that we obviously won't tamper with. But I might be able to recess the head end into the wall a bit. It's a 2x6 wall.
 
Hello SurferBob:
I have seen hundreds of tile jobs installed on greenboard and never saw a failure. The backerboard is fairly new to the market and is much more expensive. I don't see you hurting the buyers if you use the greenboard and your friend could save a bundle.
Glenn
 
If you are enclosing a tub space, you need to use backer board in the tub area. ANY Sheetrock will fail after time in this area. I have remodeled too many bathrooms because of green board, which is water resistant for the first time it gets wet.
Backer board and regard the joints...basically over glorified mud mix.
I also put the tile to the ceiling and on the ceiling..diagonally....looks great for minimal expense.
 

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